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Speaker 1: Welcome to the mentor. I'm Mark Boris, David short you're

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Speaker 1: the managing directman, and I guess the founder of short

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Speaker 1: Ink I n C short Ink, formerly the owner of

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Speaker 1: a Shorties liquor too. Welcome to the mentor. Mate, Thanks Mike,

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Speaker 1: our mutual friend has got us here together. He's seeing

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Speaker 1: your praises. So, David, were you called Shorty at school?

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Speaker 1: I was, well, you're a big dude. You're about six

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Speaker 1: ft two. What are You're a pretty tall bastard. More

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Speaker 1: person the street and I said, who's this big guy?

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Speaker 1: And here walking wait waiting to get in. So you developed, well,

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Speaker 1: can you go back to that time when you first

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Speaker 1: thought to yourself about Shorties as a as a business idea?

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Speaker 1: Like what we where did you think to yourself that

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Speaker 1: this is as potential to make a lot of dough

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Speaker 1: and maybe one day I'll sell it. I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: always curious to find out people's mindset when they come

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Speaker 1: up with an idea. What sparks the idea?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, Well I've been selling corporate booze for Porter's

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Speaker 2: Edgecliffe for a couple of years.

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Speaker 1: Well what does that mean? Porters and porters?

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Speaker 2: But Porter's Edgecliffe at the time, in nineteen ninety eight

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Speaker 2: to two two thousand, or for ten years before that,

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Speaker 2: was a great corporate retailer. So they are supplying McQuary

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Speaker 2: bank right the law firms and merchant banks all their

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Speaker 2: beverage needs. And I got a job there as a

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Speaker 2: delivery driver and then worked there for a couple of years,

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Speaker 2: then went traveling and I was actually traveling through Turkey

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Speaker 2: when September eleven happened, living in a treehouse and I

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Speaker 2: got an email from a cousin saying, Hey, we've got

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Speaker 2: the Australian Hotel and they just opened up cargo bar.

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Speaker 2: Do you want to come back and do that corporate.

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Speaker 1: Liquor stuff for the Australian Hotel for.

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Speaker 2: The Australian Hotel out of the Australian Hotel and the Rocks.

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Speaker 2: And then a couple of probably a year later than that,

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Speaker 2: BW Wes brought Porter's Edgecliff and all of a sudden

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Speaker 2: we had a really good business. So, like you know,

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Speaker 2: we sort of boomed and picked up a lot of

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Speaker 2: those existing clients that I used to manage and.

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Speaker 1: Then well do so if you just stop you there

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Speaker 1: from them, Dzer because BWS dash Porters lost those clients.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so BWS moved the bottle shop into the shopping center.

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Speaker 2: Right they got that, they brought the liquor license and

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Speaker 2: they stopped doing the corporate.

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Speaker 1: Oh, they stopped doing it. Yeah, so that opened up

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Speaker 1: for you guys.

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Speaker 2: That created a little niche and it gave us a

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Speaker 2: bit of a momentum to start picking up clients. And

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Speaker 2: then soon after that we had an opportunity to open

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Speaker 2: a bottle shop out at Road Shopping Center, which was

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Speaker 2: the first Shorties in two thousand and four with the

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Speaker 2: Walkers that we were very excited about. But it was

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Speaker 2: probably my lesson in learning how to run a business.

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Speaker 1: Because when you say the Walks, you doing Wark Corporation.

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Speaker 1: Good corporation. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So Walkers built Road Shopping Center in that precinct and

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Speaker 2: we excitingly took a bottle shop there. That was it's

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Speaker 2: pretty hard work in a shopping center when no one

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Speaker 2: turned up for the first a year or so, and

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Speaker 2: that sort of drove me. By that stage, you know,

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Speaker 2: I'd borrowed one hundred and five grand off my brother

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Speaker 2: in law and my sister and it was like, you know,

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Speaker 2: I got to make this work. Three or four years later.

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Speaker 2: After that, it was like, let's go back and do

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Speaker 2: corporate sales because the original plan was to open one

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Speaker 2: bottle shop every year for ten years, and we decided

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Speaker 2: not to do that. And I took a warehouse least

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Speaker 2: six hundred meters from the city in Ultimo in two

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Speaker 2: thousand and eight, and that was probably when I got

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Speaker 2: some real momentum. The GFC happened and a lot of

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Speaker 2: corporate businesses like De Lute started saying, you know, we

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Speaker 2: want to do all our entertaining in house, and they

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Speaker 2: employed Michelin chefs and you know they it became a

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Speaker 2: really good business. So what looked like could have been

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Speaker 2: a disaster, we sort of went from one or two

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Speaker 2: million revenue in one year to ten million in two years.

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Speaker 1: Well, what was your back if you go back to

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Speaker 1: early days when let's see, when you open up the

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Speaker 1: business in the bottle shop in roads shopping center, what

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Speaker 1: was your business model? Like people can come to me,

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Speaker 1: get my staff, they'd just walk into to the bottle

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Speaker 1: shop by the bird's walk out. Was that your model

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Speaker 1: or was your business model something more than that? Prior

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Speaker 1: to that, it was all deliveries. Yeah, and you were

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Speaker 1: going out of customers and saying what it would you

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Speaker 1: like to buy? Email and maybe saying this is some

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Speaker 1: specials we got on. It was more like sort of

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Speaker 1: like digital marketing a little bit, but by email or some.

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Speaker 2: Other or even back in the day we had an

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Speaker 2: ad pages, right, so you know under beverages bottle shops

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Speaker 2: now you know, saying corporate liquor supply, right. And we

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Speaker 2: always sort of built the business by taking photos of

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Speaker 2: the lobby and then we'd call call those businesses that

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Speaker 2: were in each building, organize the time to meet the

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Speaker 2: person that would organize the beverages off them bottle of

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Speaker 2: champagne if they'd give us fifteen minutes, and you know,

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Speaker 2: nine times out of ten would pick up the account.

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Speaker 1: So what did you take photographs to lobby for of

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Speaker 1: all the different businesses in there? So we're thick the

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Speaker 1: of the lobby board.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, figured if we're already going to that building, would

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Speaker 2: take a photo of the lobby board and then try

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Speaker 2: and secure all the businesses in each building. And you know,

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Speaker 2: over twenty years we ended up picking up sixty five

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Speaker 2: percent of the businesses in Sydney CBD.

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Speaker 1: That's funny and that's what I often refer to was

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Speaker 1: wearing out the shoe leather and the old days. Ye

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Speaker 1: had no digital marketing as such back in that period anyway, heartily,

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Speaker 1: the old days actually is only twenty eight years ago.

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Speaker 1: But the way you did was knocking on people's door

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Speaker 1: and go and seeing them and doing a demo or

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Speaker 1: talk them into it or explain the benefits and then

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Speaker 1: follow up the old school follow up, you know, back

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Speaker 1: on the phone to them, not even text. Everything was

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Speaker 1: like actual communication, actual communication, like old school communication and

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Speaker 1: door knocking.

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Speaker 2: It's exactly how we built it.

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Speaker 1: So that was your model. So what is to get

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Speaker 1: You did some retail. Wedge also did corporate corporate.

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Speaker 2: Stuff, and then a good client would be someone that

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Speaker 2: would order one thousand to one and a half thousand

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Speaker 2: dollars every week and then one week. Once we built

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Speaker 2: the relationship with them, we'd invite them to wine tastings,

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Speaker 2: like if the chef to Carve of Don Pererion was out,

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Speaker 2: would do forty five minute master class so they could

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Speaker 2: come in and try a couple of wines or try

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Speaker 2: a couple of great don perions or penfolds, and then

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Speaker 2: still get home for dinner and be home with their families.

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Speaker 2: So we did a lot of relationship building, We did

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Speaker 2: a lot of events within the corporate and we tried

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Speaker 2: to solve their problem. So this person was often using

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Speaker 2: three or four or five different suppliers, and we were

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Speaker 2: pretty much the complete beverage supplier for these corporate clients.

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Speaker 1: That means water, soft.

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Speaker 2: Drink, water, butcher juice, you know, then all their fine wines,

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Speaker 2: all their beers.

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Speaker 1: How did you work out what the office should be like?

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Speaker 1: Did you work it out? Because I mean, obviously you'd

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Speaker 1: had a lot of experience in the corporate world, corporate

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Speaker 1: the liquor world, so to speak. But did you do

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Speaker 1: it by trial and error or did you sort of

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Speaker 1: survey them and say what is it you need from

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Speaker 1: someone like me and our business to become like a

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Speaker 1: one stop shop? And I hate that bloody phrase, but

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Speaker 1: like as basically you're one stop shop when it comes

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Speaker 1: to beverages generally yep.

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Speaker 2: Well, we would ask the customers what they wanted and

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Speaker 2: would actually look at any other beverage that going into

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Speaker 2: that building as leakage. So we're trying and collect that

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Speaker 2: we'ld go to a deal with a supplier. Often it

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Speaker 2: was easier for them to deliver it to us and

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Speaker 2: then we could sell it to the client. So you know,

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Speaker 2: we were trying pick a core range and then pick

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Speaker 2: stuff that would sell, and then that would be what

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Speaker 2: we would offer. But you know, we went through all

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Speaker 2: sorts of different things over the years, aboriginal water for

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Speaker 2: some of the big four accounting firms because I had

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Speaker 2: to support supply nation cardboard water, you know, environmentally free

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Speaker 2: sugar free drinks. A lot of the big tech companies

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Speaker 2: were inspired by what they're using in San Francisco. So

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Speaker 2: I was like, you know, sugar free waters from France

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Speaker 2: and all sorts of different things. So we're very reactive

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Speaker 2: with what they wanted and that was our point of difference.

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Speaker 1: So be but to have that point of difference in

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Speaker 1: terms of relevant relevancy, I mean, how do you how

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Speaker 1: did you remain market relevant? In other words, how did

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Speaker 1: you know what was going on in San Francisco or

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Speaker 1: how did you find this stuff out?

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Speaker 2: That would be part like So our key clients would

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Speaker 2: meet with them regularly every three months and there would

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Speaker 2: be an agenda and it would be like, what else

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Speaker 2: would you like, how can we make your work?

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Speaker 1: You would you tell them that, by the way, in

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Speaker 1: all the startups in San Francisco, they're drinking water from

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Speaker 1: our Lady of Lords and blessing themselves before they have it.

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Speaker 1: Or or did they tell you we want the water

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Speaker 1: from our Lady of Lords. I think it was both.

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Speaker 2: You know, would ask them what they're what they're trying

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Speaker 2: to do, especially around sustainability. Do you know whether they

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Speaker 2: wanted to get away from plastic.

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Speaker 1: Bottles, because that's that's important because they're relevant, So you know,

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Speaker 1: sustainability is relevant relative to the cardboard carton, not in

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Speaker 1: a plastic.

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Speaker 2: Bottle, having non our college drinks at a function.

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Speaker 1: Yes, or hydrogen water like what they do these days.

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Speaker 1: People haven't put hydrogen water. Somehow they make it high.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how they do it, but whatever it is,

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Speaker 1: But how did you keep on top of the good?

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Speaker 1: I mean, are you a prolific reader or a prolific

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Speaker 1: viewer of some station on television or some station on

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Speaker 1: YouTube that's telling what the new, greatest and latest is.

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Speaker 1: We'll just ask the customers.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, would really just push the customers and you know,

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Speaker 2: would consolidated all our customers, would meet.

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Speaker 1: With them all and from them. And when you say

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Speaker 1: we So we.

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Speaker 2: Had a sales team that grew from just me, you know,

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Speaker 2: to the end we had sort of five or six

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Speaker 2: full time salespeople.

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Speaker 1: And had and in terms of choosing your sales team,

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Speaker 1: because you got your business up to be sure, he

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Speaker 1: is leaged to be quite available business. But obviously that

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Speaker 1: comes off the back of revenue, and the revenue comes

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Speaker 1: off the back of orders, and orders comes off the

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Speaker 1: back of these discussions, and these discussions come off the

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Speaker 1: back of having the right salespeople which you chose, and

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Speaker 1: then you're got to train them. So what was your process, like,

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Speaker 1: how did you recruit a salesperson? Did you recruit them

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Speaker 1: in your own image? You know, like I know this

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Speaker 1: works for me, so I want people who like that,

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Speaker 1: or did you yeah, how did you go about recruitment?

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Speaker 2: Definitely didn't recruit them in my image, but we do.

