‍What ignited the spark in you to start a new business venture?

Actually, I was originally contacted in a LinkedIn connection request back in 2011. I was asked if I wanted to start a billion dollar tech business in Indonesia. Sounds like an odd connection request, I realise, but  I ended up taking the role and the company became the largest eCommerce company in Indonesia and Amazon’s largest competitor there. Ever since then, it has just seem natural to go and build businesses or organisations. It can be incredibly tough, but ultimately it is more exhilarating for me than other types of work. 

When I was approached about Antler, it was not hard to be convinced to build it in Australia. Antler is like building a company that helps other people build companies. We are a business generator, which is unique in Australia. We run a program that takes exceptional individuals, helps them form co-founding teams, and then we invest in the best companies. We will soon be the largest generator of businesses in the country, which to me is a pretty exciting prospect. 

How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

Antler is a global business that originated in Singapore. Magnus, the founder and I knew each other from university and when he shared his vision for Antler with me I knew I had to be involved. I launched and led the Sydney operations, we were the fourth city to go live globally. 

How did you choose your company name and why?

There were a few considerations. It needed to be short, close to the start of the alphabet and we were drawn to the letter A as it has a strong base which some cultures regard as meaning that the name has stability. Not to be confused with the luggage brand!

Where did your organisations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture? 

Antler is a global fund manager, comprised of a 8 “generator” funds across the globe. Here in Sydney we are in the process of closing a $40m fund which is comprised predominantly of LPs from the Australian ecosystem. 

How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?

Antler is reliant upon a large, wide and diverse marketing message. Ultimately, we are looking to find exceptional individuals who want to build companies, and these people can come from many different walks of life. They could be a researcher working on AI or Materials Science, an actuary who spent ten years in the insurance industry, a lead engineer at a scaling tech company, or someone with a few years under their belt at a top-tier bank or consultancy. If you think about it, that’s a pretty diverse group of people, and so we need to have messaging that ranges across the industry. We utilise a strategy that combines direct outreach, widespread use of social media and a large event schedule. We just held a huge Demo Day at Sydney’s iconic Town Hall with an in-person audience of 1,000 and additional 1,100 watching on our live stream. All of these activities allow us to cast the net wide for the sort of exceptional people we’re seeking.

What do you enjoy most about what you do?

We are in this wonderful situation where we are building our own business, but at the same time we’re getting to help other people build their own businesses. In our first cohort, we invested 12 companies (30 founders). Only two of them had ever met before, and now five months later they are pitching in front of 1,000 people at Town Hall, with a majority of them raising additional funding before Demo Day. It’s just such a high energy environment and we get to celebrate wins with all the founders as well as the wins we have within the Antler team. 

How do you conquer those moments of doubt that so often stifle or trip or stop so many entrepreneurs with great ideas...what pushes you through?

There are two things that are really important for me in terms of resilience. Firstly, I think I’m really lucky because this is now the sixth organisation I’ve either led or founded. I’ve had successes and failures along the way. I’ve been convinced I was going to succeed only to fail; and I’ve been certain of failure only to somehow survive. So I think I’ve learned that the best you can do is work smart and hard in any particular moment, and then you just need to be content that no matter what happens you haven’t left anything on the field. 

The other factor of resilience for me is about team. I find it much easier to work hard when I know that I am part of a team who are committed to the achievement of a common goal. You can come to work and be having a bad day and hear about someone else who has achieved something amazing and draw strength from what they’ve done. 

Excluding yours, what business or organisation do you admire the most?

Well, like all ex-management consultants I admit I like to make fun of those firms from time to time. But I think it’s worth thinking about what these firms were able to achieve - that for ~50 years they’ve been more or less the hardest places to get a job for graduates. Consider that, it’s an astonishing coup of recruiting. It’s hard not to be admiring of that achievement.

Besides money, what are your favourite ways to compensate people?

Equity and, I hope, a compelling team environment.

If you could offer a first-time entrepreneur only one piece of advice, what would it be?

Take time to celebrate the highs.

Where you see yourself and your business in 3 to 5 Years?

For 800 to 1,000 experienced or aspiring entrepreneurs to have completed the Antler program in Sydney, having also launched in another major Australian city. This would have created 200 companies and thousands of jobs. 

In one word, characterise your life as an entrepreneur?

Exhilarating