The digitisation of residential mortgage lending is well underway thanks to the rapidly expanding Proptech industry. We are joined by three passionate proptech entrepreneurs who are busy disrupting the traditional home loan application process:

Melissa Christy, Lending Product Lead at 86 400

Tony Harris, Co-Founder & CEO at Nel.fund

The session was hosted by Jennifer Harrison, Vice President of Proptech Association Australia.

Jennifer recalls her own tedious experience of applying for a mortgage, describing the process as “manual, archaic and quite frankly brutal”. In the first meeting she was asked to provide screenshots for proof of deposit and three months of printed credit card statements – from her own bank.

Give us an ‘elevator pitch’ introduction to your business

Tic:Toc is a home loan platform providing a simplified digital home loan experience, and, as a SaaS product, is in the process of making its technology available to the industry. The name is a nod to time saving. “By automating and digitising the process we are giving time back to the customer, and to ourselves”, Anthony explains. Their fastest end-to-end home loan application took just 58 minutes.

Melissa describes 86 400 as Australia’s first smart bank, providing customers a single platform on which to control their entire financial world. They also offer digital home loans, using data for customer information instead of paperwork: “For a purchase all we need is a contract of sale”. The name also derives from time: “It is the number of seconds in a day… we help customers control their money every second of every day”.

Nel.fund (Nest Egg Living), a current Stone & Chalk resident, aims to unlock home ownership for more Australians by providing ‘co-funded’ special-purpose loans to clients who, despite earning good salaries, are unable to save adequate deposits. The loans are secondary to the mortgage, Tony explains, meaning that the company has a vested interest. “That’s why we take the time upfront to help with the process and property selection”.

For 86 400, securing buy-in from brokers and aggregators has been a long process. While many brokers recognise the advantages of a purely digital approach, others remain vehemently attached to traditional paper based methods. The same is true for a segment of customers, who are averse to a digital scraping of their finances.

Anthony has had a similar experience in his discussion with banks, including the Big Four. While they are starting to recognise the need to collaborate with Fintechs, there is still a build-bias. “It will take time, but it will happen, especially as success stories increase”.

For Tony and Nel.fund, the crucial first-step is securing the confidence of mortgage providers by showcasing their use of data and AI to financially validate clients and match them with viable properties.

Are there any concerns regarding compliance?

In Anthony’s opinion, technology with human-in-the-loop actually provides better compliance with policy: “Compliance can be more consistently applied when technology is extensively leveraged. Humans forget to do things. Technology does not.”  

Melissa agrees, explaining that traditional lenders rely on customers declaring what they spend. 86 400 on the other hand, scrapes customers’ accounts from all financial institutions and presents it back to them. “We start from fact and work forwards from there”.    

Our panellists all see the future of mortgage applications as a streamlined and digital process. Jennifer sums up this sentiment: “As the smartphone takes care of more and more things in our lives, it makes sense that we will be getting a mortgage within minutes from our phone.”

Proptech Panel - How Technology is Changing Residential Mortgage Lending

Tested Marketing Tactics with Gali Arnon, CMO - Fiverr

Fiverr’s digital marketplace connects millions of businesses with skilled freelancers from around the world. In 2020 they expanded into ten new countries.

We caught up with Chief Marketing Officer Gali Arnon, to discuss how they pivoted their marketing strategy to thrive amidst the global pandemic:  

“If you move fast, and are flexible, agile, it can work to your benefit.”

Gali also shared her views on which marketing channels to use and when, and how to approach personalised and localised marketing.

The changing global scene in March 2020 meant Fiverr’s planned marketing campaigns were no longer relevant, or even logistically possible. As Gali explained, “ultimately we needed to do everything different”.

Using its abundant pool of freelance talent, Fiverr created a video called ‘Working Remotely’, depicting a company tapping into a team of freelancers to create an advertising campaign in response to Covid-19.  

Gali and her team also spotted an opportunity in terms of media spend. Perversely, at a time when viewership was increasing, the cost of digital advertising dropped as many companies reigned in their spending.  

Fiverr’s 250+ annual events were all moved online, which had a positive knock on effect by driving more traffic and engagement to their site.

They also invested resources into supporting their large community base, creating case studies and new hubs to help businesses make the shift to online.

How do you determine which marketing channels to use?

It depends on your size, industry, and budget. Make sure you tailor your marketing strategy to your business.