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Speaker 2: We recruited people that have been working in hospitality, a

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Speaker 2: lot of people that have been working, you know, five

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Speaker 2: nights a week, working in wedding venues or working Saturdays

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Speaker 2: and Sundays. Hospitality was always a good one because founds

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Speaker 2: what the customers needs were people that wanted to get

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Speaker 2: an intro into sales. So do you know we could

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Speaker 2: give them sales train and give them exposure to the

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Speaker 2: corporate clients, teach them how to do a sales agenda,

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Speaker 2: manage the manage the clients. So that's how we predominantly

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Speaker 2: picked up clients, you know, passion for wine with secondary

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Speaker 2: So long as they're interested in it, we could teach

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Speaker 2: them all that. We could teach them about the product,

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Speaker 2: but they had to have an energy and you know,

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Speaker 2: be prepared to knock on those doors.

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Speaker 1: As you said, it's a tough gig, and salesmen selling

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Speaker 1: an idea selling the wine is probably not really what

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Speaker 1: they're doing is probably more selling the whole concept. How

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Speaker 1: did you how did you? I mean, do you map

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Speaker 1: out a training program? Did you build a training program?

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Speaker 1: These are the steps or these are the things I

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Speaker 1: want you to be good out and these are things

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Speaker 1: that are going to train you at. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Over the years and over the years we got better

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Speaker 2: salespeople too that came in and helped lead the team

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Speaker 2: and they brought different different structures to it. We had

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Speaker 2: a really good chairman for a long time that introduced

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Speaker 2: a lot of sales skills. He had done a lot

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Speaker 2: of sales training and previous jobs. So we had a

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Speaker 2: very clear the business had a clear plan. Do you

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Speaker 2: know for the last fifteen years, we've had a strategy

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Speaker 2: on what we're doing, how we're going to achieve it,

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Speaker 2: and then really clear KPIs with the sales team, and

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Speaker 2: they were sort of given a portfolio of clients and

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Speaker 2: was their job to grow them. We lost very few clients.

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Speaker 1: So because I often talk about this reducing stuff to

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Speaker 1: writing as opposed to just you calling your five sales guys.

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Speaker 1: You're sitting there in charge them, for example, and you

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Speaker 1: talk for two hours and everybody no one takes the notes.

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Speaker 1: There are no summarison made after it. There's no takeaway

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Speaker 1: that they can put into a folder, you know, which

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Speaker 1: might have a mental thought, which might have clips in it,

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Speaker 1: which you can sort of say, this is last week's meeting,

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Speaker 1: and so that then they've got nothing to refer to.

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Speaker 1: I mean I often make two talks and I can

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Speaker 1: talk to three or for a bit there, and virtually

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Speaker 1: no one's writes them down, And I think, why are

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Speaker 1: you here if you're not going to write a note?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well that would infuriate me, especially if they went

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Speaker 2: and saw a client didn't take notes. So if they

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Speaker 2: if they're going to take fifteen to twenty minutes of

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Speaker 2: the client's time, we want an agenda.

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Speaker 1: We went climb was to see that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we want to keep that on record too. So

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Speaker 2: if they leave, or if there's a new person or

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Speaker 2: the account get shifted to someone else, you can see

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Speaker 2: the change because often the point of contact would change

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Speaker 2: it a corporate client, but not the you know, not

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Speaker 2: the account manager or vice versa. So do you know

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Speaker 2: we wanted that history of being able to see, you know,

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Speaker 2: what they've been asking for, what they're what they're looking

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Speaker 2: for to, you know, to make their workplace better. And

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Speaker 2: often they were looking at us for guidance. Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 2: because they don't want the booths turning up late on

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Speaker 2: a Friday. They want to pick a beer that you know,

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Speaker 2: everyone enjoys drinking, or if the CEOs of organizing a

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Speaker 2: really special event, they want great booths. So do you

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Speaker 2: know they trust us?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's because trust is an interesting concept. Brand is

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Speaker 1: interesting when it comes to trust, and trust is interesting

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Speaker 1: when it comes to brand, Like but why do I

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Speaker 1: trust you? I trust you because I know you will

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Speaker 1: be on time you say you're going to be at

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Speaker 1: two o'clock. You be the two o'clock. I know, I

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Speaker 1: know you from last time. Familiarity, Like I don't want

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Speaker 1: to see a different dude every time or girl. I

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Speaker 1: want to know that your content is good, Like you

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Speaker 1: know you have valuable insights into the content that you

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Speaker 1: will share with me. You can say you know you're

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Speaker 1: a Deloitte and you want to be able to say

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Speaker 1: listen KPMG without giving any name. Way, like one of

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Speaker 1: your competitors, there's a style. But one of your competitors

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Speaker 1: has been buying a lot of is that they found.

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Speaker 1: It's very successful. Were they're bigger clients. Giving them, you know,

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Speaker 1: a French wine instead of an Australian wine, or giving

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Speaker 1: an Australian wine instead of a French wine, or giving

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Speaker 1: them a low soul fights wine or a low whatever

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Speaker 1: wine or a non preservative no preservative wine has gone

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Speaker 1: down a treat with their clients. That's what builds trust

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Speaker 1: because you give me something valuable, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: One hundred percent, and then you take that one step

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Speaker 2: further and we'll build a lot of experiences that we're

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Speaker 2: doing so our supplies. We'd do strategy sessions with our

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Speaker 2: supplies about how we could retail their product with excellence

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Speaker 2: and more. Ennessy is an example. Would work out how

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Speaker 2: we could retail Verve and Molt with excellence. That might

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Speaker 2: be on Melbourne Cup Day in these corporate offices, you know,

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Speaker 2: setting them up as bars with Berkeley Co Bars or

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Speaker 2: Womb champagne bars with the glasses, the branded glasses, with

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Speaker 2: a price for the best dressed. And from that we

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Speaker 2: would hit up the supplies and go what's Verv's brand name, like,

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Speaker 2: don't give all your marketing material away to the fancy

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Speaker 2: bars in the city. We've actually got you know, five

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Speaker 2: hundred thousand people for two or three drinks on a

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Speaker 2: Thursday or Friday afternoon before they go into the bars.

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Speaker 2: So we had we had a big influence around. You know,

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Speaker 2: we got a lot of brand money from the supplies

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Speaker 2: to activate these events.

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Speaker 1: So so you sort of in marketing, you did their

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Speaker 1: marketing for them, particularly like the big Unfortunately big corpors

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Speaker 1: aren't great at marketing generally speaking, particularly internally. It's nearly

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Speaker 1: like a HR exercise firm, like I'm doing something for

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Speaker 1: my Cup Day, could be Christmas, could be a birthday,

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Speaker 1: could be whatever. An anniversary of the firm being a thing,

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Speaker 1: or could be celebrating some big acquisition, or they could

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Speaker 1: have sold something, or they could have had a great

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Speaker 1: financial year and blah blah blah. You know, it could

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Speaker 1: be a town hall, you know, because a lot of

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Speaker 1: these organizations have town halls, particularly in the quarries and

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Speaker 1: all the sorts of people of the world. The big

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Speaker 1: banks are doing the all the time because they staff

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Speaker 1: need updates. The staff needs to know I work here

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Speaker 1: every day, But what the hell's going on? What are

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Speaker 1: you guys doing? Like do we make money this year?

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Speaker 1: You know? You know, how how are we going relative

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Speaker 1: to our competition, because you know, competition Australias pretty fierce.

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Speaker 1: So and liquor alcohol or beverages just generally this say,

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Speaker 1: beverages is an important part of the Australian fabric in

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Speaker 1: terms of celebration, but it's also an important part of

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Speaker 1: the fabric of like, let's networking, knowing your colleagues at

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Speaker 1: a workplace. If you've got one drink and I'm a

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Speaker 1: twm to get blind drunk, I'm talking just a drink,

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Speaker 1: even if it's a half a drink, it sort of helps.

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Speaker 1: I'm one of those people. I mean, I don't really drink,

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Speaker 1: but I will have a glass of something in my

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Speaker 1: hand because it just makes me feel more relaxed in

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Speaker 1: my conversation without even drinking it. It's sort of like

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Speaker 1: having something to do with my hands, if you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean. It takes the awkwardness away from me.

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Speaker 2: And we always found that we get. The feedback we

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Speaker 2: got was that the Friday drinks and those Christmas parties

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Speaker 2: was the opportunity for the mail room person to talk

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Speaker 2: to the CEO and get a pulse for what what's

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Speaker 2: happening in the company. And that was the beauty of

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Speaker 2: the events that we did. Whether it was for one

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Speaker 2: of the banks entertaining one of the accounting companies, or

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Speaker 2: vice versa. We often were the icebreaker. So we would

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Speaker 2: often put on an event that would go or a

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Speaker 2: wine tasting or a really simple experience where they could

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Speaker 2: meet someone, you know, iconic in the industry, or we

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Speaker 2: could teach them how to make a cocktail. I could

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Speaker 2: try a couple of different beers and then we would disappear,

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Speaker 2: and you know, their weight stuff would take over.

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Speaker 1: It was interesting. I wonder. I mean, you may or

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Speaker 1: may not know the answers, But I just often wondered

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Speaker 1: whether Australia has a lot more of this going on

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Speaker 1: than say, in the USA. I mean, is that a thing, because.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I believe so, and I think Sydney had a

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Speaker 2: lot of it. I when the Friday drinks and the

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Speaker 2: Thursday drinks have really wound down since COVID.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, is that right? So our timing, well, no one

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Speaker 1: goes to work on Friday. No one goes to work

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Speaker 1: on Friday. I don't mean that facetiously. I mean it's

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Speaker 1: seriously because my mate, my cousine, Shanes a restaurant across

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Speaker 1: the ref and he said to me the new Friday

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Speaker 1: when they were people go for drink afterwords? Now Thursday, yeah?

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Speaker 1: Or Wednesday? Yeah? Or no? Maybe he said Wednesday. Maybe

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Speaker 1: that's what it is. So that's that's the new Friday.

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Speaker 1: There's another night of the week where everybody goes and

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Speaker 1: has a few drinks.

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Speaker 2: So, you know, we found that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays were

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Speaker 2: a lot more we were doing a lot more events

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Speaker 2: in the last three or four years. Prior to that

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Speaker 2: it was and we did expand down in Melbourne. But

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Speaker 2: we found that it was a really Sydney centric thing too,

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Speaker 2: because you've got these beautiful officers overlooking the harbor and

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Speaker 2: they wanted to activate these spaces. And they can activate

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Speaker 2: the spaces by clients walking in there and having a

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Speaker 2: look in the waiting room, but when they're really doing

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Speaker 2: events and when they're really doing presentations, it's where they

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Speaker 2: could amplify the event, like and as you said, having

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Speaker 2: a glass in the hand, it sort of opened up

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Speaker 2: the clients and they could engage with them.

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Speaker 1: But sort of yeah, it's sort of like and it's

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Speaker 1: interesting you tapped into this, but it's sort of like

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Speaker 1: what do you call it? A neutralizer? So like you're

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Speaker 1: the I'm the receptionist and you're the MD, and I've

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Speaker 1: got a drinking you've got we've both got something the same,

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Speaker 1: something like immediately I've sort of come up to your level.

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Speaker 1: You've come down to my level, which are where you

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Speaker 1: want both ways. And I don't feel as I still

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Speaker 1: might be intimidated, but I not as no one as

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Speaker 1: intimidated or would If I'm just walking along the corridor

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Speaker 1: and I saw you go past, I know it's an

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Speaker 1: opportunity and you're you've got your rice breaker there, you're

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Speaker 1: the MD and me the reception. I can see your

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Speaker 1: eyes breaking. And by the way, you might be a

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Speaker 1: pretty normal person, like you know, you're not a going

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Speaker 1: to you know, not going to break my back or anything,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like you just you're there.

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Speaker 1: I can see you with a drink. You look normal,

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Speaker 1: you know what I Meanly, so I'm thinking about you.

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Speaker 1: It's very interesting you tapped into that psychology. So your

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Speaker 1: business where, Why did you and when did you decide

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Speaker 1: that you were going to sell it? What was the

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Speaker 1: circum circumstance around that.

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Speaker 2: I actually had no plan to selling it, And to

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Speaker 2: be honest with you, we I had a plant to grow.

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Speaker 2: I've got a domain name wine dot com do you

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Speaker 2: and I'd taken out a plan to private equity around

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Speaker 2: do you know? Really targeting the twenty nineteen there was

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Speaker 2: one and a half million Chinese tourists coming to the market.

