Weird Growth

On this episode of Weird Growth Jamie talks about the evolution of Carbon Group and how he and his co-founder Nathan Hood combined their bookkeeping and tax advisory businesses to create a one stop shop for core business needs. The group now has 180 people across Australia in multiple business advisory disciplines. Carbon provides accounting and business advisory services for business nationally. During 2020 Carbon Group continued to thrive. Cam and Jamie discuss all things culture, startups, professional services and Angel Investing. Jamie's advice for founders if you are not making mistakes you are not running fast enough.

Company

Financial services for businesses in Australia

Customers

Small to medium Australian Businesses

Big pieces of advice

Surround yourself with good people. They don’t have to be the best technically, but you need to be surrounded by positive people that give you good energy. A supportive partner can make a huge difference.

If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not running fast enough.

Personal brands and your life outside of work is important. People are attracted to others with interesting lives.

Have fun. Business is a game. If you’re so interested in just winning, you’re not going to have fun.

Bullets

(0:00) – Introduction

(1:40) – The Carbon Group differentiation: Attracting the best people by having an ambitious vision

(2:50) – What culture means to Jamie and how to maintain culture while scaling

(4:50) – The unique ownership structure of Carbon Group and how it builds agency within the organisation

(7:38) – How Carbon Group found first customers: A 4-month character building journey

(9:37) – Scaling customer acquisition and the benefit of finding a complimentary business partner

(12:17) – How Carbon Group have grown their customer base through acquisition and the key part of due diligence during a transaction

(16:00) – Jamie’s role with Perth Angels and investments in Rhinohide & Vital Trace

(18:45) – What Jamie looks for in a Start-up founder: Passion, conviction, and domain expertise. As Jason Calacanis says, “They need to be delusional, but with the ability to execute”

(20:16) – Jamie’s confidence in the transition out of COVID-19

(21:47) – What Jamie would tell a first-time founder

(25:45) – Jamie’s investment style: Hands-on and informal

(27:00) – Cake Equity’s rapid growth: Employee share plans, track unlisted shares, and manage capital raisings

(29:36) – Carbon’s brand refresh process

(31:02) – How Carbon communicates its multi-service offering to clients

(32:00) – Perth’s developing Start-up scene and how to get involved

Show & Tell

https://www.sanebox.com/ - Email management software

Matt Pound from Varsity Group shares his journey with Varsity Bar, Boat Parties, Consulting, Accelerators, Tech Gnomies, Burgers and Long-Machs in this episode. Matt's mix helped him create a unique hospitality experience and a cult following for American food & culture that has seen them open 6 restaurants in five years. Learn how he did it in this episode of Weird Growth.

Company

Varsity Bar – American college style food & culture

Customers

University/College students

One big piece of advice

Be intensely focused on your customers and giving them what they want. If people have a bad experience with your product or service, make sure you do everything in your power to turn it around.

Bullets

(0:00) – Introduction

(3:00) – How Matt got involved in the hospitality sector

(4:34) - What Matt learnt from his early experience hosting events (including boat parties on the Swan River)

(6:43) – The background and beginnings of the flagship Varsity Bar in Nedlands

(10:55) - The important learnings from the second Varsity store in Northbridge

(13:11) - Matt’s Tech Gnomies Side Project and key learnings: Persevering with your ideas

(16:52) – The media cycle flywheel: How early press relations can drive virality for a product

(18:28) – Differentiating Varsity burgers through careful media and high-quality products

(21:35) – Scaling-up and maintaining a culture that people love

(23:50) – Creating Fenway for sports lovers and an older demographic

(25:27) – The common thread among successful founders: Customer focus

(26:16) – #LMTU - Long Mac Topped Up – What is it and why is it important to Perth?

(32:00) – Varsity’s role in the local West Australian Burger movement

Show & Tell

https://www.shaktimats.com.au/pages/yoga- Shatki Meditation Mats

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts- Alan Watts

Constructive Software makes it much more enjoyable to build a house. When you build with Constructive you'll be able to stay up to date with build progress, select finishes, and visualise a tailored view of your home design in 3D. The builder has control over the options for the homeowner making the process from start to finish more transparent and enjoyable for everyone involved. Founder James Salt originally from the UK, shares what it was like growing up in a family in the construction industry and why one summer they had a whole kitchen in their garage. Listen to how he bootstrapped his business from consulting to product and learn from the constructive advice he has to offer.

