My guest for Ep202 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder of Farmers Pick, Josh Ball. Farmers Pick helps save food waste by rescuing wonky food that is often discarded by supermarkets and making it available to order by consumers. Since launching in 2020, they have saved 7 million kilograms of produce and the company now has 120 employees and generated $16M in revenue last year.  In this interview we covered a range of topics including: The importance of having a strong mission and values to help guide strategic business decisions balancing frugality with 100% YoY growth Why they decided to go down the equity crowdfunding path rather than raising from traditional VC funds Scaling storytelling to both their staff and to their customers And much more! Timestamps: 1:45 Josh’s background 7:12 The origin story of Farmers Pick 12:29 How he validated the initial idea 18:27 The operational complexities of growing a physical goods business 27:52 Finding the balance between focussing on new customers vs expansion of existing customers 29:50 Using social media to grow the brand 31:05 The decision to crowdfund vs raise venture capital 35:29 Negotiation advice 37:41 Making sure the vision/mission stays consistent across whole company as you grow 42:43 Thinking about expansion 48:04 How his role has evolved as the business has grown 54:00 Staying out of the weeds and making strategic decisions 55:40 What’s next for Farmers Pick Our partners: A big thank you to our 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.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: Josh’s links: Josh’s LinkedIn Farmers Pick People mentioned: Joshua Brooks-Duncan Simon Griffiths Adrian Osman Companies mentioned: PromisePay Xero Misfits Market Who Gives A Crap MILKRUN Playbook Ventures me&u Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here The post Ep202 – Josh Ball (Co-founder – Farmers Pick) on using tech to save 7 million kg of food waste appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep201 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Cheryl Mack. Cheryl started her journey launching and growing Startcon, which was Australia’s largest startup conference at the time. She’s now involved with a number of different projects including The Pillars, 361 Angel Club and the First Cheque Podcast but she is best known as the Co-founder & CEO of Aussie Angels. Aussie Angels is a platform that manages the backend infrastructure of investments, allowing angel investors to invest in startups via syndicates. To date, over 1,700 angels have invested $23M through their platform. In this interview we covered a range of topics including: The importance of brand, marketing and storytelling How to get started with angel investing What founders should look for when adding angel investors to their cap table What investors really mean when they say they look for “good” founders, markets and investment opportunities & much more! Timestamps: 1:43 Cheryl’s background 3:54 Growing up in Canada and moving to Australia 8:25 Building StartCon, Australia’s biggest startup conference in Australia at the time 14:31 Choosing themes/sectors as an Angel Investor 20:49 What Cheryl looks for when personally investing in companies 29:26 Learnings from early mistakes as a new Angel Investor 35:41 Advice for new Angel Investors 38:00 Benefits of joining a syndicate 47:43 How founders should think about taking money from angel investors 54:06 Signals investors should look for when deciding whether to invest 1:00:44 Challenges and benefits of working with your partner, balancing family life 1:10:13 Redistributing wasted toys Our partners: A big thank you to Tom Worden and Alexandra Lewis for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our 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.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: Cheryl’s links: Cheryl’s LinkedIn Aussie Angels The Pillars 361 Angel Club First Cheque Podcast People mentioned: Mike Cannon-Brookes Matt Barrie Rod Drury James Harrisson Thomas Worden Adrian Osman Cliff Obrecht Melanie Perkins Alexandra Lewis Companies mentioned: StartCon The Startup Network (formally Startup Victoria) Freelancer Xero Airtree Blackbird Playbook Ventures AWS Cut Through Venture me&u (formally Mr Yum) Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here The post Ep201 – Cheryl Mack (Co-founder & CEO – Aussie Angels) on how to get started as an angel investor appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep200 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Jason Wyatt, the Co-founder & CEO of Marketplacer. Jason’s journey started with a bike marketplace called BikeExchange, the global success of this marketplace led to others wanting to create and launch their own versions of marketplaces. These opportunities led to him launching 8 Joint Ventures in different verticals. Despite some success with this model, Jason saw a much bigger opportunity for this solution as a “platform” play that could scale and grow globally. As a result, he ended up wrapping up the JVs to go all in Marketplacer. Marketplacer is a marketplace