Build It. They'll Come.

How do you revolutionise medicine, helping develop an entire new field of medical science in this country? Well, back when he was a young doctor Professor Gab Kovacs did just that. By starting small and taking 1 step at a time he helped change the practice of reproductive medicine, by pioneering IVF in this country – “test tube” babies they used to be called - as an option for infertile couples to have children in the late 1970’s. Professor Kovacs worked with the greats, lead by Dr Carl Wood and Alan Trounson, those doctors and scientists who researched, tested, achieved breakthroughs and broke down barriers, to change the way infertility was treated and managed.

This team was so successful, after years of hard work they built a thriving business that has enabled thousands of Australian women, and many more around the world, to have babies when their bodies’ biological doors seemed closed forever.

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In late 2023 we brought you an interview with serially successful entrepreneur Mark Woodland, who co-created and built the Kismet platform to provide digital tools to help NDIS participants easily link up with approved providers, reducing fraud and overcharging & improving compliance along the way. Kismet only began life as a business in August 2022, after Mark had kept the idea in his bottom drawer for 13 years. Then in early 2023 Mark raised a whopping $4 million from venture capital veterans AirTree Ventures, Daniel Petre AO and others, an enormous tick of approval for Mark Woodland, a former soldier and proud product of a single mum household. Now the latest news in September 2024, is Kismet completed a successful $32.5 million seed funding round from venture capital investors. Wow. Not bad for just over 2 years in business! Then again, Mark had already built successful childcare business, xplor, to streamline the admin process for parents and childcare operators alike, which he sold in 2020 to US private equity, reportedly making xplor worth $100 million, and putting Mark onto the Financial Review Young Rich List.  Mark’s is such a remarkable startup journey, we thought we’d share it with you again. Enjoy.

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Babak Moini came to Australia with his family as an 8 year old, from Iran. He studied hard, went to university and became an actuary, earned good money. So far a fairly typical immigrant story. But Babak’s journey diverged considerably when he discovered retailing, of all things – his first foray was a small souvenir shop in Cairns -  and he fell in love with the world of business, buying and selling. He dumped his actuarial career and with a co-founder friend, they ended up building a non-invasive beauty treatment empire, in Laser Clinics Australia, with some 80-plus clinics.  What a wild ride it has been. Hope you enjoy Babak Moini.

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After coming to Australia with just $600 in her pocket and a dream to see the world, young Mandy Foley fell into waitressing. What she found was a haphazard industry for workers, with little structure or professionalism. So over the past almost 4 decades Mandy set about changing that, building up her Stedmans Hospitality Services business, which she a couple of friends started from scratch in the mid-1980s. Stedmans agency essentially offers outsourced hospitality staff for events, parties, caterers and boardrooms, thereby she says, taking the worry out of hiring casual staff. For the workers she offers them structure, training, professionalism, and a family-type environment. Though she’s lived through many ups and downs, which she happily shares in our interview, Mandy has not only survived, she’s thrived, and gives back a hell of a lot, to charities and the community.

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You’ve probably never heard of GROW Super or GROW Inc. And that’s just the way co-founder and CEO Mathew Keeley likes it. But GROW Inc is solving some of the logjam problems in the “back office” administration of our massive Superannuation Funds. GROW Inc instigated a new way for Superannuation fund customers like you and I, to better access and engage with our Super Funds, by creating and building an innovative administration software using blockchain, or Distributed Ledger Technology. GROW Inc claims its platform transforms legacy systems and business models and allows fund managers and their funds to offer more streamlined, real time information to customers about their Super.

So how did a 5th generation farm boy, end up revolutionising the way Superannuation Funds interact with clients and members, giving as easy an experience for fund members as Amazon gives their online shoppers?

And how the heck did Mat Keeley, with a tiny team of only 36 employees at the time, persuade one of the world’s biggest wealth managers, the US giant Vanguard – with something like $10 Trillion in their care – to take a punt on his Super fund “back office” platform GROW Inc?  Well, tune in right now and you’ll find out. Enjoy Mathew Keeley’s extraordinary journey with GROW Inc.