For Gali, first and foremost you must be data driven. One of the leading marketing principles at Fiverr is: “Measure everything you do”. Being able to confidently attribute customers to the correct channel is crucial for businesses to maximise their marketing budgets. However, you need to leave enough room for intuition and gut-feeling in decision making. Experience and common-sense should not be undervalued.

According to Gali, the priority for startups should be intent-based marketing: “When people are looking for your product or service you have to be there”. SEO and PPC are great places to start and are where you are going to see the best ROI. For those with tight budgets, focusing on long-tail keywords can be an effective and relatively inexpensive strategy.

Once mastered, companies can consider moving to the next stage – intent-creation. Fiverr has used Social Media and influencers to great effect in their own branding campaigns.  

Before introducing personalised messaging, companies should identify and gain a deep understanding of their different customer groups.

While harnessing quantifiable customer data is obviously a crucial element here, qualitative data should not be overlooked.

Gali regularly meets with (currently virtually) a range of both freelance and business customers to learn about their experiences using Fiverr. “Their first-hand experience and communication are irreplaceable in the mix”.

A strong piece of advice from Gali: closely monitor the timing and frequency of your personalised ads. “If you bombard your customers with messages, they will stop listening to you”. Timing is key. Real-time and reactive communications using notifications and in-product messaging can be utilised to great effect.

Any advice for launching in a new country?

Every culture is different. What you know for one country is not relevant for another, even if they share a language.

Before launching in a new market, Fiverr analyses data of existing customers from that country. They also make use of local experts – people who speak the language and have a deep understanding of the culture.

It is critical to have a clear view of aspects such as competitors, market landscape, and audience maturity before you build a plan.

In summary: “Start small, test, see what’s working. And then go”. 

Thriving In A Male Dominated Tech Industry

As part of International Women’s Day, we assembled an expert panel who discussed the challenges of working in a male-dominated industry and why embedding gender diversity into tech culture is so important.

The event was moderated by professional business coach, Amy Bett. Amy was joined by: 

·       Gretchen Scott, Community Manager - Cloudflare. | Director - Women Who Code Melbourne 

·       Linda Lai, Full-Stack Developer - Zendesk. | Chapter Lead – Muses Code JS

·       Jacqui Loustau, Founder - Australian Women in Security Network. | Principal Security Consultant – Cynch Security

The panel also gave us their reaction to two polls taken live by our audience.

The panellists all recognise that creating diversity in tech is a broader issue than gender alone. Building inclusive environments that embrace and encourage all currently under-represented minorities is a question of both ethics and good business.  

As Gretchen explains, tech is in practically every aspect of our lives, but it’s built largely by a homogenous group which results in products that are not completely fit for purpose. If tech companies were more diverse perhaps mapping tools would show wheelchair accessible routes, or ones with street lamps after dark. “Building a product that suits everyone has to be more profitable”.

Linda expands on this, pointing out that the process of “retroactively” fixing products with accessibility issues can be a hugely expensive and time-consuming process. Having a diverse and culturally representative team can help iron out such oversights during the research and development stages.

“If we’re not including diversity in decision making, we’re just building sub-standard products”.

Poll 1: Where is your organisation in relation to embedding a diverse culture?

·       Haven’t thought about it: 9%

While Gretchen and Linda were both pleasantly surprised by the relatively high Embedded score, neither were shocked that Awareness came top. In Gretchen’s experience, while many companies recognise the importance of promoting diversity in the workplace, they tend to get stuck in the awareness stage – often due to a lack of women in leadership positions.

At Zendesk, Linda points to mindset changes and revised recruitment practices as key components in creating workplace diversity, with the number of women in their tech team growing from five to sixty over the past five years.

Jacqui echoes this point, having observed several start-ups embed a diverse recruitment strategy from the very start, quite often subconsciously. As Gretchen puts it: “setting the culture from day zero is so important”.

Poll 2: What are the biggest challenges when it comes to gender diversity in your workplace?

·       They don’t take it seriously: 13%

·       They don’t understand the business impact if gender diversity was ignored: 25%

·       They aren’t reporting bad cultural behaviours: 38%

·       No challenges, our people are all over it: 25%

Linda has found that most “bad cultural behaviours” come in the form of micro-aggressions – seemingly minor comments, often unconscious language choices, which, when repeated regularly can have a damaging impact. “Lots of people aren’t even aware that the language they use inhibits inclusivity.”