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Speaker 2: A lot of them were going out to wineries, and

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Speaker 2: then there was selling wine back into China and one

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Speaker 2: of them came back and said, look, I'm not interested

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Speaker 2: in that, but I really like shorties. And then the

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Speaker 2: very next day Woolworth's turned up and Rick hired a

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Speaker 2: master of wine who had been a mentor of mine

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Speaker 2: for many years. He was the master of wine within Endeavor,

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Speaker 2: and he brought someone along and he said, you know,

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Speaker 2: would you be interested in a joint venture? Can we

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Speaker 2: supply you or you know, can we buy your business?

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Speaker 2: And I was a bit shocked. I was like, wow, yeah,

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Speaker 2: we can explore that. And so that leaded into three

435
00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:21,280
Speaker 2: or four conversations, and then you know, one day the

436
00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:23,720
Speaker 2: MD came down and so he came down for a

437
00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:26,200
Speaker 2: forty five minute talk at you know, seven thirty in

438
00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,040
Speaker 2: the morning and left three hours later, and he really

439
00:20:29,119 --> 00:20:31,119
Speaker 2: liked it. And then that was Steve don Hu and

440
00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:34,840
Speaker 2: then that Saturday Bradmandcci came into the office and again

441
00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:37,680
Speaker 2: for half an hour and ended up spending a couple

442
00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:40,160
Speaker 2: of hours there was on his hands and knees crawling

443
00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:42,080
Speaker 2: around the warehouse looking at all these rare wines that

444
00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:44,560
Speaker 2: we had, and we sort of hit it off, and

445
00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:46,280
Speaker 2: we showed them all our customers, We showed them all

446
00:20:46,320 --> 00:20:49,560
Speaker 2: the account plans that we had, and they worked out

447
00:20:49,560 --> 00:20:51,679
Speaker 2: that would crack the code. We'd worked out how to

448
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:55,240
Speaker 2: deliver Booze into the city effectively and efficiently with ten vans,

449
00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:56,640
Speaker 2: and same day so.

450
00:20:56,600 --> 00:20:58,959
Speaker 1: You got logistics right. We got the logistics right.

451
00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:01,320
Speaker 2: We had you know, that's Tay fifteen hundred square meters

452
00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:04,439
Speaker 2: right heart of the city. And we could not just

453
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:06,640
Speaker 2: do the corporates. We could do the fiftieth Birthdays were

454
00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:09,159
Speaker 2: supplying all the boats, and you know, we had a

455
00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:11,679
Speaker 2: business that at that stage we're going, okay, lex scale this.

456
00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:13,919
Speaker 2: You know, the belief was that they could scale it

457
00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:18,359
Speaker 2: to one hundred million dollars. So when they sort of

458
00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:20,400
Speaker 2: proposed that, I got really excited.

459
00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:24,320
Speaker 1: So we as an investor, they said that as they

460
00:21:24,359 --> 00:21:25,360
Speaker 1: were coming as an investor.

461
00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:28,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, they came in, took an eighteen percent shareholding eighteen

462
00:21:28,840 --> 00:21:32,600
Speaker 2: eighty eight, and I retained twenty percent, and my Auntie

463
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:37,080
Speaker 2: was purchased out, and we're given unique negative control rights

464
00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:40,159
Speaker 2: to run the business. So we couldn't get so you know,

465
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:42,159
Speaker 2: that stage, we couldn't get sucked into the business and

466
00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:44,359
Speaker 2: you know, have the p and all destroyed by processes

467
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:48,320
Speaker 2: and the matrix, which was you know, at that stage,

468
00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:51,120
Speaker 2: super exciting. So we sort of did that on Christmas

469
00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:54,240
Speaker 2: Eve of twenty nineteen, and then I presented to the

470
00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:57,200
Speaker 2: whole Endeavor leadership group about two hundred people down in

471
00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:00,800
Speaker 2: Luna Park on tenth of March, and then a week

472
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:03,880
Speaker 2: later we got destroyed by COVID. We had ten vans

473
00:22:03,880 --> 00:22:05,600
Speaker 2: out in the road. Eight of them came back full,

474
00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:07,520
Speaker 2: and I remember one of them came back and I

475
00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:08,840
Speaker 2: was like, what do you mean you can't deliver this

476
00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:11,720
Speaker 2: to one Martin place, to mcquarie bank, And I was like,

477
00:22:12,080 --> 00:22:13,879
Speaker 2: jumped in the van, went there and it was exodus.

478
00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:14,800
Speaker 1: Everyone was leaving the.

479
00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:19,359
Speaker 2: City with their chairs, their computers, and you know that moment,

480
00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:22,240
Speaker 2: the plan and the partnership agreement we had was just

481
00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:23,280
Speaker 2: you know, that was it?

482
00:22:23,359 --> 00:22:25,320
Speaker 1: Like I just lost by twenty percent and I didn't

483
00:22:25,359 --> 00:22:26,399
Speaker 1: know you lost it.

484
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:29,040
Speaker 2: I felt like, you know, the business plan that we had,

485
00:22:29,240 --> 00:22:31,600
Speaker 2: like we just lost all customers. I didn't know when

486
00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:32,119
Speaker 2: they're coming.

487
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:34,480
Speaker 1: Already they had already brought him for eighty percent. I'd

488
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:35,360
Speaker 1: brought in for eighty.

489
00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:37,479
Speaker 2: Percent, but I didn't really know what that meant at

490
00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:39,800
Speaker 2: that stage. We hadn't had a board meeting, do you know,

491
00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:41,080
Speaker 2: so it was all pretty fluid.

492
00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:42,840
Speaker 1: When I say, can I ask a quick quick question

493
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:44,280
Speaker 1: when they brought in for ety percent, did they buy

494
00:22:44,320 --> 00:22:46,119
Speaker 1: eighty percent off you? Or do they invest in the

495
00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:47,119
Speaker 1: company for eighty percent.

496
00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:50,440
Speaker 2: They brought eighty percent of the shares, so you cashed

497
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,639
Speaker 2: out forty percent, yeah, efectfully. And at that stage I

498
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:55,560
Speaker 2: was a forty five percent shareholder, so I'd sold out

499
00:22:55,600 --> 00:22:58,120
Speaker 2: twenty five percent and my aunty had sold.

500
00:22:58,119 --> 00:22:59,960
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, but you and your idey a cash

501
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,879
Speaker 1: out and they kept you on the hook, so to speak,

502
00:23:03,200 --> 00:23:06,280
Speaker 1: for twenty and to run the business effectively. And then

503
00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:09,840
Speaker 1: did they were there any state stages on the payments,

504
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:13,400
Speaker 1: your installment that you did they do the deal by instormers.

505
00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 1: You just got one. But I know it was a

506
00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:14,920
Speaker 1: great deal.

507
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:16,880
Speaker 2: But what their deal was was what I could grow

508
00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:19,080
Speaker 2: the business to the last year, So it was based

509
00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,080
Speaker 2: on the times earnings on the ebit of I could

510
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:24,200
Speaker 2: grow for the last year. So then when everything sort

511
00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:27,760
Speaker 2: of got hit pretty hard, they're like and then the next.

512
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:28,760
Speaker 1: Day, so that was Friday.

513
00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:32,240
Speaker 2: On Saturday, I was there planning things out with Michelice,

514
00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:35,040
Speaker 2: who was my non executive chairman that i'd brought in

515
00:23:35,160 --> 00:23:37,920
Speaker 2: it had run the four biggest wine companies in Australia

516
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:40,399
Speaker 2: and was the wine Yoda of the industry and just

517
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,360
Speaker 2: a lovely human. And we had five scenarios and they're

518
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:44,760
Speaker 2: all pretty bad. We didn't know how we're going to

519
00:23:44,800 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 2: handle this. And got a call from Brad Bandici and

520
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:49,840
Speaker 2: he said, you know, Dave, you're own business with Wilworth.

521
00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:53,439
Speaker 2: Now you're fine, We'll get through this. Steve Donahue's got

522
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:56,719
Speaker 2: you on next to call. So he called, you know,

523
00:23:56,840 --> 00:23:58,479
Speaker 2: five minutes later, and I said, Steve, I think I'm

524
00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:00,520
Speaker 2: going to need half a million dollars just to pay staff,

525
00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:02,199
Speaker 2: and you know, because we've just set up the new

526
00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:03,920
Speaker 2: company and it didn't have any money. And he's like, yeah,

527
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:06,280
Speaker 2: no problem, Todave. Well we've got this and there's there's

528
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:09,399
Speaker 2: plenty of things that you can run. And then you know,

529
00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:11,320
Speaker 2: two weeks later we got a massive line of credit,

530
00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:13,520
Speaker 2: like more money than I've ever seen in my life

531
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:16,720
Speaker 2: to run this business. And over the next three or

532
00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:18,840
Speaker 2: four months they're like, okay, what parts of this business

533
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:22,160
Speaker 2: can you improve? And we we we sort of came

534
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:23,920
Speaker 2: out with a couple of things and we ended up running.

535
00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:27,040
Speaker 2: They want us to reinvent gifting, so online and in store.

536
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,159
Speaker 2: We were given the wedding an event partnership, so Dan

537
00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:32,000
Speaker 2: Murphy supplies a lot of weddings, but it was a

538
00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:34,440
Speaker 2: complete mess. So do you know, people would buy a

539
00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:37,480
Speaker 2: booze or they wouldn't wouldn't be there for collection, it

540
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:40,440
Speaker 2: wouldn't get delivered on time, a lot of it got returned,

541
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 2: and then they didn't have a B to B business.

542
00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:45,199
Speaker 2: So we got those three channels to run. Probably all

543
00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:49,080
Speaker 2: of them were under all sat under Dan Murphy's right,

544
00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 2: but it sat under Shorties management. So they see the

545
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:56,840
Speaker 2: head of Dan Murphy's Alex at the time, was super supportive.

546
00:24:56,840 --> 00:24:58,879
Speaker 2: He goes, we want you to fix these things, go

547
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:01,439
Speaker 2: like her, rebuild the team teams and see what you

548
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:04,199
Speaker 2: can build these business units into. So then we use

549
00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 2: the skills from Shorties. So we went out and built

550
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:10,159
Speaker 2: relationships with all the Baer wedding venues. There are some

551
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:12,280
Speaker 2: wedding venues that have four or five weddings a week,

552
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:14,440
Speaker 2: you know, up woods of five hundred weddings a year,

553
00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 2: and we asked them what they needed, just like we

554
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:20,159
Speaker 2: had with Shorties customers, and they wanted to contact. They

555
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:22,720
Speaker 2: didn't want to necessarily deal with us. They wanted up

556
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:26,119
Speaker 2: to give their customer our details and then for us

557
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:28,200
Speaker 2: to look after the customer, but then get the booze

558
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:32,040
Speaker 2: delivered to them. So we would have eleven or twelve

559
00:25:32,040 --> 00:25:35,320
Speaker 2: phone calls with these clients and then we would finalize

560
00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:38,560
Speaker 2: the beverage order. Then we'd get it into the local stores,

561
00:25:38,600 --> 00:25:41,639
Speaker 2: and then we organized delivery to their wedding venue. Because

562
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:44,920
Speaker 2: the endeavored delivery system couldn't do the big two thousand

563
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:47,840
Speaker 2: dollars ball quarders delivered on within a three hour window

564
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:51,960
Speaker 2: on a Saturday or a Friday or collection from Dan Murphy's.

565
00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:53,879
Speaker 2: So that was the wedding business we built, and that

566
00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:56,120
Speaker 2: turned out to be the most profitable business within Dann

567
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:56,959
Speaker 2: Murphy's e commerce.

568
00:25:57,359 --> 00:25:58,679
Speaker 1: So we built that during COVID.

569
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:01,639
Speaker 2: We started during COVID, and we recruited a whole heap

570
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 2: of people that have been working in wedding venues, people

571
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:06,640
Speaker 2: that understood the needs of customers, how much to sell

572
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:08,719
Speaker 2: someone that's having a wedding, all that, you know, how

573
00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:11,760
Speaker 2: to do with the bridezillers, bridezillers would be planning six

574
00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:13,520
Speaker 2: months out, the guys would be ordering the boos a

575
00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 2: week out, so we understood what their needs were and

576
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:20,280
Speaker 2: you know, that worked really well. And then with B

577
00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:22,200
Speaker 2: to B clients, we just focused on what we did

578
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:25,000
Speaker 2: with shorties, focused on the top thousand of them, ask

579
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:27,040
Speaker 2: them what they needed. While were they're coming to shorties,

580
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:29,320
Speaker 2: Why were they're coming to Dan Murphy's. And that stage,

581
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:31,440
Speaker 2: no one had ask the customer what they why they're

582
00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:33,399
Speaker 2: doing or what their pressure points were. So we managed

583
00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 2: to grow them, make them more profitable, show them new

584
00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:41,280
Speaker 2: products to increase their basket size. And then gifting was

585
00:26:41,280 --> 00:26:44,040
Speaker 2: the probably the biggest challenge and the most rewarding one.

