Build It. They'll Come.

Uber-celebrity chef and restaurateur Matt Moran takes us into the heart of his food, farming and produce world. After falling instantly in love with cooking, namely French cooking, as a wide-eyed, teen apprentice back in the 80s, he talks of how he then built a restaurant, cookbook and consultancy empire, with the help and support of several great mates and mentors, having opened and operated about 30 restaurants in 35 years. This high-flying Sydney-based entrepreneur now has a massive new plan and project, and it might just surprise you where his happy place is.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While Covid panicked share markets in early 2020, BetaShares ETFs co-founder Alex Vynokur says a curious thing happened: it was markedly less so in ETF investing. In fact he had managed to grow to $10 billion in Funds under Management (FUM) within BetaShares’ first decade, but somewhere in these past 2, pandemic-dominated years their FUM skyrocketed to $20billion. The reason? Well it’s a revolution called Millennials and Gen Z’ers, who are flocking to invest in ETFs. Alex Vynokur calls this trend “democratised access to wealth creation for young Australians”, many of whom feel locked out of home ownership. Index fund managers like BetaShares are reaping the benefit. Alex also gives his tips and insights into the emerging trends in ETFs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Alex Vynokur emigrated to Australia from Ukraine as a 16 year old, he was struck by the choice and opportunity offered by his new home, compared with the deprivations growing up in Soviet Ukraine. Even though the teen spoke no English when he arrived here he set about taking full advantage of what was on offer. After completing university, he moved into financial services, working in funds management, including a stint working for Malcolm Turnbull’s financial business, in his pre-PM days. But Vynokur wanted to back himself as an entrepreneur, so he jumped off the deep end into the then little-known world of exchange traded funds, betting that local investors would invest their capital in funds that track any number of Indexes, be they the S&P 500 or ASX 200, or much more innovative indexes, to get a return. Vynokur was not a stock picker, nor was he an “active” investor, but he helped disrupt investing traditions in this country by taking on the global big dogs – Vanguard, State Street, BlackRock – to build the BetaShares ETFs empire of now some 65 different funds, managing $23Billion in funds under management. In Part 1 of our chat, Alex reveals just what role mastering the game of chess plays in his business game.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The hip, all Australian-made Ultra Violette sunscreen had only been going a short while when the Covid pandemic struck. After initial panic and quickly testing disaster scenarios, Bec and Ava realised they needed to junk them, and step back on the accelerator! Fast-growing online sales in skin and suncare showed these founders they would flourish through Covid if they could stay nimble and lean. The endless Melbourne lockdowns, they say, made them and everyone else resilient. So what happened to their international expansion plans; and how do they make their partnership-- business marriage they call it-- work? Well, take a listen to Part 2 of our chat with dynamic duo who created and founded Ultra Violette Bec Jefferd and Ava Chandler-Matthews.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So why do two young women, both with great jobs in the beauty industry, toss all that certainty & stability away, and put everything on the line (including re-mortgaging the house!) to back themselves into a startup? Particularly when the all Aussie-made sunscreen product they create will have to compete in a super crowded sector, where mass-market products fly off supermarket and chemist shelves. Are they crazy brave? Delusional? What’s going on? Well, take a listen to Part 1 of our chat with young entrepreneurs Ava Chandler-Matthews and Bec Jefferd, the creators, founders and owners of Ultra Violette, which now has its sights set firmly on conquering international markets, talk about the why and how they did it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The investing landscape has changed so dramatically in just the past few years, where discussion and action around ESG now dominates all boardroom and company leadership discussions. Ethical Partners Funds Management founders Matt Nacard and Nathan Parkin were ahead of the game on this trend, having built their Ethical Partners Funds Management boutique firm, from scratch 3 and a half years ago, to the point where it now has almost $3.5 Billion in Funds Under Management, precisely because of its laudable twin foundations of achieving above-market returns for their investors, but equally important, making genuine ethical investing decisions.  