When speaking at tech events, Gretchen often feels a palpable difference in the way she and her male contemporaries are addressed. “Having to qualify yourself before you are heard is exhausting. It can have a big impact on confidence”. Similarly, in the early stages of her career Jacqui experienced several meetings where she felt the need to continually demonstrate her credibility or risk being overlooked.

The tech industry is notorious for its jargon, which is not always easily translatable, making it a real barrier to entry for currently underrepresented groups. As Gretchen explains this can create “an unintentional arrogance and roadblocking of people whose voices need to be heard”.

Linda agrees, highlighting language change as a crucial, but often overlooked subject. Zendesk and others have started tackling the problem by incorporating accessibility tools in their internal messaging systems, which highlights and educates users on any non-inclusive language used.

While there is no single solution to the issues discussed, one thing our panellists all agree on is the importance of solidarity.

As Linda explains, women in tech talk – there is so much support available through online communities. Reach out, find a group that’s right for you and they will help you decide which companies are worth your time.

“Remember, in many ways the tech industry needs you more than you need them.”

You can watch the full discussion on our YouTube channel.

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Don’t miss out on our 42-page Capital Raising Guide for startups. This guide explains funding stages, financing methods, pitching and government initiatives. It also contains additional resources and capital raising case studies. Download your free guide now! 

Our February event – The Future of Food and Sustainable Farming – was moderated by Julia Waite, Head of Operations at SproutX. Julia was joined by a distinguished panel of guest speakers from some of Australia’s leading Agtech startups:

·       Conrad Smith - CEO, Stacked Farm 

·       Tim Noakesmith - Founder & CCO, VOW

·       Kevin Baum - CEO & Co-Founder, AgriWebb

·       Geraldo Caspary - Australasia Country Manager, MagGrow

 The panel delved into the hotly debated issues surrounding traditional farming practices, offering insights into the pioneering solutions they have engineered and begun to implement.

Stacked Farm is Australia’s first end-to-end automated, indoor vertical farm. From seed to transport, leafy greens to livestock feed, their produce is pesticide and hormone free, and completely untouched by human hands.

Sustainability was a key driver for Conrad. His vertical farming techniques use 95% less water than traditional methods and enables crops to be grown and harvested from within formerly unimaginable urban environments. This promotes local value food chains and significantly reduces supply emissions.

The very nature of a controlled environment means future produce is less vulnerable to external factors such as drought and bushfires as the world’s climate becomes increasingly unpredictable.

MagGrow’s patented technology significantly reduces waste associated with conventional pesticide applications. As Geraldo explains, currently 70% of pesticide spray does not reach its intended target, instead drifting airborne or running off into rivers, where it can have a devastating impact on nature. Improved efficiency means “producers no longer have to compromise between profitability and environment”.

It’s also great for water conservation, reducing usage by 25-50% and leading to considerable savings for producers. This is particularly important in countries such as Australia where the price of water is volatile.

For Kevin, harvesting and utilising agricultural data is at the heart of the matter. Using AgriWebb’s software, farmers can digitise daily farm records, allowing them to make data-driven decisions and plan day-to-day operations with greater efficiency.

As he explains, “improved efficiencies will help both the farmer’s bottom line as well as reducing the impact on the environment”. Their customers are seeing an average increase in productivity of 7.5%.

Tim and his colleagues at Vow are focussed on “reinventing food from the ground up”. In just six weeks, their technology can create real, ready-to-eat meat from a handful of animal cells. This directly tackles the environmental (and ethical) implications of livestock farming, as well as increased global demand for meat.

For Tim, changing our dietary preferences is key to future sustainability. With the human population forecast to increase to 10 billion in the coming decades, we need to find a way to produce more food while simultaneously reducing our carbon footprint. “Ultimately technologies are going to outperform what animals can produce”.

When asked for the biggest challenges facing the future of food and sustainability, the panellists put forward the following:

·   	Conrad, Stacked Farm: Further reducing costs and increasing renewable energy usage in the production process.

·   	Geraldo, MagGrow: Changing behaviour at a fast pace, using disruptive technologies.

·   	Kevin, AgriWebb: Overcoming aversion to change.

·   	Tim, Vow: How quickly we can bring about change to the people who really need it.

While all four have taken different approaches to tackling the future of food and sustainability, one thing they agree on is that there is no one solution. Safeguarding the planet (and indeed humanity) against issues related to climate change, water scarcity and a rising human population will require the implementation of a combination of solutions.

You can watch the full discussion on our YouTube channel here.

