{"id":38434,"date":"2023-10-20T14:56:29","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/the-secrets-behind-this-50-million-australian-startups-success-and-what-the-founders-wouldve-done-differently-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:56:29","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:56:29","slug":"the-secrets-behind-this-50-million-australian-startups-success-and-what-the-founders-wouldve-done-differently-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/the-secrets-behind-this-50-million-australian-startups-success-and-what-the-founders-wouldve-done-differently-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"The secrets behind this $50 million Australian startup\u2019s success and what the founders would\u2019ve done differently – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The secret to Envato\u2019s<\/a> success lies in the tactics it used to attract its first 100 users, co-founders Cyan and Collis Ta\u2019eed say.<\/p>\n

In an AMA hosted by Blackbird Ventures<\/a>, the Melbourne-based entrepreneurs described how they grew both sides of their two-sided digital marketplaces, as well as what they\u2019d do differently if they had their time over again.<\/p>\n

To make sure the supply met the demand in the early stages, Envato paid designers to put their work on the platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first bits of content available were commissioned work, including lots we made ourselves,\u201d Collis says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe then focused on finding people to buy that work and made sure to show sales counts and popular lists. This helped provide the proof that it was worth investing time into creation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting the content first<\/h3>\n

Startups in this space should only look to expanding their customer bases when they know they have enough content, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a marketplace for digital content I think it\u2019s a good idea to put the money into getting some content in,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

After that it\u2019s all about finding the right audience for this content.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just constantly look to see how I could refine the kind of content and material to be more attuned to what people want to buy, and then returning to invest more in content that I think will sell,\u201d Collis says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no single action that goes from nought to 100 users but I think a general pattern of trying to narrow down systematically what\u2019s the right kind of content to sell and who the right kind of people are to buy, plus finding cheap and simple ways to get in front of the buyers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Offering incentives<\/h3>\n

For Cyan Ta\u2019eed, offering incentives from the get-go played a big part in getting Envato off the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the pivotal decisions was to give away $10,000 worth of credit in $10 batches to anyone who signed up,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really straightforward but it got buyers putting money through our marketplaces which then got sellers excited because they were making sales. Some of those buyers never returned but some did and we managed to get them hooked on buying stock flash.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really successful in bringing in new buyers and making sellers excited and motivated to make more items. I think that was the big tipping point in the early days that got our momentum going.\u201d<\/p>\n

What they would\u2019ve done differently<\/h3>\n

Envato incorporates a range of different digital marketplaces based around themes, graphics, video and audio, and if Cyan and Collis had their time over they would have simplified this from the start.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill it\u2019s a little confusing and we often talk about a big domain merge \u2013 of course, that inevitably leads to a mildly terrifying conversation about SEO penalties and the mostly black-box world of Google,\u201d Collis says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we started afresh I think there\u2019s a good chance we\u2019d have done it all on one domain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t want us to build such a complicated system,\u201d Cyan adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnvato Market has a whole heap of systems for things like exclusivity, different payment rates, a built-from-scratch affiliate system, a multi-domain site structure \u2013 which are great for something our size but a waste of time for an early-stage startup.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarting afresh I think I\u2019d just go super simple, because I don\u2019t think some of these things matter so much in the broader scheme of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s much better to concentrate on getting good content in and getting buyers looking at the content.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on <\/i>Facebook<\/a>, <\/i>Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0and <\/i>LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The secret to Envato\u2019s success lies in the tactics it used to attract its first 100 users, co-founders Cyan and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38434"}],"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=38434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}