Build It. They'll Come.

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.

Mark Kelly only learned to surf on a board at the age of 30, but that cemented his lifelong love of the ocean, first sparked when his dad took him scuba diving as a teen. Kelly came to adore surfing and its calming connection with the sea and nature. Having learned the international sales, marketing and distribution ropes working as a senior exec with massive global brands Adidas and Bausch + Lomb, Mark Kelly took the leap to start his own surfboard and stand-up paddle board business. Always with an eye on disrupting the somewhat haphazard cottage industry of supplying surfboards in Australia, he set his sights on 3 essentials to give him an edge – thinking globally; going after the mass market of beginner surfers rather than world champs; and offering retailers certainty of supply and consistently good quality brand boards to offer customers. 2 decades ago, Global Surf Industries was born and has since become a major supplier of boards in some 74 countries around the world. All done from his base in Manly Beach, Sydney. Somewhere along the way, Mark Kelly became a political activist too, without really meaning to. In 2018 he began what started as a meme really, a small local grassroots campaign 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? Yes. Successful? Yes. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. In Part 1 of our chat, this week, Mark talks of his business do’s and don’ts; how to deal with the often huge challenges of growing internationally; COVID’s substantial highs for his business, but the lows too, with subsequent supply chain problems facing all industries. In Part 2 next week, find out how exactly Mark built a successful political campaign, from scratch!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Barry Lambert has built not 1, but 3 business empires over the past 4 decades, but he doesn’t consider himself an entrepreneur! Starting out as a 16 year old, who began work at the Commonwealth Bank Taree branch, Lambert went on to create and build Count Financial, a grouping of accountants which he expanded into a large franchise operation. After listing Count Financial on the stock exchange in 2000, he sold it to CBA for $373 million just a decade later. His empire no. 2, CountPlus, among other successes, bought back Count Financial for a meagre $2.5million, after the banking Royal Commission severely battered CBA’s wealth management credentials. Then a dreadful illness that befell his granddaughter led Barry to create his 3rd empire – an international medicinal cannabis business, called Ecofibre, now listed on the ASX. Lessons from this self-described reluctant entrepreneur, about solving problems for others, and why you don’t have to be the best, you just have to be better than your competition.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you maintain your momentum, your optimism, your entrepreneurial spirit in the face of devastating bushfires that torched one of the jewels in your business crown, not to mention Covid-enforced lockdowns & border closures’ uncertainty? Hayley & James Baillie’s biz empire - and their leadership - have been sorely tested in the past 2 years. Bushfire ripped through their Southern Ocean Lodge in windswept Kangaroo Island, leaving little but ashes. Then various Covid border closures meant stop/start trading at their luxury lodges in remote NT & Lord Howe Island. Many might’ve given up. Not Hayley and James. Find out how they built resilience and hope into their business, and say they’re the better for it. Enjoy Part 2 of our chat.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part 1 – As thoughts of travel escape to exotic locales starts to take shape as we open up from COVID-19 lockdowns and border closures, you might dream about the luxury lodges, or “luxury redefined” as they describe it, that married couple Hayley and James Baillie have created & developed in their Baillie Lodges portfolio. In some of Australia’s most spectacular, but often remote locations, Hayley and James took a punt almost 2 decades ago that other travellers with a bit of coin would share their passion for being immersed in nature while enjoying high-end luxury food, wines and accommodation at the end of the day in a remote, beautiful, & remarkable destinations. They went for it and built a little empire of luxury in their Capella Lodge on Lord Howe Island, Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island, and Longitude 131 at Uluru, Central Australia. While they freely admit they got a help at the start from Hayley’s dad, renowned Aussie entrepreneur and adventurer Dick Smith, they tell how they built it through their own vision, blood, sweat & tears. While COVID 19 has hit the entire travel industry hard, including the remote Baillie Lodges, it was actually the devastating bushfires of the summer of 2020 which razed their beloved Southern Ocean Lodge to the ground, that severely dented their courage & entrepreneurial spirit. (You’ll have to wait for Part 2 for that bit!) Stay tuned now to find out what is their “secret sauce”. Hope you enjoy Hayley and James Baillie.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Katherine McConnell was a Macquarie banker specializing in asset finance she knew there was a genuine & untapped opportunity that no big bank could take advantage of. And that was to provide new ways to help ordinary householders invest hefty upfront charges in renewable energy in their homes, be it rooftop solar, battery or blinds. So she mortgaged her family’s home, scrimped and saved every penny, including her kids’ (former) private school fees, and created Brighte, which essentially offers a Buy Now, Pay Later payment plan – with no interest charged – for expensive renewable energy assets in the home. It was a masterstroke plan that actually started life in 2015 as a blog she wrote to help consumers think about renewables. That blog turned into a business plan, which turned into HER business plan. And that transformed into her startup in 2016 – Brighte. Brighte has since attracted the attention of tech billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, who have heavily backed her venture. Hear HOW Katherine stole a march on territory that should have been bread and butter for big banks – providing credit to households; how she built her empire from an initial 6 employees to currently 180 in the team; and how she has navigated and managed Brighte’s wild ride in just 5 years.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adapting Aspen Medical’s outsourced healthcare hospitals, clinics and highly-trained medical personnel to suddenly and expertly deal with the COVID-19 pandemic was an extraordinary challenge for the company. But one it executed highly effectively. Not only did Aspen Medical operate strict infection control protocols on some of the early repatriation flights out of Wuhan into Australia, and successfully manage Covid-infected crew members on the stricken Diamond Princess ship stuck in Japan, in early 2020, but this year Aspen set up pop-up respiratory clinics for Covid testing, and helped existing health services get the Vaccine into the arms of hundreds and thousands of Aged Care and Disability accommodation residents as well as staff, via Aspen Medical’s mobile clinics.  Yet that’s just part of Glenn Keys’ commitment to those with a disability. Part of his personal philanthropy, through Project Independence, was sparked by the birth of his son, with Down Syndrome.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.