The Startup Playbook Podcast

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep220 – Adam Ewart (Co-founder & CEO – Send My Bag) on bootstrapping Send My Bag from a uni side project to global service September 25, 2025 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep220 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Adam Ewart, the Co-founder & CEO of Send My Bag. Send My Bag is the international luggage shipping and relocation platform used by travellers and businesses around the world. Adam’s story is a fascinating one. From building a global company out of a small town in Northern Ireland, to turning PR into a powerful growth engine, to deliberately bootstrapping even when VCs came knocking, his journey is full of practical lessons and hard-earned insights. In this episode we dive into: How he turned PR into one of his biggest growth drivers Why he chose to bootstrap despite inbound investor interest The challenges and opportunities of building a large global business out of Belfast Timestamps: 00:02:15 Adam’s early entrepreneurial roots and family business influences 00:07:00 Why Adam never wanted a traditional job 00:08:10 Using part-time wages and student loan to fund ventures 00:10:45 First experiments: Middleman Mobiles and FillAJob.com 00:13:30 The idea for Send My Bag 00:18:20 First customers: student shipping during summer holidays 00:27:00 From domestic student shipping to international expansion 00:29:00 Spotting the airline baggage fee opportunity and PR growth 00:34:00 Leveraging free publicity: Dragons’ Den appearance 00:40:15 Expanding into the U.S. market and securing media coverage 00:45:30 Building Send My Bag into a relocation and global logistics service 00:52:00 Lessons learned on scaling, growth and resilience Our partners: A big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: The Komo Club: The world’s first human accelerator Adam’s links: Send My Bag Adam on Twitter/X People mentioned: Grant Carmichael Companies mentioned: FillAJob.com (no longer active) Dragons’ Den (BBC) American Airlines Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co @RohitBhargava7 (Twitter) /rohbhargava (LinkedIn) @rohit_bhargava (Instagram) My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep220_-_Adam_Ewart.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep220 – Adam Ewart (Co-founder & CEO – Send My Bag) on bootstrapping Send My Bag from a uni side project to global service appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep218 – Nipun Mehra (Co-founder & CEO – Ula) On Ula’s hypergrowth, Bezos backing & the hard call to shut down August 7, 2025 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep218 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Nipun Mehra. Nipun has had an incredible track record in his career. At Amazon he launched their first ever real time inventory management system, was an early team member at Flipkart helping build and scale one of India’s most successful and iconic startups before joining Sequoia India as an investor. In 2020, he Co-founded Ula, a B2B e-commerce platform that set out to modernise retail supply chains for millions of small businesses starting in Indonesia. Ula quickly become one of South East Asia’s fastest growing startups. They went from $0 to $300M in revenue within 2 years. Ola also raised over $140M from leading investors including Sequoia, Lightspeed, Tencent and even raised capital from Jeff Bezos himself, his first investment into this part of the world. But in a candid and deeply honest conversation, Nipun shares – for the first time publicly – the full story of what happened behind the scenes from Ula when he decided to shut down the company and return the remaining capital to investors. From hypergrowth to hard calls, this episode dives into the reality of building a company at scale and the weight of leadership at challenging times. In this episode we cover: Nipun’s lessons from his time with Amazon, Flipkart and Sequoia The hypergrowth journey behind Ula Why he decided to shut down Ula and return the capital vs find another path Coming to terms with the ups and downs of the journey & much more I’m also excited to announce that Nipun will be joining The Komo Club as a speaker for Cohort 2. The program is the world’s first human accelerator, designed to help high performing founders and executives implement the right system and frameworks to help them succeed in business and all areas of their life. You can find out more at thekomoclub.com Timestamps: 00:03:08 Nipun’s background: Early entrepreneurial drive 00:07:00 College startup attempts and discovering India’s nascent internet scene 00:14:47 What Amazon & Flipkart taught him about audacious targets and culture 00:20:38 How to set “aggressive but achievable” goals without crossing into folly 00:29:23 Why Indonesia? The leap of faith that launched Ula in Southeast Asia 