platform that allows enterprise companies to scale and grow their ecommerce operations, counting companies such as Qantas, Tesco and Optus as customers. Marketplacer has quickly become a global leader in marketplace technology, powering over 100 marketplaces worldwide and facilitating billions of dollars in transactions. To date, they have raised over $85M from leading investors around the world. In this episode we covered a range of topics including: Why Jason decided to shut down eight different companies to go all in on Marketplacer Lessons from launching, growing, and hiring globally The importance of having strategic investors like Salesforce Ventures and much more! Timestamps: 2:22 Jason’s background 4:46 Business and sport experiences as a teenager 10:58 Starting BikeExchange 17:23 Where the conviction for BikeExchange came from 23:35 Trying to launch into other verticals with The Exchange Group and how that led to Marketplacer 27:31 Getting their first enterprise customers 30:23 The decision to switch off 30% of revenue to focus on the bigger opportunity 32:38 Having a productive board relationship 37:05 Pulling yourself out of the day to day to see the bigger picture in business 40:40 Finding and recruiting talent 45:27 Expanding Globally 51:54 Finding strategic investors 55:43 Balancing business with family 1:02:50 Getting through tough times, dealing with the loss of his father and brother Our partners: A big thank you to Bob Schwartz, Richard Hankin and Sam Salter for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our 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.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: Jason’s links: Jason’s LinkedIn Marketplacer People mentioned: Sam Salter Mark Philippousas Greg Roebuck Lance Armstrong Michael Jordan Gerry Harvey Peter Bartels Bob Schwartz Sean van Waes Richard Hankin James Harrisson Jade Wyatt Companies mentioned: BikeExchange KPMG Reuters Morgan Stanley Shopify Magento Carsales Telstra Tesco Qantas Woolworths Providoor BigCommerce Nordstrom SAP IBM Gap Salesforce Ventures Portmans The Just Group Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here The post Ep200 – Jason Wyatt (Co-founder & CEO – Marketplacer) on shutting down 8 companies to go all in on Marketplacer appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep199 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Jaimie Fuller. Jaimie’s journey has been full of highs and lows. He is best known as the former CEO and Executive Chairman of compression apparel company SKINS. SKINS was a global phenomenon with elite athletes and sporting teams all around the world using their products. The business had incredible global growth before ultimately filing for bankruptcy in 2019. Outside of his work with SKINS, Jaimie was also an activist within sports, through #ChooseTheRightTrack tackling doping in sports and #NewFIFANow to call out corruption in football leading to a number of arrests in FIFA in 2015. Jaimie is now back with his latest company, eo, which is helps accelerate human progress through innovative sports technology. In this episode we covered a range of topics including: The ups and downs of the SKINS journey How he personally dealt with the fallout from filing for bankruptcy How SKINS was able to use brand to build a premium offering and compete with the likes of Nike all over the world The vision and mission behind eo and much more! Timestamps: 1:49 Jaimie’s background 3:33 His first printing business 7:25 The challenges of growing at a rapid pace beyond 250 employees 13:49 Doing the right thing in business 26:10 The founding journey of SKINS 32:56 What gave him the conviction to go all in on SKINS 42:53 Importance of brand and storytelling 52:01 Maintaining a challenger brand ethos as you scale 1:05:32 replacing himself as CEO 1:08:01 Filing for bankruptcy 1:21:13 The decision to start again with eo 1:26:15 The mission of eo Our partners: A big thank you to Dean Hawkins and Anthony Gregorio for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our 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.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: Jaimie’s links: Jaimie’s LinkedIn Eo Lab’s website Eo Lab’s Instagram People mentioned: Rupert Murdoch Dean Hawkins Bradley Duffy Mike Stone Graham Arnold Cristiano Ronaldo Lionel Messi Anthony Gregorio Steve Waugh Robert Louis-Dreyfus Julia Louis-Dreyfus Companies mentioned: SKINS Essendon Football Club Nike Adidas Puma Eatbigfish NSWIS UBS Amazon International Athletics Federation Sport 2000 Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here The post Ep199 – Jaimie Fuller (Former CEO & Chairman – SKINS) on building SKINS and bouncing back from bankruptcy appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep198 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Rohan Workman. Rohan is the Co-founder & CEO of Skalata, a seed stage venture capital firm that was established in 2018 and count a portfolio of over 80 companies across their 2 funds. Prior to this, he was the Director of MAP, Melbourne Uni’s Accelerator program that he built to become the 8th