"We became really good at helping businesses win work. Then we realised the harder problem was helping them deliver it," says Dan Ahchow, Founder of EACO.
That insight became the foundation for EACO, a Melbourne startup that helps service businesses manage complex jobs using AI.
EACO helps businesses coordinate jobs involving multiple teams, contractors and customers. This is across industries including facilities management, commercial cleaning, insurance, aged care and disability services.
The platform brings tasks, people and information into one place to reduce admin, keep work on track, and give customers clear updates every step of the way.
Entrepreneurship starts at home
Dan first learned how service businesses operated from the back seat of his parents' car.
Growing up in regional Victoria, he watched his parents build a commercial cleaning company after his father's railway job became uncertain during one of Australia's toughest economic periods.
What began as a small family business eventually grew into an operation employing more than 300 people. They cleaned around 90 schools, along with Kmart, Coles and Woolworths stores across Victoria.
"My formative years were watching Mum and Dad build something from nothing," Dan says.
From the age of ten, he accompanied his parents between worksites, meeting site managers, watching contracts being won and learning how strong customer relationships were built over time.
Those experiences shaped the way he thinks about business today.
Business, he says, isn't simply about making money, but creating opportunities: for yourself, your employees, your family and your community.
"If you want to make an impact, business is one of the best ways to do it," Dan says.
Dan believes understanding the realities of service businesses is just as important as writing software.
"When we're talking to facilities managers, commercial cleaners or aged care providers, we genuinely understand what their work looks like because we've lived it," Dan explains.
From law to launching a technology company
Dan's own career began not in business, but in law.
After completing a law degree, he joined a motoring and membership organisation as an industrial relations lawyer.
It was here that one project unexpectedly changed the direction of his career.
The organisation wanted to better manage hundreds of contractors representing the brand. The legal solution was to strengthen the contracts. Dan wasn't convinced.
"The legal answer was always another contract, but no one ever reads contracts," he laughs.
He suggested instead an idea that was almost unheard of at the time: allow customers to rate contractors after every completed job.
His idea was dismissed. “‘It was basically, 'That's the dumbest idea we've ever heard,’” Dan chuckles.
Rather than letting the idea go, Dan left to build it himself.
In 2005, Dan launched Service Central, one of Australia's earliest online marketplaces connecting homeowners with trusted trades and service professionals.
The business quickly grew to more than 45,000 service businesses, generating over $2 billion worth of work before being acquired by Trading Post.
Along the way, it pioneered the five-star review system that would later become standard across platforms like Uber and Airbnb.
Finding the problem nobody was solving
As Service Central expanded, Dan noticed something surprising. Finding customers was no longer the biggest challenge. Delivering the work was.
Large organisations, including insurers and government agencies, weren't simply looking for tradespeople. They needed someone to coordinate complex jobs involving multiple contractors, suppliers and organisations.
Repairing a flood-damaged home, for example, might involve electricians, plumbers, builders, assessors, insurers and customers, all needing information at different stages of the process.
"We realised the difficult part wasn't finding someone to do the work," Dan says. "It was coordinating everyone involved."
That challenge became the inspiration for EACO. Originally developed within Service Central in 2011, EACO brings every participant together in inter-related workflows.
This allows organisations to manage increasingly complex service delivery while giving customers complete visibility over what was happening.
"The customer could simply log in and know exactly what was happening," Dan explains.
Stepping away from technology
After selling Service Central, Dan thought his career in technology had come to an end.
"I wanted to get out of tech completely," Dan laments.
He returned to the Grampians, where he had grown up near Ararat, becoming custodian of one of Australia's oldest wineries in Great Western.
One business soon became several. He took over the local pub, café, general store and accommodation, immersing himself in regional hospitality and community life.
"I wanted to understand what real businesses looked like," he says.
Ironically, one of the first things he did was remove computers from the winery's front counter.
"I wanted people talking to customers instead of looking at screens," he expresses.
Yet he couldn't leave behind the commercial thinking he'd developed through technology. Instead of focusing on individual transactions, he began calculating customer lifetime value.
Someone spending $20 every week at the local pub wasn't simply buying dinner. "They might actually be a $6,000 customer over time," Dan says.
That way of thinking transformed how the businesses approached customer service, marketing and growth.
The opportunity hiding in 'boring businesses'
Running hospitality businesses also changed Dan's perspective on entrepreneurship.
He believes too many people overlook industries that keep Australia running: commercial cleaners, facilities managers, trades, hospitality operators, local service providers.
"They're actually the infrastructure society runs on," Dan says.
While younger entrepreneurs chased opportunities in apps and startups, many of these businesses remained in the hands of Baby Boomers for decades.
Now, as those owners retire, Dan believes there's an enormous opportunity to modernise them without losing the relationships and community connections that made them successful.
That's exactly where EACO fits. Rather than replacing people, the platform gives organisations the tools to coordinate work more effectively, reduce administration and deliver a better customer experience.
Why AI changes everything
Although EACO has existed for more than a decade, Dan says the arrival of generative AI fundamentally changed what the business could achieve.
"When AI became real, I came back full-time into EACO," he says.
Problems that once required significant manual effort could suddenly be automated, routine administration could happen in seconds, teams could spend less time chasing information and more time serving customers.
Rather than replacing people, Dan sees AI as giving them back the time to focus on higher-value work.
"It's technology designed to make people's jobs easier," he says.
Building alongside Australia's innovation ecosystem
As EACO continues to grow, Dan says joining Stone & Chalk has accelerated the company's journey.
Beyond providing workspace, the innovation hub has surrounded the team with founders solving similar challenges.
"It's inspiring being surrounded by people building great businesses," Dan says.
“It also gets those competitive juices flowing, you’re seeing people hit major milestones in short periods of time or implementing an incredible AI solution and you think, I want to do that! I just love that sort of culture.”
Stone & Chalk has also opened doors to customers, investors and collaborators who understand what it takes to scale innovative businesses.
Creating impact through business
Dan sees a common thread connecting every chapter of his career: each experience taught him something about solving problems.
Whether helping customers find trusted tradespeople, running community businesses or building AI software, the goal has always been to make life easier for the people doing important work.
His advice for aspiring entrepreneurs reflects that philosophy.
"The easy option is getting a job and doing what's in front of you," he says. "The harder option is finding really difficult problems and surrounding yourself with smart people who want to solve them."
By helping the businesses that keep Australia functioning embrace artificial intelligence, EACO is modernising Australia's service economy.
And for someone who has spent a lifetime around businesses built on service, trust and relationships, it feels less like a new chapter than the natural continuation of everything that came before.