586
00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 2: Was that there was just this issue where you know,

587
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:48,639
Speaker 2: one in five gifts never got to live it because

588
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:51,199
Speaker 2: it's quite hard to do gifting. So we built a

589
00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:54,760
Speaker 2: reciprocate led gifting platform for Damn Murphy so you could

590
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:57,159
Speaker 2: give hundreds of gifts with just an email address and

591
00:26:57,160 --> 00:26:59,920
Speaker 2: phone number. And this was during COVID, which was great

592
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,199
Speaker 2: because no one knew where anyone was living or working.

593
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:05,520
Speaker 2: And then we created a range of product with the supplies.

594
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:09,680
Speaker 2: It was unique with multiple elements of value, and we

595
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,080
Speaker 2: moved really quickly and built an amazing catalog and took

596
00:27:12,119 --> 00:27:14,200
Speaker 2: that to market and test and learned how we could

597
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,160
Speaker 2: build a really great gifting platform for Dan Murphy's.

598
00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 1: Sounds like you're always looking for additional angles to improve

599
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 1: your customer relationship. In other words, based on what the

600
00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:27,680
Speaker 1: customer wants. Always.

601
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:31,159
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's just native, it's just sort of what we're

602
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:32,600
Speaker 2: trying to do. That's how we're growing the business.

603
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:36,240
Speaker 1: But always, always, always, and doing it not by you

604
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:39,040
Speaker 1: working out with the customers, but you are. It's not

605
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:41,919
Speaker 1: your decision, it's not your deduction, it's what they tell you.

606
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:44,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's just doing the basics properly. Yeah, and

607
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 2: doing the basics brilliantly was our focus.

608
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:51,200
Speaker 1: And did you did any So you had to still

609
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:53,960
Speaker 1: had your twenty percent retention.

610
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:55,960
Speaker 2: Had the twenty percent share, and then those business units

611
00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:56,880
Speaker 2: got put into my deal.

612
00:27:57,480 --> 00:27:59,199
Speaker 1: Yeah. So like we ended up saying you only have

613
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:00,680
Speaker 1: twenty percent of those as well.

614
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,119
Speaker 2: Effectively for the in the in the in the event

615
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:03,879
Speaker 2: of the earn out.

616
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:07,360
Speaker 1: Right, so then that twenty percent do they ultimately buy

617
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:07,720
Speaker 1: you out?

618
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:09,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, they brought me out. So the deal was always

619
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:12,320
Speaker 2: to finish sort of in December twenty twenty.

620
00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:15,200
Speaker 1: Year one year later or two it was four years later,

621
00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 1: five year earn out.

622
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:18,080
Speaker 2: It was a four year one and we extended it

623
00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:18,760
Speaker 2: to five years.

624
00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:19,000
Speaker 1: Yep.

625
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:22,320
Speaker 2: During COVIDEP so I got a good runway to actually

626
00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:23,240
Speaker 2: fix those businesses.

627
00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:26,040
Speaker 1: But because of the various initues you took. You're actually

628
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:29,480
Speaker 1: able to get other let's call it assets into that

629
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,400
Speaker 1: to earn our calculation, which are those those other things

630
00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:34,240
Speaker 1: that you've got out of Dan Murphy's in other places,

631
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:38,280
Speaker 1: plus plus the you know, the weddings and the gifting

632
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:40,080
Speaker 1: and all that stuff as well, which is something you

633
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:40,520
Speaker 1: come up.

634
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:42,840
Speaker 2: With which is amazing, right, which was you know where

635
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 2: they got they recut my deal halfway through it, yeah,

636
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 2: and they incentivised me to keep going and and we

637
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:48,520
Speaker 2: worked like help.

638
00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:50,000
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to go to the break and come

639
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:52,000
Speaker 1: straight back with David dumb because I want to find

640
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:54,480
Speaker 1: out what he's doing. Now. That's the most important thing

641
00:28:55,080 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 1: for the purpose of this podcast and the second half

642
00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 1: of this podcast. So I'm back here now with David

643
00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:14,320
Speaker 1: short previously famously founder of Shorty's Liquor, but now not

644
00:29:14,400 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 1: involved in our business. But now, David, tell me what

645
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:19,560
Speaker 1: it is you are now doing it so you know,

646
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:22,200
Speaker 1: and it's quite interesting, but what are you now doing?

647
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:24,280
Speaker 1: Tell the audience, Well.

648
00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:26,320
Speaker 2: I'm on the hunt for a couple of really good businesses.

649
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:28,440
Speaker 1: So you have a fund, Yeah, I've got a fund.

650
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:30,720
Speaker 1: To explain that part first, Yeah, So I've got.

651
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 2: I've got money from my owner, and I've also got

652
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:35,280
Speaker 2: multiple people that will back me into a investment.

653
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:36,880
Speaker 1: With investment, we'll invest with.

654
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:39,080
Speaker 2: You, yeah, should we choose to find the right thing.

655
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:44,400
Speaker 2: And I'm looking for a wonderful business and like I'm

656
00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:46,560
Speaker 2: actually looking at targeting. You know, there's a baby boomer

657
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:49,080
Speaker 2: avalanche of businesses coming out, so they'll be close.

658
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:52,120
Speaker 1: So that his baby boom is moving out of the business, retiring.

659
00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:56,040
Speaker 2: Retiring, so that they're predicting NAB are predicting that close

660
00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 2: to six hundred thousand businesses will be looking for sale

661
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:01,000
Speaker 2: trans actions over the next ten.

662
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:03,240
Speaker 1: Years exits, basic or exits. Yeah.

663
00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:06,320
Speaker 2: So it's the biggest wealth transfer of our generation, close

664
00:30:06,360 --> 00:30:08,120
Speaker 2: to two true dollars worth of businesses.

665
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:11,800
Speaker 1: So if I could just stop there for a second, David,

666
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:16,560
Speaker 1: So that's pretty much a rising tide. So that's you know,

667
00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:24,080
Speaker 1: that's a big supply of assets. It's a rising like

668
00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 1: a massive demographic and probably structural change causing a big

669
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:33,800
Speaker 1: supply or what I call I often call a rising tide.

670
00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:35,720
Speaker 1: Which is the best place to invest in rising tides

671
00:30:36,160 --> 00:30:38,320
Speaker 1: because the's people who need exits, because there's a lot

672
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,320
Speaker 1: of people like in Australia with small small busines owners,

673
00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:45,200
Speaker 1: business owners. They're turn sixty five, seventy or whatever, and

674
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:46,800
Speaker 1: they're saying, I don't want to do this anymore, but

675
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 1: I don't know there's no real buyer for it. I mean,

676
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:50,720
Speaker 1: or there is, but as you know they're going to

677
00:30:50,800 --> 00:30:52,920
Speaker 1: pay me two enough times revenue or something, you know

678
00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:55,040
Speaker 1: they're not going to give me enough or I've worked

679
00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:58,720
Speaker 1: my whole life building up this brand, this little reputation,

680
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:01,120
Speaker 1: et cetera. And they would like to and they don't

681
00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:02,640
Speaker 1: have No some of the family doesn't want to do

682
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:05,680
Speaker 1: it because you know they're having less kids, has less

683
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:09,240
Speaker 1: kids or no kids, and or a lot of the

684
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,640
Speaker 1: staff these days don't stay there long enough to sort

685
00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 1: of take over these businesses anymore because people move around

686
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:15,719
Speaker 1: a lot more than staff move around a lot more

687
00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 1: than they ever have done before today. As you get

688
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:20,160
Speaker 1: a job and you stay there for your whole life,

689
00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:25,000
Speaker 1: and then the proprietor says, I'm going to retire George, mate,

690
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:28,680
Speaker 1: can you afford to buy this business? Ye? And George

691
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 1: might buy it out of the revenue of the business

692
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 1: and pay run the business basically, but run the business

693
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 1: for the previous owner and pay the previous owner like

694
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:39,040
Speaker 1: installments out of the revenue of the business that the

695
00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:41,120
Speaker 1: previous owner built, but that George now runs. Is that

696
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 1: the scenario. That's a scenario.

697
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 2: And you know, there's only thirty five percent of businesses

698
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 2: that have got a clear strategy around how they're going

699
00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:50,760
Speaker 2: to exit and how they're going to succession plan and

700
00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:53,440
Speaker 2: a lot of people and people are working longer, they're healthier,

701
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:56,560
Speaker 2: so they're staying working longer. And what we're looking for

702
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:59,520
Speaker 2: is where we're looking for great businesses that we can scale.

703
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:01,440
Speaker 2: So it might be a business that you know, the

704
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:05,160
Speaker 2: owner has been probably content on it for ten years,

705
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 2: but it's got a great moator around it, it's got

706
00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:08,000
Speaker 2: a really good team.

707
00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 1: When you say, it's harder for as a barrier of entry,

708
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:14,200
Speaker 1: it's harder for others to get involved. It's got a

709
00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:15,720
Speaker 1: competitive advantage.

710
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:18,240
Speaker 2: So we're looking for something that's got a competitive advantage

711
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 2: that we can really scale and grow. We could potentially

712
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:21,320
Speaker 2: acquire it.

713
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:24,920
Speaker 1: Give an example of an industry that you might might

714
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:25,320
Speaker 1: look at.

715
00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:28,720
Speaker 2: Well, that's one of the things that like, maybe I

716
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 2: will give you an example of an industry I'm not

717
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:32,360
Speaker 2: looking at and that's probably the art cohol industry, Like

718
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:34,200
Speaker 2: that's shrinking, it's declining.

719
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 1: There's less people really. Yeah, definitely, people don't drink as much.

720
00:32:37,440 --> 00:32:41,240
Speaker 2: People aren't drinking as much. People are definitely not drinking

721
00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 2: as much. This younger generation of people aren't drinking as much.

722
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:47,480
Speaker 2: There's they're downsizing how much they drink. They're not drinking

723
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:50,440
Speaker 2: on Mondays and Tuesdays, you know, Wednesdays, and you know,

724
00:32:50,480 --> 00:32:54,880
Speaker 2: so there's definitely a decline in our rules. Yeah, so

725
00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:57,440
Speaker 2: I'm probably looking at the industries that are in growth,

726
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:00,640
Speaker 2: potentially healthcare, you know, something that I can grab that

727
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:03,160
Speaker 2: someone's got an exclusive product, or do you know has

728
00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:06,520
Speaker 2: got a niche market that's got opportunities for real growth?

729
00:33:06,800 --> 00:33:09,480
Speaker 1: And are you looking for businesses that are sort of

730
00:33:09,760 --> 00:33:14,120
Speaker 1: annuity based, like not like a doing charge, like for example,

731
00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:17,920
Speaker 1: a plumber, like he will go and you ring up,

732
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:20,040
Speaker 1: he does a job, gives you a bill, you don't

733
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 1: see him again, hopefully you don't see me again. Whereas

734
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:28,240
Speaker 1: let's call it a pesticide company. They sign up and like,

735
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:30,600
Speaker 1: I mean, I've done this and I wouldn't even know

736
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:32,480
Speaker 1: what it looks like. But he comes every three months.

737
00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:34,840
Speaker 1: I don't even know if he does anything, but but

738
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:37,000
Speaker 1: he comes over for three months, it's like a newity game.

739
00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:39,160
Speaker 1: He just turns over. I get ability for three months.

740
00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:41,440
Speaker 1: He rings my office. Mythe says yeah okay, and he

741
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:44,160
Speaker 1: turns up. We join up and he goes does it.

742
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:46,120
Speaker 1: And just because rolling it.

743
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:49,719
Speaker 2: Reoccurring reoccurring revenue is really exciting. That's what we kind

744
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:52,160
Speaker 2: of have built it, Shorties, but definitely looking for something

745
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:53,360
Speaker 2: with reoccurring revenue.

746
00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:56,160
Speaker 1: You know, now you don't know, it's funny you should

747
00:33:56,160 --> 00:34:00,120
Speaker 1: say that, David. I think you turned a transactional is

748
00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 1: into a recurring revenue a Shorties, because normally our references

749
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:08,000
Speaker 1: are we're going to get it's more a transaction, Shoul.

750
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 1: We've got to function up. We better buy some booze.