Company

Improving the customer experience for housebuilders

https://www.constructivesoftware.com.au/

Problem

A lack of transparency into costs for housebuilders

Customers

Building companies

One big piece of advice

Leverage your network and industry experience. Don’t be afraid to ask people for their time if your interests are aligned.

Bullets

(0:00) – Introduction

(1:08) – Constructive Software: Making the house building process more enjoyable

(3:30) – Why Building companies value Constructive Software: Providing better assurances to clients

(5:30) – The size of the market opportunity for new houses in Australia and Internationally

(9:20) – How COVID-19 has contributed to Constructive Software’s growth

(11:04) – James’ journey to starting Constructive Software and early Minimum Viable Product: The benefit of pre-validating your idea through direct experience

(14:27) - James’ advice to early-stage founders with an idea and problem they want to solve

(16:02) – How Constructive Software have scaled their marketing efforts: Building the courage to sell

(20:27) – Digital marketing channels that have worked for Constructive Software

(26:50) – Balancing product feature requests with company goals

(27:49) – What James would have done differently if he was starting again: External investment and delegation

(31:00) – The strangest way Constructive received a lead

Show & Tell

A physical notepad to-do list

https://gettingthingsdone.com/- Getting ideas out of your mind

Ex - Revolut and British Airways, Growth Marketer Lucas Calleja joined us in the studio while he was back home in Perth. He shared some fantastic growth lessons from experience working with companies big and small. After years of experience in funds, corporate and fintech Lucas now focuses his energy on building strong unit economics for companies. The key to growth according to him - feedback and testing. Listen to this great chat to learn how you can apply these world leading marketing techniques in your business. And we have our first addition of "Ask us anything" in this episode, where we answer any questions you have about marketing with some of the best founders and marketers in the world.

Company

Helping businesses drive strong unit economics

https://www.compositis.com/

Customers

Small to large businesses

Two big pieces of advice

Never underestimate the power of feedback from partners and clients. You need to understand what your product does well, what your clients would like it to do, and who your clients look towards when your product isn’t getting the job done. You learn more about your competitors from people who use your competitors.

When it comes to growth, understand whether to drive quality or quantity. In the beginning, the focus should be quality until you can build a scalable process.

Bullets

(1:09) – Lucas’ early career in emerging markets and transition to London

(3:05) – Lucas’ role at British Airways: Generating innovative marketing campaigns to drive foreign currency sales

(5:36) – Pop quiz: The business Lucas would start if he were to start one today (in the middle of COVID)

(7:42) – Lucas’ journey to joining Revolut and how Revolut made a 10x improvement to consumer finance

(12:19) – The archaic business banking processes of legacy banks

(15:20) – How Revolut built a sales pipeline to onboard new business customers: The importance of understanding your value proposition and communicating that value proposition clearly

(17:52) – Building a measurable funnel to maximise return on marketing spend: Cost of customer acquisition and lifetime value

(21:55) – The importance of understanding what a vanity metric is

(23:26) – The best tracking tools: Google Analytics

(24:45) – Compositis: Helping businesses drive strong unit economics

(27:29) – Compositis’ future: Retainer-led work and micro-credential courses

(29:25) – Lucas’ advice for founders

(34:44) – The power of G-Suite

(37:49) – How to get the most out of your email marketing: Personalisation and experimentation

(41:40) – The differences with marketing pre-and-post COVID-19: The erosion of physical events and need for cash flow optimisation

Show & Tell

G-Suite– Collaboration for teams

Jesse Emia has been around the block a few times when it comes to getting a company off the ground. Since 2016 Keepspace has been automating eCommerce fulfilment for online businesses. Now they process thousands of orders a day. The secret to his success, his wife. Listen to all the ups and downs of Jesse's journey to growth, how he went from getting married to selling wedding dresses and why focusing on the gaps in your industry will pay off. 