00:38:37 Securing Jeff Bezos’ first SEA investment and the six-page memo that closed the deal 00:41:31 Scaling to ~US $300 M GMV in two years during COVID 00:43:20 The decision to shut down Ula and return the remaining capital to investors 00:55:13 Lessons on investor alignment 01:04:45 Nipun’s new venture, lessons from Ula he’s applying Our partners: Thank you to Karl Noronha, Ganesh Rengaswamy and Prithvi Rajaram for their help with research for this interview! A big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: The Komo Club: The world’s first human accelerator Nipun’s links: Nipun on LinkedIn People mentioned: Jeff Bezos Larry Page Marissa Mayer Elon Musk Karl Noronha Ganesh Rengaswamy Prithvi Rajaram Companies mentioned: Ula Amazon Flipkart PhonePe Sequoia Capital India / Peak XV Partners Lightspeed Venture Partners Boston Consulting Group Tiger Global Tencent Prosus Bezos Expeditions Udaan Shopee Mercado Libre Coupang Google Meta Reliance Jio Reliance Industries Gojek Tokopedia Playbook Ventures Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co @RohitBhargava7 (Twitter) /rohbhargava (LinkedIn) @rohit_bhargava (Instagram) My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep218_-_Nipun_Mehra.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep218 – Nipun Mehra (Co-founder & CEO – Ula) On Ula’s hypergrowth, Bezos backing & the hard call to shut down appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep216 – Chris Withers (Founder & CEO – Klikit) on lessons from Uber & Gojek, beating cancer & solving hard problems July 18, 2025 rohitbhargava Podcast, Uncategorized My guest for Ep216 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Chris Withers. This week marks 9 years of The Startup Playbook Podcast. What started as a side project in 2015 has now become a platform that’s shared the stories of 200+ founders, investors, and operators — and I’m so grateful to all of you who’ve tuned in, shared episodes, and supported the show along the way. To mark the milestone, I couldn’t have asked for a better guest than Chris Withers, the Founder & CEO of Klikit, a platform helping merchants grow revenue, cut costs, and streamline operations through a powerful all-in-one operating system. Before founding Klikit, Chris was part of the early Uber team in Australia & NZ, helped scale Uber Eats across Asia, and later became VP of Global Mobility at GoJek, giving him a front-row seat to some of the world’s most intense high-growth environments. Chris is also someone I’ve personally backed through Playbook Ventures. Beyond the complexity of building in Southeast Asia, what’s inspired me most is his resilience, including his fight through a cancer diagnosis just months after raising capital as a solo founder. In this episode, we dive into: The high performance cultures at Uber and Gojek and what Chris took away from each Why hard problems are worth solving His battle with cancer and what it taught him about leadership, health, and grit The realities and misconceptions about the Southeast Asian market And much more! Timestamps: 00:02:15 Chris’ background, accidental entry into Uber via a “mechanics yard” interview in Brisbane 00:04:26 Jumping to Uber Eats APAC: contrarian career move that paid off 00:07:10 Chris explains “second-order thinking” and calculated risk-taking 00:11:56 Lessons from Uber 1.0’s boundary-pushing culture of ownership 00:15:00 Inside Gojek: mission, patriotism and Nadiem Makarim’s “Pasti Ada Jalan” mantra 00:20:21 Genesis of klikit: running six virtual brands in one kitchen to test a thesis 00:24:58 Building the “pipes and rails” before the creator-commerce vision 00:29:51 Shipping fast and moving with speed 00:33:24 Going multi-region early; why Southeast Asia forces breadth and depth 00:38:26 Facing cancer diagnosis while running a venture backed startup 00:56:04 eFishery fraud fallout and Chris’s plea not to write off Asian tech Our partners: A big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: The Komo Club: The world’s first human accelerator Chris’ links: Chris on LinkedIn Klikit People mentioned: Travis Kalanick Paul Santos Nadiem Makarim Daniel Kahneman – Thinking Fast & Slow Jeff Bezos Ray Kroc Ben Dunphy Companies mentioned: Uber UberEats Gojek Grab Playbook Ventures TikTok Shop Shopee Lazada Amazon Google MrBeast Burger eFishery Wavemaker Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co @RohitBhargava7 (Twitter) /rohbhargava (LinkedIn) @rohit_bhargava (Instagram) My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep216_-_Chris_Withers.