Weekly Pulse
Dynamic Business
Dynamic Business provides small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs with business news, inspiration and expertise.
Top business stories of the week:
1. Let’s Talk: Creating that killer (low cost) marketing strategy to draw in more customers
Every business needs a solid marketing plan. After all, what is the point of investing time and money into starting a new business only to discover that there are no customers?
Creating a solid marketing strategy with demonstrable results in a cutthroat industry can be challenging. Even though there are numerous strategies and techniques for establishing profitable advertising campaigns, ranging from social media marketing to explosive brand recognition, it’s important to understand which strategies best serve your business goals.
In this week’s episode, our experts explore the various marketing types, and the steps businesses can take to develop a strong marketing strategy in the future.
Let’s Talk.
Jörn S. , Business Brand Director, The Big Smoke Media Group
“No business needs marketing. Every business needs better income. That’s the rub with killer marketing strategies – knowing the best income and going after it. And determining when there’s even better income and making it happen when the time is right.
“Start-ups, at the very start, will rely on funding/ investment as their income. To market for that is to understand who the most likely investors are and what they get excited about, and craft your collateral – website, brochures, pitch deck – so that it excites potential investors on their terms.
“Scale-ups prove themselves by generating income from sales. That means knowing what’s most compelling to customers and presenting your collateral – website, brochures, advertising, PR – so that it excites existing and potential customers on their terms.
“Business performs best when talking with people rather than at them. It’s business-with-business rather than business-to-business or business-with-consumers. People who make up the market will only take note when experiencing the business in ways that excite them, or has a clear advantage for them – that they identify with.
“Killer marketing is about presenting what you have to offer. In terms of what compels people who make up your market. On their terms. Not what excites the founder, the team, or least of all the marketer.”
Suzette Bailey , CEO and co-Founder, reKnow
“When building a start-up, you normally have limited cash for marketing, so it’s critical to leverage ‘owned’ and ‘earned’ marketing as much as possible.
“Start by working your networks. Some of the people you know may be potential customers, some influencers, some partners and even investors. Communicate regularly about your journey, what you’re working on, the benefits you offer and your wins.
“Build your social media. Even when it feels like shouting into a void, it’s critical to be active, as this is a free way to build buzz. Not every post should be a sell. Discuss challenges your customers face, successes with your platform and industry news.
“Earn media attention for your start-up. You will need a compelling story and good relationships. Identify key industry journalists and publications, send them timely and relevant information about your business and insightful expert viewpoints on breaking industry news. Look for speaking opportunities at conferences and podcasts to extend this reach further. And repurpose all this content in your marketing.
“Finally, develop and implement a strong, consistent brand identity. This becomes your ‘uniform’ for building brand recognition over time across all your marketing channels.”
Daniel Franco , host of the Creating Synergy podcast and Managing Director of SynergyIQ
“If you’re scaling a business, and you’re not connecting with the right people, then you’re not going to be successful. It’s really that simple.
“The bigger and stronger your network is, the more likely you are to be successful. But in my experience, most people aren’t particularly good at building relationships with new people. It’s always: ‘Help me!… Can I pick your brain?’
“Instead, my advice is to create a value-driven relationship. When you reach out to someone, imagine you are one of the hundreds of people doing the same thing.
“Who could introduce you instead? How can you differentiate yourself? Approach with zero expectation. Provide value upfront with no expectation of immediate return.
“I invite new contacts to appear on my podcast Creating Synergy, giving them a platform to share their story and business lessons.
“From there, we build a relationship. It’s a long-term game but pays off because an element of trust is built in. It sounds like common sense, but so few people actually do it.
“If you want to be successful, start building relationships with the right people today. It’s the best investment you can make.”
Amanda 🐼 Delosa , Director, Yellowpanda Agency
“In PR land, we often work with startups to help raise initial awareness as it is an effective way to boost credibility and trust in the early stages of establishing a brand.
“It can also be a more cost-effective way to reach the masses, especially when up against established competitor brands with deep pockets.
“For example, when Sir Richard Branson started Virgin Airlines, he mastered the art of landing front page coverage through clever publicity stunts. He did this knowing full well that he would not be able to compete or outspend the marketing budget of British Airlines – and it paid off!
“While some business strategists advise against engaging in PR until brands are established, in my experience, I have witnessed scores of startups who have secured more than 6-figures worth of media coverage in the first few months – in turn reaching millions of potential customers.
“If you’re a disruptor or behind an innovative new product or service, you’re primed for this opportunity.”
Simran Kaur , Founder & CEO, Pounce Agency
“Competition in business, across all sectors, has never been fiercer. No longer is it simply enough to match the competition. Now any new business owner is expected to not only create and deliver a superior product or service but also outthink, outsmart and outwit their competition at every turn whilst still retaining a strong ROI and being cost-effective.
Talk about mission impossible!
But there is a way you can make your life easier. It’s called the ‘THREE C’s and is basically a compass to help you navigate these tricky waters.
“So, when crafting your making campaigns, ask yourself the following questions:
Lisandro Paz and Benn Martiniello , Co-founders, Elite Eleven
“Show Your Customers Who They Want To See – Themselves!
In a digital age of never-ending content, often highly curated and out of reach of everyday people, customers call for refreshingly real content that is attainable vs aspirational. As a new approach to marketing to show customers that not only do we see them for who they are but celebrate our Elite Eleven community, we are putting them at the forefront of our marketing and advertising campaigns. This fresh approach for the brand launched with the release of our newest collection and called on the Elite Eleven community to submit themselves for inclusion in the campaign! What resulted was a day of connection with our community who had the opportunity to model for a day, and for us as a brand to truly and accurately represent the most important part of any brand – the customers.”