751
00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:11,960
Speaker 1: But what you did, and you know they might bring

752
00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,719
Speaker 1: up Shorties or someone else, but we'll use you turn

753
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:19,279
Speaker 1: that into a relationship where it was just ongoing. You

754
00:34:19,400 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 1: turn that transactional business it's pretty able to do into

755
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:25,799
Speaker 1: a recurring what I call trail business. Like you know,

756
00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:28,080
Speaker 1: you're earning money without having to think too much about it.

757
00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:31,319
Speaker 1: You just you're just rolling through a process all the time,

758
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:32,960
Speaker 1: over and over again. You have to think about what

759
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:34,319
Speaker 1: they want and all that sort of stuff. I get

760
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:38,000
Speaker 1: that part, but in terms of the rhythm, it's like

761
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:39,640
Speaker 1: every week we turn up to some and so and

762
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:43,800
Speaker 1: we deliver twenty bottles of champagne and we late, never late.

763
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:47,080
Speaker 2: Delivered in full on time. With a taxing voice and

764
00:34:47,120 --> 00:34:49,280
Speaker 2: a lot of the systems we built it shorties were around,

765
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:50,920
Speaker 2: you know. We went to de Lute and said, how

766
00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:52,839
Speaker 2: how would you like us to supply you? And they

767
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:56,000
Speaker 2: wanted the financial controller to sign off on invoices. They

768
00:34:56,000 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 2: want to consolidated invoices, they wanted, you know, we wanted

769
00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:00,760
Speaker 2: to make it as easy as possible for them from

770
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:02,840
Speaker 2: the person who's what is it or the person that

771
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:06,000
Speaker 2: pays the bill, you know, and so the person that

772
00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:08,680
Speaker 2: manages that and give them visibility about what they purchased.

773
00:35:08,719 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 1: Me well yeah, but also also visibility so it's completely transparent,

774
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:15,400
Speaker 1: you know, and you fit within their system.

775
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:18,520
Speaker 2: We fit within their system. And when I first started,

776
00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:20,719
Speaker 2: like it was roque, there were people doing all sorts

777
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:23,560
Speaker 2: of deals with these corporate clients and offering them backhanders.

778
00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:25,359
Speaker 2: And I can imagine that there was probably twenty little

779
00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:27,839
Speaker 2: bottle shops running around. There was wineries running around, So

780
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:30,560
Speaker 2: we built a system that was fully transparent.

781
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:33,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting, and just going forward, I can see

782
00:35:33,920 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 1: you're either reticent to tell me which industries you like,

783
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,080
Speaker 1: or you're being cagey because you want to don't want

784
00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:41,600
Speaker 1: anyone to compete with you, or you don't or is

785
00:35:41,600 --> 00:35:42,080
Speaker 1: it too early?

786
00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:44,160
Speaker 2: It's too early, Like I'm actually happy to look at

787
00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:46,240
Speaker 2: you one hundred, one hundred and fifty businesses and actually

788
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:48,520
Speaker 2: find that one find something that I'm going to get

789
00:35:48,520 --> 00:35:53,520
Speaker 2: really excited about and go, do you know that's something that's.

790
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:57,080
Speaker 1: Also an industry, David Like? So I mean in terms

791
00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:00,319
Speaker 1: of which is thousands, there's millions of businesses here, really

792
00:36:00,719 --> 00:36:05,480
Speaker 1: small businesses in particular. But how do you sort of

793
00:36:06,239 --> 00:36:08,680
Speaker 1: dissect it and sort of say, well, I don't have

794
00:36:09,239 --> 00:36:12,800
Speaker 1: two million hours, or if it's on average three hours

795
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:17,279
Speaker 1: per business, I don't have six million hours unless you

796
00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 1: have some secret.

797
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:20,960
Speaker 2: Well think the biggest one of the key ones that

798
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 2: we're looking at is it's got to be profitable. So

799
00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:24,920
Speaker 2: we want something that's making one to one and a

800
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:27,239
Speaker 2: half million dollars a year. Ye, so private equity, it's

801
00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:29,680
Speaker 2: too small for private equity, but something that we might

802
00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:32,280
Speaker 2: be able to scale. Something that's got real potential to scale,

803
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:35,680
Speaker 2: and as I said, something that we can really see

804
00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:38,080
Speaker 2: an opportunity to apply to, you know, whether it's e

805
00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:41,360
Speaker 2: commerce or new technology, or maybe there's aii that we

806
00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,760
Speaker 2: can implement that could make the serviceability of the customers

807
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 2: more efficient. The retail as no, definitely not retail. Nothing

808
00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:53,200
Speaker 2: in hospitality, you know, not food and beverages.

809
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:56,319
Speaker 1: But it's not services based. It's product based. Product based,

810
00:36:56,680 --> 00:37:00,400
Speaker 1: be product based. Yeah, it's not like there's not and

811
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:01,759
Speaker 1: there are a few of them around, but there's lead

812
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:04,799
Speaker 1: dead VP mowing service for example, whether they and he's

813
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:08,759
Speaker 1: done brilliant a business service. This is more product based.

814
00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:11,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, more product based, or it could potentially be a service.

815
00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:14,520
Speaker 2: Like there was a great business another private equity guy

816
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:18,000
Speaker 2: brought that was cleaning out council draints and it required

817
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:19,799
Speaker 2: a big truck and you know he brought it turning

818
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,000
Speaker 2: over making four million dollars a year and in three

819
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:23,879
Speaker 2: years to turn that around to twenty four million dollars

820
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:26,880
Speaker 2: a year. So it's like applying you know, the scale

821
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:29,000
Speaker 2: to that. Someone had a really good niche they had

822
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:31,520
Speaker 2: a great product. All councils need to clean their store

823
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:33,840
Speaker 2: water drains once a year and twice in autumn. So

824
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:37,080
Speaker 2: do you know, so he nailed that part. So like

825
00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:41,560
Speaker 2: something also that's supplying an industry that isn't going to

826
00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:43,880
Speaker 2: get disrupted by AI as well, Like so supplying a

827
00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:46,319
Speaker 2: council or supplying hospitals or those sort of things are

828
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:50,120
Speaker 2: really exciting. So yeah, I'm very open to what I'm

829
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 2: looking for. And I don't have a particular industry, but

830
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:56,120
Speaker 2: what I do want to do is find a business

831
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:58,160
Speaker 2: in an industry and then focusing on that.

832
00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:04,640
Speaker 1: And is it about is is it also about for example, aggregation,

833
00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:07,520
Speaker 1: like what is typically referred to as a roll up

834
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:10,360
Speaker 1: you know, have you thought about that? Like I go

835
00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:11,960
Speaker 1: into a newstro, I'm going to roll up all the

836
00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:19,520
Speaker 1: you know, all the all the wedding venue hire people,

837
00:38:19,600 --> 00:38:21,040
Speaker 1: and what I'm going to do is they're all good

838
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:22,200
Speaker 1: to see if I and they're all good to see

839
00:38:22,320 --> 00:38:24,560
Speaker 1: and they're all going to achieve marketing officer, what I

840
00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:26,359
Speaker 1: do is a roll them all up into one and

841
00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:29,640
Speaker 1: I'll have one CFO, one CEO. Like more of a

842
00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:30,200
Speaker 1: cost game.

843
00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:32,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's more of a long term game too,

844
00:38:33,239 --> 00:38:35,720
Speaker 2: So like I'm not it's not here to buy and flip.

845
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:37,640
Speaker 2: It's something that we can hold for the next ten

846
00:38:37,680 --> 00:38:40,680
Speaker 2: to fifteen years, you know, use that. Hopefully it's something

847
00:38:40,680 --> 00:38:42,360
Speaker 2: that's got a great management team, or it will be

848
00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:44,399
Speaker 2: something that's got a good management team that we can

849
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:46,920
Speaker 2: improve and add a new skill to and your dead right,

850
00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:49,240
Speaker 2: add another business to it, add another product or service

851
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:52,160
Speaker 2: to that that can be that will help scale and

852
00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:53,600
Speaker 2: drive that business.

853
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:57,160
Speaker 1: So because I have quite a few businesses in my day,

854
00:38:57,200 --> 00:39:00,440
Speaker 1: and one of the things one of the constraints that

855
00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:09,280
Speaker 1: I've experienced in its culture shift, so maybe cultural integration.

856
00:39:10,120 --> 00:39:12,200
Speaker 1: And there all been in the same industries that I've

857
00:39:12,239 --> 00:39:17,520
Speaker 1: been in, and I've often been seduced into thinking I

858
00:39:17,560 --> 00:39:19,799
Speaker 1: haven't done it, but into thinking I could roll up

859
00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:23,560
Speaker 1: things in various industries that I'm involved in because I

860
00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:28,880
Speaker 1: can save a lot of costs. Maybe not necessarily increase

861
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:31,120
Speaker 1: the volume of business, but I can actually increase the

862
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:33,960
Speaker 1: price of the same volume because if I now control

863
00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:37,120
Speaker 1: all the supplies, I can sort of play around with

864
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:39,719
Speaker 1: the price a bit. But usually it's a bit of

865
00:39:39,719 --> 00:39:41,439
Speaker 1: a cost game for me. I'm thinking, well, if they're

866
00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:43,960
Speaker 1: all we're all running the same cost structures, we only

867
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:46,560
Speaker 1: need one lot of cost structure, I can probably save

868
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:50,000
Speaker 1: perhaps elute percent of the costs. But one of my

869
00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:53,600
Speaker 1: constraint on not having done it, I have made acquisition

870
00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:56,880
Speaker 1: but not having gone out full roll up is because

871
00:39:56,920 --> 00:40:00,920
Speaker 1: when I have made acquisitions, I found the cultural integration

872
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:05,400
Speaker 1: was very difficult. And what I mean by that is

873
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:09,640
Speaker 1: like I bought a business in two thousand and sixteen

874
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:12,880
Speaker 1: for a fair bit of money. I knew the business,

875
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:14,840
Speaker 1: I know the business back to front, I'm in the game.

876
00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:18,279
Speaker 1: But it came to CEO, came to c IFO, it

877
00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 1: came with all the usual C suite, et cetera. And

878
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:24,960
Speaker 1: it was a big revenue, like a very large revenue business.

879
00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:29,960
Speaker 1: I found the culture of their business relative to the

880
00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:34,000
Speaker 1: culture of my business the acquirer was a lot different

881
00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:36,840
Speaker 1: and the integration was very hard for me, and I

882
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:40,560
Speaker 1: found over time probably took me. Sounds ridiculous, but I'm

883
00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:44,080
Speaker 1: obviously learning who took me about seven years to finally

884
00:40:44,120 --> 00:40:47,640
Speaker 1: integrate it. And the only way I could do it

885
00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:51,200
Speaker 1: was by moving b belond Because what was holding the

886
00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:55,200
Speaker 1: integration back cultural integration. I'm talking about, not business flow,

887
00:40:55,239 --> 00:41:01,920
Speaker 1: which cultural integration, integration was individuals. People had a different

888
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:05,840
Speaker 1: view on they would even though they weren't the proprietor,

889
00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:08,280
Speaker 1: their teake the view that they were running the business

890
00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:12,240
Speaker 1: and they had a proprietorial interest in it. They weren't proprietors,

891
00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:14,839
Speaker 1: but they still had a proprietial interest. You know, they

892
00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:19,000
Speaker 1: employed all these people, they knew all these clients. I've

893
00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:20,880
Speaker 1: sort of come in and bought the whole business, but

894
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:22,640
Speaker 1: I didn't know any of their employees. I didn't know

895
00:41:22,680 --> 00:41:26,520
Speaker 1: any of the clients. And I've thought about it. I thought, well,

896
00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:28,640
Speaker 1: that's probably fair enough. Like if you're being in the

897
00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:32,160
Speaker 1: business for twenty years, some of these guys twenty five years,

898
00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:34,920
Speaker 1: you would feel a bit proprietorialer towards it if you

899
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:35,799
Speaker 1: encountered that.

900
00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:40,279
Speaker 2: Yet I certainly encountered it when we took over those

901
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:42,480
Speaker 2: channels that Dan Murphy's was running. Do you know, so

902
00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:43,920
Speaker 2: we took it over, and.

903
00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:45,120
Speaker 1: How did you deal with something like that?

904
00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:48,360
Speaker 2: Well, it was really complicated because we're dealing with we

905
00:41:48,440 --> 00:41:50,960
Speaker 2: had the authority from the managing director and the sea

906
00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:53,480
Speaker 2: of the company, but then we had a whole heap

907
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:56,040
Speaker 2: of middle management that had fantastic jobs that would do

908
00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:59,160
Speaker 2: what you know, work remotely, take the kids to school,

909
00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:01,759
Speaker 2: and picked them up and have you know authority, and

910
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:03,240
Speaker 2: well we disrupted them.