Join Stone & Chalk’s mailing list to stay up-to-date with this and more here. 

Don’t miss out on our 42-page Capital Raising Guide for startups. This guide explains funding stages, financing methods, pitching and government initiatives. It also contains additional resources and capital raising case studies. Download your free guide now!

The Future of Food and Sustainable Farming

The future, it’s here. Are you ready? Get up to speed on flying cars and autonomous vehicles of the future. Or rather the present, with the second edition of our ‘The Future Is Here’ series. In the host seat, driving the show is the Executive Director of Australia and New Zealand Driverless Vehicle Initiative, Rita Excell. Accompanying her on the autonomous journey is Greg Giraud - MD of EasyMile in Australia and New Zealand, Zac Kennedy - Head of Regulatory Affairs at Swoop Aero and Rocky Scopelliti – Renowned Futurologist. Together they discussed their work, the current state of the autonomous vehicle industry and exchanged opinions on the kind of technological advancements we can expect to see in the next ten to fifteen years.

Rocky Scopelliti opened the discussion with thought-provoking insights from his book – Australia 2030 Where The Bloody Hell Are We? He recommends we look at the next ten years through a programmatic lens. He’s calling the 2020’s the programmatic decade.

Why? Because everything will be programmed and optimised through data. More and more ways to track and analyse data will become available. For example, new connected devices mean ever-growing amounts of data to analyse. AI will help us analyse that data, give us new ways to optimise, and new ideas to implement. Connect this with 5G networks, task-specific software, AR and VR, and before you know it, new life-enhancing possibilities pop up everywhere. New technological ecosystems will lead to exponential optimisations, increasing societies efficiency like never before. 

Take self-driving cars; they can use AI to navigate the streets whilst 5G networks help them access the flow of traffic, allowing all vehicles to work as one to reduce congestion throughout the entire city. “Think about the collective power of these technologies” stated Rocky Scopelliti. 

After Rocky set the stage, Greg Giraud shared his latest work proving the future is here - Renmark South Australia; the location of EasyMile’s autonomous, electric bus trial. The trial is progressing well and has just entered phase two. The goal is to “create a blueprint for autonomous public transportation in regional areas”. Greg brought our attention to the challenges regional areas face in the public transport space and how autonomous electric shuttles offer a solution. If you’re in Renmark, Greg invites you to jump on and experience the ride for yourself. He says once people give it a go, they quickly become advocates. 

Zac Kennedy took us up into the skies, with his work for Swoop Aero. They’re tackling the tyranny of distance and geography to save lives; providing on-demand healthcare with aeromedical logistics. In Africa, Zac’s team is opening the largest two-way aeromedical logistics network the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, Australian regulations make drone delivery a bit more complicated. However, Swoop Aero is working with the regulatory bodies to shape the laws.

Greg, Zac, Rocky and Rita’s insightful work on autonomous vehicles has inspired us to think about new possibilities emerging technological ecosystems could open up. So much potential. We can’t wait to see the differences their cutting-edge technologies will make in peoples’ lives, all around the world.

Transport yourself into the details and watch the whole presentation here. 

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What if you could live in a world where things talk to, listen to and observe all of us? Imagine your biometric data is being compiled in real-time, while devices talk about it at speeds beyond human comprehension. That world is today. 


Our new event series “The Future Is Here" kicked off with the renowned Futurist and Author, Rocky Scopelliti. He took us on a journey centered around projections about the decade ahead in groundbreaking research he’s made with 700 Australian executives. Scopelliti published the full insight in the book “Australia 2030, where the bloody hell are we”. 

The study seeks to understand how Australian professionals feel about physical, biological, digital and environmental predictions. Looking at some of the advancements, it’s predicted nanobots will enter our body by the end of the decade and virtual reality will become an actuality. Wearable technology will be everywhere and 3D manufacturing will radically alter the economy. 

Our world will become immersive and decentralized through quantum computing, Blockchain, IoT, 3D printing, robotics and mobile networks. Deployments of the next generation 5G networks will deliver an unheralded speed of global connectivity at an ultra-low-cost.

Scopelliti’s research shows that, for example, 68% of Australian professionals expect development in the biological world with new treatments for illnesses. 74% of them support the statement that technological and scientific advancements have improved our social, cultural and economic future.