Company

eCommerce fulfilment

https://www.keepspace.com.au/

Problem

Fulfilment and logistics for small business

Customers

Solopreneurs and small businesses in fashion, fitness & equipment

One big piece of advice

Stay humble. Be overproductive and conservative in your approach. Don’t go for the glamour. Some progress is better than no progress: what makes all the difference, in the end, is the motivation to keep going.

Bullets

(2:25) – Keepspace’s core customers: Solopreneurs and small businesses in fashion and fitness

(5:35) – The new world of eCommerce driven by COVID-19

(9:02) – Keepspace’s starting point and first pivot: Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den

(14:24) – Becoming laser-focused on a core group of customers

(17:55) – How Keepspace finds customers and builds trust: Organic content and transparency

(23:49) – How Keepspace used events and localised communities to grow their customer base and earn trust

(30:04) – The secret to Keepspace’s retention: not the answer you’d expect

(32:14) – What’s in store for the future at Keepspace: SaaS products

(38:35) – The advice Jesse would give to first-time entrepreneurs

(40:50) – How Keepspace maximises productivity with SaaS tools

Show & Tell

https://asana.com/ - Task management for teams

https://slack.com/intl/en-au/- Digital HQ for your company

https://airmailapp.com/- Lightning-fast mail client

https://pinpayments.com/- Accept card payments securely

It was a pleasure to have Plus Eight's Program Manager Isabelle Goldfarb on the show. She touched on her diverse startup experience, moving to Australia from Brazil and the importance of keeping it simple.

When it comes to building community Isabelle says 1-on-1s are a must. If you want to build insights and truly understand your customers needs 1-on-1s can be a great source. This comes back to the common sentiment of doing things in the beginning that don't scale, so that when you do grow you grow with a product that people actually want.

Company

Plus Eight Accelerator – Perth’s leading accelerator

Companies Isabelle is involved with:

https://spacecubed.com/

https://pluseight.spacecubed.com/

https://shecodes.com.au/

https://www.meshpoints.com/

https://www.olabi.org.br/

Two big pieces of advice

Resilience. You’re going to have a lot of ups and downs, and there are no overnight successes. It takes 10 years to build an overnight success.

Listen to your customers so you can make the right decisions.

Bullets

(1:58) – Isabelle’s first start-up experience in Brazil: No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy. You can do all the strategizing in the world, but until you put something in the hands of customers, you won’t know how it will perform.

(3:27) – Finding first customers for a social app

(5:40) – Isabelle’s critical commitment decision and the importance of being all-in, work life balance, and time management

(10:04) – Isabelle’s experience in financial and management consulting

(11:05) - Who makes the better founder and why? The university drop out whiz kid versus the experienced corporate employee

(13:17) – Why Isabelle started Olabi Makerspace

(15:50) – How Olabi launched through sponsorships, foundations, and corporates

(19:07) – The key to building supportive communities: Genuine care, openness, vulnerability, and shared stories

(22:53) - How start-up founders can apply lessons from building community to growing their customer base: Understanding customer needs and leveraging 1-on-1 conversations

(27:27) - How to scale customer understanding and community to ensure ongoing impact

(31:54) – What founders that are resilient have in common

Show & Tell

https://www.hubspot.com/ - CRM platform

https://houseparty.com/ - face to face social network

Miles Burke joined us to share the growth journey of 6Q which was indeed weird. They built the first version in a day and had over 1000 users to deal with in the morning. Listen in to hear how 6Q went from a side-project to improving company culture for organisations of all sizes globally.

Company

Meaningful employee surveys in minutes

https://www.6q.io/

Problem

Employee disengagement and turnover

Customers

SaaS business owners and Human Resources Directors

One big piece of advice

Spend time finding the ideal customer and understanding if your product can solve a problem for them. Once you’ve understood that you can solve a problem, make sure it’s a problem people are willing to pay to have solved. It’s better to have spent a few days talking to customers than developing something and figuring out that no one wants it.

Bullets

(3:06) – 6Q: Improving employee engagement and increasing company culture

(5:54) – 6Q’s perfect customer: SaaS business owners and Human Resources Directors

(7:16) – Building 6Q’s MVP in a day and early growth

(9:32) – What draws customers to 6Q’s product: Obsessive focus on simplicity

(11:03) – How to decide on the product features to prioritise

(13:40) – The benefits of personal outreach: Interacting with your customers personally (Physical mail, calls, emails, etc.)