911
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, they don't like it. They didn't like it.

912
00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:08,440
Speaker 2: So what we found is, you know, there were certainly

913
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:11,719
Speaker 2: people that held us back, but at the end of

914
00:42:11,719 --> 00:42:13,359
Speaker 2: the day, we just had to work harder to work

915
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:14,880
Speaker 2: on that integration to make it work.

916
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:18,680
Speaker 1: And I think you're being modest in terms of making

917
00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:23,319
Speaker 1: integration work. Sometimes you just have to move people on.

918
00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:26,640
Speaker 1: Did you find that the only way to break them,

919
00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:30,719
Speaker 1: not break them, but to have a bridge between the

920
00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:33,800
Speaker 1: two different styles. Sometimes you just had we had to

921
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:35,320
Speaker 1: blow up one of the one of the boundaries.

922
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:36,600
Speaker 2: Some people had to get off the bus.

923
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:40,320
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and that's not that easy to do because

924
00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:42,640
Speaker 1: it has a role on effect. I'll people hang, I

925
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:44,120
Speaker 1: don't been working for that guy, who's my whole life,

926
00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:46,080
Speaker 1: or I've been working alongside they go with my whole life,

927
00:42:46,360 --> 00:42:49,120
Speaker 1: he's my colleague. Who the fuck do you think you are?

928
00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:51,640
Speaker 2: Well, that's one of the challenges, right, that's what you've

929
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:53,960
Speaker 2: That's definitely what's going to happen if you're the CEO.

930
00:42:54,640 --> 00:42:58,960
Speaker 1: And so, you know, business growers. People want to grow

931
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:03,240
Speaker 1: the business. Not they're sell organically, but by acquisition, probably

932
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:07,000
Speaker 1: need to think about this. There is that it's not

933
00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:10,440
Speaker 1: easy and in your due diligence, Now you didn't acquire

934
00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:13,040
Speaker 1: these other arms that Dan Murphy's gave to you, but

935
00:43:14,239 --> 00:43:19,640
Speaker 1: in the d D process you probably what would you

936
00:43:19,640 --> 00:43:21,120
Speaker 1: suggest people need to do. They need to go and

937
00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:24,200
Speaker 1: interview the second tier of senior people, and what would

938
00:43:24,239 --> 00:43:26,120
Speaker 1: you do if you better buy one of these businesses

939
00:43:26,120 --> 00:43:26,719
Speaker 1: you're looking at.

940
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:29,919
Speaker 2: When Brad Bandici came down to shorties and the first

941
00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:31,560
Speaker 2: thing he said, what would be the three things that

942
00:43:31,560 --> 00:43:33,520
Speaker 2: you would do afforded buy you? I was like, would

943
00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:35,759
Speaker 2: go buy a closest competitor, which was the Vintage Blue

944
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:39,560
Speaker 2: at the time, would take more space because we had

945
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:42,240
Speaker 2: an amazing lease and employ some really good staff.

946
00:43:42,760 --> 00:43:44,040
Speaker 1: So the next day I did go out and.

947
00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 2: Buy a closest competitor, Vintage Blue, who was like a

948
00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:50,440
Speaker 2: retail maybe doing four or five million dollars revenue, but

949
00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:52,520
Speaker 2: they are a roading our margin. They're going into corporate

950
00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:54,799
Speaker 2: clients and they haven't put their price up on soft

951
00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:58,000
Speaker 2: drinks for five years and selling them to close. We

952
00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:00,200
Speaker 2: ended up closing them down and rolling that in and

953
00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:03,560
Speaker 2: then that lickle license was used for Dan Murphy's in

954
00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:05,680
Speaker 2: the city. But yeah, we did it and the best

955
00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:06,640
Speaker 2: staff we kept.

956
00:44:06,960 --> 00:44:10,200
Speaker 1: Right and the best staff, the best stuff, and just

957
00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:13,320
Speaker 1: closed the business down. So basically took that brand away

958
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:15,880
Speaker 1: and sort of buried the brand somewhere, and then you

959
00:44:15,960 --> 00:44:17,799
Speaker 1: took over the clients that brand was dealing with.

960
00:44:18,239 --> 00:44:21,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, with the staff, with the staff, with a better product,

961
00:44:22,480 --> 00:44:25,000
Speaker 2: with a better service range, with a better offering.

962
00:44:25,239 --> 00:44:25,439
Speaker 1: Yeah.

963
00:44:25,719 --> 00:44:28,840
Speaker 2: And then we closed a really inefficient store in Sydney,

964
00:44:29,120 --> 00:44:31,800
Speaker 2: and then we use their story in Melbourne to scale Melbourne.

965
00:44:32,239 --> 00:44:35,440
Speaker 2: So we kept their Melbourne warehouse, used that facility of scale,

966
00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:36,920
Speaker 2: and then moved into a bigger warehouse.

967
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:38,600
Speaker 1: So if you're looking at a business now, and if

968
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:41,200
Speaker 1: someone position of this and they're thinking, well, I'm interested

969
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:42,600
Speaker 1: doing the same sort of thing as David was doing.

970
00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:44,480
Speaker 1: I might be going to buy a business down the road.

971
00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:48,120
Speaker 1: What are the sort of things that apart from all

972
00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:49,960
Speaker 1: the usual stuff you've got to do digilius on their

973
00:44:50,040 --> 00:44:53,160
Speaker 1: leases and all that other stuff and their financials. But

974
00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:56,319
Speaker 1: at a cultural level, what would you suggest and what

975
00:44:56,320 --> 00:44:57,920
Speaker 1: would you do? What would you say to people?

976
00:44:58,120 --> 00:45:00,680
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's really important that the founder is

977
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:03,400
Speaker 2: often key in the business, that the business can relate

978
00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:06,880
Speaker 2: that can continue to run without the founder, that the

979
00:45:06,960 --> 00:45:09,880
Speaker 2: staff are to believe in what the product and what

980
00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:13,520
Speaker 2: they're in their product and also their strategy moving forward,

981
00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:17,759
Speaker 2: and you know that the business has a competitive mode

982
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:19,840
Speaker 2: that you can actually get in there and scale and

983
00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:22,920
Speaker 2: actually work and potentially improve that culture. I think one

984
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:24,960
Speaker 2: of our strengths of Shorties is we had an amazing culture.

985
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:26,719
Speaker 2: So we had a lot of we had team members

986
00:45:26,719 --> 00:45:29,040
Speaker 2: that have been there for ten years and you know,

987
00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:32,080
Speaker 2: really brought into that. So bring some of that energy

988
00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:34,200
Speaker 2: and into that team and improve it.

989
00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:36,239
Speaker 1: So if someone's listening to this show, and we did

990
00:45:36,239 --> 00:45:37,840
Speaker 1: get a lot of business owners just listening to this

991
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:41,000
Speaker 1: show and they were thinking about, well, I'm actually at

992
00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:43,000
Speaker 1: that one of those people. I'm sixty eight. I want

993
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:46,440
Speaker 1: to get ready to retire. I love my business, so

994
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:48,920
Speaker 1: I wanted to go on the right hands. I'm profitable

995
00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:54,000
Speaker 1: making one other nod profit year. I'm pretty much qualified.

996
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:56,759
Speaker 1: How do they get in contact with David Short, Well,

997
00:45:56,760 --> 00:45:58,680
Speaker 1: they can jump on short in dot com dot you

998
00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:00,759
Speaker 1: there's shortening dot com dot ye. Yeah, We've got a

999
00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:03,880
Speaker 1: website there that sort of outlines all that criteria. So

1000
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:05,920
Speaker 1: the business really you can get sort of like not

1001
00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:08,040
Speaker 1: an application, but like it's sort of like an application

1002
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:09,120
Speaker 1: was an application.

1003
00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:11,920
Speaker 2: There's contact details in contact with us. We built a

1004
00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:14,759
Speaker 2: we built a website in two days the other day

1005
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:18,760
Speaker 2: on replet so AI is one of the my passions

1006
00:46:18,760 --> 00:46:20,799
Speaker 2: at the moment that we integrated and we built a

1007
00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:23,440
Speaker 2: business valuation calculator that's just more of a tool and

1008
00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:25,560
Speaker 2: a customer acquisition tool to try and get some of

1009
00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:28,080
Speaker 2: these businesses in. But that just sort of outlines what

1010
00:46:28,200 --> 00:46:30,400
Speaker 2: criteria we're looking for, you know, it turns about the

1011
00:46:30,520 --> 00:46:33,279
Speaker 2: ebit that we're looking for, some of the industries that

1012
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:35,480
Speaker 2: we're really keen on, and what businesses do you know,

1013
00:46:36,040 --> 00:46:38,239
Speaker 2: the key points of the businesses that we really love.

1014
00:46:38,680 --> 00:46:44,480
Speaker 1: It's interesting. Excuse me, that's interesting. You mentioned the people

1015
00:46:44,600 --> 00:46:50,560
Speaker 1: getting a bit of an idea about valuations and people

1016
00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:52,319
Speaker 1: often say to me, how do you work out what

1017
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:55,880
Speaker 1: something's worth? Well, it's sort of sort of pretty simple,

1018
00:46:55,960 --> 00:46:57,719
Speaker 1: not that we'll sort of pretty simple. If you know

1019
00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:01,720
Speaker 1: what you're let's call it you the branding profit cash profit,

1020
00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:05,480
Speaker 1: and if you know what youve it is that's earnings

1021
00:47:05,480 --> 00:47:09,799
Speaker 1: before before interest and tax, and you know what the

1022
00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:14,080
Speaker 1: multiplier is for your industry. If you're in an industry

1023
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:15,880
Speaker 1: that has a multiplier, they need to just work it

1024
00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:19,880
Speaker 1: out and multiply one by the other. That's not the

1025
00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:22,080
Speaker 1: end of it. That's just like an indicative thing. But

1026
00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:25,840
Speaker 1: how do you if you're on your calculator, where do

1027
00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:27,959
Speaker 1: you get because most people would know where to find

1028
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:30,640
Speaker 1: how to find out what their multiplier is for their industry.

1029
00:47:30,920 --> 00:47:31,960
Speaker 1: How do you do?

1030
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:34,440
Speaker 2: So we found that on perplexity and we also got

1031
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:36,160
Speaker 2: NAB's data and we've got a.

1032
00:47:36,120 --> 00:47:37,680
Speaker 1: Couple of Perplexity AI as.

1033
00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:40,600
Speaker 2: A Perplexity AI which is an amazing search engine, and

1034
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:42,840
Speaker 2: we pumped some data in that we got from the

1035
00:47:42,880 --> 00:47:45,160
Speaker 2: banks and from some of the BIGG accounting firms around

1036
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:48,080
Speaker 2: what the multiple is. Then we looked at the last

1037
00:47:48,080 --> 00:47:50,960
Speaker 2: three years multiple and see if that business is actually

1038
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:53,440
Speaker 2: increasing or if it's declining. So it might have been

1039
00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:57,520
Speaker 2: an e commerce business that was booming in which lower

1040
00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:01,160
Speaker 2: modeble doesn't have a will the found if the founder leaves,

1041
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:05,280
Speaker 2: will that create an issue for the business or affect

1042
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 2: the earnings moving forward? Is there a clear strategy or

1043
00:48:08,160 --> 00:48:10,880
Speaker 2: is there a clear opportunity for growth would be probably

1044
00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:13,120
Speaker 2: our key one. Do you know, is there another business

1045
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:15,319
Speaker 2: that we could potentially acquire and have this as the

1046
00:48:15,320 --> 00:48:18,719
Speaker 2: platform going into the industry plug them in. As you

1047
00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:21,560
Speaker 2: said scale, do you have one CFO one marketing team

1048
00:48:22,200 --> 00:48:24,239
Speaker 2: doing that or is there other products that we could

1049
00:48:24,239 --> 00:48:26,480
Speaker 2: add to it. So you know, potentially, this is a

1050
00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:28,359
Speaker 2: business that someone's been running and you know they're now

1051
00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:30,360
Speaker 2: playing golf too three days a week, or they're sailing

1052
00:48:30,360 --> 00:48:30,919
Speaker 2: and they're like.

1053
00:48:31,000 --> 00:48:33,120
Speaker 1: Well, they're not well, they're not well, or they got.