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep216 – Chris Withers (Founder & CEO – Klikit) on lessons from Uber & Gojek, beating cancer & solving hard problems appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep214 – Pan Koutlakis (Co-founder & CEO – EatClub) on rebuilding EatClub from $0 revenue to global expansion after COVID July 3, 2025 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep214 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Pan Koutlakis. Pan is the Co-Founder and CEO of EatClub, a platform that uses dynamic pricing to help restaurants fill empty tables during off-peak hours, while passing on great deals to diners. EatClub saw remarkable growth early on, but like many in the industry, the business came to a standstill when COVID hit, with revenue dropping to zero overnight. Pan responded by drastically downsizing overheads, restructuring the company, and rebuilding momentum recently leading the business to secure an impressive $18.2 million Series A round. In this episode we covered a variety of topics including: How he convinced industry heavyweight Marco Pierre White to come on board Navigating the uncertainty of COVID The power of setting ambitious targets Frameworks for making strategic long-term bets And much more! Timestamps: 00:01:10  Pan’s Adelaide upbringing, law-and-economics studies & first jobs in hospitality 00:08:41  Joining Rocket Internet’s ‘Suppertime’ and witnessing growth-at-all-costs firsthand 00:10:17  Founding EatClub 00:13:08  Cold-emailing Marco Pierre White, why the celebrity chef came on board 00:16:12  Structuring deals with celebrities 00:22:22  Signing the very first restaurant (on the first cold-call) and refining the MVP 00:27:58  EVP’s initial pass, eventual investment and the overnight COVID revenue crash 00:56:15  Tough cuts, shutdown of U.S. ops, and doubling-down on R&D during lockdown 00:39:32  Founder/Investor relationship 00:47:58  How he thinks about product roadmap and what features to build 00:55:07  Post-pandemic rebound, UK market entry & closing the $18.2 M Series A Our partners: A big thank you to Dan Szekely, Jonte Shaw and David Hodges for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: The Komo Club: The world’s first human accelerator Pan’s links: Pan on LinkedIn EatClub People mentioned: Marco Pierre White David Berger Ben Tyler Matt Cantelo Daniel Szekely Jamie Oliver Gordon Ramsay Dan Szekely Jonte Shaw David Hodges Companies mentioned: EatClub EVP Suppertime Foodora Delivery Hero Rocket Internet Menulog Groupon Uber Eats Mastercard Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co @RohitBhargava7 (Twitter) /rohbhargava (LinkedIn) @rohit_bhargava (Instagram) My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep214_-_Pan_Koutlakis.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep214 – Pan Koutlakis (Co-founder & CEO – EatClub) on rebuilding EatClub from $0 revenue to global expansion after COVID appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep212 – Matt Loop (Head of Asia – Rippling) on Leadership, Hiring & Growing Iconic Tech Companies June 19, 2025 rohitbhargava Uncategorized My guest for Ep212 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Matt Loop. There are few people who’ve had as much influence in shaping the tech landscape in this region as Matt. He began his career at Salesforce, where he was one of their earliest hires in Australia, before going on to lead sales at LinkedIn, first in ANZ, then later as Head of Enterprise in North America. After that, he returned to Australia to take on the role of Head of Asia Pacific at Slack, helping the company scale its presence across the region. Today, Matt is the VP and Head of Asia at Rippling, a workforce management platform that’s transforming how businesses manage their people, IT, and operations. Just last month, Rippling announced a $450 million Series G round, valuing the company at $16.8 billion. In this episode, we dive into a range of topics, including: How to build and lead high-performance teams Matt’s approach to hiring and what he looks for in candidates The frameworks he uses to choose which companies to join Balancing a high-impact career with family life And so much more. Timestamps: 00:02:07 Matt’s career arc: Salesforce, LinkedIn, Slack, Rippling 00:08:45 Building Salesforce APAC 00:12:29 GTM Advice to founders 00:16:48 Leaving Salesforce: spotting comfort creep & moving to LinkedIn 00:24:27 Leadership frameworks from all his previous experiences 00:30:15 Cultivating Rippling’s high performance culture 00:35:09 Frameworks for evaluating potential career opportunities 00:46:13 Hiring “good humans” with a growth mindset 00:50:02 Networking and personal branding 00:55:13 Stepping back from the day-to-day and seeing the bigger picture 01:00:10 Finding your own version of balance Our partners: A big thank you to Katrina Loop, James Demetrios and Andrew McCarthy for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: The Komo Club – Details here Matt’s Links: Matt on LinkedIn Rippling People mentioned: Marc Benioff Satya Nadella Mike Gamson Alyssa Merwin Cal Henderson Parker Conrad James Demetrios Andrew McCarthy Companies mentioned: Salesforce LinkedIn Slack Siebel Oracle SAP Microsoft Amazon eBay Notion Atlassian Playbook Ventures Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co @RohitBhargava7 (Twitter) /rohbhargava (LinkedIn) @rohit_bhargava (Instagram) My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep212_-_Matt_Loop.