(15:39) – Building a scalable marketing program through content: Providing useful content for your target audience as a magnet

(20:20) – 6Q’s status and key measures of success (Churn, customer satisfaction)

(23:45) – Future plans for 6Q

(25:14) – Miles’ current side-projects: Software Guide and Guest Blog Posts

(28:12) – SEO’s current importance in the landscape of a huge diversity of digital marketing channels: One of many tools in the tool kit

(30:30) – Perth’s early hip hop scene

(37:20) – The importance and benefits of meditation

Show & Tell

https://insighttimer.com/ - #1 free app for sleep, anxiety, and stress

Weird Growth's first live episode with special guest hosts Dave Newman and Scott Glew from Morning Startup Perth. Hear the fascinating story behind Uno Group's early days back when they were "tinder for food" right through to their recently announced partnership with the world’s largest market research company Nielsen. Tyler also touches on how Uno Group has adapted in the new landscape bought about due to COVID-19.

Company

Market intelligence platform

https://theugroup.co/

Problem

Gathering useful information on consumer trends

Customers

Consumers and market research companies

One big piece of advice

Timing and team. Make sure the market is ready for your product. Make sure you have the right people around you to support you.

Bullets

(2:55) – What drove Tyler in the beginning: A clean start

(3:18) – Tyler’s first steps in Western Australia, exploration of Jim Rohn, and key influences early on

(5:18) – Tyler’s first experience with cold sales and selling his commercial cleaning business, Econ Cleaning

(9:35) – Tyler’s experience with Founders Institute, key learnings, and CSIRO’s ON Prime program

(11:55) – The core problem Feedme solved: it’s hard to find food you want to eat

(13:55) – Feedme’s experience in the Plus Eight Accelerator

(15:22) – The Jobs-to-be-done framework

(16:10) – How Feedme connected with users through the app, promotions, Facebook messenger, and email

(19:05) – The launch of Unocart as a grocery delivery service

(21:12) – The pivot to data collection: low volume, high value, and long sales cycles

(25:25) – How Tyler stays energized and motivated to continue iterating

(29:02) – Uno Group’s partnership with the world’s largest market research company, Nielsen

(30:05) – The future of Uno Group: Doubling down on the core value proposition

(31:30) – The start-up Tyler would create right now if he was starting again: Solving the COVID-19 induced unemployment problem

(36:30) – The one thing Tyler would recommend to anybody growing a SaaS solution: Intercom – The ultimate customer support tool

(39:10) – How Tyler found Co-founders

(40:28) – Tyler’s Motto: There is only a Plan A, no plan B

(41:12) – Where Tyler found good software developers: The importance of understanding enough to judge developers

(42:11) – The cure-all for pitching to investors: Growth solves all problems. “If you have traction and revenue, you won’t need to find investors, they’ll find you.”

(43:10) - The most effective thing Tyler did to grow his business: Deliver groceries himself

(43:38) – What Tyler advises small business during COVID-19: Double down on the most valuable thing you’re providing customers

Show & Tell

https://redash.io/ - make sense of your data

https://music.youtube.com/- The recommendation engine

While Iain was on his last visit to Western Australia we managed to catch him for an episode to give us an update on Humm.  Humm is a neurotechnology hardware startup that has gone from a few university graduates in Perth to a VC funded Silicon Valley startup in a few short years. 

Company

Enhancing working memory

Problem

Learning new skills and information faster

Customers

White collar professionals above the age of 25 and those in the 40- to 70-year-old age bracket who are starting to realise lower brain functionality

Big pieces of advice

Be vulnerable. Be coachable. Be a hustler. Constantly seek mentors and people smarter than yourself. You are a product of the five people you spend the most time with. Unless you are chatting to the people who know enough to help you through the problems of tomorrow, you’re not going to be ready for the problems of tomorrow.

Push yourself to learn as fast as possible. It takes thousands of hours of learning to get anywhere. The best way to do that is by talking to people who have done it before.