In Part 2 the dynamic duo discuss the wider investing landscape, how they pick their portfolio, and what sectors and stocks they like supporting at the moment on the ASX. They also reveal what’s important when starting a fin services wealth business in an already crowded market. Hope you enjoy!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How Ethical Partners’ founders Matt Nacard and Nathan Parkin built their funds management business on the laudable twin foundations of achieving above-market returns for their investors, but equally important, making genuine ethical investing decisions – be they around climate change mitigation, modern slavery elimination in supply chains, products that don’t harm. After family trips to poor villages in Cambodia awakened their urge to do something practical to alleviate poverty, they raised money to build maternity clinics and local school there. That experience was the germ of their business startup idea. In Part 1, how these two former senior executives at respectively Macquarie Bank and Perpetual, backed themselves and went out on their own.  And from a standing start barely 3 and a half years ago, they’ve built Ethical Partners into a boutique ethical investment powerhouse, with almost $3.5 Billion now in Funds Under Management.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr Ben Hurst loved the huge numbers of younger people who increasingly engaged with HotDoc online, at the height of the Covid testing & booking vaccinations. But madly chasing new patients is not his core motivation. Improving the patient experience is! And being a former practicing doctor means Ben Hurst puts patients front and centre of HotDoc’s culture and growth. How the online platform more easily allows patients to interact with their doctors, with a few mouse clicks, rather than endless phone calls, is his team’s reason to go to work every day. HotDoc has now expanded to 110 full-time employees, with revenue around $19million a year. So what’s his secret sauce, and where do chess and Tolstoy fit into his business picture? Well, take a listen to Part 2 of my chat with Dr Ben Hurst.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Working as a young medico in a Melbourne maximum security prison, Dr Ben Hurst realised that perhaps one-on-one healthcare doesn’t necessarily help the most people manage their health problems, nor did it give him the creativity he desired. But it wasn’t until he was sitting with friends in a bar in New York city, that his lightbulb idea struck him: he heard about a novel business in the US, enabling patients to make online appointments. That simple nugget of an idea that a patient could have access to a doctor’s schedule, that Ben Hurst says, just blew up his mind. He became obsessed by the possibilities of the idea, and set about making it happen in Australia. In 2012, he founded HotDoc, an e-health software platform giving patients the ability to book medical appointments with mainly, GP’s. 10 years on, his startup HotDoc links patients to almost 20,000 GP’s in Australia, all at the click of a few buttons. To date he’s raised around $20mill from Venture Capital supporters like AirTree Ventures. In Part 1 of our chat, hear how the COVID pandemic became an extraordinary opportunity, since it massively catapulted HotDoc into the e-health stratosphere. With “hot” patient demand for virus tests, and later vaccinations, the number of appointments booked on HotDoc DOUBLED to 2million per month through 2020.  Pretty good for a guy with not a jot of business experience prior to this medical startup journey! Enjoy Part 1, Dr Ben Hurst.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2 decades ago Mark Kelly thought globally, but acted locally, creating then building up his Global Surf Industries by appealing to the mass market of beginner & intermediate surfers rather than world champs; and offering customers certainty of supply and consistently good quality brand surf and paddle boards. GSI flourished to become a major supplier of boards in some 74 countries around the world. Along the way, Mark Kelly became a political activist, without really meaning to, by thinking locally, and acting globally. In 2018 he began a small local grassroots campaign, on a closed Facebook group, with the catchy title “Vote Tony Out”. The “Tony” being former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and the campaign’s aim was to vote Tony Abbott out as the federal Member for the seat of Warringah. Gutsy? Yes. Provocative? Certainly. Successful? Yes.  What Kelly ended up building was a community-based political campaign, via savvy use of social media and yes, old-fashioned t-shirt sales, that helped turf Tony Abbott out of the federal seat he’d held for a quarter of a century. Kelly’s campaign also boosted the new Independent candidate, now sitting MP, Zali Steggall. In Part 2 of our chat this week, find out how exactly Mark built a successful political campaign, from scratch, and helped usher in the new wave of Independents! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.