{"id":37672,"date":"2023-10-20T14:51:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/it-was-three-months-of-sleepless-nights-what-happened-after-these-entrepreneurs-suddenly-raised-15-million-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:51:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:51:35","slug":"it-was-three-months-of-sleepless-nights-what-happened-after-these-entrepreneurs-suddenly-raised-15-million-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/it-was-three-months-of-sleepless-nights-what-happened-after-these-entrepreneurs-suddenly-raised-15-million-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIt was three months of sleepless nights\u201d: What happened after these entrepreneurs suddenly raised $15 million – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The founders of Aussie crowdfunding success story Flow Hive have spoken out about the difficulties associated with suddenly\u00a0running a multi-million business overnight<\/a> and dealing with the pressure of meeting deadlines and customer expectations.<\/p>\n

Father and son duo Stuart and Cedar Anderson raised more than $15 million on Indiegogo earlier this year to manufacture their invention, which allows beekeepers to retrieve honey from their hive by simply turning on a tap.<\/p>\n

While the pair, who live on the New South Wales north coast, were originally only after $US70,000 of investment, they smashed that target in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n

However, while the money poured in quicker than anyone had hoped, the sudden success did take an emotional toll on the family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were getting 50 new media enquiries a day,\u201d Cedar Anderson told the ABC\u2019s\u00a0Australian Story <\/i>program last night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would wake up at five in the morning and be talking to ABC Radio and then a little bit later I\u2019d be talking to the\u00a0Washington Post<\/i>. I think it was three months of sleepless nights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the craziest, busiest time that\u2019s ever happened to me, being pulled and stretched in every direction. I experienced anxiety for the first time in my life and, at the same time, we [my partner and I] are trying to have a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the end of the whirlwind crowdfunding campaign, the Andersons had received orders from more than 140 different countries.<\/p>\n

It was around this time that doubt began to set in. How were two budding inventors in regional New South Wales going to fulfil all those orders?<\/p>\n

Flow Hive was also copping criticism from natural beekeepers and others who thought the hive kits would encourage irresponsible behaviour from short-term hobbyists.<\/p>\n

How the father and son duo dealt with the pressure<\/h3>\n

Speaking to\u00a0SmartCompany <\/i>this morning, Stuart Anderson said locking down some much-needed family time and learning to delegate tasks has helped him and his son push through the rough patches.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve tried to make sure weekends are free \u2013 it didn\u2019t work in the beginning, but it more or less does now,\u201d Anderson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve also got to trust the people you\u2019re delegating to so that once you pass the job over you can leave it to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson says it also helps that both he and his son are very passionate about the Flow Hive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do feel stressed about particular concerns sometimes, but I don\u2019t get stressed about the whole thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work is enjoyable. It\u2019s just all new and learning how the United States of America\u2019s tax laws work or dealing with another engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson also credits his local community for lending a helping hand, whether it be with the business directly or simply by giving him a pat on the back while he is in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community is really important to us,\u201d Anderson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could draw on really talented people almost at a moment\u2019s notice. That\u2019s been vital. I\u2019ve lived in this community for 40 years and worked in a whole lot of different occupations. The encouragement from all the people I bump into and know is quite important to me and means a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Andersons began shipping their beehive kits in June and began shipping more than 800 units at a time as of last month.<\/p>\n

Over the next few months the pair hope to catch up with any outstanding orders and narrow the time between ordering and delivery to a few weeks.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on SmartCompany<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The founders of Aussie crowdfunding success story Flow Hive have spoken out about the difficulties associated with suddenly\u00a0running a multi-million<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}