{"id":40262,"date":"2023-10-20T15:07:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/from-baggage-handling-to-a-1-billion-dream-melbourne-startup-rack-builds-instagram-for-shopping-with-the-support-of-afl-stars-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:07:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:07:10","slug":"from-baggage-handling-to-a-1-billion-dream-melbourne-startup-rack-builds-instagram-for-shopping-with-the-support-of-afl-stars-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/from-baggage-handling-to-a-1-billion-dream-melbourne-startup-rack-builds-instagram-for-shopping-with-the-support-of-afl-stars-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"From baggage handling to a $1 billion dream: Melbourne startup Rack builds \u201cInstagram for shopping\u201d with the support of AFL stars – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Buzinga<\/div>\n

Fashion and consumerism: these are the two big trends a Melbourne startup is planning to leverage in the hopes of one day hitting a $1 billion initial public offering.<\/p>\n

In early 2015, former airline baggage handlers Ben Morris and Daniel Jefic pulled together more than $25,000 in personal savings to start working on a new app: Rack.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vision is to be the biggest B2C [business to consumer] social shopping platform in the world,\u201d Morris tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

While Rack isn\u2019t the only startup fighting for a lead in social shopping, Morris is confident it will go the distance with support from some high profile investors and TV personality Didier Cohen on board as a creative director.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like the \u201cInstagram of shopping\u201d, says Morris, in reference to a reaction from one of Rack\u2019s early investors Tommy Sheridan, a Fremantle Football Club\u00a0player.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea came from us just sitting in our room trying to come up with something\u2014we always just wanted to build an app,\u201d Morris says.<\/p>\n

After toying with a few ideas in e-commerce, Morris says the pair landed on the concept of Rack. It\u2019s an app that lets consumers post what they\u2019re buying and from which stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only testing we did was we did a workshop with [app developer] Buzinga,\u201d says Morris.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got feedback from friends and family and just trusted our gut.\u201d<\/p>\n

To bring the app to market, Morris and Jefic raised $150,000 in seed funding at the end of 2016 from friends in the AFL, including Brandon Ellis from Richmond Football Club, Jonathan O’Rourke from Hawthorn Football Club\u00a0and Sheridan. Morris says Rack also secured a $42,000 government grant for research and development.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a few friends in the AFL and they\u2019re very like business minded,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also appointed Australia Next Top Model<\/em> judge Didier Cohen as Rack\u2019s creative director.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got connections through Didier Cohen,\u201d says Morris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been friends with his fianc\u00e9 for like 10 years. He actually gave us the name [for Rack].\u201d<\/p>\n

Since launching in January this year, Morris says Rack has been downloaded nearly 2500 times, despite spending “zero dollars on marketing”.<\/p>\n

Rack is up against other Australian-founded social shopping apps like Facebuy<\/a>, an eBay-inspired social network which launched in 2013, and Foenix Closet<\/a>, which raised $500,000 in 2016 to support global expansion plans for its app that converts followers into buyers.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on his startup journey to date, Morris says beginning with the end in sight is a crucial first step in being an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou must have your vision first, your vision has to scare you and you have to [think] big, and you have to think about it everyday,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell people I\u2019m going to be a successful entrepreneur and Rack\u2019s going to be a successful $1 billion IPO and I really believe that.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou literally just have to focus on what you\u2019re doing \u2026 eventually, you will be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and iTunes<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fashion and consumerism: these are the two big trends a Melbourne startup is planning to leverage in the hopes of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,13,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40262"}],"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=40262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}