{"id":38755,"date":"2023-10-20T14:58:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/how-a-melbourne-med-school-dropout-used-credit-card-debt-and-a-wall-of-phones-to-turn-an-idiotic-idea-into-a-million-dollar-startup-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:58:46","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:58:46","slug":"how-a-melbourne-med-school-dropout-used-credit-card-debt-and-a-wall-of-phones-to-turn-an-idiotic-idea-into-a-million-dollar-startup-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/how-a-melbourne-med-school-dropout-used-credit-card-debt-and-a-wall-of-phones-to-turn-an-idiotic-idea-into-a-million-dollar-startup-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Melbourne med-school dropout used credit card debt and a wall of phones to turn an “idiotic” idea into a million-dollar startup – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

When Melbourne med-school dropout-turned-entrepreneur Hugh Stephens launched a side project startup nearly three years ago, he expected it to be out of business\u00a0in six months.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old was already running his own business consulting company, Dialogue Consulting, and after numerous clients complained about not being able to schedule Instagram posts, he decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n

Funded solely with credit card debt and cash flow\u00a0from the consulting business, Stephens built the MVP for Schedugram over the Christmas period in 2013, but didn’t have any lofty aspirations for the creation.<\/p>\n

“When I started it I thought it’d be around for six months,” Stephens tells\u00a0StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

“After another six months I thought there surely wasn’t long left. I’ve said that every six months now for a bit over two and a half years.”<\/p>\n

Despite these worries, Schedugram has grown rapidly and now boasts thousands over users around the world.<\/p>\n

The startup\u00a0now accounts for the \u201cbulk\u201d of Dialogue Consulting\u2019s $3 million annual turnover.<\/p>\n

But with the flick of a switch Instagram could put the business in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

If the social network giant decides to open its API, allowing outside parties to schedule posts, or to simple incorporate a scheduling function in the app, Schedugram would be faced with countless competitors.<\/p>\n

While he says Instagram is currently focusing on the commercial side of things, he\u2019s sure they will eventually open the API for all.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point it probably will be a priority,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is, is that the end? I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going old-school<\/h3>\n

Schedugram doesn\u2019t bypass Instagram\u2019s closed system through a high-tech solution. It takes a rather old-school approach, with a wall of physical smartphones automating the posting process. The phones are dimmed and other measures are taken to save battery, but they\u2019re still replaced every 11 months or so.<\/p>\n

\"Schedugram<\/p>\n

\u201cThink of someone sitting behind a phone 24 hours a day, logging in and out of Instagram accounts, writing captions, and posting photos,\u201d Stephens says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do that except there isn\u2019t a person involved all the time, there\u2019s a pool of phones. There\u2019s a layer of automation but every now and then there\u2019s still some manual intervention involved. A phone will cark itself or be grumpy about the wifi and we\u2019ll still have to poke and proud around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephens, now 26, has made no effort to hide this old-school method, but says people are still shocked when they find out how it all works.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m surprised that people are surprised \u2013 it\u2019s been on the website since we started,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome customers like it being this magical black box and get totally gob-smacked when they see. It\u2019s not a secret \u2013 the complexity is in the implementation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schedugram is now used by thousands of clients, from large agencies and celebrities to smaller businesses trying to maintain a social media presence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had to rip apart a few of the assumptions we initially made as far as where we\u2019d end up,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still continually iterate. It\u2019s turning three at the end of December and we\u2019re polishing off our third total re-write. We\u2019ve made a habit of doing that every 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schedugram has six employees in different countries around the world.<\/p>\n

An “idiotic” idea<\/h3>\n

The startup has been entirely bootstrapped, with Stephens saying he has never even tried to seek outside funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought nobody would be dumb enough to put money into something that\u2019s only going to last for six months,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough a combination of some glorious credit card debt and work from the consulting business we built it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While initially thinking the idea for Schedugram was \u201cidiotic\u201d because of its inability to scale, Stephens says that he learnt this is the perfect way to test the feasibility of an idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing things that don\u2019t scale is a place to find that area of competitive differentiation,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can help you make sure you\u2019re solving problems that people want solved, and that often requires something that doesn\u2019t scale initially.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first MVP for the startup could only cater for 10 clients, but the interest it generated proved Schedugram\u2019s concept which then began to be scaled.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuild for the scale you have as you get it rather than assuming you\u2019re going to have five million customers on day one, or doing something that\u2019s totally impossible to scale,\u201d Stephens says.<\/p>\n

While Schedugram now earns the majority of Dialogue Consulting\u2019s revenue and takes up most of Stephens\u2019 time, he still likes to think of it as a side project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt still feel likes a side project and it has been quite important to me to keep it feeling that way,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt still feels like a fun side project rather than a full-time job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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