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep212 – Matt Loop (Head of Asia – Rippling) on Leadership, Hiring & Growing Iconic Tech Companies appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep210 – James Fuller (Co-founder & CEO – Hnry) on turning a spreadsheet into platform processing $2.6B May 1, 2025 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep210 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was James Fuller. James is the Co-founder & CEO of Hnry. Hnry automates taxes for sole traders, so they never have to think about tax again. The company started from a spreadsheet that James and his wife and Co-founder, Claire, created to solve their own problem. They shared these spreadsheets with friends who passed it on to other friends before realising that there was a real business opportunity underneath these spreadsheets. Today, Hnry has 150 staff across 3 countries, has raised over $60M in funding and processes $2.6B in payments every year in Australia and New Zealand. In this episode, we dive deep into a range of topics including: The advantages that come from being a husband and wife founding team The opportunities and challenges that come from being first to market How the value of fairness is embedded not just into their company culture, but also their pricing strategy How James and Claire have overcome some of the more challenging periods of their business, including times when they’ve both wanted to quit the business And much more! Timestamps: 1:57 James’ background. 3:19 Being co-founders and spouses: pros, cons, and how they navigate disagreements. 12:29 Hnry’s growth over the years: 150 staff, 3 countries, billions of dollars processed. 18:13 Customer led product development, building trust over time, high referral rates and strong NPS as proof points. 22:43 Overcoming traditional industry challenges, educating the market about a “new category” of full-stack service. 32:43 Fairness & Hnry’s Unique Pricing Model. 38:37 Culture & team building across three countries 42:53 Balancing parenthood and startup life Our partners: A big thank you to Karan Anand for his help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: The Komo Club – Details here James’ Links: Hnry James on LinkedIn People mentioned: Claire Fuller Karan Anand Vinny Pujji Companies mentioned: Xero Left Lane Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co @RohitBhargava7 (Twitter) /rohbhargava (LinkedIn) @rohit_bhargava (Instagram) My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep210_-_James_Fuller.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep210 – James Fuller (Co-founder & CEO – Hnry) on turning a spreadsheet into platform processing $2.6B appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep208 – Jane Martino (Co-founder & Chair – Smiling Mind) on founder mental health, mindfulness & multiple exits March 27, 2025 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep208 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Jane Martino. Jane has had an incredibly successful career as a director, investor, advisor and founder of a number of companies that have successfully exited. She’s best known as the Co-founder & Chair of Smiling Mind, one of the worlds leading mindfulness and mental health tools with over 9.3M downloads and 14M young people reached globally. She now helps individuals reach their maximum potential through her coaching business, Kintsugi Way. In this episode, we cover: Lessons from launching, scaling and exiting several businesses The role of good advisors and board members How to deal with co-founder conflicts How to deal with emotions and stress as a founder And much more. PS we go deep into several important topics in this episode and they are just some of the topics we dive into at The Komo Club. The Komo Club is a private program I’ve launched for high-performing founders, operators and executives who want to win not just in business, but across all areas of life—from health and relationships to personal growth and leadership. It’s an 8-week cohort experience that combines world class content, practical systems and frameworks a curated community to help you reach your goals. And I’m incredibly proud to share that Jane will be joining us as one of the featured guest speakers for the upcoming cohort. She’ll be diving deeper into the frameworks and lessons she’s used to lead with purpose, avoid burnout, and create lasting impact; personally and professionally. If this episode resonates with you, I think you’ll love what Jane will be sharing inside The Komo Club as well. Cohort 1 applications are now open. You