2. Founder Friday with Kyle Bolto , CEO and Founder of Ohmie GO : providing e-mobility solutions to make car ownership a thing of the past
For thousands of residents across Australia’s east coast, there’s a growing reason to ditch their petrol cars and pivot towards more sustainable transportation – a fleet of electric vehicles is being made exclusively available to them, to rent on demand, as part of their building’s amenities.
“We basically say it’s like a pool, but useful,” laughed Kyle Bolto, founder and CEO of Ohmie GO, the first sustainable shared e-Mobility company in Australia.
“You’re seeing these beautiful modern buildings coming to the market with luxury dining rooms, wonderful entertaining areas, great gyms and health clubs, and all these sorts of amenities. At Ohmie GO, we think that e-mobility as an amenity is a valuable proposition for both the building and the residents within it.”
First launched in 2018 and now operating in sites across Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, Ohmie GO’s fleet of cars (specifically Tesla Model 3s), e-bikes, and e-scooters to rent on-demand aim to “change the way we move around cities.”
Some of their property partners include Knight Frank, Aria Property Group, Sekisui House, Mosaic Property Group, and Bolton Clarke.
Kyle elaborated, “We’ve been in the technology space with IoT devices and smart homes for a little while now and it became very apparent to us that one of the big problems to be solved in the next four to five years is, how can we make the transition from petrol vehicles into electric vehicles? How does that meld into the way we plan and operate buildings?”
READ MORE: Founder Friday with Jacinta Timmins: the secrets of launching a sustainable apparel brand
Bringing EVs to the general public
With a corporate background in technology and telecom, playing a key role in building the infrastructure for the internet and mobile networks in Australia with Vodafone and NBN, Kyle’s passionate about “looking at what’s coming in the future, how these technologies can help us, and making sure the infrastructure is in place.”
He left the corporate world in 2015 down the path of entrepreneurship, seeking avenues to make a difference.
“I got a great front row seat to observe how these industries grew with pretty rapid pace,” he noted. “It’s interesting to see what’s happening in the electric vehicle and mobility space now, as it has a lot of similarities to what happened in the early days of the internet.”
So far, Ohmie GO has raised around $1.5 million from a small number of supporters so far, with plans to raise another round soon.
The mission, as Kyle explains, is “to challenge car ownership as a concept, to create a future of shared e-mobility across smart cities and regional communities.” (The name, too, is a subtle nod to ohm, the unit of electrical resistance.)
“Look, the world of car share or bike share is not new,” Kyle admitted. “The big difference here is that we’re making these privately available to the tenants of a building. By bringing this inside, it creates a really wonderful dynamic that it’s a private amenity and interestingly, it creates a different social dynamic as well. People treat them really well because they know the next person coming in could be their neighbor or co-worker.”
Notably, it also marks the first time in the driver’s seat of an EV for many Ohmie GO users, who can now rent a Tesla for just $15 an hour.
“We have vehicles in retirement villages of all places, with users in their 70s and 80s! They’re able to book it through the Ohmie GO app, use the car for errands and do everything they need to do, and come right back. For us, it’s a really great endorsement that electric vehicles can be easy to use, even for people who might find the technology daunting or challenging,” Kyle grinned.
The EV market in Australia
Electric cars accounted for less than two per cent of sales in Australia in 2021 compared to the global average of nine per cent, per recent reports. Many sceptics point to the price barrier as well as the current infrastructure in place to charge, and maintain, an EV in the country.
According to Kyle, Ohmie GO’s success lies in its model, which takes care of the installation, cleaning, insurance, sustainability reporting, and maintenance of the electric vehicles for the residents.
“I think the infrastructure for EVs is there, like the Tesla charger network and companies like ChargeFox. I’ve personally driven from Sydney to Brisbane in a Tesla maybe five times, even Sydney to Melbourne in a Tesla around eight times, and I would argue it’s a lovelier experience than driving a conventional petrol car,” he said.
“That said, there’s certainly more infrastructure that needs to be made available, but it’s coming. And it’s already a lot better than it was just a couple of years ago when we first began.”
Best advice received
Through Kyle’s twenty years experience across technology and executive leadership, there’s one important lesson that’s stood out: “the devil’s in the details.”
“It’s relatively easy to get from zero to 90 per cent and a lot of people can do that. What’s very difficult in business to get to 100 per cent, whether that’s delivering a quality product or user experience,” he observed.
“Certainly early in my career, that attention to detail wasn’t where it should’ve been, and I learned some crucial lessons along the way. For me, value lies in the details, and the rest will come.”
3. Tech Tuesday: Our top selection of tools for analysing business data in 2022
Dynamic Business’s Tech Tuesdays column is dedicated to the businesses and products that have made great contributions to the tech industry, are pushing the boundaries of technology, and are redefining the future.
You can improve your business with the actionable information that analytical tools can give you. These business analytics tools, fortunately, are more versatile and available than ever. They are strong enough for large businesses while remaining simple enough for SMEs. Analysts and data professionals use tools and software to achieve the best results in various tasks, including the preparation of data, the automation of processes, and more traditional tasks like data visualisation and reporting.
This column aims to inform readers about innovative technology that can simplify their lives. In this week’s edition, we’ve gathered a list of data and analytics solutions that can be game changers for businesses that can assist organisations in gathering, analysing, and turning data into reports that are easy to read, which they can then employ to boost their bottom line.
On our list:
More details about each tool 👇:
4. Funding roundup September 24 – September 30: Checkmate, XP Health, India’s Meesho and more
Solvo launches after securing $3.5 million in funding
Solvo, a new finance app that provides crypto-interested investors with a more simple and transparent approach to accessing high-quality crypto products, has announced the debut of its new app and initial features. Index Ventures, CoinFund, and FJ Labs contributed $3.5 million to the company’s inaugural funding round.
