Nick Benson

🌟 Exciting news in Australian tech! 🌟 Cyan and Collis Ta’eed, co-founders of Envato, have achieved a $375.2 million exit as Shutterstock acquires their company. Envato, a marketplace for creatives, was built from scratch without external funding, proving you can build a massive business and a fulfilling life. 🌐 Key Highlights: $375.2M exit with Shutterstock acquiring Envato. Co-founded by Cyan, a notable female entrepreneur. Bootstrapped success, no external funding. Continued focus on work-life balance and philanthropic efforts. Cyan and Collis remain directors, with Cyan continuing to inspire women in tech. This story highlights the power of innovation and dedication. 🚀👩‍💼 Inspire future women entrepreneurs with “When I’m an Entrepreneur” https://ow.ly/MF4Q50SmWaN Read more: https://ow.ly/ROAa50SmWaM #TechNews #FemaleFounders #Entrepreneurship #Innovation #Envato #Shutterstock

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Post 0224: Buy when it’s red This time last week, Wisetech and Xero, both listed on ASX as WTC and XRO were trading as follows: WTC = $83 per share, down from almost $100 per share XRO = $123 per share, down from about $140 per share These two are tech giants in Australia. And their share prices are expensive. So the best times to buy these sticks are when stock prices drop, like what happened last week. Just after one week, these two stocks are rising again: WTC = now $93 per share, up $10 XRO = now $136 per share, up $13 The best days to build wealth is when people frantically sell shares. Because shares of good companies that are driven down by irrational and emptional investors will always rise in the long run. As explained earlier, the PNG stocks don’t follow the overseas trends. You will therefore see that the stocks listed on PNGX are not rising as fast. They neither fall as fast when bad news drives world stock market prices down.

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Last week, I posted a book review on Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. ☯ 📕 I thought I would think a bit deeper into how it applies to what we do here at HyperWeb Pty Ltd. 🤔 So may I present to you ... the Tao of Web Development! ☯ 🖥 If flow, simplicity, service, and being unencumbered appeal to you, have a read via the link below 👇 https://lnkd.in/gGvNM4NT #hyperweb #uxdesign #webdesign #websitedevelopment

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Excited to attend tomorrow’s *Next-Gen AI Design Methods and Techniques* webinar! Looking forward to learning how AI can drive innovation and efficiency in product design, creating better experiences and smarter workflows. Always eager to explore new ways AI can elevate creativity and design! #AI #ProductDesign #Innovation #GenerativeAI

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Super happy with the launch of our new website, expertly designed and implemented by Collabrium. https://lnkd.in/gV_W8Y23 The site articulates the three broad areas that we consult on: 1. Franchising - getting brands Franchise Ready - Over 200 Brands launched and supported to date 2. Recruiting Franchisees - finding franchisees for franchisors and helping aspiring business owners find the right business for them. 3. Franchise Development - helping existing franchisors scale to the next level which includes: - Territory mapping and franchise network development planning - Franchisee recruitment - your outsourced recruitment team - International expansion - helping Aussie brands go overseas (Asia, USA, MENA & UAE, UK and India - Franchise Systems review - update to Operational resources - Franchise Management software - LMS, Auditing, Benchmarking - Management team development and Franchisee training programs If you're looking for a website design company, you should consider Collabrium If you're looking for anything to do with Franchising, then please reach out.

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Scaling isn’t just about resources—it’s about networks with “boots on the ground” insight. Startup ecosystems like French Tech Australia (FT AU) connect founders to mentors, resources, and markets, offering local knowledge that is crucial for expansion. These networks lend credibility, open doors, and provide on-the-ground insights to navigate new markets with confidence. From strategic partnerships to market access, ecosystems are invaluable in a startup’s journey from local success to global presence. Tip: Use your ecosystem’s resources proactively—growth is faster with the right boots on the ground. How has your network helped you scale? Share your experiences below! 👇 https://lnkd.in/gmuYeYDB #StartupGrowth #ScaleUp #BusinessNetworking #GlobalExpansion #StartupCommunity #EcosystemSupport #InnovationHub #EntrepreneurTips #MentorshipMatters #CrossBorderBusiness Resumption - Sales, Marketing, and Operations Consulting

