Luke Hohmann is one of the good people in tech. Instead of building companies to flip, he builds companies that make the world better. A serial entrepreneur, Luke has left the boardroom for the schoolyard, and it’s all because of a concept called Participatory Budgeting.

Participatory Budgeting is a global movement, endorsed by the UN, in which communities decide how to invest real money. His last business, Conteneo helped global organisations like BMW, Salesforce, eBay, Transamerica, and many others manage $3 billion. Now, Luke wants to take $1B and give it to children through his latest business startup, FirstRoot.

Tune in and learn more about how to make better business decisions, faster, while also uncovering Luke’s secret plan for the future of business.

Connect with Luke Hohmann

Website: https://firstroot.co/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukehohmann/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lukehohmann

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYjaSvgnhEaahIE2WLubezA

Connect with Simon Bedard

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard/

Website: https://buygrowsell.com/

Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/

Wally Akacha operates in absolutes. He knew from the age of five he wanted to be a civil engineer. He then entered into a civil engineering firm as Employee #1.

With no plan to exit, Wally grew through the ranks from General Manager to Managing Director, successfully stabilising cashflow and growing the business 25% yearly. Twelve years later, turning over $25M in revenue, he sold it to a listed entity.

Follow along on his journey as he honed and developed his leadership skills, figured out how to manage a team’s expectations through an acquisition process, and dive deeper into the nitty gritty details of team transitions.

This episode is a must listen for any business owner, but especially if you’re operating in the civil space.

Connect with Wally Akacha

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wally-akacha-3148ab12/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/realbusinessmatters/

Website: https://realbusinessmatters.com.au/

Connect with Simon Bedard

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard/

Website: https://buygrowsell.com/

Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/

COVID-19 has accelerated the shift of every aspect of our lives to be online. It is the standard for business owners now, not the expectation, that you must have a strong online presence. So as a business owner, how do you evolve your services to cater to a growing digital audience?

Today’s guest is Ronnie Teja, a Canadian entrepreneur who’s deployed a successful growth via acquisition strategy to capture his fair share of the internet market. He grew his first business Branzio, an eCommerce store for watches, organically. Since then, he’s acquired 15 different businesses and online sites to build a profitable digital ecosystem.

You’ll learn about the different approaches he’s taken to acquiring new sites, as well as how he’s adapted his strategies to be future-proof through COVID-19 and beyond.

This episode is a must listen for anyone looking to start or improve their online business.

Connect with Ronnie Teja

Website: https://branzio.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronniesteja/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/branziowatches/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/branziowatches/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/roaringronny

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs-rUWXFdivFQlhQHry6EOw

Connect with Simon Bedard

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard/

Website: https://buygrowsell.com/

Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/

People are the heart of your business, and our guest, Dave Molenda knows this better than most. After a 30+ year career growing his business to $10M in annual sales, he exited in order to follow his passion of helping other business owners thrive.

In today’s episode, Dave dishes great tips on how to find the right people, build the right people-centric processes, and implement the right partnership strategies that will work together to grow a successful business.

Connect with Dave Molenda

Website: https://www.positivepolarity.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmolenda/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Positivepolarity/

Connect with Simon Bedard

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard/

Website: https://buygrowsell.com/

Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/

What do elite sports, the military, and the buy, grow, sell cycle all have in common?

Structure. And structure is something our latest guest, Lee Hackett specialises in. Starting out as a professional footballer for Wigan Athletic FC, Lee pivoted to the corporate world before entering his brother’s business, CMS, where he helped grow the business 4-5x in the four years he was there.

Since then, he has successfully grown 3 companies to $10M+ in sales and engineered trade sales to FTSE200 listed corporations. From professional footballer to professional businessman, learn about Lee Hackett’s journey from setting up plays to setting up management teams, developing start-ups, and growing through acquisitions.

Connect with Lee Hackett

Website: https://bluprintx.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehackett/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BluprintX

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bluprint_x

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BluprintX

Connect with Simon Bedard

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard/

Website: https://buygrowsell.com/

Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/

Rajiv Lamba is an entrepreneur with proven track record of scaling a startup from $0 to $14M in sales. He has one successful exit, and he is now scaling his second Enterprise SaaS startup from $0 to $4.4M ARR in 3 years.

Rajiv isn’t in a hurry. He lives and breathes by the cycle of building up, scaling and selling to strategic acquirers, and he wants other business owners to slow down and adopt this mindset as well.

With one business, Kadence, grown successfully from $1.5M to $14M across multiple counties, he’s restarted that cycle with his newest startup venture: an AI-driven consumer research business that’s on the cutting edge of innovation in the sector.

