James Fuller, Co-founder & CEO of Hnry, shares his journey of transforming a simple spreadsheet into a powerful tax automation platform, processing $2.6B annually. He discusses the unique advantages and challenges of being a husband-and-wife founding team, including navigating their personal dynamics. The duo focuses on fairness in their pricing strategy and the importance of customer feedback in shaping their service. James reflects on overcoming tough moments in their startup journey, highlighting resilience and the support of their community.
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Husband-Wife Founders' Strength
James Fuller and his wife Claire co-founded Hnry and aligned deeply on business vision and journey.
Their strong bond helped them persevere through tough startup challenges together.
insights INSIGHT
Role Clarity Eases Founder Conflict
Clear delineation of responsibilities helps James and Claire manage work disagreements effectively.
Trusting each other's decision-making in their roles prevents conflicts spilling into personal life.
question_answer ANECDOTE
From Spreadsheets to Startup
Hnry began as spreadsheets to solve James and Claire's personal tax tracking struggles.
Their friends found value and spread the spreadsheets, indicating a market opportunity.
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My guest for Ep210 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was James Fuller.
James is the Co-founder & CEO of Hnry. Hnry automates taxes for sole traders, so they never have to think about tax again.
The company started from a spreadsheet that James and his wife and Co-founder, Claire, created to solve their own problem.
They shared these spreadsheets with friends who passed it on to other friends before realising that there was a real business opportunity underneath these spreadsheets.
Today, Hnry has 150 staff across 3 countries, has raised over $60M in funding and processes $2.6B in payments every year in Australia and New Zealand.
In this episode, we dive deep into a range of topics including:
The advantages that come from being a husband and wife founding team
The opportunities and challenges that come from being first to market
How the value of fairness is embedded not just into their company culture, but also their pricing strategy
How James and Claire have overcome some of the more challenging periods of their business, including times when they’ve both wanted to quit the business
And much more!
Timestamps:
1:57 James’ background.
3:19 Being co-founders and spouses: pros, cons, and how they navigate disagreements.
12:29 Hnry’s growth over the years: 150 staff, 3 countries, billions of dollars processed.
18:13 Customer led product development, building trust over time, high referral rates and strong NPS as proof points.
22:43 Overcoming traditional industry challenges, educating the market about a “new category” of full-stack service.
32:43 Fairness & Hnry’s Unique Pricing Model.
38:37 Culture & team building across three countries
42:53 Balancing parenthood and startup life
Our partners:
A big thank you to Karan Anand for his help with this interview!
Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show:
Scendar
Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com
Vanta
Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on. Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount.
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