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My new favourite thing to do is let customers know there’s space in their package for another item. It’s Clementine Boshevski at Salt Lab Pty Ltd’s new favourite too. We email Clem’s customers 5 minutes after checkout with the option to add more products to their order at 20% off. It returns $14 of new revenue for every $1 she spends with us. Why? + Because the customers already committed, it’s an easy sell. + Because we say “there’s space in your package” it feels like a no-brainer. + Because a little bit of discount incentive mingled with saving on shipping makes it even more obvious. The proof is in the pudding! Don’t forget - along with upselling, we’re also wiping out 90%+ of your order editing tickets. Salt Lab’s advice? Stop spending time solving customer support tickets. Start earning money from a self-service portal that organically upsells. Question - as a consumer, would you take up the space in your package offer?? #Shopify #Ecommerce #Customerexperience

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Does GYG buy back struggling franchise stores for $1? Franchisors, especially ones that list on the ASX, place importance on the value of their stores in the network. They publish average store setup or purchase prices and sell the dream of franchisees making a strong investment in the future. For years GYG have published information about the typical cost of a new restaurant. In 2020, it was between $700k and $1.1m to establish. But what happens when a franchisee runs into trouble with the business or wants out? Is the store still considered a million dollar franchise to the franchisor? According to a 2019 statutory liquidator report to creditors, GYG paid $1 to buy the Bakewell store back, which opened late in 2016. It was their first purpose built drive thru store in the Northern Territory. - See extract from report for further context. The liquidator also noted in the report issues around solvency shortly after the store began trading. We have also seen public records of other store buy backs at GYG for much less than the $700k to $1.1m establishment cost from 2020. Their annual report in June 2020 notes "On 13 August 2018, the consolidated entity acquired 12 Queensland franchised restaurants from various entities...for $3,021k" In our research, we have observed many franchisors buying or taking back struggling locations for $1 or a small fraction of the price incoming franchisees are paying. That same store is often back up for sale at full price or close to within weeks or months of the franchisor taking it back. The same failed location can be sold over and over again. When a franchisor does this, it is called churn. We have seen stores that have been churned 3 times to unsuspecting franchisees in a number of established franchise brands. * This post is not suggestion that GYG is churning. * Not financial or legal advice. #franchising #franchisee #GYG #asx #stocks #investing #fastfood #business #afr

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This morning we launched a very minimal, just viable MVP for Coshop NZ, a "for purpose" startup idea that has been kicking around in my head for the past few years. Happy to say we’ve had over 10 orders already! It’s a small step in what I hope will be systemic shift towards a fairer, more sustainable food system and away from the unfair, wasteful duopoly we currently have in Aotearoa today. Local food co-ops in Wellington hit $1M ARR in fresh produce last year, distributing it to communities at pop-up food hubs at half the price of supermarkets using just manual bank transfers and a google sheet. I believe that by scaling up the amazing work of organisations like Wesley Community Action and FoodTogether we can drive systemic change to address climate change on a global scale - empowering communities to create resilient, sustainable and fair food systems. We've just done the first step, lowering the bar to entry for coops by taking care of ordering, digitising payments and email notifications. Now on to the next phase - feature building, gathering impact data and co-designing with communities. Big thanks to Creative HQ, Motion Capital, mentors Eoghan Walsh and Franco Sabadini and the cohort of this years Climate Response Accelerator. It was a huge confidence boost, an amazing learning journey and amazingly supportive. Even bigger thanks to Fokko van der Schans, Sabrine van Rossum and Mandy Hale who have worked with me over the past few months to take CoShop from being just an idea out to out into the world. If you feel like this is something you’d like to support, we’d love: - Funding! Seed investment or impact grants (potentially eligible for tax rebates!) - Help with dev work using Typescript, NextJS, React and MedusaJS - all open source!

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Our team at MediaFAI Pty Ltd revolutionised the way rapid brand compliant media is created for all businesses, from side hustles scalable all the way to multinational franchises. Now we've cracked scalable brand engagement 💪 🤫 Let your customers inform you what they're looking for, without them even knowing. 🎯 Target your customers far more efficiently, closing the elusive last mile - and even creating it in many instances. 🛍️ Increase engagement between your customers and your brand, leading to more awareness and sales. 🪄 Control the entire process from media to happy customer! Combined with decades of expertise in developing intuitive low-configuration products, your brand ⇄ customer relationship is about to be accelerated 🚀🚀And it’s exciting to watch how we're going to improve your staffing very soon 🤫 Take your customers back from your competitiors - get in touch! #MediaFAI #Marketing #SaaS #Startup #Queensland #AdTech #Innovation #BrandEngagement