The keynote was followed by an expert panel which helped bring insight into the rollout plans for 5G across Australia, dived into the concept of hyper-connectivity and explained why Adelaide is Australia’s most connected city. We welcomed Matthew Schultz, President of Australian Smart Communities Association, Sandra Vallance, CEO at Sabrenet, Dave Gerner, Innovation Manager at City of Adelaide, Faheem Tabassum, Senior Manager at 5G & Cloud Edge at Optus. They were joined by Rocky Scopelliti, with Chris Kirk, General Manager of Stone & Chalk Adelaide, moderating the discussion.

Matthew Schultz points out that we are at a very early stage of 5G in terms of the rollout. What’s coming in the near future is the development of high-beam spectrum, which the industry people call the millimetre-wave. It will enable low latency connections and handle a massive amount of them all at once. “It’s going to take 3 to 5, maybe even 7 years to roll that full capability of 5G across all parts of Australia”, emphasized Schultz urging towards building the infrastructure to make us competitive in the world.

Pointing out how it’s faster for a consumer, Faheem Tabassum says what 5G means to enterprises is different from what it means to the manufacturing sector. “That is the beauty of it underpinned by high speed, low latency and ultra-reliability, offering advanced capability and a diverse array of use cases.”

In terms of connectivity in Australia, Sandra Vallance is on the forefront: “We have a fibre-optic network that goes for about 400 km around Adelaide and we were able to cost-effectively utilize the network we had to roll out the big city innovation. The very inexpensive gigabit speed has made an enormous difference to businesses.” Adding up to that Dave Gerner pointed out that Adelaide is a well laid out city which has given an opportunity to test and trial, such as sensory technology and measuring heat in real-time. 

Everyone on the panel agrees that when it comes to smart cities it’s all about the opportunities that benefit the community. “Private and public sectors need to collaborate in order to unlock the value created by hyper-connectivity.” At the same time, they warned about data privacy and cybersecurity which needs to be addressed as an organization, an individual and a nation.

This webinar is the first in our new event series “The Future Is Here". 

A Hyper-connected World  5G and Smart Cities

We made it through the year. An impressive achievement. Well done! But what now? Where do we go from here after such a taxing time? It all starts with our Wellbeing Series hosted by Anne Moore - work futurist, CEO, and resident founder at Stone & Chalk. We also welcome Alessandra Edwards, Performance and Wellbeing Expert. Alessandra boosts the performance of top CEOs by improving their mindset and biohacking their skills to reach new peaks. Her insightful and practical tips will help you gain a fresh perspective.

Alessandra opened the call by reminding us that ‘high performance’ goes beyond the workplace. High performance is the ability to optimise our whole selves, sustainably. That includes optimising our emotional self, mental self, physical self, professional self and social self. This balance empowers us with the energy we need to renew - an important message for many of us. We often prioritise certain parts of our lives over others, and our performance suffers. 

The first step to refreshing your perspective for the new year is understanding where you are at, right now. Alessandra guided listeners through an insightful exercise, and we discovered where our energy and motivation is at now and where we want to be. 

Why is that important? Alessandra tells us that “over the last five to ten years, we have accumulated high-level evidence that our thoughts and beliefs have a huge impact on the physical process that shapes our brain. In other words, regularly thinking certain thoughts changes the connections between brain cells. They activate certain pathways and links that did not exist before.”

Therefore our brains are malleable, and we have the power to mould our mindset. So, if we take note of our current mindset, and how we react in stressful situations, we can learn to increase our performance and wellbeing in those situations. Alessandra gave several mindset examples she has come across in her work, and how to shift each mindset to improve performance.

After covering longer-term mindset shifting exercises, Alessandra moved onto evidence-based tips and tricks you can implement in the moment - right when you’re hit with the stressful situation. The following steps send signals to your nervous system to calm down.

Tip One – Scrunch up your face muscles and then relax them.

Tip Two – Splash cold water on your face.

Tip Three – Exhale twice as long as you inhale to offload carbon dioxide.

Tip Four – Press the palms of your hands against your eyes.

Tip Five – Supplement your diet with L-Theanine

Alessandra's presentation has reframed our understanding of high performance. She's reminded us that it doesn't necessarily mean more hours behind the desk. To reach our peak, we need to address our whole being, our wellbeing. That means taking care of our emotional, mental, physical, professional and social selves.

Are you ready to perform at your peak? Watch the complete presentation here.

