Guest speaker for the next Startup Grind event is Managing Director of AussieCommerce,

Adam Schwab.

Guest speaker for the next Startup Grind event is Managing Director of AussieCommerce, Adam Schwab. In just three years, Adam and business partner, Jeremy Same, have created an impressive e-commerce empire, boasting more than 300 employees worldwide and an estimated FY2014 turnover of $160 million.

We caught up with Adam to find out he built Australia’s fastest growing startup business.

The original founders were myself and Jeremy; we went to school together and had already

been working on a corporate accommodation business before AussieCommerce came up.

Whilst the accommodation business was profitable, we wanted something more scale-able

so used our capital to bootstrap a new venture.

In hindsight, that initial business was a great learning experience and equipped us for our

next project. We learnt everything from building websites to dealing well with customers –

which is essential for any brand.

In November 2009, Jeremy had just come back from the US where he saw a thriving

business called Groupon, which didn’t exist in Australia. Seeing as how well it was doing

in the States, we thought we’d give something similar a try over here, so our site, Zoupon,

was born. With just a handful of staff working on the site, Zoupon offered basic service

and activity type deals – restaurants, hairdressers, spas and some local travel deals. It

started as small offers from small clients but by February 2011, after around eight months of

operation, revenue was growing quickly; we now employed 25 staff and changed the URL to

DEALS.com.au. From there, we gradually progressed from local businesses to working with

bigger clients and skewing towards as many bigger named brands as possible.

The site was profitable almost from the beginning, which made growth inevitable. In June

2012 we merged with Ouffer – and subsequently doubled the size of our team to form

the AussieCommerce Group. Literally a week later, we had the opportunity to buy two

businesses from Rocket Internet – Dalani and Bamarang. We retained a third of their 50

staff and increased the revenue of those businesses from around $200,000 to $1.5 million a

month.

We never actually had growth plans mapped out; opportunities just cropped up, and still do –

so we’ve learnt to stay nimble. In 2013, we had the opportunity to buy Cudo – a very similar

business to DEALS.com.au. At the same time we acquired the travel site, Getaway Lounge

and The Meat Merchant. We folded Getaway and created a site for high-end travel, Luxury

Escapes. We also rebranded Meat Merchant to The Gourmet.

We own nine sites altogether; our most recent acquisitions were of brandsExclusive, selling

premium fashion brands, and TheActive, which is Australia’s first dedicated flash sale site for

sports apparel as well as fitness and outdoor adventure products.

We went to a meet up last year and had a great time. It’s a great forum for talent and I

met some really interesting people. I loved the success stories, the drive and the passion

everyone had so felt if there was any way that AussieCommerce can help out, we’d like to.

It’s definitely a scene we’re still interested in; although as a group we’re probably past

the startup stage, we still have businesses within our company that would be considered

startups. We’re lucky enough to have the infrastructure to build our businesses well and

operate in a very lean way – which is a very startup way of doing things.

If you’re running a startup, you’re obviously working for yourself but don’t forget you’re

working for others too – you have clients and customers. You’re liable; if anything, as a

startup, you’re more on the hook.

One of the key things to being successful is being super lean. Keep expenses down and

don’t pay for stuff you don’t really need. Also, don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty. Until a

few months ago I would often answer support calls and emails – and still do occasionally. It’s

important to know first-hand what your customers really think about you. E-commerce isn’t

easy so when we hire people, we’re not looking for managers – we’re looking for do-ers. Be

it me, co-Executives or the newest person through the door, we expect everyone to get stuck

in and do the work – and for your startup, so should you.

Adam Schwab is a guest speaker at Startup Melbourne’s 23 April event. Find out more about his passions – from AussieCommerce to barefoot marathon running - by reserving your ticket.