ranked program in the world. Rohan also previously founded RosterCloud, a cloud-based software management tool for events and catering businesses. RosterCloud was acquired by Rision in 2016. In this interview we covered a range of topics including: What his first job out of uni, working in corporate recovery, taught him about business Lessons from his first startup, Roster Cloud Why Skalata evolved from an accelerator program to a more traditional fund structure & much more! Timestamps: 1:43 Rohan’s background 4:02 Importance of health & fitness as a founder 12:08 Tough lessons from his time at McGrathNicol 15:25 Advice for navigating challenging people situations in business 21:24 Balancing speed with discipline 26:50 Mistakes and lessons from RosterCloud 30:36 Time at Melbourne Accelerator Program in the early days 39:45 The genesis for Skalata 46:35 Skalata’s investment thesis and process 57:10 Taking risks and being bold Our partners: A big thank you to Maxine Lee, Laura Williams and Rosemary Workman for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our 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.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: Rohan’s links: Rohan’s LinkedIn Skalata VC People mentioned: S. N. Goenka John Berry Sam Kothari Leigh Jasper Jocko Willink Darrell Wade Maxine Lee Lisa Paul Daniel Madhavan Sarah Morgan Anthony Glenning Kate Cornick Justin Lipman Connor Hagan Alex Ewart Companies mentioned: KPMG McGrathNicol Melbourne Accelerator Program (MAP) Melbourne University RosterCloud Vipassana Meditation Everlab The Big Group LaunchVic Explorate EVP Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here The post Ep198 – Rohan Workman (Co-founder & CEO – Skalata) on taking risks & balancing speed with discipline appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep197 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Paul Stovell. Paul is the Founder & CEO of Octopus Deploy, a company he started as a “nights and weekends” project for 2 years before going full time in 2012. The company was bootstrapped for almost a decade until 2021 when they raised USD$172.5M (roughly AUD$222M) from New York based Insight Partners which is the second largest VC funding round by an Australian company ever. Octopus Deploy is now over 300 people and just crossed $100M in ARR. I got to sit down with Paul at the Something Tech 2024 conference to do a live podcast interview and in this conversation we covered a range of topics including:  Why more founders should consider bootstrapping Using customers as investors Balancing culture of striving for quality vs bias for action Why Paul decided to take on external funding and how it changed the business & much more! Timestamps: 2:09 Paul’s Background 5:32 The origin story of Octopus Deploy 8:15 Balancing quality with speed 10:00 The tipping point where he went all in on Octopus Deploy 11:37 Competing with well resourced incumbents 19:12 The decision to take on investors 23:31 How the company changed after taking on capital 25:54 Operating as a profitable company 32:43 Attracting talent and testing for fit during the hiring process 40:08 How to ensure company values are upheld as you grow 45:10 Advice to founders just getting started Our partners: A big thank you to Michael Noonan, Bob Walker and Simon Galbraith for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our 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.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: Paul’s links: Paul on LinkedIn Paul on X/Twitter Octopus Deploy Paul’s blog People mentioned: Sonia Stovell Michael Noonan Joel Spolsky Eric Sink Simon Galbraith Simon Beard Bob Walker Companies mentioned: Something Tech conference Insight Partners Credit Suisse Redgate Software Microsoft Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here The post Ep197 – Paul Stovell (Founder & CEO – Octopus Deploy) on turning a weekend project to a $100M ARR business appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep196 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Cam Falloon. Every great story starts with overcoming adversity and Cam is no different. Cam picked up a serious back injury which made it difficult for him to walk…to the point where it would take him 15mins to walk a 12m hallway and being told by doctors that he wouldn’t be able to workout again. That life-altering injury sparked his passion for strength, conditioning, and training, not only to rehabilitate his own back but also to help others achieve peak physical health. Cam’s expertise took him to the highest levels of personal training, including working with none other than Princess Diana and high-performance roles in the English Premier League with Derby County, as well as several AFL teams. In 2015 he launched BFT, a group strength training studio that started with just four studios in Melbourne. Today, BFT has exploded into a global phenomenon with over 700 studios across 11 countries. The growth and success of BFT hasn’t always been obvious with Cam having to navigate through the lockdown period during COVID and overcoming an aggressive $50M