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DNA-based Performance Expert Helps S&C Tackle Uncertainty With Confidence

“With VR, what happens when we become saturated with this tech? Do we become desensitized by this type of media… once mainstream adoption happens, what happens then?” - Anton Andreacchio

Following from our earlier events, we were delighted to hear about XR from renowned futurist Rocky Scopiletti, and entrepreneurs Anton Andreacchio from Jumpgate, and Ingo Lau from Micology. 

Rocky proposed a ‘data-first’ perspective as the key to unlocking potential in the XR space. In his research, he found that data was the common denominator across the top five emerging technologies, which would result in increasing recognition of data as an asset. 

He also highlighted the multiplicative effect of technology. Combinations of new technologies, he noted, lead to new ways of experiencing or fulfilling processes; combining 5G technology and the Internet of Things (IoT), will allow for greater connectivity. As the digital world becomes more decentralised, immersive and distributed, the physical world becomes increasingly interconnected. 

Anton also discussed the wide range of use cases of extended reality across various industries, focusing on the human intersection with technology and the value brought by these interactions. He stated that working on projects across a broad range of industries has allowed his company to be sustainable amidst the hype cycles often associated with new and emerging technologies.

some applications of extended reality technology include:

A virtual stroke protocol training program 

Coaching in the Australian Football League (AFL) space

The contemporary art space, an area that he is most excited about, particularly around the concept of ‘XR as canvas.’  

Rather than starting with technology, he explained that his approach is to consider human interactions with technology as a starting point. 

Ingo touched on the limitations of solving problems in a two-dimensional medium, stating that interactions in a three-dimensional medium allows for the easier solution of real-world problems. Visualising models in 3D, for example, allows for the perception of depth, which greatly aids work in the civil engineering space.

Ingo also described how the uptake of new technologies by companies, especially those working in government, needs to be driven by the sector itself. This is because companies often use older technologies and require assistance - more prototypes and proofs of concepts -  to assist stakeholders in identifying how new technologies can assist them. 

Anton and Ingo were in agreement that mining is a sector that has already embraced XR technology and that greater uptake of XR will occur in the next five to ten years. A downside to working in the space is that the pressures of scalability and finance can drive conversations that don’t leave room for understanding ethical aspects of technology. 

Both agreed that the human element of XR is of the utmost importance, that XR is about helping people communicate with one another, and that there are roles for humans to play in dealing with complex problems and data.   

We were delighted to welcome Philip Shelper, CEO, and Stacey Lyons, Loyalty Director of Loyalty & Reward Co to the Stone & Chalk Event Lab, to discuss the rapidly evolving world of loyalty programs.

Since its inception in 2013, Loyalty & Reward Co has established itself as Australia’s leading loyalty consultancy agency, using a data-driven approach to provide clients with comprehensive insights into the many different aspects of loyalty. They have worked with several global brands, including McDonalds, Optus, and P&G.  

Philip and Stacey were joined by a distinguished panel of industry guest speakers: Fran Ereira, Country Head (ANZ) of Klarna, Travis Tyler, Chief Product and Marketing Officer of 86 400, and Gary Cobain, CEO of PokitPal.

Philip began by discussing the (surprisingly) long history of loyalty programs - dating back to workers in Ancient Egypt who were able to exchange surplus food tokens for more luxurious items. The modern concept was born in 1850s New York City, when B.T. Babbitt, “The Godfather of loyalty programs” as Philip calls him, offered customers rewards in return for collecting cut-outs from the packaging of his soap products.     

He emphasises the opportunity loyalty programs present for companies in developing deeper emotional bonds with customers, likely leading to increased retention levels, especially among customers who have an isolated negative experience. This is known as commitment theory.

The panellists discussed the emerging ‘megatrends’ of the industry, drawing on their own experiences to highlight the necessary dynamics of running a successful loyalty program.

AI-infused platforms are increasingly adept at learning individuals’ behaviours, enabling brands to send increasingly hyper-targeted and tailored messages, offers and rewards to their customers.

As Stacey explains, trailblazers such as Amazon, Netflix and Spotify have set high customer expectations for data-driven personalised services and communications. .“If it isn’t being used to deliver more meaningful experiences, customers will take their business elsewhere”.

Fran agrees, stating that a key differentiator between Klarna and their ‘buy now pay later’ competitors, is their ability to deliver relevant content and rewards to their customers. Klarna obtains key insights into individuals’ trends, likes and dislikes, by capturing data every time a customer transacts, whether it be an in-store purchase or via the digital cart.   

With consumers ever-more interested in finding ways to make their money go further, loyalty and payments are set to become increasingly intertwined.