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Day #2: The Importance of User Experience (UX) in Mobile App Development User Experience (UX) is a cornerstone of mobile app success. A well-designed UX ensures your app is intuitive, engaging, and meets user needs effectively, leading to higher satisfaction and retention rates. Here’s why UX is critical in mobile app development: 1. Enhances Usability • UX design focuses on simplicity and ease of use, making it easy for users to navigate and complete tasks without frustration. 2. Boosts User Retention • Apps with seamless UX encourage users to return, reducing churn rates and building loyalty. 3. Increases Engagement • Thoughtful UX design encourages interaction, helping users stay engaged with your app’s features and services. 4. Improves Accessibility • A great UX considers diverse user needs, including accessibility features for those with disabilities, ensuring inclusivity. 5. Drives Conversions • Apps with optimized UX lead users smoothly through conversion funnels, whether it’s making a purchase, subscribing, or completing a form. Key Elements of Exceptional UX in Mobile Apps • Consistency: Maintain uniform design elements throughout the app. • Speed: Ensure fast loading times and smooth transitions. • Feedback: Provide clear feedback for user actions (e.g., button clicks, form submissions). • Personalization: Offer tailored experiences based on user preferences. Investing in UX is not just a design choice—it’s a strategic move that directly impacts your app’s success and profitability. Make user experience a priority in every phase of development! Connect with our UX specialist to fulfill your requirements. Reach out to us at +91 8448552528 or email us at [email protected]. Visit our website: https://nzsoftech.com #MobileAppDevelopment #UserExperience #UXDesign #AppSuccess #AppDevelopmentTips #MobileUX #UserRetention #AppEngagement #UXMatters #InclusiveDesign

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From $4m to $60 million in 3 years I was part of a digital team that grew online retailer My Pet Warehouse from a tiny acorn to a mighty oak, in the competitive Australian pet market. This is how we did it. We had a visionary CEO Philip Bartholomew he knew that; ✓ Having the biggest and best range would ensure repeat customers and a high AOV - (in retail, if you can’t get the big brands on board, should you even start?) ↳ Our buyer Luke was the best in the business ✓ Strategically positioning your warehouses across Australia (Perth, Melbourne, Sydney & QLD) would ensure the quickest delivery times ✓ Hiring the best and letting them get on with it ✓ Understanding that seasonality for pet supplies is everything by rigidly sticking to a content and promotions calendar for all channels ✓ We grew our social audiences by competitions, expert Q & As ✓ PPC: My CEO Philip told me, “Stephen, you can grow the Google Ads account limitlessly, once you obtain a non branded ROAS of 525%”. Bing Ads also accounted for $100,000 per year in sales at a better ROAS than Google ✓ Email was huge - aggressive targets on new subscribers + investment into the best enterprise email segmentation software + adhering to seasonal trends from content calendar ✓ Asking brands we stocked for a marketing budget. *Attention marketing managers*: if you’re promoting other brands, make them pay for it. ✓ SEO: A 3 year phased aggressive strategy that started with; ↳ SEO audit by yours truly before I even arrived in the door that mapped out short, medium and long term initiatives; ↳↳ Short term: Intensive Backlink clean up from mess of previous agency ↳↳ Medium term:  Addressing category and product SEO optimisation with copywriter (over 50,000 products) ↳↳ Long term: Develop and maintain a content calendar that tapped into the many experts we had to choose from, because we were selling their products. When our CEO then invested in a PR campaign that saw him on the biggest news channels / publications in Australia, such as SKY NEWS, that’s when all of our web pages elevated up further up the rankings ✓ Working alongside and developing a close relationship with Andy Danks, our web developer made SEO changes that were needed quickly. Andy also constantly tested Conversion rate optimisation strategies #mypetwarehouse #retail #ecommerce #petstore