Bullets

(3:00) – What it feels like to take on a moon-shot problem and how Iain channels his motivation

(4:34) – The humble beginnings of Humm

(8:22) – Iain’s involvement with Electronic Music Appreciation Society at University of Western Australia

(9:55) – The recurring theme of side-projects for entrepreneurs: learning by doing

(12:29) – The first steps of building Humm: Hacking together a minimum viable product and sharing the word

(13:43) – The impact of Spacecubed and Start-up weekend

(16:33) – Bloom: A community of change makers challenging the problems of the world. The importance of learning by making mistakes and trying things

(18:06) – Humm’s Plus Eight Accelerator experiences: Closed-loop brain computer interfaces

(20:00) - Humm’s first customers and the benefit of being your own first customer

(24:40) – The importance of having skin in the game: Investors have greater confidence in your commitment and mentors take you more seriously

(31:39) – How Humm pivoted and found their ideal customer using prototypes and customer interviews: Asking people to buy is a different level of commitment than asking them to trial

(37:40) – How to get customers to purchase your product

(39:25) – The difficulty of hardware products: slower iteration processes requiring forward commitments

(42:36) – How Iain responds to the persistent question of whether Humm’s product is a scam: Education, lowering the barrier to entry, and social proof

(46:03) – Humm’s ideal use case: Enhancing working memory by up to 20%

(49:25) – Dr. Vivienne Ming’s body of research on enhancing working memory and its implications: What a 20% increase in working memory looks like

(51:03) – Humm’s future: Taking the slow path intentionally to educate and enhance usability

(58:20) – Why Iain is famous in Japan

(59:36) – Perth’s exciting start-up future

Show & Tell

https://www.noom.com/ - Psychological principles for weight loss

We recently caught up with Chloë Constantinides to discuss her interesting portfolio career as an Innovation Consultant that spans across Startups, Apps, SAAS products and eCommerce. She’s taken over conferences, manufactured ethically sourced makeup brushes and worked with companies big and small on Innovation. Her biggest lesson experiment, experiment, experiment and she goes into why this is so important as a founder or anyone in business in this episode of Weird Growth.

Chloe – Innovation Consultant

Chloe works as a creative technologist and product manager with government, start-up, and corporate clients to design clever strategies, build better products, engage with emerging technology and to prepare for the future of work.

Chloe’s personal website: https://www.chloecon.com/

Current and past projects

- Curtin Ignition - https://engage.curtin.edu.au/entrepreneurs/

- UWA IQ Academy - https://www.innovation.uwa.edu.au/iq-academy

- Functionly - https://www.functionly.com/

- Kisanii - https://kisanii.co/password

- Rateit - https://rateitapp.com/

Problem

First-time builders and innovators often have specific skills but lack the overall strategy needed to direct their innovation towards commercialisation

Customers

Governments, Start-ups, and Corporate Clients

One big piece of advice

Experiment with the knowledge that some things will work, and some things won’t, but you learn something important every time. The more things you throw out there, the more likely something is going to stick. Record, record, record (take in as much data as you can).

Bullets

(3:23) – What Chloe loves about Innovation Consulting

(4:37) – Where Chloe’s passion for innovation and technology began

(6:43) – The usefulness of having basic digital skills to enable yourself to build a Minimum Viable Product without outside assistance

(8:27) – Chloe’s early involvement with Dapper Apps and wearing multiple hats

(9:44) – Chloe’s key learnings from Dapper Apps (the importance of validating ideas before building a full product (MVP, talking to customers, sprints)

- Don’t build without testing the idea

- Conduct customer interviews early to receive feedback

- Test what you can, if you can build it in an excel spreadsheet, do it

- Work in iterations (fortnightly sprints)

(12:17) – Kisanii – Chloe’s personal experiment to learn marketing: The benefit of learning through practical experience

(15:22) – Functionly – Helping CEOs scale without breaking the organisation

(20:37) – Rateit – Customer experience optimisation for SaaS businesses

(23:45) – The importance of tailoring questions to the culture you’re operating in to ensure transparent feedback

(27:00) – Chloe’s future plans: The Kaleidoscopic Career

Show & Tell

https://www.ableton.com/en/ - Music production course