1054
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:35,719
Speaker 2: Divorced, got divorced, or their their wife might not be

1055
00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:37,719
Speaker 2: well or their husband's not well, and you know, their

1056
00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:41,239
Speaker 2: life's changing, their kids have moved to Barcelona or doing

1057
00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:44,560
Speaker 2: something different, and they do care about their business. They

1058
00:48:44,560 --> 00:48:46,960
Speaker 2: care about their customers, they can care about their supply chain,

1059
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:50,000
Speaker 2: and they care about their staff. And while I say,

1060
00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:52,239
Speaker 2: you know, of course we care about the staff, and

1061
00:48:52,360 --> 00:48:53,879
Speaker 2: you know, if they're doing a good DROB, we want

1062
00:48:53,880 --> 00:48:55,960
Speaker 2: to bring them along because that's part of the business

1063
00:48:55,960 --> 00:48:59,120
Speaker 2: that we're buying. But we look at that and then

1064
00:48:59,160 --> 00:49:01,160
Speaker 2: that will is what you know, It comes up with

1065
00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:03,520
Speaker 2: evaluation because you'll look at the different valuations for the

1066
00:49:03,520 --> 00:49:06,080
Speaker 2: businesses and there's normally a variant you know, between two,

1067
00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:08,920
Speaker 2: between three and five times earnings or if it's e

1068
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:11,520
Speaker 2: commerce it might be higher. So that comes up with

1069
00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:14,400
Speaker 2: a rough valuation, which is just a guide because obviously

1070
00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:16,239
Speaker 2: you've got to there and go do due diligence and

1071
00:49:16,440 --> 00:49:19,439
Speaker 2: actually really make sure there is a mote and something

1072
00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:21,720
Speaker 2: that protects the business moving forward.

1073
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:24,120
Speaker 1: And have you got many on board, Like in terms

1074
00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:27,600
Speaker 1: of contestants, we've looked at a few.

1075
00:49:27,800 --> 00:49:30,240
Speaker 2: We've looked at if you haven't found anything super interesting,

1076
00:49:30,719 --> 00:49:34,480
Speaker 2: we've sort of backing a founder and a startup that's

1077
00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:37,680
Speaker 2: doing a really which is a really interesting business. So

1078
00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:43,080
Speaker 2: PTE English exams, so are there's overt English exams, So

1079
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:46,439
Speaker 2: if you want to get citizenship or for students that need.

1080
00:49:46,320 --> 00:49:49,239
Speaker 1: To pass soun't.

1081
00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:51,400
Speaker 2: Stand for Permanent residence PTE, it's that that's just what

1082
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:54,040
Speaker 2: it's called. And globally they do one point two million

1083
00:49:54,040 --> 00:49:57,040
Speaker 2: exams a year and they charge five hundred dollars US

1084
00:49:57,080 --> 00:49:59,719
Speaker 2: to do an exam and there's multiple people doing five

1085
00:49:59,880 --> 00:50:00,799
Speaker 2: or six or seven of.

1086
00:50:00,719 --> 00:50:05,000
Speaker 1: These exaw A excuse me, So is this an strain thing?

1087
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:08,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, for I think three hundred thousand people in Australia

1088
00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:10,120
Speaker 2: do it, but then people do it in the UK.

1089
00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:12,000
Speaker 2: People do it in Canada and around the world.

1090
00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:14,960
Speaker 1: And the objective is to.

1091
00:50:14,360 --> 00:50:17,840
Speaker 2: Get an English to pass an English exam.

1092
00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:21,239
Speaker 1: The Isles test. Yeah, that type of thing. You've got

1093
00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:23,920
Speaker 1: to be able to speak at read it and write it,

1094
00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:24,239
Speaker 1: I think.

1095
00:50:24,280 --> 00:50:28,319
Speaker 2: And yeah, there's four components and comprehension competition, but there's

1096
00:50:28,360 --> 00:50:31,799
Speaker 2: no great dummy test. So one of my developer at

1097
00:50:31,840 --> 00:50:34,480
Speaker 2: Shorties has gone off and he was Brazilian and him

1098
00:50:34,520 --> 00:50:36,840
Speaker 2: and his wife all the people, all the Brazilian people

1099
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:38,960
Speaker 2: were going, how do we pass this exam? And they

1100
00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:42,120
Speaker 2: wrote all these great cheat notes and then with the

1101
00:50:42,160 --> 00:50:44,759
Speaker 2: benefit of AI, you can now build a solution that

1102
00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:46,600
Speaker 2: might have cost you know, two or three million dollars.

1103
00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:49,759
Speaker 2: So we're building a mock test so you can actually subscribe.

1104
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:51,920
Speaker 1: So it's like a practice test. It's like a practice

1105
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:54,279
Speaker 1: test before you sit for the Oles test, which is

1106
00:50:54,320 --> 00:50:56,600
Speaker 1: the one of the ones that the government he uses

1107
00:50:56,640 --> 00:50:59,880
Speaker 1: in terms of making sure that your English adequacy is

1108
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:03,120
Speaker 1: at a level whereby you can apply for pr Yep, right,

1109
00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:05,640
Speaker 1: I get it. That's interesting. But this is a global thing.

1110
00:51:05,800 --> 00:51:08,480
Speaker 2: It's a global thing, and half the reason why we're

1111
00:51:08,480 --> 00:51:10,840
Speaker 2: doing it's pretty low cost. He's got a huge passion

1112
00:51:10,880 --> 00:51:13,440
Speaker 2: for it. And we're learning how to use this new technology.

1113
00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:15,719
Speaker 1: Yeah it's online. So yeah, and that.

1114
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:18,640
Speaker 2: Shorty is we spent millions of dollars on websites, which

1115
00:51:18,960 --> 00:51:21,040
Speaker 2: you know now you don't need to do. Yeah, so

1116
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:23,640
Speaker 2: you know, like shorting dot com. You we built on

1117
00:51:23,719 --> 00:51:26,040
Speaker 2: PERPLEXI in a couple of days. And it's what you

1118
00:51:26,080 --> 00:51:28,400
Speaker 2: know you would have got charged ten fifteen thousand dollars

1119
00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:28,719
Speaker 2: for in the.

1120
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:30,279
Speaker 1: Pain we'll take you three months, and.

1121
00:51:30,239 --> 00:51:32,040
Speaker 2: It would have taken you three months. And to change

1122
00:51:32,080 --> 00:51:34,000
Speaker 2: the color of a button would cost five hundred dollars

1123
00:51:34,000 --> 00:51:37,160
Speaker 2: and take two days. So we're learning how to do that.

1124
00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:39,600
Speaker 2: And that's what you know, which is really fun.

1125
00:51:39,840 --> 00:51:44,000
Speaker 1: Maybe you should go into that business website building using AI.

1126
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:45,799
Speaker 1: I just say this will use a I will if

1127
00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:47,319
Speaker 1: you're paying ten, we'll get to do it for five.

1128
00:51:47,360 --> 00:51:50,280
Speaker 1: And because you about one thousand bucks, you do yourself.

1129
00:51:50,520 --> 00:51:52,719
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you what they're as a disruption, there's

1130
00:51:52,840 --> 00:51:56,160
Speaker 2: huge disruption. There's you know, I see massive disruption happening

1131
00:51:56,200 --> 00:52:01,800
Speaker 2: across multiple industries, whether it's design, graphic graph design, web design,

1132
00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:05,040
Speaker 2: and then it goes into most white collar.

1133
00:52:04,880 --> 00:52:09,520
Speaker 1: Jobs that I mean, I don't really understand the website stuff.

1134
00:52:09,560 --> 00:52:12,359
Speaker 1: But I do know that AI can do a lot

1135
00:52:12,360 --> 00:52:15,520
Speaker 1: of this stuff. I haven't used perplexity I generally speaking,

1136
00:52:15,560 --> 00:52:18,440
Speaker 1: but I know people who do use perplexity I AI.

1137
00:52:18,800 --> 00:52:22,359
Speaker 1: I know people use it perplexity to ask and ask

1138
00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:28,040
Speaker 1: perplexity questions about their life. Well, like this is what

1139
00:52:28,080 --> 00:52:29,280
Speaker 1: I'm confronted with at the moment.

1140
00:52:30,400 --> 00:52:34,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, the biggest change I'm seeing is Google used

1141
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:36,279
Speaker 2: to be your landlord to.

1142
00:52:36,320 --> 00:52:39,360
Speaker 1: Talk to anymore, I go straight to a copilot or

1143
00:52:39,360 --> 00:52:39,919
Speaker 1: something like that.

1144
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:43,560
Speaker 2: So, but how people are going to build websites in

1145
00:52:43,560 --> 00:52:46,320
Speaker 2: the future is going to be completely different. Like Google

1146
00:52:46,320 --> 00:52:49,520
Speaker 2: released something last week where you could get this you know,

1147
00:52:49,520 --> 00:52:50,840
Speaker 2: you've got a skirt and will show you what it

1148
00:52:50,880 --> 00:52:54,200
Speaker 2: looks like on you you take photos of amazing. And

1149
00:52:54,239 --> 00:52:57,600
Speaker 2: then there was another one that you know I saw today,

1150
00:52:57,719 --> 00:53:00,279
Speaker 2: like you can put a widget on your website on

1151
00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:02,359
Speaker 2: your browser that blocks all the ads, so the here

1152
00:53:02,400 --> 00:53:04,160
Speaker 2: goes all Google's ads and all the rest of it.

1153
00:53:04,560 --> 00:53:06,719
Speaker 2: And then it could compare prissing across every website in

1154
00:53:06,719 --> 00:53:09,879
Speaker 2: the world that was on gen Spark. So these things

1155
00:53:09,880 --> 00:53:12,000
Speaker 2: are going to be what your website is going to

1156
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:15,160
Speaker 2: have to work with all this new technology, and you know,

1157
00:53:15,200 --> 00:53:16,920
Speaker 2: We'll be talking about how you used to spend Google

1158
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:19,520
Speaker 2: money on Google AdWords, and you know you're actually going

1159
00:53:19,560 --> 00:53:21,520
Speaker 2: to have to improve your site so it actually comes

1160
00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:25,319
Speaker 2: up relevant. It is true, true deception, and I've never

1161
00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:27,040
Speaker 2: seen anything like it in my career.

1162
00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:29,440
Speaker 1: Everyone keeps talking about it, by the way, and I

1163
00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:32,520
Speaker 1: agree with you. And when we keep talking about it,

1164
00:53:32,520 --> 00:53:34,120
Speaker 1: because we keep hearing about it, we say, oh, yeah,

1165
00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:37,560
Speaker 1: right whatever, But like, is actual real? This is real?

1166
00:53:37,760 --> 00:53:40,240
Speaker 1: This is this is like mental.

1167
00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:42,640
Speaker 2: It's mental. And I'm lucky enough to be you know,

1168
00:53:43,120 --> 00:53:46,960
Speaker 2: YPO forum with seven other online retailers, and it's what

1169
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:49,480
Speaker 2: we talk about. We catch up every month for half

1170
00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:51,560
Speaker 2: a day and half of what we're talking about is

1171
00:53:51,560 --> 00:53:54,160
Speaker 2: this and how it's going to affect their global online

1172
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:57,320
Speaker 2: businesses and how it's going to affect, you know, how

1173
00:53:57,360 --> 00:53:59,399
Speaker 2: they can improve their business, what they can now do.

1174
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:01,640
Speaker 2: It's truly incredible.

1175
00:54:01,920 --> 00:54:05,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, well, I remember, if I go back

1176
00:54:06,840 --> 00:54:09,200
Speaker 1: back in the nineties, when the Internet started kicking off hard,

1177
00:54:09,640 --> 00:54:12,279
Speaker 1: people sued to say, any you read a report from

1178
00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:14,440
Speaker 1: Price Waterhouse, one of those sorts of organizations say the

1179
00:54:14,440 --> 00:54:16,120
Speaker 1: internet is going to be is that going to be

1180
00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:18,360
Speaker 1: the greatest revolution of commerce? That we've ever seen in

1181
00:54:18,400 --> 00:54:20,359
Speaker 1: a history. You know, there's going to be a ten

1182
00:54:20,400 --> 00:54:23,960
Speaker 1: bag of anything we've ever seen before. Then then came

1183
00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:27,279
Speaker 1: out the Internet of Things, and they to say again

1184
00:54:27,360 --> 00:54:30,520
Speaker 1: IBM and price water, but both both wrote reports on

1185
00:54:30,560 --> 00:54:33,239
Speaker 1: the Internet of things, and they said the Internet of

1186
00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:38,320
Speaker 1: things that is like using sensors to connect not not people,

1187
00:54:38,320 --> 00:54:42,440
Speaker 1: but using sensors to connect outcomes from things that they

1188
00:54:42,600 --> 00:54:46,040
Speaker 1: data that they find and coming up with conclusions like

1189
00:54:46,360 --> 00:54:50,319
Speaker 1: we're no human intervention, intervention that will be a ten

1190
00:54:50,320 --> 00:54:52,600
Speaker 1: bag of what the Internet did. And now they're saying

1191
00:54:52,640 --> 00:54:56,279
Speaker 1: AI will be a ten bager of everything. And I

1192
00:54:56,880 --> 00:54:58,760
Speaker 1: didn't I never believe what they said about an internet.

