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© 2024 Helen Dalley
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Candid interviews with successful Self-starters. On Build It. They'll Come, you'll hear from some amazing Australian entrepreneurs who bet big to build great businesses. Journalist Helen Dalley interviews business innovators and visionaries on how they turned their lightbulb idea into a viable, sustainable enterprise.
This podcast is about the human face behind taking a simple idea and turning it into a business or movement. It's the beating heart behind what it takes to build an empire, from concept to execution, and how they actually achieve it. Fuelled by blind faith and hard slog, how they transform their dream idea into concrete reality.
This podcast is about the human face behind taking a simple idea and turning it into a business or movement. It's the beating heart behind what it takes to build an empire, from concept to execution, and how they actually achieve it. Fuelled by blind faith and hard slog, how they transform their dream idea into concrete reality.
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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.
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.
When Glenn Keys AO spent his boyhood living above his parents shop in regional NSW, little did he know that he was soaking up his folks' entrepreneurial spirit. That childhood revolving around the family small business, instilled in Glenn an ability to take calculated risks and back himself. And that combined with his adult training as an engineer, and work in the military, equipped him to bet big to pursue an idea in 2003 to provide quality healthcare outcomes for clients around the world that had stretched or non-existent healthcare services. With a friend, they built Aspen Medical, from Glenn's dining table in Canberra, into a world-class Australian-owned outfit now employing some 7,500 people, engaged in over 100 projects operating in 18 countries across the globe. They provide fully-staffed and equipped mobile hospitals, surgical or maternity clinics, dental or opthalmology units in war-torn Iraq, East Timor & Ebola-ridden West Africa, as well as Covid-19 vaccination hubs for disability charities back home in Australia. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
As Apple iPods, then iPhones, Music streaming services like Spotify and now COVID-19 have all seriously disrupted the music industry over recent decades, how has Michael Chugg navigated these potential minefields, and turned the internet from a disrupter into an opportunity for musicians? And is there a future for the live music scene, when life and borders open back up post-COVID?
Well for an entrepreneur who has demonstrated such currency, impact and longevity in the industry, his insights into the path for success for young musicians might surprise you. In Part 2 of our interview he also reveals some of the work in the music and major events landscape of which he is most proud, not just for the sheer entertainment it provided to audiences, but for its ability to really mean something, for others in need. And that includes his largely unsung role helping turn the Paralympic Games into a world-class, quality, hugely popular event.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
How 15 year old Michael Chugg transformed his love of music, and particularly Aussie rock music, into a major business empire, that ended up bringing to Australia, promoting, staging concerts and touring many of THE biggest music stars & bands in the world.
Stars like Elton John, Robbie Williams, Bob Dylan, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, the Police, Dixie Chicks, Madonna and so many more. Michael Chugg backed himself, built relationships in the music business not just locally, but in the UK and the US as well.
So how did he do it? By never being afraid of hard work, doing everything that was needed to put on a major concert tour, and he means EVERYTHING. And what are his insights into resilience and longevity in a fast-changing music industry? Always putting the customer – that is, the acts and the fans – first, he says. They are the most important piece of the pie, and if they are right, well, the money would follow.
Michael Chugg started Michael Chugg Entertainment in the late 70’s; then co-founded Frontier Touring with the late Michael Gudinski; and more recently he started Chugg. Entertainment on his own.
Over 5 decades later, he's still taking risks, still scouting and supporting young Aussie music talent, and in this time of the pandemic when musicians are joining together to urge us all to get vaccinated, Michael Chugg is still optimistic about the post-COVID-19 live music scene. Hope you enjoy Part 1 of my chat with Michael Chugg.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
After great success in the UK with her hand-made, artisanal, ethically sourced chocolate company, Coco Chocolate, with 2 stores in Edinburgh and a successful contract supplying Harvey Nichols' signature chocolates, Rebecca Knights returned to Australia, with small children, and was thrown what she calls a few curve-balls. But in Part 2, Rebecca reveals how start-up entrepreneurs must be resilient enough to navigate the disasters & learn "new tricks" as she puts it. Rebecca reckons she was long ago experienced in that area, as she explains what led to her leaving home and fending for herself at such a young age, and never being afraid of hard work.How she changed course several times in her business to develop new ways to expand and grow offers unique insights into the sort of grit and determination needed to sell a hand-made food product in your own start-up. So what happened when the COVID-19 pandemic struck? Well hear for yourself how, among other things, online e-commerce came to save the day. Hope you enjoy Part 2 of this candid interview with Rebecca Knights.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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.
When Luke Anear worked as a private investigator investigating workplace mishaps and chasing workers' compo cheats, he realised he wanted to turn that negative into a positive. So he set about helping companies vastly improve their safety procedures in the workplace, to try and prevent workers having accidents in the first place. His little startup took shape in the proverbial garage of his suburban Townsville home, and he began slowly, selling safety checklists delivered on Word documents. But then Luke Anear transformed his little business baby into a multi-million dollar global technology empire, when he and a uni dropout mate created an app, called iAuditor -- essentially a mobile safety checklist app to suit each individual workplace. That completely changed Luke Anear's life, and set SafetyCulture on course to become a $2 billion Aussie success story.How that has mushroomed to now service almost 28,000 customers around the world, and what Luke Anear has learned along the way from the smartest venture capital investors in the room, including mentors and supporters like Atlassian's Scott Farquhar is a story and a half. Plus what Luke learned and how he navigated the panic-struck arrival of the COVID pandemic offers lessons for most entrepreneurs. Hope you enjoy Luke Anear!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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.
Despite dropping out of university, having no publishing experience and not even being a book lover, Tony Nash decided he could take a punt on the commercial possibilities he saw in online book-selling, in the internet’s infancy. Shrugging off the risks of going up against the already dominant player in that same market – Amazon – Tony convinced a few family members to support his vision, and started Booktopia, an entirely Aussie home-grown online book seller. What began as a small hustle on the side – Tony’s brother gave him a budget of $10 a day to create Booktopia, & he had to continue doing his day job at the same time – was built over the next 15 years into an e-commerce success story. Booktopia is set to achieve almost $220 million in revenue this financial year, employing 250 people, with a healthy chunk of all online book sales. But along that journey to success for Booktopia, exactly what impact did Jessica Seinfeld’s best-selling memoir have? And was there ever a single lightbulb moment for Tony Nash? Well, listen and you’ll find out. Hope you enjoy Part 1 of Tony Nash’s unorthodox entrepreneurial storySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
After 17 years building up their Aconex software platform into a globally renowned game-changer for construction & infrastructure process & document management, founders Leigh Jasper & Rob Phillpot knew they needed access to more capital to continue growing worldwide. But when they took Aconex public in 2014, life as a publicly-listed company dealt them plenty of downside, along with the advantages! So how did they deal with short sellers, share price roller-coaster rides and more? And what really drove the decision to sell out completely, to US giant Oracle – was it just the massive pile of money offered? Well in Part 2 of my chat with co-founder leigh Jasper he reveals some home truths on the entrepreneur’s journey in public company land, and why he is now trying to support & guide other startups based on amazing ideas through the maze of potential pitfalls. Enjoy!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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