Apr 26, 2020
In this episode, I interview Phaedon Stough, the Co-Founder of Innovation Bay, the longest-running networking group for tech founders, startups, and investors in Australia. He’s also the founder and non-executive director of MitchelLake Global Executive Search and Talent Acquisition, an executive recruitment firm he started back in 2001 with a fellow university friend, focusing on the tech startup space.
Surviving a tech crack within their first year and the global financial crisis in 2008, it was the second global recession which formed the foundation for their fast growth. From 2 full-time employees in 2001 to more than 90 within fifteen years, and $80 Million in annual revenues across six cities in Australia, UK, Singapore, and the USA, Phaedon admits that they grew their number of international offices too quickly. Apart from an investor’s $50,000 then another small injection for growth from their new chairperson, they have so far grown organically from profits.
Phaedon exited the business operationally a few years ago but he’s still a shareholder. They had a big focus on mental and professional development, helping them learn corners of the business they weren’t strong in. He says he wouldn’t go back into the industry or any other service-based business, and would instead begin a recurring revenue model like a software as a service (SaaS) product. Phaedon believes the hardest thing in growing a small business is finding product-market fit, and the advice he would give himself on day one is, “Keep it simple”, and pricing before anything else. Stay tuned to find out more about his fascinating entrepreneurial journey.
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Music from https://filmmusic.io "Cold Funk" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com). License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/