can learn more at TheKomoClub.com or by reaching out to me directly at rohit@startupplaybook.co. Timestamps: 3:07 Janey’s background 13:49 Founder mental health 18:59 Experience with meditation and practical uses for business 24:27 Communicating with co-founders and colleagues 35:33 How she applied these to the situation at Unlockd 45:40 Thoughts on hustle culture 56:48 How she’s approached being a founder 59:30 Her approach to advisory roles 1:09:58 How she helps co founders decide on the roles they’ll play in the business 1:20:55 The journey with Smiling Mind Our partners: A big thank you to Laura Henshaw and Andrew Duncan for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.The Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/podcast to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: The Komo Club – Details & Cohort #1 applications available here Janey’s links: Jane on LinkedIn Kintsugi Way Smiling Mind People mentioned: Rachael Neumann Robin Sharma James Tutton Laura Henshaw Companies mentioned: Unlockd AWS CSIRO Aussie Founders Club Boost Mobile Tesco Mobile Google Kic DiSC profile Headspace Calm Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co @RohitBhargava7 (Twitter) /rohbhargava (LinkedIn) @rohit_bhargava (Instagram) My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://youtu.be/JZ9chMylhxA https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep208_-_Jane_Martino.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep208 – Jane Martino (Co-founder & Chair – Smiling Mind) on founder mental health, mindfulness & multiple exits appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep206 – Adam Schwab (Co-founder & CEO – Luxury Escapes) on reinventing Luxury Escapes & Scaling to $1B+ GTV February 13, 2025 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep206 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Adam Schwab. Adam started his career as a lawyer before transitioning to startups and has had a number of successful businesses, but is best known as the Co-founder & CEO of Luxury Escapes. Luxury Escapes is one of the world’s leading travel brands, revolutionising the way people book luxury getaways. Despite their success, it hasn’t always been a straightforward journey for the company, particularly going through periods such as COVID (an extremely difficult time for all travel businesses) and with Adam stepping away from the CEO role for a period of time. However he stepped back in the role with a renewed vision of the company and has seen the business grow from $350M pre-COVID to now doing over $1B in GTV sales annually. In this episode we covered a variety of topics including: Why Adam no longer looks at acquisitions as a growth strategy Why stepping away from Luxury Escapes made him a 10X better CEO The pivot in the business led to them growing from $350 million GTV to $1 billion+ GTV And much more! Timestamps: 3:05 Adam’s background 7:10 Early entrepreneurial journey, inherent traits and developed skills that helped him 9:39 Lessons from first business 13:14 Initial growth strategies at Luxury Escapes 18:50 Getting sued by Gabby & Hessi and then doing JV deals with them 25:23 Pivoting the business model 29:11 Creating culture and hiring at scale 33:45 Barefoot running 35:14 Understanding the needs of the customer and market 37:33 Leaving Luxury Escapes 43:41 Playing offense instead of defence during COVID as a travel company 48:55 the choice to limit outside funding 50:49 Key business metrics he tracks at Luxury Escapes 52:06 Future plans for Luxury Escapes 55:44 The changes he made coming back to Luxury Escapes after leaving 58:25 Taking care of health 1:00:28 How life priorities shift over time Our partners: A big thank you to Jeremy Sane and Shay Hamama for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our long-term partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: The Komo Club – Details & Cohort #1 applications available here Adam’s Links: Adam’s LinkedIn The Contrarians with Adam and Adir Luxury Escapes People mentioned: Jeremy Same Evan Spiegel Elon Musk Mark Zuckerberg Warren Buffet Mike Sneesby Steve Jobs Gabby Leibovich Hezi Leibovich Mark Hoenig Joshua Landy Chris McDougall Jensen Huang Shay Hamama Campbell McComb Hamilton Helmer Jeff Bezos Adir Shiffman Companies mentioned: AirBnB OpenTable Groupon Herbert Smith Freehills Nine Microsoft LivingSocial eBay Scoopon Menulog Wesfarmers Catch.com.au Amazon Expedia Trip Auctus Investment Group Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co @RohitBhargava7 (Twitter) /rohbhargava (LinkedIn) @rohit_bhargava (Instagram) My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep206_-_Adam_Schwab.