#21: Bootstrapped in Australia then moved to the US to grow much bigger – Josh Cameron

Josh Cameron and three university friends started a scrappy software company in Brisbane Australia just after graduating. They had run the popular college bar where they discovered there was no simple software solution to track, onboard, and schedule hourly employees. They started Tanda in 2012 and it grew into a successful workforce management software company in Australia —without any outside funding.

The four founders moved to Chicago in 2019 to expand their North American business. Their product worked fine in the US, but sales, marketing, and operations all had to be rebuilt, which took years to figure out. They acquired the Workforce company and took on that brand and domain name outside of Australia.

Now Workforce.com is a leading workforce management software company that helps improve time and labor management for shift and hourly workforces. Their 130 employees serve 6,000 customers in 80 countries with employee scheduling, time and attendance, employee engagement, analytics, and automated compliance.

In this episode, Josh explains:

• How he and his university friends chose to start a scrappy software startup instead of taking big jobs after they graduated
• How they bootstrapped and grew their company in Brisbane in Australia for 5 years before the founders moved to the US and settled in Chicago to expand their North American business
• How they compete and win in a crowded marketplace against bigger competitors
• The growing pains they experienced growing from a small team in Australia to a global organization with 130 employees with offices in three countries
• The benefits of being frugal, growing at a steady pace, and not taking big VC funding
• Why they bought a 100-year old company to get the Workforce.com domain name and brand 

Check out practicalfounders.com to read the full transcript from this episode.