Case study

An idea idea turned into a reality

After enduring two decades of the 9-5 grind, I arrived at a critical realisation: I was tired of living according to someone else’s grind and craved the freedom to forge my own grind/path, to experience the thrill of founding a startup. Stepping into the void of possibilities, I had no idea of what lay ahead. Yet, in that void, the potential for anything to happen thrived. And happen it did, commencing in Melbourne, Australia.

Corporate narratives often begin with clichéd tales of “like-minded individuals,” and ours was no exception. However, let’s move swiftly past these familiar tropes to delve into the more captivating realm of conceptual development. Alongside some fellow visionaries, we identified a gap in the market for an easier way to take payments and break from the traditional and conservative elements of the industry.

However, our biggest challenge was that the technology didn’t exist yet, so we were starting from scratch. This led to countless weekend brainstorming sessions and occasional after hours outings, all in pursuit of transforming our vision into a tangible reality.

Following several iterations, we named our business “Felix” and began our quest for venture capital while engaging in ongoing dialogue within the payments industry. This part of the process demanded relentless promotion and an intense quest for answers, as we navigated the labyrinthine landscape of an already complex industry.

None of us had ever done anything like this before, so there was no guidebook, and no guarantees.

We endured many failed investor meetings and, more times than we probably care to admit, wondered what the hell we’d gotten ourselves into. This is the sink or swim part, and if you don’t want to sink into the mire of startup oblivion, you need to build up a resilience to the challenges and focus on the end game, all while holding down a full-time job and attending to life’s other responsibilities.

Then, amidst the turbulence of a world disrupted by the onset of Covid-19, a Canadian investor emerged as a beacon of hope across the Pacific. This decisive moment meant bidding farewell to my full-time job (and financial security), relocating my family during a historic pandemic, and embracing a new beginning in a far and distant land. It’s a good thing I’ve always been partial to a bit of poutine and politeness.

That’s the thing with these blue-sky thinking moments and their seismic consequences. When they happen, they happen fast, and you’ve got to be ready. There’s also the question around somebody giving you a load of money for an idea you and some like-minded individuals created in your spare time. Raising one terrifying question to be addressed: We’ve got money, but what do we do now?

With our collective feet firmly planted on Canadian soil, Felix was incorporated, and we started refining our product prototype, amplifying our presence in industry circles, and expanding our operational footprint across North America. Despite the demanding journey, every obstacle served as a catalyst for growth, propelling us towards our ultimate goal.

Undeterred by the bleakness of existence, we put our collective heads together and made beautiful music by opening an office in Vancouver, hiring even more staff, braving the empty airports and ghost flights of the Covid wasteland as we drummed up business across North America.

During one memorable business trip, my colleague stopped in the middle of an airport, took a look around at the emptiness of it all, and said: “What if it’s going to be like this forever?” I stopped in my tracks, took a look around, sighed, and said: “Starbucks or a real coffee?”

It was at this point that we began to finish the refinement our beta product, gained an even greater insight into the payments industry, listened to what the market was telling us, and watched, like mad scientists, as our product evolved into something bigger than we ever imagined.

This is when the adrenaline really kicks in, so we had to begin refining our sales pipeline, get some pre-release promotions out there to measure the appetite of our expanding market, and devise and implement our ‘go-to-market’ strategies. It’s a lot of pressure when you’ve not only thrown in your safe salary but also moved your entire family halfway around the world during a period of global uncertainty.

With this in mind, it was time for us to up the ante and ‘go to market’ with our product/baby, which involved me refining the target market profiles, setting up concrete sales and marketing strategies, and a robust direct marketing plan.

Getting this part right is all about knowing your audience and reading the room accurately. Too many startups have a pump-and-dump mentality and are happy to live like ‘C grade’ reality stars until the investment money runs out and the party is over. Not us.

At this juncture, we realised that the market was communicating directly with us, expressing a clear demand for white label and SDK integration. In response, we promptly re-defined our sales operations and established our developer support infrastructure and our communications strategy. Additionally, we devised and executed a killer “growth hacking” strategy, catapulting us to gain market traction at a pace far exceeding our initial projections.

This dynamic part of the process involved some significant changes to meet the market demands. With increased investor pressure to reach revenue targets, the business was required to rapidly pivot its sales/marketing and product strategies to best service these market demands and form a structure to ensure the most profitable future pathway.

As our momentum surged, we found ourselves on the cusp of success, emerging from the shadows of the pandemic with a burgeoning clientele, predominantly comprising bigger enterprise. Yet, the need for sustained growth compelled us to recalibrate our approach, necessitating the establishment of a dedicated business development function to cater to diverse market demands. In a nutshell, we’d landed the whales but needed the salmon to feed them.

And feed them we did.

Fast forward a year, and Felix had mushroomed into a thriving enterprise, boasting a workforce of over 60 employees. And nestled amidst the finery of Vancouver, I found myself living the life I’d always dreamed about. The startup success story had come to life.

But destiny had other plans in store.

The allure of venturing into uncharted territories beckoned once more, compelling me to return to Melbourne with a fresh business venture, dpd. Here, amidst familiar surroundings, I find peace in the comforting embrace of home, where discussions about the weather and unbridled coffee snobbery are deemed acceptable.

Having traversed the fabled landscape of startup entrepreneurship, I understand the challenges that lie ahead and the importance of having a seasoned guide to navigate the treacherous waters. This means I can help you navigate your business’s growth regardless of its size, brand, or location. But before you move onto the next thing you have to do today, ponder this: “What am I going to do if it all works out?”