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep206 – Adam Schwab (Co-founder & CEO – Luxury Escapes) on reinventing Luxury Escapes & Scaling to $1B+ GTV appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep204 – George Hartley (Co-founder & Co-CEO – Bluethumb) on lessons from building a $100M art marketplace January 23, 2025 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep204 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was George Hartley. George is the Co-founder & Co-CEO of Bluethumb, Australia’s largest art marketplace. Since its launch in 2012, Bluethumb has grown into the leading art marketplace platform, connecting over 23,000 artists with buyers and selling more than $100 million worth of artwork. In addition to Bluethumb, George was also the Co-founder and CEO of SmartrMail, an email marketing platform designed to help e-commerce businesses delight their customers and boost sales. SmartrMail’s success led to its acquisition by Relay Commerce in 2022, delivering a 5x return to its seed investors. In this episode, George shares insights into: Why Bluethumb waited three years to raise their seed round and why they’ve stayed bootstrapped since The importance of continuously taking risks and experimenting to drive growth The unique challenges and strategies for scaling consumer marketplaces versus SaaS companies Timestamps: 1:49 George’s background 7:30 His journey from music to tech 11:33 How to know when to stick with something vs pivot 15:45 The early days of Bluethumb 19:52 Staying true to your vision despite external noise 24:18 The fundraising journey for Bluethumb 32:03 The SmarterMail journey 38:02 Identifying and hiring talent 45:34 How he thinks about taking risks and running experiments 52:54 US Expansion Our partners: A big thank you to Freddy Grant and Ed Hartley for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: George’s links: George on LinkedIn Bluethumb Bluethumb on Instagram Art in my Home Podcast People mentioned: Steve Jobs Richard Branson Edward Hartley Philip Slusarski Bradford D. Smart – Topgrading Freddy Grant Lorenzo Ghiberti Companies mentioned: Costco Apple SoundCloud Luxury Escapes Zappos Startmate SmartrMail LivingSocial EVP Klayvio Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co @RohitBhargava7 (Twitter) /rohbhargava (LinkedIn) @rohit_bhargava (Instagram) My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep204_-_George_Hartley_Bluethumb.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep204 – George Hartley (Co-founder & Co-CEO – Bluethumb) on lessons from building a $100M art marketplace appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep202 – Josh Ball (Co-founder – Farmers Pick) on using tech to save 7 million kg of food waste December 19, 2024 rohitbhargava Uncategorized My guest for Ep202 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder of Farmers Pick, Josh Ball. Farmers Pick helps save food waste by rescuing wonky food that is often discarded by supermarkets and making it available to order by consumers. Since launching in 2020, they have saved 7 million kilograms of produce and the company now has 120 employees and generated $16M in revenue last year.  In this interview we covered a range of topics including: The importance of having a strong mission and values to help guide strategic business decisions balancing frugality with 100% YoY growth Why they decided to go down the equity crowdfunding path rather than raising from traditional VC funds Scaling storytelling to both their staff and to their customers And much more! Timestamps: 1:45 Josh’s background 7:12 The origin story of Farmers Pick 12:29 How he validated the initial idea 18:27 The operational complexities of growing a physical goods business 27:52 Finding the balance between focussing on new customers vs expansion of existing customers 29:50 Using social media to grow the brand 31:05 The decision to crowdfund vs raise venture capital 35:29 Negotiation advice 37:41 Making sure the vision/mission stays consistent across whole company as you grow 42:43 Thinking about expansion 48:04 How his role has evolved as the business has grown 54:00 Staying out of the weeds and making strategic decisions 55:40 What’s next for Farmers Pick Our partners: A big thank you to our partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: Josh’s links: Josh’s LinkedIn Farmers Pick People mentioned: Joshua Brooks-Duncan Simon Griffiths Adrian Osman Companies mentioned: PromisePay Xero Misfits Market Who Gives A Crap MILKRUN Playbook Ventures me&u Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep202_-_Josh_Ball.