Two-year-old TRENDii raises $2.9m
TRENDii, a two-year-old ad-tech company, has announced a seed financing of A$2.9 million. Investible and a key media partner are leading this cash campaign. TRENDii collaborates closely with Daily Mail, Are Media, News Corp, and PopSugar, and it looks forward to extending its relationship portfolio to create shared value for eCommerce and publisher businesses throughout the world.
Checkmate lands a $7.75 million Seed round
Checkmate, an Australian startup operating in the United States, has raised $5 million (A$7.75 million) in a seed round. Fuel Capital, a US venture capital firm, led the funding round. Kevin Johnson, former CEO of Ebates at Rakuten, NFL star Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures, Ancestry CEO Deborah Liu, Firstbase CEO Chris Herd, XMTP cofounder Shane Mac, f7 Ventures, Blackbird, Scribble Ventures, Hyper, Susa Ventures, Wischoff Ventures, Exits Capital, and Night Capital are among the other investors.
6clicks banks $10 million Series A
Centerstone Capital, a specialist VC focused on tech-enabled startups for the professional services industry founded by former Deloitte global chief strategy officer John Meacock and Deloitte global strategy and innovation MD Luc Maasdorp, led the $10 million Series A round led by Melbourne regtech 6clicks. RainMakr, WeAre8, and Clear Dynamics are also part of the company’s portfolio.
Hanwha Energy Australia raises $150 million
Hanwha Energy Australia Pty Ltd has raised AU$150 million in funding to accelerate the development and expansion of its revolutionary renewable energy business model in the Australian energy industry. Hanwha Energy Australia, in collaboration with its retail energy businesses Nectr, integrates utility-scale renewable energy generation, rooftop solar and home batteries, retail energy, finance, and technology to provide Australians with a one-stop shop for all of their energy needs.
A consortium of financial organisations, including Woori PE Asset Management, the Korea Development Bank (KDB), and KDB Capital, invested.
--- US ---
Scale Venture Partners closes Fund VIII with a $900 million investment
Scale Venture Partners, a venture capital firm based in Foster City, California, closed its Fund VIII at $900 million.
XP Health has raised $17.1 million in Series A funding
XP Health, a digital visual benefits platform provider based in San Carlos, CA, has raised $17.1 million in Series A funding. The round was led by HC9 Ventures, Valor Capital Group and ManchesterStory. Additional investors include Core Innovation Capital, GSR Ventures, Canvas Ventures, Plug and Play, CameronVC, Ken Goulet, Kevin Hill, Jeff Epstein and Brett Rochkind. This recent funding round followed a $5.5 million raise in 2021.
Aikon Secures $10 Million in Series A Equity Financing
Aikon, a Web3 onboarding solution provider based in San Francisco, CA, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round was led by institutional blockchain investment firm Morgan Creek Digital. Also in this round, Blizzard the Avalanche Fund joined as a strategic investor and partner.
Sitetracker has raised $96 million in Series D equity and debt financing
Sitetracker, a Montclair, New Jersey-based deployment operations management software provider for critical infrastructure providers, has raised $96 million in funding. Energize Ventures led a new round of equity funding totalling $66M, and BridgeBank, a subsidiary of Western Alliance, provided a $30M revolving credit facility.
--- India ---
Meesho Gets $192 Mn From Parent Entity
Meesho has received $192 Mn from its parent entity, Meesho Inc amid the festive season sale. Meesho had last raised $570 Mn in a funding round led by Fidelity Management and B Capital Group in September 2021.
Mojocare Secures US$20M in Series A Funding
Mojocare, a Bengaluru, India-based full-stack health and wellness clinic, raised US$20.6 million (INR 160 Cr) in a Series A funding. The round was led by B Capital’s Ascent Fund and existing investors Chiratae Ventures, Sequoia India’s Surge, and Better Capital. The funding round also saw participation from some of India’s top angel investors like Mr. Vineet Jain (MD, Times Group), Kunal Shah (Founder, CRED), Ankit Nagori (Founder of Curefoods), Adrian Auon (Founder and CEO, Forward), Sajid Rahman (Founder and CEO, Telenor Health), Ravi Bhushan (Founder and CEO, Brightchamps), and Vivekananda HR (CEO and Founder, Bounce).
Elucidata Bags $16 Mn To Scale SaaS Platform Polly
Delhi-based biomedical data startup Elucidata has raised $16 Mn as part of its Series A funding round led by investment firm Eight Roads Ventures. The round also saw F-Prime Capital, IvyCap Ventures, and Hyperplane Venture Capital participation.
5. Exclusive: GoCardless’ VP of Partnerships offers incredible turnaround tactics for startup founders
In my opinion, culture and strategy go hand in hand. I agree with Renn Vara – a leading coach who works on developing company culture at some of the most successful companies, when he says, “Many companies …have terrific strategies and no culture. I don’t know any great companies with great culture and no strategy.
Seb Hempstead
In the startup world, anyone can come up with the next big idea. However, not everyone is capable of grasping it and making it available to the consumer. We’ve all heard the infamous startup statistics about how few businesses survive their first five years. Nobody would tell you that starting and running a startup in 2021 is easy.
The hardest part of succeeding in the startup environment is being able to steer your company on a road that increases its chances of surviving and growing rapidly. This suggests that you must implement a very strong expansion strategy. Fortunately, over the years, there have been many startup success stories, and we at Dynamic Business have worked tirelessly to share them with you to motivate you.
Enough startups have achieved unicorn status for us to recognise the importance of an effective startup strategy. Sebastian Hempstead , Vice president of Partnerships at GoCardless , joins us today to discuss what entrepreneurs must do to establish a startup development strategy to help their business achieve long-term success and growth.
Seb’s experience is more in B2B and B2B2C than in direct B2C. This is where he feels his strategic thinking comes from. He currently works in Fintech, and he has a background in SaaS Martech.
