Build It. They'll Come.

Rebecca Knights built a boutique chocolate company and the Sydney Chocolate School by sticking to her dream of producing all hand-made, artisanal chocolates, tempered on marble, using the finest ethically sourced ingredients from both here and overseas. After leaving home at the tender age of 16, she knew she would have to build a life, and she hoped a business, for herself. While she was neither a trained chef, nor a food technician, she put in the hard yards washing dishes and then waiting on tables in restaurants, before finally getting an education. How she then translated her creativity into training in the age-old European tradition to become a chocolatier in France, then creating a product -- a finely crafted chocolate product at that -- designing the beautiful packaging and selling her wares in the UK, including to prestigious Harvey Nicholls department stores, and achieving that all by herself, is a story of determination and chutzpah. She's even innovated to produce completely sugar-free chocolate! Yes, sugar-free. And despite intense competition in the chocolate industry Rebecca never allowed the mass-produced sweet stuff on supermarket shelves that dominates sales in the industry to snuff out her entrepreneurial dream.  But her journey is not without salutary lessons, given considerable business high's and low's. But how she deals with them is a lesson in smarts, leadership and plain grit. Hope you enjoy Rebecca Knights!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

High school dropout Luke Anear didn’t set out to build a global technology company that was recently valued at over $2billion, but that’s exactly what happened when he saw a problem in the workplace – namely accidents that didn’t have to happen – and started to help solve it. Luke created his mobile safety and quality checklist app that became SafetyCulture. Now, Luke’s vision is expanding, with grand designs to build a global e-marketplace for any consumables used in a workplace, from work boots to chefs’ aprons, a kind of Amazon for the workplace, as he describes it. And ever wondered why those big global tech stocks have staggeringly high valuations? Well, Luke gives a feisty explanation of why they’re not ridiculous! Plus, he shares some heart-felt thoughts on sudden wealth and what to do with it. Enjoy Part 2 of my chat with Luke Anear.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Luke Anear, Founder of a startup that helps companies improve their safety procedures in the workplace, discusses the evolution of SafetyCulture from selling safety guidelines to creating the mobile app iAuditor. Learn about their global expansion, business model, and lessons learned from venture capital investors. Discover how opening offices in Kansas City and Manchester contributed to their growth. Explore their funding rounds and key investors that propelled the company to success.