lawsuit from the largest competitor in the industry In this episode, Cam shares lessons from his career so far and we cover topics such as: The back injury that changed Cam’s life and set him on a path to becoming a leader in the fitness industry. Cam’s experience working with Princess Diana and his role in high-performance training within the English Premier League and AFL. The founding and rapid global expansion of BFT, growing from 4 to 700+ studios in just under a decade. How BFT navigated the challenges of COVID-19 without shutting down any studios. The $50M legal battle with a major competitor and what it taught Cam about resilience and perseverance in business. Timestamps 1:59 Cam’s background 6:31 Hurting his back, how that led to fitness 15:59 Training Princess Diana in London 19:20 Working with Derby County Football Club 27:14 Keeping things simple in business 30:51 Challenges working in sports 32:48 Applying lessons from sport and high performance to business 36:22 Overcoming health challenges his wife was having 40:24 Launching BFT 47:47 Avoiding 7 as a feedback score 50:21 Getting sued for $50M 1:01:51 Navigating COVID 1:07:49 Surrounding yourself with the right people in business 1:14:04 How he gets a lot done while still finding balance Our partners: A big thank you to John Glancy, Dave Aitchison, Sarah Nehme and Steve Latham for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our 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.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: Cam’s links: Cam’s LinkedIn Cam’s Instagram Body Fit Training (BFT) People mentioned: Princess Diana Terry Hennessy Andrew Russell Daniel Marrs Matthew McGrath Micha Kaufman Ernie Merrick Richard Burnet Hamish McLachlan Sarah Nehme Steve Latham John Glancy David Aitchison Companies mentioned: Holmes Place Gym Derby County Academy Fiverr Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here The post Ep196 – Cam Falloon (Founder & CEO – BFT) on overcoming adversity and scaling to 700+ studios globally appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep195 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Leigh Jasper. This is a special edition of the podcast. A few weeks ago, we celebrated hitting 8 years of the podcast. To celebrate the milestone, we hosted an in-person event with our community which included a “live” podcast recording with returning guest Leigh Jasper. I first interviewed Leigh for the show in November 2016. Back then he was the Co-founder & CEO of Aconex, a construction tech company that had publicly listed 2 years prior and had a market cap of $1B. Since that interview, Aconex was acquired by Oracle for $1.6B and Leigh has and continues to hold several positions such as Chair of LaunchVic, Victorian governments startup agency, Co-founder and Chair of SecondQuarter Ventures, the first secondaries fund in Australia and NZ among several other board roles. If that isn’t enough, Leigh decided to jump back into the founder seat as the Co-founder & Co-CEO of Firmable, which helps companies drive smarter decisions and outperform by allowing them to know more about their leads, customers and candidates. Firmable recently raised a $9M funding round led by AirTree. We covered a lot of ground in this live interview including: Lessons from launching, growing and eventually exiting a $1B+ startup Leigh’s journey post Aconex (given he didn’t want to sell the company) Why founders should take chips off the table via secondaries What’s changed for Leigh as a second time founder & much more! Timestamps: 3:12 What Leigh has been working on since the last interview in 2016 4:43 What it was like going from CEO of a private company to a public company 7:21 The decision to sell Aconex to Oracle for $1.6B 10:25 Navigating significant changes in a company as the founder/CEO 12:34 What Leigh did after the Aconex acquisition, losing that identity 18:40 Getting involved with LaunchVic 20:53 Founding SecondQuarter Ventures 22:15 When founders should take money off the table via secondaries 25:49 Effective boards for startups 32:56 The decision to start a new company (Firmable) 34:41 Lessons from Aconex he’s applying to Firmable 38:59 Finding the right investment partners for Firmable 42:21 What drives Leigh today? 44:26 How he stays calm under intense pressure 47:27 How to balance being open/transparent with the team on everything happening in the business 49:48 Thoughts on the current state of technology and the Australian startup ecosystem 51:44 Audience Q&A Our partners: A big thank you to Paul Perrett and Andrew Sypkes for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our 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.