“Before I dive in, it’s worth noting that Strategy should not be an academic exercise, outsourced to consultants, documented and slipped into a drawer after a fair few grand has been spent on it. Nor should it be owned in the ivory tower, guarded as a well-kept secret. Strategy is a living, evolving process and should be understood at every level of the organisation.
“In my opinion, culture and strategy go hand in hand. I agree with Renn Vara – a leading coach who works on developing company culture at some of the most successful companies, when he says, “Many companies …have terrific strategies and no culture. I don’t know any great companies with great culture and no strategy.”
Strategy 1: Developing a successful Go-to-Market strategy
What problem do you solve, and how important is it?
Seb notes that any Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy should be based on a thorough understanding of the consumer and the problem that a business is solving for them. This defines the value provided to that customer. It’s important to keep testing this idea, especially in a new or rapidly evolving industry.
“You’re looking to understand the level of pain the problem you’re solving causes the customer and how motivated they are to solve it. It would help if you also understood how core the problem is to the customers’ business – there’s a huge difference between ‘nice to have’ and ‘must have’ solutions regarding strategy, market resilience and perceived value.
“To do this, those responsible for shaping strategy should stay close to customers directly and through the ‘front lines’ of the organisation – the Sales, SDR, Success and Partner teams. Don’t rely on CRM ‘lost’ notes and analysis. Run interviews with lost prospects to find out why you lost them. Do the same with customers to find out why you (really) won and dig deep into any churn.
“I currently run Partnerships at GoCardless, and this is a hugely rich source of information for us. Our Partners are an extension of our company and bring more stories, data and context from outside the organisation, helping us constantly refine our strategy. For those who do not work with collaborators, make it a priority to seek as much outside perspective as possible. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you might find.
The watchword here is ‘focus’
Seb insists that losing sight of the core problem(s) can lead to missed opportunities and, if unaddressed, irrelevance and openings for competitors. “It’s easier to fall into this trap than you think, especially when you’re in the thick of growing a business or a more mature business in supposedly ‘stable’ markets. As you develop, data will always be a useful input to strategy development, and it’s absolutely worth the investment – but beware of ‘analysis paralysis’.
“The watchword here is ‘focus’ – too many companies try to solve too many things for too many customers. If you find that you solve lots of problems for lots of companies, pick the ‘best’ problem to solve, crush that segment and then move on.”
Recommended by LinkedIn
Strategy 2: Be aware of your demand type and its implications
“I’ll illustrate this with an example: GoCardless originated as a way of solving an existing problem in payments. Eleven years ago, the founders saw Direct Debit as a fantastic payment option that just wasn’t available to much of the market due to its complexity and the banking relationships required. We replaced existing line items for recurring payments – often credit cards – which were (and remain) more expensive and less effective ways of making recurring payments,” Seb says.
“Over our 3.5 years’ operating in Australia, we learned to help recurring revenue businesses retool Direct Debit from a ‘clunky’ payment option to instead understanding how to best deploy it to drive specific business outcomes such as reducing failure rates, increasing customer acquisition, and improving cash flow.
The inbound marketing trap
“A trap I’ve seen companies fall into is being completely fuelled by inbound marketing in the early days. Whilst it’s great to see the leads flood in, be clear on whom you want to win and invest in going out to win them. This will help test whether your assumptions of the “perfect account” are right and understand better what’s needed to win those accounts, Seb says.”
“You must always be acutely aware of Geoffrey Moore’s “Chasm” – the gap between the early adopters and the majority of the market who are averse to risk and change (often with good cause!). But this is where most of the market and money sits. Your GTM strategy for each audience and for crossing that ‘chasm’ must be different!”
Strategy 3: Know your customer’s ecosystem, how they buy and what they need
Seb adds that one outcome of doing the work above is that you’ll start getting sight of the customer ecosystem – how they buy, where they get their information from, whom they’re influenced by and the like.
“If you need to, do more homework. Where appropriate, seek to become an active, trusted contributor within the ecosystem. As a payment provider, we deeply understand our customer ecosystem, and as an organisation that goes to market through our partners, we work closely with Marketing to help map and shape that ecosystem as part of our GTM, and new Partnerships are sought out based on this thinking.
“Now that you have clarity on the customer, the problem, how it’s currently being solved, the ecosystem etc., you can shape your product strategy accordingly – for me; this is the interlink between GTM and Product strategy.
“Early stage companies should look to develop a ‘minimal viable whole product’ that takes into account your own product but also the services that would need to solve the problem completely, including third-party products and services.”
Q: What components form your GTM strategy?
Seb Says that a good GTM strategy is not something to be outsourced or relegated to a drawer, but there’s much uncertainty about how to do strategy well.
“Here, I recommend using the approach set out in Playing to Win by Roger Martin and AG Lafley, the P&G CEO from 2000-2010 and then 2013-2015, who was often recognised as making P&G much more consumer-focused.
Their book is full of useful information, but to me, there are two core takeaways:
The process: start with the strategic problem, develop ideas on how to solve them, narrow that to two options and then deep dive into those before you make a selection. This moves the time-consuming investment in data to the end of the process and maintains focus on two things — instead of investing time and energy into investigating a slew of options right at the beginning.
“It also makes you ask an important question that can unlock a lot of forward-thinking for GTM and move you away from being limited by how things are today: “What would need to be true for this to be a great strategy?” Believe me, when used correctly, this question can be powerful.”
The structure: Martin and Lafley use a structure that pulls in what we discussed above in a way that interlinks;
What infrastructure is needed – what do you need to make sure you’re able to track progress and support winning?
“Using this process will help you structure your thinking but also invest the heaviest lift on the shortlisted options instead of generating too much analysis on too many options. It’s a more efficient and faster way to do strategy well.
“There is such a thing as a bad strategy (having no strategy fits in this bucket!). On the flip side, a good GTM strategy will positively impact your business regardless of size and maturity. You can do this if you’re ten people or 10,000 people strong.