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep202 – Josh Ball (Co-founder – Farmers Pick) on using tech to save 7 million kg of food waste appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep200 – Jason Wyatt (Co-founder & CEO – Marketplacer) on shutting down 8 companies to go all in on Marketplacer November 28, 2024 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep200 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Jason Wyatt, the Co-founder & CEO of Marketplacer. Jason’s journey started with a bike marketplace called BikeExchange, the global success of this marketplace led to others wanting to create and launch their own versions of marketplaces. These opportunities led to him launching 8 Joint Ventures in different verticals. Despite some success with this model, Jason saw a much bigger opportunity for this solution as a “platform” play that could scale and grow globally. As a result, he ended up wrapping up the JVs to go all in Marketplacer. Marketplacer is a marketplace platform that allows enterprise companies to scale and grow their ecommerce operations, counting companies such as Qantas, Tesco and Optus as customers. Marketplacer has quickly become a global leader in marketplace technology, powering over 100 marketplaces worldwide and facilitating billions of dollars in transactions. To date, they have raised over $85M from leading investors around the world. In this episode we covered a range of topics including: Why Jason decided to shut down eight different companies to go all in on Marketplacer Lessons from launching, growing, and hiring globally The importance of having strategic investors like Salesforce Ventures and much more! Timestamps: 2:22 Jason’s background 4:46 Business and sport experiences as a teenager 10:58 Starting BikeExchange 17:23 Where the conviction for BikeExchange came from 23:35 Trying to launch into other verticals with The Exchange Group and how that led to Marketplacer 27:31 Getting their first enterprise customers 30:23 The decision to switch off 30% of revenue to focus on the bigger opportunity 32:38 Having a productive board relationship 37:05 Pulling yourself out of the day to day to see the bigger picture in business 40:40 Finding and recruiting talent 45:27 Expanding Globally 51:54 Finding strategic investors 55:43 Balancing business with family 1:02:50 Getting through tough times, dealing with the loss of his father and brother Our partners: A big thank you to Bob Schwartz, Richard Hankin and Sam Salter for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: Jason’s links: Jason’s LinkedIn Marketplacer People mentioned: Sam Salter Mark Philippousas Greg Roebuck Lance Armstrong Michael Jordan Gerry Harvey Peter Bartels Bob Schwartz Sean van Waes Richard Hankin James Harrisson Jade Wyatt Companies mentioned: BikeExchange KPMG Reuters Morgan Stanley Shopify Magento Carsales Telstra Tesco Qantas Woolworths Providoor BigCommerce Nordstrom SAP IBM Gap Salesforce Ventures Portmans The Just Group Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep200_-_Jason_Wyatt.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep200 – Jason Wyatt (Co-founder & CEO – Marketplacer) on shutting down 8 companies to go all in on Marketplacer appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep198 – Rohan Workman (Co-founder & CEO – Skalata) on taking risks & balancing speed with discipline October 24, 2024 rohitbhargava Uncategorized My guest for Ep198 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Rohan Workman. Rohan is the Co-founder & CEO of Skalata, a seed stage venture capital firm that was established in 2018 and count a portfolio of over 80 companies across their 2 funds. Prior to this, he was the Director of MAP, Melbourne Uni’s Accelerator program that he built to become the 8th ranked program in the world. Rohan also previously founded RosterCloud, a cloud-based software management tool for events and catering businesses. RosterCloud was acquired by Rision in 2016. In this interview we covered a range of topics including: What his first job out of uni, working in corporate recovery, taught him about business Lessons from his first startup, Roster Cloud Why Skalata evolved from an accelerator program to a more traditional fund structure & much more! Timestamps: 1:43 Rohan’s background 4:02 Importance of health & fitness as a founder 12:08 Tough lessons from his time at McGrathNicol 15:25 Advice for navigating challenging people situations in business 21:24 Balancing speed with discipline 26:50 Mistakes and lessons from RosterCloud 30:36 Time at Melbourne Accelerator Program in the early days 39:45 The genesis for Skalata 46:35 Skalata’s investment thesis and process 57:10 Taking risks and being bold Our partners: A big thank you to Maxine Lee, Laura Williams and Rosemary Workman for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: Rohan’s links: Rohan’s LinkedIn Skalata VC People mentioned: S. N. Goenka John Berry Sam Kothari Leigh Jasper Jocko Willink Darrell Wade Maxine Lee Lisa Paul Daniel Madhavan Sarah Morgan Anthony Glenning Kate Cornick Justin Lipman Connor Hagan Alex Ewart Companies mentioned: KPMG McGrathNicol Melbourne Accelerator Program (MAP) Melbourne University RosterCloud Vipassana Meditation Everlab The Big Group LaunchVic Explorate EVP Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep198_-_Rohan_Workman.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep198 – Rohan Workman (Co-founder & CEO – Skalata) on taking risks & balancing speed with discipline appeared first on Startup Playbook.

