Aqeel Akber took a gamble when he started his first business, dropping out of a nuclear physics degree to pursue his dreams.
After slogging it out with no guarantee of success, he built up the company - an artificial intelligence consultancy - and sold it, using the cash raised to start a tech start-up, meos, with co-founder Mei Weng Brough-Smyth.
The pair were unimpressed by Labor's plan, unveiled in last week's federal budget, to replace the 50 per cent capital gains discount with an inflation-indexed model and minimum 30 per cent tax rate.
Canberrans who took a risk to invest their money and time into start-up ventures should "get a return for the effort they put in," Akber told this masthead.
"Now they've devalued our company, so it's just like, what, what's the point?" he said.
"We should make it cool to try to do things."
Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher have defended the changes in the budget, while promising to consult with the start-up sector.
There's talk of a potential carve out for tech start-ups, but the wider sector argues that capital gains tax changes will stifle innovation, hamper the ability to attract staff with share options and remove the principle of reward for effort.
Meos is a smartphone app that "helps you connect with real life," created by Akber and co-founder Mei Weng Brough-Smyth, who belong to the Canberra Innovation Network.
"It allows you to capture anything from your phone, and then work in ways like AI, but silently," he said.
"It helps you remember anything, and every touch point in it uses the same sort of algorithms like they'll use for social media - but brings you back into your real world."
The former Australian National University student said he "definitely deserved" the windfall from selling his first start-up and that "it would have been ridiculous" to tax it more heavily.
"It would have been ridiculous - a waste of time and effort and loss of hair," he said.
"There is no way I would have been able to survive ... I only just started paying myself the last year of that company."
Akber said if the changes went ahead, he expected to move the company overseas.
Canberra Liberals Senate candidate Nick Tyrrell called on the Albanese government to ditch the CGT changes, which would affect all ACT small businesses "whether they're in hospitality, construction or tech."
"Entrepreneurs and small business owners now know Labor just sees them as a cash cow, ignorant of the vital role they play in the productivity and dynamism of our economy," Mr Tyrrell said.
He said the Prime Minister, his treasurer and finance minister either "didn't know what they were doing when they made this decision, or they knew and they didn't care about the impact it would have."
And he called on Senator Gallagher to "press Ctrl-Alt-delete and reset these changes, not expedite them to avoid scrutiny," after his rival told ABC 7.30 the government planned to introduce legislation in the next parliamentary sitting and dismissed calls for a Senate inquiry.
ACT independent senator David Pocock, who backs the government's wider property tax changes, wrote to Treasurer Jim Chalmers raising concerns from Canberrans and across the country "about the potential unintended impacts of the capital gains tax changes on startups, founders, early employees and venture capital investment."
"Canberra is an innovation hub and the start up capital of the country," Senator Pocock wrote.
"Our city is home to world-class research institutions and a growing ecosystem of startups and scaleups."
He said start-up founders and early employees took on "significant personal and professional risk" and relied on equity to make their efforts worthwhile.
"I ask that you ensure startups are not adversely impacted by changes primarily intended to address distortions in the property market ... Australia should be encouraging more people to take the risk of building globally competitive companies here."
Dr Chalmers said on Thursday when asked if exemptions were being considered for start-ups that "we are talking with the start-up sector" and that "they are a bit of a different case."
Senator Gallagher said the startup tech sector "is an important part of Canberra's economy."
"We want it to remain a strong place to build and grow innovative businesses," she said.
"We'll work through the interaction between the CGT changes and the start-up sector alongside the significant support for start-ups and small businesses in the budget."
She said the government acknowledged that there were "specific issues around early-stage investment and the cost base treatment for start-ups" and would "consult closely with the sector, including Canberra businesses."