“Once you’ve done all this great work – share it – not just internally but with your Partners too. Help them understand what it is you’re looking to do and how they fit into that, look to understand theirs and how you can help them achieve their own goals. I’m passionate about GTM strategy because I’ve seen the positive impact it can have on businesses of all sizes. I hope this and the referenced resources help you on your GTM strategy journey.”
Q: How will FinTech affect businesses and consumer resources over the next two years?
Fintech, or financial technology, is drastically changing the finance and other business sectors. Startups are flooding the market with profitable and scalable ideas that transform how things are done. The rate at which FinTech is evolving has ensured that the popular segment will contribute to most of the income generated by the financial industry.
Seb believes that by emphasising the use of open banking and new fast payment rails, new value can be unlocked for both consumers and companies.
“Like water, most payments want to find the path of least resistance from a process and cost perspective. We believe that path is account-to-account. As well as helping forge that path, we’re focused on leveraging open banking and new instant payment rails to unlock new value for businesses and consumers that were cost prohibitive just a few years ago.”
“There are many ways fintech can help the average SMB, from automating routine tasks to free-up employees for more value-add activities, to providing detailed data which leads to new insights. Another great example, which can be hard to do alone, is expanding into new markets.
“One company we’ve worked with is Deputy, a SaaS platform for employee scheduling and workforce management. Deputy needed a payments partner to support its operations in Australia, the UK and US. Within three months, it was live worldwide with a fully functioning and automated Direct Debit system.
“PayTo is another great example of how fintech can help SMBs. It’s a payments innovation unique to Australia that impacts our local GTM and will likely have ramifications for the wider payments world as other countries watch and learn. Our role is to help local SMBs understand how it can help their business grow faster and more efficiently and share the learnings globally to help the broader payments community understand the program’s benefits and how it may impact their market.”
Seb’s favourite prediction for the fintech business
“Perhaps a little controversial, but we’ve seen the market value challengers that present a clear path to the future– higher than legacy players, even where the revenue comparison favours the incumbent. Consider the valuation of Tesla vs Ford.
“To some extent, this recognises the challenges and risks incumbents face in transforming legacy businesses, even fantastic ones. This goes beyond machinery and processes to the disruption of the very cost structures of these businesses.
“Payments are no different. Legacy payment systems built on credit card networks will find it hard to transition to the new, lower-cost, account-to-account environment. It’s not the end of these payment options; I was told “there are no cliffs in payments. But are we seeing the beginning of the end? Perhaps a valuation of GoCardless higher than Mastercard or Visa will be a clarion call for the industry…”
6. What Australia can learn from Europe’s ‘gold standard’ data laws after the Optus leak
After the significant Optus data breach, the federal government should quickly enact legislation modelled after the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union to protect Australians, says a UNSW Sydney law expert.
EU’s GDPR was lauded as the industry benchmark for safeguarding customer data because it established the strictest privacy standards ever.
On Sept 21, Optus, Australia’s second-largest telco, suffered a major data breach with potentially millions of customers’ personal information leaked by a malicious cyber-attack. Customers’ names, dates of birth, phone numbers, and email addresses may have been compromised, according to Optus.
Tony Song, a Research Fellow for the NSW Law Society’s Future of Law and Innovation (FLIP) research stream at UNSW Law & Justice, believes the serious data breach at Optus that exposed millions of Australians to fraud should prompt a full rethink of the country’s consumer laws.
EU’s General Data Protection Regulation
A legal framework for data protection and privacy, known as the “toughest privacy and security regulation in the world,” was put into effect by the European Union (EU) on May 25, 2018.
Mr Song asserts that in addition to the GDPR’s severe and stringent penalties, which can reach hundreds of millions of dollars, it is a revolutionary law because it is the result of six years of negotiations between member states in the EU’s institutional framework, which consists of the European Parliament, European Council, and European Commission.
“I think our laws should at the very least be updated to match the EU’s GDPR, which has become something of the gold standard for data protection regulation,” Mr Song said.
“This means increasing the penalties not just for the cybercriminals, as suggested by Shadow Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews, as this will not effectively deter bad actors, who will assume they will not get caught anyway but actually for the companies that hold, use and process all our data,” he said.
Australia is now reviewing the Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enhancing Online Privacy and Other Measures) Bill 2021 (Online Privacy Bill), which is largely influenced by the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018. The GDPR defines an array of legal terms at length. Below are the most important ones:
Personal data – Personal data is any information relating to an individual who can be identified directly or indirectly. Names and email addresses are obviously private information. Personal data can also include location information, race, gender, biometric data, religious beliefs, browser cookies, and political attitudes. Pseudonymous data can also be included if it is pretty straightforward to identify someone from it.
Data processing — Any action performed on data, whether automatic or manual, is referred to as data processing. Collecting, recording, arranging, organising, storing, using, erasing… virtually anything is mentioned in the text.
Read about the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation
More on Australia’s bill based on the EU’s GDPR
Australia is planning changes to its privacy rules so that banks can be alerted faster-following cyber-attacks at companies. According to media reports, the federal government is considering legislation obliging businesses to notify banks if client data is hacked, allowing lenders to monitor impacted accounts for suspicious behaviour.
Increased fines: In the EU, the maximum GDPR penalty is $20 million euros or 4 per cent of the firm’s global yearly revenue. According to Mr Song, the proposed legislation would raise the maximum penalty from $2.2 million to $10 million, three times the benefit of the wrongdoing, or 10 per cent of the organisation’s turnover in the 12-month period preceding the behaviour.
Increased consumer coverage: According to the Bill, broadening the definitions of ‘personal information and ‘collection’ would better align with the GDPR’s concept of ‘personal data, or any data or information relating to an identified or identifiable person, rather than just information ‘about’ a person as it is currently defined.