Payment companies, such as PokitPal, are developing card-linking platforms where members can link their credit/debit cards directly with loyalty programs, so they automatically earn points and rewards when transacting at a participating merchant. 

Payments are the real touchpoint for consumers and retailers. Gary explains, banks are finally starting to utilise the huge sets of data available to them to improve the personalisation of their propositions for customers.

86 400, Australia’s first smartbank, aims to drive advocacy and growth by going beyond a normal bank’s offerings, explains Travis. Their latest feature, Energy Switch, compares electricity plans by scanning over 200 data points from retailers and enables the customer to switch to a cheaper provider in minutes. 

The recent development of white label solutions has seen several companies, including McDonalds and Boostjuice, develop bespoke digital games for their specific audience. The games generally reward their members with prizes and special offers. Philip believes this space has an “enormous future”.

The panellists agree that innovative, data-driven loyalty programs present a huge opportunity for businesses, across industries, and should be a key component of their marketing strategies moving forward. Customer expectations are rising, and businesses need to keep up. 

We were delighted to welcome Julie Garland McLennan, Boardroom Expert, to speak about governance for companies. Having served on 18 boards across three continents, Julie has helped boards and directors to lead successful organisations for over 22 years. 

Julie has written and facilitated director education for leading governance institutions, including the Australian Institute of Company Directors, The Governance Institute of Australia, and The National Association of Corporate Directors (USA). She is also the author of six books for directors and is publisher of The Director’s Dilemma newsletter.

In this webinar, Julie outlined standard governance concepts to position yourself, your board and your company for success. These concepts have been categorised into five different steps.

The first step is to get access to directors with specific skills that are relevant at each stage of your company’s growth. “Never assume everyone knows how to be a director,” Julie warns.

An ideal director will have experience on the board of a similar stage company in the same sector, industry or technology. For example, during your company’s growth period, you’d have directors who have been on the board of a startup. 

Other characteristics of an ideal director include: the ability to solve one of the problems your company faces; the ability to build trust with customers, investors, or regulators; the ability to understand your capital structures and sources; an understanding of the role of the board and directors.

The second step is to manage the tension between shareholder representation and director contribution. “Startups regularly conflate this difference, which is a really bad mistake.”  

Shareholders buy shares in your company because they have insight into your promised plan, which they expect will bring them returns. “They want regular information to ensure that is indeed what is happening.”

On the other hand, directors are liable for what the company does - they act on the best interests of the company and represent the shareholders. Additionally, they reserve the right to any company information they reasonably need in order to make the board’s decisions.

However, in the scenario where a director is also a shareholder, they must keep their own interests separate from the best interests of the company, as this can have legal implications.

Step three is to develop appropriate advisory boards, panels, and governance to meet the company’s needs. Julie encourages implementing other governance structures to compliment your board, outlining that “corporate governance standards are guidelines, rather than a prescription.”

For example, a shareholder council will be established if your shareholders want even more representation or detailed information. This structure enables shareholders to interact in-depth with management, without making board decisions.

Advisory boards are appropriate when you require more technical advice, rather than careful monitoring of performance - which is typical in a shareholder-dominated board. Advisory boards are still liable for what the company does.

Finally, a panel of advisors is useful if you prefer approaching each individual director for their particular skills. This differs from a board, where directors come together to contribute their skills and insights to the decisions being made.

The fourth step is to prepare for listing and the ‘ASX Standard’ governance. Julie recommends preparing for your IPO (Initial Public Offering) one year in advance, to ensure your company is ready financially. 

She also encourages drafting your prospectus early and doing adequate research to choose the right market and the right time to go to market. Making incorrect decisions risks positioning your company as an unattractive investment. 

In terms of the ASX, it encourages the majority of directors to be independent because they don’t have any significant shareholding that could influence their judgement. It’s common for your company to have more non-independent directors before it becomes listed.

The final step is to set expectations regarding director tenure, remuneration, and behaviours. Ensure you outline these from the onset, particularly about director tenure. This will enable directors to outline their career goals and motivations for wanting to join your company’s board. In turn, you can align these with your company’s interests, and inform the director when you expect to move them on and off your board. 

Positioning your Board Advisors for Success

Nick Frandsen is one half of the Kiwi duo who helped propel Afterpay - one of the biggest tech success stories of the decade - into the $14 billion venture it is today. Nick is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Dovetail, a product development agency with a proven track record for turning ideas into commercially-successful digital products used by millions of people.