The Startup Playbook PodcastInsights and lessons from the world's best entrepreneurs and investors Twitter Facebook YouTube Instagram Ep196 – Cam Falloon (Founder & CEO – BFT) on overcoming adversity and scaling to 700+ studios globally August 22, 2024 rohitbhargava Podcast My guest for Ep196 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was Cam Falloon. Every great story starts with overcoming adversity and Cam is no different. Cam picked up a serious back injury which made it difficult for him to walk…to the point where it would take him 15mins to walk a 12m hallway and being told by doctors that he wouldn’t be able to workout again. That life-altering injury sparked his passion for strength, conditioning, and training, not only to rehabilitate his own back but also to help others achieve peak physical health. Cam’s expertise took him to the highest levels of personal training, including working with none other than Princess Diana and high-performance roles in the English Premier League with Derby County, as well as several AFL teams. In 2015 he launched BFT, a group strength training studio that started with just four studios in Melbourne. Today, BFT has exploded into a global phenomenon with over 700 studios across 11 countries. The growth and success of BFT hasn’t always been obvious with Cam having to navigate through the lockdown period during COVID and overcoming an aggressive $50M lawsuit from the largest competitor in the industry In this episode, Cam shares lessons from his career so far and we cover topics such as: The back injury that changed Cam’s life and set him on a path to becoming a leader in the fitness industry. Cam’s experience working with Princess Diana and his role in high-performance training within the English Premier League and AFL. The founding and rapid global expansion of BFT, growing from 4 to 700+ studios in just under a decade. How BFT navigated the challenges of COVID-19 without shutting down any studios. The $50M legal battle with a major competitor and what it taught Cam about resilience and perseverance in business. Timestamps 1:59 Cam’s background 6:31 Hurting his back, how that led to fitness 15:59 Training Princess Diana in London 19:20 Working with Derby County Football Club 27:14 Keeping things simple in business 30:51 Challenges working in sports 32:48 Applying lessons from sport and high performance to business 36:22 Overcoming health challenges his wife was having 40:24 Launching BFT 47:47 Avoiding 7 as a feedback score 50:21 Getting sued for $50M 1:01:51 Navigating COVID 1:07:49 Surrounding yourself with the right people in business 1:14:04 How he gets a lot done while still finding balance Our partners: A big thank you to John Glancy, Dave Aitchison, Sarah Nehme and Steve Latham for their help with this interview! Also a big shout out to our partners for the show: Scendar  Scendar is the OG startup accounting firm in Australia catering to all stages of your business’ life. If you’re busy running your startup, you don’t have time to do your own books and forecast. Instead, fully outsource your finance function, giving you time and resources back to focus on what you do best in growing your business. Find out more at Scendar.com Vanta Vanta helps businesses get — and stay — compliant by automating up to 90% of the work for the most in-demand compliance frameworks. And with over 300 integrations, you can easily monitor and secure the tools your business relies on.Join over six thousand fast-growing companies that use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time.Startup Playbook Podcast listeners get access to an exclusive offer of USD$1000 off their plans. Head over to vanta.com/playbook to get access to this exclusive discount. Links mentioned: Cam’s links: Cam’s LinkedIn Cam’s Instagram Body Fit Training (BFT) People mentioned: Princess Diana Terry Hennessy Andrew Russell Daniel Marrs Matthew McGrath Micha Kaufman Ernie Merrick Richard Burnet Hamish McLachlan Sarah Nehme Steve Latham John Glancy David Aitchison Companies mentioned: Holmes Place Gym Derby County Academy Fiverr Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Paycheck Other channels: Find all of the links for the podcast on Linktree here https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/startupplaybook/Ep196_-_Cam_Falloon.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | EmbedSubscribe: RSS admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat admin January 1, 2014 Reply Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Copyright © 2015 - Live Composer The post Ep196 – Cam Falloon (Founder & CEO – BFT) on overcoming adversity and scaling to 700+ studios globally appeared first on Startup Playbook.