The other side
The GDPR, according to Matthias Orthwein, Vice-Chair of the IBA Technology Law Committee, is the gold standard that “no one can use that other countries will think is beautiful but can’t work with it.”
According to Innocenzo Genna, Website Officer of the IBA Communications Law Committee and an EU public affairs consultant, while the regulation has been effective in raising awareness of data protection issues, regulators’ apparent reluctance to enforce breaches against internet giants, in particular, is becoming problematic.
“The reality is that so far, there have been no strong GDPR sanctions,” he says.
In Australia, the competition and Consumer Commission has proposed legislation that reflects much of what the GDPR offers. However, Angela Flannery, Working Group Coordinator of the IBA Communications Law Committee and a partner at Holding Redlich, notes that while the Australian authorities were already concerned that anything too similar to the GDPR would result in notification and consent fatigue on the part of consumers, the fact that so little enforcement action has been taken in Europe has weakened the case for aligning the Australian legislation too closely with the EU’s.
“I don’t think the Australian government is particularly enamoured with the idea that Europe put it in place first, and therefore, we should all do what the Europeans are doing, particularly as there is no data that indicates that the GDPR has improved things for consumers,’ says Flannery.
“We watch what’s happening in Europe, and there hasn’t been a significant number of cases since the GDPR. There hasn’t been a huge change in regulatory practice.”
Source: UNSW
7. New entrepreneurship program to fast-track student innovation and create future-ready business leaders
In response to the need for the next generation of skilled, inventive, critical, and creative thinkers and entrepreneurs to flourish in the future workforce, Australia’s Haileybury is launching a new entrepreneurship programme with edtech company HEX.
Students will develop the skills and knowledge required to be creative and entrepreneurial in various settings, including start-ups, technology corporations, existing businesses, the public sector, and social enterprises. They will also learn how to adapt and thrive in a virtual, competitive, innovation-led environment by merging real-world and theory-based techniques and applying them to the startup ecosystem.
Universities such as RMIT, the University of Wollongong, and Torrens University will recognise the curriculum for ‘previous learning.’ Students in Years 10 and 11 can participate in the self-paced online curriculum. Students will have regular mentoring with the HEX team and industry experts, including Leon Belebrov, Principal Product Manager, Mobile at job search site Seek; Shoaib Iqbal, CEO & Founder of satellite technology startup Esper Satellites; and a host of technologists from tech giant Atlassian, in addition to the self-paced online learning and fortnightly check-ins with Haileybury Head of Entrepreneurship Damien Meunier.
Through “HEXcurisions,” they will also be exposed to the Melbourne startup environment and meet with founders, investors, and technologists. It’s an experience that most high school students will never have, and it could help them in their future jobs by opening up doors they didn’t know existed. Students who complete the Haileybury Enterprise Academy can receive recognition of prior learning’ in various business programmes at pre-approved universities around Australia, including RMIT University, the University of Wollongong, and others.
HEX Chief Growth Officer Chris Hoffmann, says: “We are thrilled to launch our first high school partnership program with one of Australia’s innovative and most entrepreneurial schools. We believe young people and the next generation need to be exposed to new learning pathways and future opportunities to unlock their full potential and help them design and build the world they want to live in.
“With the world and future workforce changing at such a rapid pace and innovation being pivotal across all areas of business, it is an exciting time for us to challenge the traditional education pathways and see how we can further children’s skills and experiences sooner in life.
“We look forward to forging partnerships with more forward-thinking schools and education providers to deliver a new kind of learning that keeps pace with the changes of tech, the workplace and the real world.”
8. Over 100 Aussie companies head to India to explore business opportunities
An Australian delegation consisting of 106 businesses will travel to India from September 26 to September 30.
While there, they will meet with Indian business and government representatives in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru to look for business opportunities in the areas of education, health, food and agriculture, essential minerals, and sustainable infrastructure. The delegation is in India as part of the AIBX (Australia-India Business Exchange) programme.
The Australian Trade and Investment Commission will lead the business delegation (Austrade). Additionally, since the COVID-19 pandemic started, this is India’s first significant commercial visit. The mission’s leader, Xavier Simonet, CEO of Austrade, stated that it would assist Australian companies in expanding their engagement with and exports to India.
“Australia’s premium goods and services reputation is rapidly growing in India. This mission provides a platform to demonstrate the breadth of Australia’s industry capabilities and support Australian business to connect with Indian customers and partners,” he added.
Business officials from Australia and India will discuss how to improve tech collaboration and how Australian educational institutions can help India fill its skills gap in Bengaluru, the country’s technological powerhouse.
Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (ECTA)
In a recent interview, India’s Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal predicted that the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) between India and Australia would generate about 1 million jobs over the next four to five years. ECTA offers an institutional platform to enhance trade between the two nations and is the first trade agreement India has signed with a developed nation in more than ten years.
Businesses have more incentives to engage with India thanks to this year’s signed Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement. Once in effect, it will eliminate tariffs on more than 85 per cent of Australian commodities exported to India, worth more than $12.6 billion annually, with a gradual increase to over 91 per cent, or $13.4 billion, over a ten-year period. Over the next five years, the recently signed trade deal with Australia is expected to raise bilateral trade from USD 27 billion to USD 45-50 billion.
The Indian government plans to generate one million new jobs in that period. On April 2, both countries signed the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA). India is currently Australia’s eighth-largest trading partner, and it is Australia’s fifth-largest export market for energy and resources.
More opportunities in the education sector
Indian students are Australia’s second-largest international student population, with over 1.8 million expected to be studying abroad by 2024. The international student market in India is showing signs of a robust post-pandemic rebound. The number of Indians asking for student visas to Australia has increased since Australia’s borders were reopened.