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Good morning and welcome to the Hoodies News and Views! Later this week we will announce the line up and stories we have for you in Issue 15. We are still on the hunt for more advertisers and supporters so please get in touch if you or anyone you know is keen to support the hottest online magazine on the planet! Now let’s get on with things… First up, what is on Dans phone? It seems unlikely us mere mortals and lab mice will ever know the real truth but we can only hope that the truth is indeed out there! When I was a kid growing up I remember hearing about a rail link to the airport. To say this whole debate has been going on for a while would be an understatement, but despite the airport now agreeing to an above ground station are we really any closer to getting a train to Tullamarine? See while anyone that has half a brain will agree we absolutely need a train to the airport, just like most other cities on the planet the reality is that here in Victoria, well we’re broke. No matter how many dad sayings Danny Pearson can come up with, no matter how much Big Dim Tim Pallas can point the finger at someone else for their incompetence, no matter how much the Premier can say we’re focused on the metro tunnel the reality is we can’t afford it. Now while people need to get around we have blown so much money on rail tunnels, infrastructure and MP pay rises we simply don’t have another few billion dollars to knock up a train out to Tullamarine. Despite the fact that there’s no money here….there’s a vague completion date of 2035 being discussed. Really? 11 years from now, I reckon we’ve got more chance of bringing back the SEC before then! See this is why you don’t let Arts graduates and career bureaucrats hold sway over big ticket items like infrastructure, education, housing, healthcare and budgets because well, they’re incompetent. So while the majority of the world can get off a plane, head to the train at their airport and head to the nearest CBD, here in Victoria you might be waiting for a while yet, I know I have been. And finally, will we see an early election here in Australia? The move has had very mixed results for both sides of the political divide around the world, but what the move has shown is that people are angry. They are angry at governments and politicians who have held sway over their lives for too long. I personally don’t think Albo will go to the polls this year for two reasons, 1) if interest rates go up he’ll be gone and 2) Labor has to give themselves the opportunity to rebuild race relations…if they wait til next year they can potentially see inflation back in the RBA target rate and will have more time to assess the damage their stance on war in the Middle East has done. Stranger things have happened and maybe Albo’s arrogance will be his undoing, but we can live in hope for it to get the better of him and his mate Dan.

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"𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆." There's a reason Kairos works with Start-Ups! There's even more of that same reason, that got me building Aussie Founders Club. And while I think a lot of the time, Elon is a knob, he's articulated it here. I've worked with large enterprise, I've spoken to many big business hiring managers, I have placed 100s of candidates into mature businesses. 𝐍𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭-𝐔𝐩 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 & 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬. And we need smaller companies to lead the way! Because, as perfectly said by Elon, what is the constraint for innovation? Its not money, money is not a scarce commodity - the world is awash with money. The scarce commodity is the ability and willingness to take risks. Which leads me to think: 1) 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐂𝐎𝐎𝐋 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓-𝐔𝐏𝐒 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒋𝒐𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒔 2) Start-Ups are important and we need to be supporting them

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Insights from Shopify Plus Stores’ Tech Stacks. Ever wondered about the tech behind top-performing Plus stores? Here’s a breakdown of what’s driving their success (thanks Jeremy Horowitz' for this): - Cloudflare is the unsung hero, powering the backbone of many stores. 🤫 - Facebook Pixel boasts more adoption than Google Analytics (GA) or Google Tag Manager (GTM). 📊 - Apple Pay is making waves with higher adoption rates than GA. 🍎 - Klaviyo leads the pack with more installs than Shop Pay, PayPal, & Google Ads. 📈 - Pinterest Pixel outperforms TikTok in installations. 📌 - Bing Ads Pixel surpasses every Top 100 Plus app except Klaviyo. 🔥Who’s ready to create the next major Shopify app? #EmerceConsulting #Ecommerce #TechTrends #Shopify #DigitalMarketing

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When you’re thinking about starting a business, a domain name is often the first port of call. It’s cheap to buy for 1 year and you can grab it without committing to a website or emails until you’re ready. Choosing a name for your business can be tricky, so snapping up the domain name for your new idea stops someone else grabbing it and sending you back to the drawing board. And if that idea never quite comes to fruition as a real business, you’re only $21.25 NZD out of pocket for a 1 year domain purchase with Rocketspark’s new domain offer. Plus, if you’ve ever run a half marathon, you’ll know that dropping some cash on an event helps give the motivation of turning “someday” into “let’s do this”. Buying a domain name might help turn that pipe dream of a side hustle into “let’s do this”. Even if you’re not quite ready to quit the day job just yet 😉

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🎬 New Episode Alert! 🎬 This week on The Growth Cartel's Weekly Wrap, we dove into the latest insights on startup investments and the importance of diversity in leadership. 📊 The release of the Cut Through Venture's report and its impact on the Australian startup ecosystem 👩‍💼 Why diversity in leadership is not just important but essential for driving innovation and success in the startup world. 🚀 Watch the full conversation for even more on AI, Quantum tech, and major investments shaping the future! We cover the biggest developments of the week, what we have coming up and you won’t want to miss it. 👉 Catch the full episode here and stay up-to-date with all things startups, funding, and leadership: 📺 YouTube - https://lnkd.in/gV3vb3cb 🎧 Spotify - https://lnkd.in/gzUMQVH7 🍎 Apple - https://lnkd.in/gg_wuMQ3 #InvestmentTrends #Diversity #Leadership #GrowthCartel #StartupCommunity #Innovation #CutThroughVentures

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