Kim McKay doesn’t really consider herself an entrepreneur. But that’s exactly what she is, having built not 1, but 2, impressive “empires”. The non-science trained marketing guru is transforming the Aust Museum – yes, the one Sydney-siders all remember going to on school excursions, a natural history museum and Australia’s oldest museum – from being somewhat faded-around-the-edges to now bringing it firmly into the 21st century digital age, as a world-class cultural institution. How is she doing it? By cajoling politicians who control the pursestrings, inspiring scientists to continue their research and engaging supporters and the public alike to take a fresh look at the Museum’s newly refurbed spaces, including the new glittering glass box entrance. Kim reveals how she twists arms! And already she’s increased attendance numbers several-fold.  Perhaps less known is the 1st “empire” Kim McKay helped build into a global not-for-profit phenomenon – the Clean Up Australia & Clean Up the World community campaigns. That event started in 1989 from a tiny idea solo yachtsman & pal Ian Kiernan had, to clear waterways of plastic and rubbish. With the support, hard work and passion of his co-founder Kim McKay, the pair first launched Clean Up Sydney Harbour, which turned out to be a dazzling success on the 1st weekend it was held. So just how did they build that up into the successful & substantial Clean Up Australia campaign -- a volunteer, community-based event that in its first year alone involved over 200 cities and towns across Australia? Well, when Kim managed to get the United Nations involved, Kiernan and McKay took their “Clean Up” to the world!  The Clean Up movement became one of Australia’s most successful public action campaigns ever. And that campaign helped transformed community awareness about the damage from ocean pollution.  Enjoy the dynamo that is Kim McKay!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Managing the rapid scale-up of fast-growing Zip Co meantco-founder & CEO Larry Diamond instigated a culture of Building and Flyingat the exact same time; find out how such a high-wire act meant Diamond and histeam often came close to falling over, thinking they might have to close theirdoors. In the early days, surprisingly they had no retail expert on their team.Yet by putting 1 foot in front of the other, taking 1 step at a time, they grewfrom signing on 1 small suburban bike shop to accept their Buy Now Pay Laterproduct, to signing up tens of thousands of merchants, including big playerslike Wesfarmers’ Bunnings & Kmart, and online retailers like kogan. And thesecret sauce? Diamond says if you have the passion, then the startup life isreally all about endurance. Oh, and taking every Saturday off, switching offall computers and devices, & re-charging one’s own batteries with familyand friends!  Enjoy Part 2 of my chat with Zip’s Larry Diamond.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part 1 -When Larry Diamond came up with his idea for a new payment method he wanted with a passion to disrupt existing payment systems, particularly credit cards, that had a stranglehold on the online space, but were clunky and un-user friendly in his view. Pitching his idea to would-be investors, they sort of metaphorically patted him on the head and shooed him away, saying, nice idea Larry, but you don’t know what you’re talking about!  Rather than drop his idea for a Buy Now Pay Later digital product, he persevered and found a perfect partner, consumer credit expert Peter Gray, to help realise his vision. That vision was providing small amounts of credit to consumers involving “fees” but would do away with “interest charges” completely. ZipMoney, later becoming Zip Co, was born in 2013 over a number of beers in their local pub! The co-founders landed on a product that gelled with younger consumers, in a big way as it’s turning out, as a kind of cross between a debit card and a credit card. 8 years later, overcoming several mammoth hurdles along the way which you’ll hear about, Zip now boasts 7 million customers worldwide, including 2.5 million Australian customers using their most popular product Zip Pay, at everywhere from Bunnings and Woolies to online e-tailers Kogan and Catch. While another Aussie startup Afterpay began later but has grown much bigger, and there’s also strong competition promised from US giant PayPal and CBA’s part-owned Klarna in the BNPL space, Larry Diamond says bring on competition! Founder Larry Diamond now owns just 10% of Zip, making him very wealthy already. But, he tells me, more important are his expanding global growth plans for Zip, including greater penetration into the lucrative US. Hope you enjoy Part 1 of my interview with Zip co-founder and CEO Larry Diamond.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Sattler’s entrepreneurial journey from Tassy farmer to owner of world-class golf courses was far from straightforward… there were lots of bunkers and bogeys (to go with the golfing metaphor) thrown up in his path. After creating the almost instantly successful Barnbougle links course – attracting golf enthusiasts from the mainland as well as overseas --  how Sattler went on to battle and eventually win a legal stoush with former partners, when he came to build his 2nd links course, Lost Farm, became a painful lesson in perseverance. Then when the Covid19 pandemic hit the island leisure destination in 2020, and Tasmania was shut down for the best part of several months, find out how Richard Sattler and his dedicated team of workers turned that near-disaster to their distinct advantage. He also talks of the true impact family support has been through it all. Enjoy Part 2 of my chat with Richard Sattler.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How non-golf player Richard Sattler saw the potential &seized the opportunity to transform his cattle & potato farm into one ofthe best champion links golf courses in the world. The former shearer, who’dnever played golf before, took a massive risk on backing the idea of developinga top-quality links course amongst the pristine sand dunes of his coastalstretch of North-East Tasmania, and ended up having to underwrite the 2-yearbuilding project of Barnbougle Links course, The Dunes. But he quickly realisedthe concept of building a wilderness experience for golf might mean they couldcreate a whole new market for themselves in remote Tassy, and that’s exactlyhow Barnbougle became not just a local, but a world golf destination. Years of hard slog battling huge hurdles in his businessjourney in the island state of Tasmania – from the devastating Pilots’ strikeof 1989, and the ’91 recession which saw interest rates of 20%  meanalmost crippling debt – equipped Sattler with the experience, tenacity andpassion to go all out on the Barnbougle experiment. But it paid off, andhandsomely. Not only has Sattler expanded his links courses empire, butBarnbougle sits comfortably in the Top 50 golf courses in the world! And itremains one of the few courses in Australasia, where those golf enthusiasts whomake the pilgrimage, rarely come away disappointed!  Hope you enjoy Part 1 of my chat, on the roller coasterbusiness ride of golfing entrepreneur and empire builder Richard Sattler.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Liz Ann Macgregor was lured from the UK to take on the job of turning around & re-building the moribund Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in 1999, she knew it would be a massive financial challenge. As a kid growing up in remote Orkney Islands in northern Scotland she had experience on the margins, so she figured how hard could a museum be, at the other ends of the earth in Sydney, despite seeing newspaper headlines emblazoned “Gallery no-one goes to” and “Money for Wankers”. But on arrival downunder and learning not only was the MCA so close to bankruptcy, but a fight with some of her board members within her first 48 hours, meant she almost turned on her heels and fled. Lucky for the MCA, Sydney and Australia that she didn’t, and for the next few years Liz Ann and her small team knuckled down, kept a tight rein on cash flow, persuaded politicians (sweetly , of course!), and enticed both audiences from all parts of the community and more donors. Over the past 2 decades, Liz Ann took the business of contemporary art, often seen as elitist and inaccessible to audiences, and turned it on its head. How Liz Ann Macgregor marshalled all resources she could lay her hands on to re-build the harbourside museum, visitor by visitor, supporter by supporter, blockbuster exhibition by blockbuster exhibition and transform it into one of Australia’s most visited and loved cultural institutions is a masterclass in entrepreneurialism, innovation and true engagement with customers. Does she think of herself in those terms? Well, take a listen to this chat with the indefatigable Liz Ann Macgregor OBE and find out.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tony Nash’s school & uni life didn’t work out the way he had planned. While he knew he wasn’t studious, didn’t concentrate, he equally understood he had enormous stores of passion, energy and enthusiasm when it came to a project he wanted to pursue. When it came to creating e-commerce bookselling site, Booktopia, initially from a tiny office in suburban Sydney, Tony’s unbridled energy and enthusiasm helped he and his co-founders to build it into one of Australia’s truly homegrown digital success stories. But it was, well, a medical diagnosis that came only in more recent years that finally gave him clarity and helped him improve his business as well as personal life. Hope you enjoy Part 2 of my chat with maverick entrepreneur Tony Nash.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.