Elaine Starkey, CEO of Global Study Partners in Sydney, believes India’s international education business has a bright future. GSP applications for Australian colleges increased by 500% between February and August 2022. Starkey adds that Australian ed-tech entrepreneurs could look to India’s established sector for financing alternatives. UpGrad, India’s largest ed-tech business, spent $22 million to acquire GSP in 2021.
Visit Austrade.
9. As Australians turn to the gig economy in droves, what lessons lurk for SMEs?
An old proverb says, ‘may you live in interesting times.’ Businesses across Australia are certainly living this reality; if interesting means scary, exciting, and full of unexpected tripwires at every turn.
Over the past few years, Australia has been battling a significant skills shortage across all sectors. This was the catalyst for the recent Jobs and Skills Summit, which saw the government pledge measures, including subsidised TAFE courses and additional funding to address the crisis.
The shortage has already, and unsurprisingly, translated to real-world consequences. The construction sector is experiencing what it calls ‘the challenge of the decade’, with job vacancies jumping 80 per cent since 2019, delaying infrastructure projects and driving up prices.
Meanwhile, a recent study found that most Australian business leaders are delaying sustainability initiatives as they contend with the impacts of the ongoing skills deficit. All of this is happening against a backdrop of increased economic pressures.
Inflation has reached its highest level in 21 years, with the peak reportedly yet to come. In July, it was reported that supply chain problems and rising shipping costs caused the highest goods inflation since 1987.
Interest rates, meanwhile, have risen to record highs, and banks predict they will reach three per cent by year’s end, putting unprecedented pressure on households. Everyday Australians have adapted to the current climate in various ways, including making some extra cash through unconventional side hustles.
Aussies turn to side hustles in record numbers
When the Great Depression hit in 1929, many Americans turned to making fudge or selling newspapers on street corners to make ends meet. And in 2022, Australians are applying the same ingenuity with a digital twist.
Our analysis of Australian web traffic over the past year shows that traffic to the sign-up pages for the six most popular gig economy platforms has risen significantly. In 2022, online food ordering platform Doordash experienced an astronomical growth rate of more than 1150 per cent to its ‘Dasher’ site for delivery drivers.
Meanwhile, Amazon Flex, a website for people who want to sign up to become Amazon delivery drivers using their own vehicles, was the second-fastest growing gig economy site, with more than double the traffic this year compared to 2021.
Uber has also experienced significant growth, with traffic to its driver sign-up page increasing by 70 per cent yearly. Another booming platform is the content subscription service OnlyFans.
Although OnlyFans does not have a dedicated domain for content creators like the previous sites, users looking to monetise their content have to select a “subscription” fee for their fans through the Account Settings page. When analysing the Australian traffic to this site section, it is clear that more people are looking to make money through OnlyFans.
Between April and May 2022, we saw a 90 per cent increase in traffic to the “subscription” subdomain on OnlyFans, while between June and July this year, there was a 67 per cent surge in people looking to monetise their content on the site.
What businesses can learn from this shift
It would be remiss to ignore the fact that people are turning to side hustles to make extra cash as inflation tightens its grip.
But it’s also worth considering why people are turning to these professions when there’s no shortage of other jobs to choose from – and ones that likely offer higher salaries. Job marketplace Seek recently confirmed that advertised salaries grew 4.1 per cent across Australia over the last year.
These gig economy roles offer a range of benefits, namely the freedom to set your own work schedule. This has been a key demand by workers since the start of the pandemic, leading to the ‘Great Resignation’ trend we saw last year.
Recent research from IWG found that 72 per cent of workers want long-term flexibility, and 42 per cent of Gen Z workers would even pass on pay rises of between six to 20 per cent if it meant being offered hybrid work arrangements.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that organisations can no longer apply guesswork to the motivations of prospective employees, potential customers, and the strategies used to attract both cohorts .
While the influx of people on street corners proffering newspapers was once all the evidence needed that job market changes were afoot, people now spend the majority of their time online, and are using digital channels to research, find, and apply for different roles in the same way consumers have shifted to digital channels throughout the customer journey.
All of this digital activity generates data. By leveraging digital intelligence to uncover behavioural insights on where people are searching, what they’re searching for, and how they’re searching for it, you can gain more context on what’s actually happening in your industry and understand the trends shaping your market.
This will allow you to better tailor acquisition and retention strategies, whether that’s to attract more potential customers to your website or the talent needed to thrive in the interesting times we live in.
10. Rethinking cloud strategies for the next era of digital transformation
There is no question that the future of enterprises is in the cloud, with Australian businesses forecast to invest more than $20 billion in cloud computing technology by 2025.
In a pandemic-hastened move towards digital, the past two years have witnessed businesses jumping on the cloud services bandwagon in pursuit of greater efficiency, agility in reducing the time-to-market of business services, streamlined operational costs, and overall resource optimisation.
The lure of the cloud
Innovative uses of the cloud have enabled businesses and organisations to leverage emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to develop and launch industry-disruptive solutions at scale. For instance, cloud computing plays a critical role in digital twin technology by facilitating the storage and transmission of massive troves of data. Aside from storage alone, it opens the doors for the use of AI/ML technologies at the edge in virtualised environments that can be scaled as required.
The use of digital twins across sectors ranging from urban planning, healthcare, and hospitality, to the energy and mining sector is anticipated to help save millions of dollars in resources while unlocking new frontiers. For example, the NSW Government recently announced the expansion of its Spatial Digital Twin to provide a 4D model for the entire state in an effort to boost productivity and create ease when planning and developing key infrastructure projects.
Nascent cloud adopters, too – particularly start-ups that lack resource capital or the technical know-how for complex applications of cloud technology – can reap significant cost savings in the long term with the right strategy in place. After all, with as-a-service offerings in the cloud, businesses have been promised a pay-only-what-you-consume model that leverages economies of scale to provision services at lower prices. Infrastructure maintenance fees are also eliminated, while businesses have the flexibility to scale up as required.