Tune into this episode and learn how by repeating the same patterns Rajiv is able to grow consistently profitable, sustainable businesses, ripe for acquisition.

Connect with Rajiv Lamba

Website: https://www.surveysensum.com/

Website: https://neurosensum.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajiv-lamba/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SurveySensum

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/surveysensum/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/surveysensum

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/surveysensum

Connect with Simon Bedard

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard/

Website: https://buygrowsell.com/

Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/

What do an electrical engineering degree, degree in Mandarin, law degree, and an MBA all have in common?

They all belong to our next guest, Devin Miller who’s built as many businesses as he has degrees. Devin has founded and co-founded several 7 and 8 figure companies. He has also founded his own patent and trademark law firm, Miller IP Law.

Devin is the type of entrepreneur who has 10 new ideas for breakfast, throws out 20 before dinner, and has another 10 by the time his head hits the pillow.

Learn how he vets these ideas and turns them into profitable business ventures – many worth 7, 8, and 9 figures. You’ll follow along on his journey as he ideated and built his first Diabetes Wearables business, as well as what he came up against during his merger with another business entity. This episode is jam-packed with useful tidbits on market validation, monetisation, and patents – of which he happens to be an expert.

Connect with Devin Miller

Website: https://milleripl.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/millerip/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyDHIwDZ7WDNDc2H4k4uhbA

Connect with Simon Bedard

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard/

Website: https://buygrowsell.com/

Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/

Camilla Bowhill built, and then sold her Scandinavian wholesale, retail and online business in gifts, homewares and fashion, Nordic Fusion, in about 2018.

This business prides itself on stocking original brands, with everything sourced from Scandinavia. The store showcases brands and designers that have been around since the 1950s, as well as new labels.

The Swedish entrepreneur brought a taste of Scandinavia to Australia, successfully growing a retail, wholesale and e-commerce store. But after 15 years of slow and steady growth, and $2.5M in turnover later, Camilla decided she had enough.

Learn about the different phases of her business growth, from navigating business partners, the rise of online shopping, and of course the rigours of due diligence for SMEs.

Connect with Camilla Bowhill

Website: https://www.sandcastlefinance.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camilla-bowhill-37390556/

Connect with Simon Bedard

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard/

Website: https://buygrowsell.com/

Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/

In this episode, we meet with Mark Steadman, a pioneer of the podcast industry.

Mark’s serious about podcasts, and his passion for the industry and for his fellow podcasters took him on an incredible, decade long journey of discovery. After creating, in his words, “the world’s most technically advanced podcast that no one listened to,” Mark decided to change lanes and begin his own hosting platform.

In 2016, Mark started Podiant, a podcast hosting, analytics, and distribution company. In the spring of 2021, he sold that business to Castos.

Dive deeper into how he discovered his competitive edge in the market, as well as some of the big mistakes he made along the way. Not only will you learn the fundamentals of how to set up a great podcast for your business, but you’ll also learn how he turned a passion project into the perfect acquisition for every party involved, all within six years.

Connect with Mark Steadman

Website: https://origin.fm/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amarksteadman/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OriginPodcasts/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amarksteadman/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/amarksteadman

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVq_4L7UhOVXbi9bkv8RxuA

Connect with Simon Bedard

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard/

Website: https://buygrowsell.com/

Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/

Tune in for not just a story of a lifetime, but a story of two, or maybe three lifetimes.

Our latest guest, Heidi Dening’s story is one that will grab your attention. She recovered from childhood paralysis, was abducted and held at gunpoint, and even survived almost being burnt alive when petrol bombs were thrown through her windows. But one thing that pervaded these instances was her courage, and that courage followed her on her entrepreneurial journey.

She relied on it to quit her stable, teaching job to move her personal training company, Jump Start, out of her garage. Her courage allowed her to scale up to 15 trainers and support staff, become the president of her industry association, and 17 years later in 2015, sell Jump Start for the price AND the terms she asked for.

Heidi was recently chosen for the NSW Government’s Inspirational Women showcase, and has been awarded Westpac’s International Women’s Day Local Hero Award. She has also recently been named ‘Best International Keynote Speaker’ in the Asia Pacific region at the Influential Businesswoman Awards, is a best-selling author, and often appears in the media as an expert on resilience.

Connect with Heidi Dening

Website: https://heididening.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heididening/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeidiDening/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heididening/

Connect with Simon Bedard

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard/

Website: https://buygrowsell.com/

Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/