We chatted with Nick about what led him to start Dovetail, and how Afterpay partnered with Dovetail to build the fastest-growing public company in Australian history. He also gave us some valuable strategies for growth for early-stage startups. This conversation was moderated by Cheryl Mack, Stone & Chalk’s National Head of Community, 

Nick was an entrepreneur from an early age, starting his first tech company in his final year of an Economics and Computer Science degree. “You learn something from being thrown in the trenches of a startup,” says Nick. After building his first company successfully, Nick and his other co-founder eventually sold it and started thinking about the next big thing that would occupy them: Dovetail. 

Dovetail’s main claim to fame is the product development it has done for Afterpay, which has helped Afterpay grow into a global payments leader. The partnership began after Nick chatted with one of the founding employees of Afterpay, who also happened to be someone he had studied at uni with. 

As a result, Afterpay outsourced Dovetail’s services because they wanted partners who were talented in the technical realm (Afterpay’s founders are not technical). As a result, Dovetail launched a world-class mobile product in a short timeframe, enabling Afterpay to enter the market quickly. Astoundingly, within 48 hours of its soft launch, the Afterpay mobile app was ranked no. 1 on the Australian Apple AppStore!

As Afterpay continued to rapidly gain traction, Dovetail redesigned its website so that it could handle the increased volume of traffic, enabling Afterpay to scale even further. Afterpay is now even a shopping destination in itself!

The web and mobile products that Dovetail designs, builds and maintains for Afterpay now serve over 7 million customers every month in four international markets. “It’s been a really fun journey,” says Nick.

According to Nick, the reason for Afterpay’s rapid growth is that it acquired its customers through indirect marketing. Afterpay would interact with large merchants, which in turn meant that they indirectly interacted with that merchant’s customers.

The reason Afterpay was able to successfully penetrate international markets was its strong value proposition: interest-free payments for the customer, paid to the merchant through four installments. It’s a versatile value proposition that works at all levels of scale, explains Nick. Furthermore, Afterpay solidified its credibility by creating a recognisable logo from day one that remained consistent throughout its growth. 

 Nick’s advice for early-stage startups

Find good advisors with relevant industry experience to your type of business (and preferably in your location). Advisors will help you avoid some early mistakes, and they may even be able to connect you to other types of advisors later down the track.

Start selling your product early on if you can, especially if you are growing quickly. This will enable you to validate yourself and receive honest feedback from paying customers. 

Hire good people who align with your business, especially in the early days. These will be the people who will form the basis of your company’s culture. 

Don’t underestimate sales and marketing, and make sure you’re doing it early. You want to be able to sell and market your product well from the beginning so that you can give your business all chances of success!

 In case you missed it, Afterpay’s CEO Anthony Eisen is on the Board of Directors at Stone & Chalk. 

Lessons learned from helping build Australia's fastest-growing tech company

In June 2020, the Australian Government announced it was allocating $1.35 billion dollars of funding over the next 10 years to enhance Australia’s cyber security defences. This comes in the wake of recent numerous cyber attacks on Australian governments, political organisations and businesses.

Our leading cyber experts helped bring insight into the new reality of cyberwarfare in Australia, how startups can help, and how businesses can protect themselves against these sophisticated attacks. We welcomed Michelle Price, CEO at AustCyber, Hai Tran, CEO at Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre (A3C), and Dr Vaughan Shanks, Co-Founder and CEO at Cydarm Technologies, with Chris Kirk, General Manager of Stone & Chalk Adelaide, moderating the discussion. 

Historically, Australia has been safe during warfare due to our isolation from other countries, but in cyber terms, this distance is breached. Being a rich country with an abundance of resources and intellectual property, Australia is the perfect target for a cyber attack. Hai labels attacks on Australia as ‘two-fold:’ firstly, there is financial gain, and secondly, it’s a show of force.

This new cyberwarfare reality is the Cold War 2.0, says Vaughan. ‘It’s one of the tools available for statecraft in a scenario where no one wants to start a shooting war.’ But this ‘new reality’ is exaggerated by the Australian media, says Michelle, who reiterates that these kinds of cyber attacks have been going on for years. Instead of alarming ourselves, we should treat this new reality as a reminder that we need to tidy up our cyber defences. 

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WHAT'S HAPPENING?

The latest news at Stone & Chalk

Proptech Panel - How Technology is Changing Residential Mortgage Lending

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Thriving In A Male Dominated Tech Industry

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