Yet, for all that cloud evangelists have banged on the cloud adoption drum – something appears to be running awry. In spite of the burgeoning investments being channelled into cloud solutions, Australian businesses are lagging behind in realising the full value of their investments in the cloud.
Detecting and swerving common pitfalls
In a rush to realise all the benefits of the cloud, businesses have jumped in headfirst without formulating a holistic and thoughtful cloud strategy that looks beyond migration alone. While cloud migration is a great first step toward digital transformation, businesses must not neglect the reality that the cloud is a delivery model, not an end. Without adequate preparation, businesses may face bill shock – making cost savings with cloud adoption seem like a fallacy.
Businesses must understand that transitioning into the cloud is still a long-term investment and should mandate a rigorous decision-making process that considers future implications. For instance, complex pricing structures offered by some cloud vendors and varying terminologies make deciphering final costs more challenging. In particular, ingress and egress costs from data migration into and outside the cloud have been notorious for raising unforeseen expenses. Businesses would need to be prudent in selecting cloud providers that prioritise price predictability and transparency and offer pay-per-use pricing models.
Businesses that go into cloud migration unprepared may also find themselves uncovering new, more complex and costly potholes, like security lapses from a lack of visibility across all IT environments. The Australian Cyber Security Centre reported a 13 per cent increase in cybercrime reports in the 2020-2021 financial year, compared to the previous year, equating to one attack every eight minutes.
And perhaps most detrimental to the business is how its agility may be compromised with vendor lock-in that comes with integrating applications too tightly in the cloud within one vendor ecosystem alone, causing businesses to lose control over their IT stack and making it challenging to scale rapidly or diversify their use of the cloud. However, such scenarios can be easily averted by working with cloud providers that champion open standards and ensure reversibility and interoperability between multi-cloud environments. After all, cloud strategies should be crafted around businesses’ needs – not the reverse.
Charting the way forward for success
In the future, cloud reliance is anticipated to grow, spurred by the rise of the metaverse and Web 3.0. Businesses looking to grow must turn towards the cloud and formulate a holistic and resilient cloud strategy that accommodates market drivers and overall landscape and supports business goals.
Aside from market drivers, selecting cloud providers that encourage an open ecosystem will also enable businesses to diversify and repatriate workloads to on-premise environments as needed. Ensuring successful cloud adoption in the long term will require foresight, and businesses will need to clearly understand how they expect the cloud to augment their services.
Ultimately, the bottom line remains central to successful cloud strategies. Without predictability of costs to be incurred, alongside the flexibility to scale as required, businesses may find themselves unable to optimise their cloud operations to get the highest return and truly enjoy the cost savings they were lured by.
As the adage goes, cloud adoption is not a silver bullet to digital transformation. The cloud is ubiquitous and here to stay, but success will only be within reach for businesses with the right strategies.
11. Dr Kyal Agraval wins Pitch Night at Australia’s first community program for BIWOC start-ups
Dr Kyal Agraval’s healthcare platform and Rachel Castelino’s prebiotic tonic Blume have taken home the top prizes at Australia’s first community start-up program 100% by and for bla(c)k women and women of colour.
At the Pitch Night this week of Anyone Can’s Cohort #2, the entrepreneurs presented their ideas in front of investors, stakeholders, judges including Bec Milgrom, Rupal Ismin, Adelide Mutinda and Caroline Tran.
As the winner, Dr Kyal Agraval took home a cash prize of $10,000 along with a six-month subscription to Sydney Knowledge Hub co-working space.
“We’re excited to have built a platform that facilitates timely access for patients to great healthcare,” Dr Agraval said. “This grant awarded to us greatly assists in advancing our vision, and subsequently improving the patient experience through the healthcare system. Congratulations to Priyanka and her team for creating a warm, dynamic and collegiate space for this community of inspirational BIWOC founders.”
Runner-up Rachel Castelino, too, received a cash prize of $2,500.
“The Anyone Can program has proved invaluable in helping me articulate my story and get feedback from other women as I transition from just an idea to achieving scale,” she noted. “I’m really looking forward to growing my company with the new skills and network of incredible women that I’ve gained from this program.”
Launched by The Creative Co-Operative (CCO) and sponsored by private investment company Tripple, Anyone Can is funded by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources through the Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship Grant Round 3.
Cohort #2 consisted of 30 BIWOC startup founders who were selected from over 260 applicants. The eight-week program provided start-up education by and for BIWOC founders to navigate the ins and outs of the startup ecosystem, with the aim of normalising access and advancement of BIWOC within the sector.
On Pitch Night, the six finalists of Cohort #2 to make presentations spanned numerous fields like Medtech, consumer and lifestyle, agriculture, health, and wellness.
“I’m still on a high from Pitch Night, feeling so inspired by the amazing BIWOC founders who showed ambition, grit, determination and creativity over the past 8-weeks of doing the program,” said Priyanka Ashraf, founder of CCO and Anyone Can.
“Anyone Can wouldn’t be successful in its mission without the support of our partners and investors who believe in the work that we do and see value in supporting BIWOC founders to shift the needle in the Australian start-up ecosystem.”
With #Cohort 3 still accepting expressions of interest, Ms Ashraf adds that CCO still has the “ambitious” goal of providing $700 million in funding to BIWOC within the next decade to “level the playing field for women who are disproportionately impacted by the effects of intergenerational inequality.”
“Anyone Can is one of the avenues we are leveraging and offering in order to hit that goal while tearing down the range of systemic barriers including lack of awareness of and access to funding opportunities and lack of mentoring opportunities for BIWOC,” she added.
Expressions of Interest are still open for Cohort #3 of Anyone Can and will close at the beginning of October. You can submit an application here.