1193
00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:01,800
Speaker 1: I never believe what they said about the Internet things,

1194
00:55:01,840 --> 00:55:04,799
Speaker 1: but each one of them actually achieve that. And now

1195
00:55:04,880 --> 00:55:07,920
Speaker 1: I believe what they say about AI. I mean, we

1196
00:55:08,040 --> 00:55:11,719
Speaker 1: use AI here for a lot of stuff, like crazy,

1197
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:17,000
Speaker 1: how it can just replicate me. Yeah, it's scary, Yeah,

1198
00:55:17,040 --> 00:55:17,880
Speaker 1: it's really scary.

1199
00:55:17,920 --> 00:55:20,720
Speaker 2: And you know, I see it's moving just so quickly,

1200
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:22,600
Speaker 2: even in the last two months, because.

1201
00:55:22,320 --> 00:55:23,839
Speaker 1: It's learning all the time. It's getting better and better

1202
00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:24,040
Speaker 1: and better.

1203
00:55:24,120 --> 00:55:25,799
Speaker 2: It's learning all the time, and the only way to

1204
00:55:25,880 --> 00:55:28,640
Speaker 2: keep up with it is YouTube, you know. So there's

1205
00:55:28,840 --> 00:55:31,640
Speaker 2: a great podcast that I watch religiously which is HubSpot

1206
00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:34,360
Speaker 2: Against the Grain that will teach you how to eliminate

1207
00:55:34,360 --> 00:55:37,319
Speaker 2: your marketing team in thirty minutes, how to do all

1208
00:55:37,360 --> 00:55:39,239
Speaker 2: your creative But you do your creative now, and you

1209
00:55:39,239 --> 00:55:43,000
Speaker 2: can make videos. You can make all this amazing content

1210
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:47,560
Speaker 2: that used to take days to feel loutch money, yeah

1211
00:55:47,600 --> 00:55:50,640
Speaker 2: and lot, it's cheap effectively. The best way I heard

1212
00:55:50,640 --> 00:55:53,319
Speaker 2: it explained is we've just found a new continent and

1213
00:55:53,360 --> 00:55:55,680
Speaker 2: there's one point two billion people on it and they've

1214
00:55:55,680 --> 00:55:58,400
Speaker 2: all got honors, degrees and PhDs in every field you

1215
00:55:58,440 --> 00:56:00,440
Speaker 2: can think of, and they have been to work for

1216
00:56:00,480 --> 00:56:01,439
Speaker 2: twenty five cents now.

1217
00:56:01,680 --> 00:56:04,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, so do you know twenty four hours a day.

1218
00:56:04,440 --> 00:56:06,200
Speaker 2: Twenty four hours a day or like yeah, they'll get

1219
00:56:06,239 --> 00:56:09,040
Speaker 2: subbed in out, you know, and you can change your specialty.

1220
00:56:09,520 --> 00:56:12,719
Speaker 2: But that's what's effectively been happened. That's what that's what's happened, right,

1221
00:56:14,640 --> 00:56:16,920
Speaker 2: And I don't think anyone's really I think a lot

1222
00:56:16,920 --> 00:56:18,360
Speaker 2: of people haven't grapsed that.

1223
00:56:18,680 --> 00:56:20,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, because we're still coming to terms with how to

1224
00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:23,399
Speaker 1: use AI because it's sort of overwhelming a little bit.

1225
00:56:23,719 --> 00:56:27,800
Speaker 1: It's quite freey and it's overwhelming. You know, it's interesting

1226
00:56:28,520 --> 00:56:33,319
Speaker 1: sitting here listening to you today, And I actually asked

1227
00:56:33,320 --> 00:56:36,880
Speaker 1: you right at the very beginning. It seems to me

1228
00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:41,439
Speaker 1: that you're always prepared, no mind to think about what's

1229
00:56:41,480 --> 00:56:45,479
Speaker 1: new in terms of learning about and what's relevant. What's

1230
00:56:45,520 --> 00:56:48,719
Speaker 1: new is really good, not a good word, what's relevant,

1231
00:56:48,840 --> 00:56:54,040
Speaker 1: what's relevant to consumers, and what's relevant to society. And

1232
00:56:54,080 --> 00:56:56,759
Speaker 1: that's probably one of the ways you made in your

1233
00:56:56,800 --> 00:56:59,759
Speaker 1: particular society, that's slither of society that you were dealing

1234
00:56:59,760 --> 00:57:04,520
Speaker 1: with Corporate Australia. You knew that, like as a religion.

1235
00:57:05,520 --> 00:57:10,120
Speaker 1: Now it seems to you're applying the same concept to

1236
00:57:10,440 --> 00:57:15,960
Speaker 1: a broader a broader church. And I think, would you

1237
00:57:16,000 --> 00:57:17,080
Speaker 1: say your strength.

1238
00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:19,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it is. And liquor was so competitive,

1239
00:57:19,320 --> 00:57:21,480
Speaker 2: and when I look at the underhood of these other businesses,

1240
00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:24,200
Speaker 2: it's like, what, I've been doing this for so long,

1241
00:57:24,800 --> 00:57:25,760
Speaker 2: there's other opportunities.

1242
00:57:25,760 --> 00:57:26,880
Speaker 1: I was apprenticeship.

1243
00:57:26,960 --> 00:57:28,760
Speaker 2: That was the apprenticeship, right, and you know, it was

1244
00:57:28,760 --> 00:57:30,400
Speaker 2: a hard apprenticeship and it taught me how to do

1245
00:57:30,440 --> 00:57:34,080
Speaker 2: it and we ended up winning. But yeah, I'm excited

1246
00:57:34,160 --> 00:57:38,120
Speaker 2: about I'm excited about applying that energy to another industry

1247
00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:41,480
Speaker 2: that can really disrupt it. And you know we did

1248
00:57:41,520 --> 00:57:43,600
Speaker 2: do that at Shortias and some of that technology. Would

1249
00:57:43,600 --> 00:57:46,320
Speaker 2: you know, we're the first Microsoft E RP cloud in Australia,

1250
00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:48,400
Speaker 2: the second one in the world. You know, someone built

1251
00:57:48,440 --> 00:57:50,000
Speaker 2: it for us for pretty much free, one of them

1252
00:57:50,080 --> 00:57:52,000
Speaker 2: and then they end up getting brought out by KPMG

1253
00:57:52,080 --> 00:57:54,600
Speaker 2: and you know, we've we've tested and learned and we're

1254
00:57:54,600 --> 00:57:57,800
Speaker 2: prepared to fail. I think that's probably the thing that

1255
00:57:58,440 --> 00:58:01,040
Speaker 2: drove everyone in Endeavor, Matt, like, we're prepared to file.

1256
00:58:01,080 --> 00:58:03,320
Speaker 2: We had this line of credit. My earn out was

1257
00:58:03,320 --> 00:58:05,080
Speaker 2: on the last year, so like we had a couple

1258
00:58:05,080 --> 00:58:07,560
Speaker 2: of year wrong ways to really experiment and try things.

1259
00:58:07,600 --> 00:58:11,280
Speaker 2: And in big corporations, people don't. People don't do that.

1260
00:58:11,600 --> 00:58:14,240
Speaker 2: They're focused on their KPIs, they're focused on there in

1261
00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:16,640
Speaker 2: devastate the stip so they don't want to get out

1262
00:58:16,680 --> 00:58:18,200
Speaker 2: of flying becaus and they get their bonuses.

1263
00:58:18,240 --> 00:58:18,840
Speaker 1: And you know.

1264
00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:22,560
Speaker 2: Where we were one hundred percent prepared to fire.

1265
00:58:22,640 --> 00:58:27,640
Speaker 1: That's organizations like that buy organizations like you. Yeah, that's

1266
00:58:27,680 --> 00:58:30,120
Speaker 1: why Generatory brought my business because they could never create

1267
00:58:30,160 --> 00:58:32,280
Speaker 1: my business, they couldn't ever run my business, but they

1268
00:58:32,320 --> 00:58:34,960
Speaker 1: wanted me to stay there but for the GF so

1269
00:58:34,960 --> 00:58:36,200
Speaker 1: it would still be there. But they wanted me to

1270
00:58:36,240 --> 00:58:39,200
Speaker 1: stay there because they knew that they didn't have that flex. Yep.

1271
00:58:39,360 --> 00:58:42,520
Speaker 1: Internally general, you just didn't have the flex because you know,

1272
00:58:42,520 --> 00:58:45,640
Speaker 1: you're reporting upwards always. It's a global business. You know,

1273
00:58:45,680 --> 00:58:48,600
Speaker 1: they've got to have they've got to hit sholder expectations.

1274
00:58:49,120 --> 00:58:50,760
Speaker 1: They go by a business like mine, and even though

1275
00:58:50,760 --> 00:58:51,880
Speaker 1: they've paid a lot of money for it, but they're

1276
00:58:51,880 --> 00:58:54,360
Speaker 1: going by business like mine, and there's lots of upside

1277
00:58:54,400 --> 00:58:57,400
Speaker 1: in it, you know, and they need people who like

1278
00:58:57,480 --> 00:58:59,520
Speaker 1: me or who are working still working there to Actually

1279
00:59:00,400 --> 00:59:02,520
Speaker 1: they gave me that flex. They just said, Mark, you

1280
00:59:02,560 --> 00:59:05,400
Speaker 1: go for it. We can't do this a g just

1281
00:59:05,760 --> 00:59:07,680
Speaker 1: you go for it, and that's what we'll give it.

1282
00:59:08,480 --> 00:59:09,960
Speaker 1: That's an amazing opportunity.

1283
00:59:10,160 --> 00:59:12,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know I wouldn't I wouldn't trade that

1284
00:59:12,600 --> 00:59:13,600
Speaker 2: for anything. That was amazing.

1285
00:59:13,760 --> 00:59:14,680
Speaker 1: Great learning space.

1286
00:59:15,280 --> 00:59:17,600
Speaker 2: Awesome learning space. And you know we went in there thinking, oh,

1287
00:59:17,600 --> 00:59:19,240
Speaker 2: these guys want to how to do websites on how

1288
00:59:19,240 --> 00:59:23,120
Speaker 2: to do deliveries and go do yourself. And see Oven

1289
00:59:23,160 --> 00:59:24,560
Speaker 2: said that, he goes, you know, you need to go

1290
00:59:24,600 --> 00:59:27,240
Speaker 2: out there and break things and make it work. And

1291
00:59:27,400 --> 00:59:29,080
Speaker 2: I think Steve Donne, who had a meeting with him

1292
00:59:29,080 --> 00:59:31,480
Speaker 2: every every month, like he missed one of them over

1293
00:59:31,720 --> 00:59:32,760
Speaker 2: the course of five.

1294
00:59:32,640 --> 00:59:33,640
Speaker 1: Years, he probably loved it.

1295
00:59:33,800 --> 00:59:35,960
Speaker 2: He loved it, and you know he would want to

1296
00:59:35,960 --> 00:59:36,640
Speaker 2: know what's happening and.

1297
00:59:37,040 --> 00:59:39,280
Speaker 1: See what you're building in the sand pit. He's all

1298
00:59:39,280 --> 00:59:42,200
Speaker 1: that in the same pit. You're the young boys, got

1299
00:59:42,200 --> 00:59:44,919
Speaker 1: your own sandpit. And Mecano said, you can build lego

1300
00:59:45,000 --> 00:59:47,480
Speaker 1: or whatever you can build if you want. It's like

1301
00:59:47,520 --> 00:59:50,520
Speaker 1: a yes, It's sort of like it's like for him

1302
00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:54,280
Speaker 1: would be a dream you can live through you vicariously. Well, David,

1303
00:59:54,320 --> 00:59:57,480
Speaker 1: I'm really glad we caught up and I wish you

1304
00:59:57,480 --> 00:59:59,200
Speaker 1: the very best for short Nick. I'm dying to know

1305
00:59:59,240 --> 01:00:02,040
Speaker 1: what you ended your first investment will be. Maybe we

1306
01:00:02,080 --> 01:00:03,600
Speaker 1: can find out when you get there. And good luck

1307
01:00:03,640 --> 01:00:08,760
Speaker 1: to you mate. Great thanks mark H.