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Tasmania born, schooled in Hong Kong, now working in Melbourne, scientist Nick Murphy is on the frontier of IVF reproductive medicine. Nick and his small highly skilled team developed a world-first genetic screening test for IVF embryos capable of detecting several thousand severe genetic diseases and life threatening conditions. And it’s done in one single, simple test, via whole genome sequencing of the pre-implantation embryo. It’s commercialised by Nick’s startup, GenEmbryomics. Dr Murphy will offer this test through existing IVF clinics, at as low a price as possible, and to as many couples going through IVF as need it.

While not available commercially yet in Australia, GenEmbryomics is in the process of securing patents for the test in the massive IVF market in the USA, worth some $9billion. There are plans to list the startup on New York’s NASDAQ exchange by mid-2024. It’s been a wild and fascinating journey for this genetic scientist turned entrepreneur, since the GenEmbryomics business began in 2019. Hope you enjoy Dr Nick Murphy.

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An immigrant child of Polish Jewish parents, Jack Gance ended up disrupting several entire industries with HIS model of shopkeeping through suburban Australia. The pharmacist turned into an entrepreneur by chance really. After gaining his Pharmacy degree, Jack and his brother Sam started with just 1 pharmacy in the early 1970’s, which they slowly built on. Along the journey, Jack Gance totally upended the way traditional pharmacies in Aussie suburbs operate, by essentially making all the other products chemists sell aside from prescriptions, much more enticing and cheaper for shoppers. He also built a distribution business in the process.

After 51 years in business Jack Gance, with Sam and co-founder Mario Verrocchi spent the past two-plus decades building their Chemist Warehouse business and brand into a household name, thereby revolutionising not just the pharmacy model, but the entire retailing landscape, by offering discounts on every product in the store. Now with 500 partner/franchise stores and a recently announced deal to merge with Sigma Healthcare, in order to expand the business, we’re replaying the interview we did in 2023 where Jack reflects, just a little, on that amazing entrepreneurial journey. And why he can’t stop!

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Host Helen Dalley interviews plenty more inspiring Aussie entrepreneurs in new episodes coming up in 2024! Both established superstars and newbie startup founders who have nurtured an idea from scratch, building it from nothing into a sustainable successful business.

In each episode Founders reveal deep frustrations, challenges, their doubts and near failures but also how they overcame them, offering up practical insights on how to create and build a fantastic business.

Be sure to stay tuned to Build It. They’ll Come in the new year, after we take a little break.

Thankyou for being great listeners and supporters. See you in January 2024!

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Not every budding entrepreneur wants to start a new bank.  Banking is risky, highly regulated, and in this country dominated by the big 4 banks that could squash any little minnow that tries to challenge them. But my guest Joseph Healy has been a career banker, in fact a successful senior executive in 2 of those the big traditional banks, and his disillusionment with their modus operandi led him to start his own. After extensive chats with mate David Hornery, over beers at the local on a Friday, the pair decided on a vision for a new bank to service small to medium sized businesses, a neglected sector in their opinion. So they set out to back themselves into building that vision into something successful and sustainable.  

Healy and Hornery founded Judo Bank in 2019, in the eye of the Covid storm. But they say that made the bank stronger, and they claim to have delivered what they promised for small to medium-sized businesses.

Now a higher interest rate environment produces new challenges for the minnow bank. Despite its shares being marked down,  Judo’s lending book is now $9bill (as of June 30, 2023), and it achieved a strong 2023 profit. And Joseph Healy reckons they are building the culture, mind-set and model to ensure Judo grows into a sustainable success.

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Soldier-turned-entrepreneur Mark Woodland reckons he learned some tough lessons in the Army. The most fundamental that he brought with him into the startup world was how to be resilient. This self-confessed university dropout draws on his internal resilience he reckons every day, while scaling up his Kismet healthcare platform. Resilience, coupled with setting in stone the internal culture of your business right from the get-go, and staying humble are foundation stones for Kismet’s success.

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