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: Leigh’s links: Leigh’s LinkedIn Firmable SecondQuarter Ventures People mentioned: Paul Perrett Craig Winkler Kate Cornick Rob Phillpot Howard Leibman John Henderson Paul Bassat Andrew Bassat Karthik Venkatasubramanian Audience questions: Scott Phillips Louis J Sisk Sajjad Kamal Companies mentioned: Aconex Oracle MYOB LaunchVic Playbook Ventures Canva EVP McKinsey & Company IBM Stripe Airtree Fidelity Investments Blackbird Square Peg SEEK Growth Fund Xero Slack Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here The post Ep195 – Leigh Jasper (Co-founder & Co-CEO – Firmable) on jumping back in the founder seat after a $1.6B exit appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep194 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Jon Gregory. Jon is the Founder & CEO of Vitruvian. Vitruvian is an all-in-one digital home gym that uses AI to adjust resistance in real time to help users get the most out of their workout. Since launching in 2018, they have gone on to raise USD$27M, with customers all around the world and working with a number of athletes such as Olympian and world champion sprinter, Justin Gatlin and the worlds strongest man, Thor Bjornsson. We covered a wide range of topics in this interview including: The value in doing hard things The challenges around building and raising capital for hardware products How to build using product led growth & much more Timestamps: 2:28 Jon’s background 6:08 How his science background helped him think through business problems 7:49 The initial idea for Vitruvian 16:35 Going from idea to product and iterating 18:55 The early days of Vitruvian, attracting customers, partners and investors 23:40 How COVID affected the business 28:34 Having a product led philosophy 30:52 Making decisions as a founder 36:53 Having a community focus early on in the business 40:38 Product led growth in practice for Vitruvian 44:05 Fundraising tips for hardware startups 46:48 Challenges building a global business from Perth 50:35 The future of hardware and AI 54:25 Developing a positive mindset Our partners: A big thank you to Weibke Hensen for her help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our 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.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: 8 year podcast event: Live Podcast event with Leigh Jasper (Registration) Giveaway: Details for how to enter the giveaway Jon’s links: Jon’s LinkedIn Vitruvian People mentioned: Jeff Bezos Wiebke Hensen Companies mentioned: Peloton Amazon Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here The post Ep194 – Jon Gregory (Founder & CEO – Vitruvian) on product led growth and relentless positivity appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Ep193 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Llew Jury. Llew is the General Partner and Executive Chairman of Sprint Ventures, a Queensland based VC with two funds and 18 portfolio companies that is investing in companies that build a better future. He has just helped Sprint secure funding from QIC’s VCDF for his third early stage Seed fund. Prior to launching Sprint Ventures, Llew founded a number of successful businesses. Between 2006 and 2016, Llew was the Founder and Managing Director of The Reload Group, one of Australia’s largest digital & eCommerce marketing agencies. Llew built the Reload business to 90 staff and 300 clients before Reload was acquired by Hardie Grant Media in 2022. From 1999 to 2006 Llew was co-Founder of leading Queensland web, eCommerce and digital agency Alfresco, that was sold to a consortium led by the ASX listed STW Group. In this episode we covered a range of topics including: The common mistakes founders make when it comes to sales and marketing Llew’s approach to backing and building generational businesses How to leverage partners for growth How to nurture relationships and talent and much more! Timestamps: 1:58 Llew’s background 7:10 Launching his first business Alfresco, growing it and getting acquired 10:10 Lessons from first business and how he’s applied that to subsequent businesses 11:55 Advice to founders on balancing life and work 14:56 Things he looks for when investing in founders 16:32 The story of finding his co-founder at The Reload Group 19:46 Nurturing talent 23:31 The process of expanding internationally out of Australia 27:30 Tactics and common founder mistakes in sales, marketing and partnerships 37:45 Sprint Ventures investment thesis 42:57 His thoughts on the current investment landscape in Australia 46:52 Running a services business vs high growth business 49:28 Building relationships and playing the long game Our partners: A big thank you to Kylie Merritt, Ian Campbell and Craig Sommerville for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our 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.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: 8 year podcast event: Live Podcast event with Leigh Jasper (Registration) Llew’s links: Llew’s LinkedIn Sprint Ventures People mentioned: Kylie Merritt Craig Somerville Jim Collins Georgia Barkell Bryan Williams Matt Vitale Companies mentioned: River City Labs Subway Hockey Stick Advisory QIC Queensland Venture Capital Development Fund (QVCDF) Birchal Brisbane Angels Sydney Angels Melbourne Angels Guzman y Gomez Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here The post Ep193 – Llew Jury (General Partner & Exec Chairman – Sprint Ventures) on nurturing talent and building generational companies appeared first on Startup Playbook.