{"id":41255,"date":"2023-10-20T15:12:43","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/how-seera-plans-to-be-a-billion-dollar-nasdaq-listed-company-by-2019\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:12:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:12:43","slug":"how-seera-plans-to-be-a-billion-dollar-nasdaq-listed-company-by-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/how-seera-plans-to-be-a-billion-dollar-nasdaq-listed-company-by-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"How Seera plans to be a billion-dollar Nasdaq-listed company by 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Seera<\/div>\n

It was when a 19-year-old Melbourne entrepreneur was working for Telstra in the 80s that he first came up with the concept for a million-dollar company.<\/p>\n

Tasked with improving the telcos efficiency, Brad Birchall developed a way to automatically dispatch Telstra technicians based on their availability and skills.<\/p>\n

Back in the days of the first version of Windows, it was \u201cbreakthrough stuff\u201d.<\/p>\n

More than 10 years later Birchall was a CIO at SEEK and the idea really began to consolidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was actually getting to see and understand the whole HR marketplace and the jobs marketplace,\u201d Birchall tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a breakthrough insight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The entrepreneur then began to develop the concept for a cloud-based talent management platform based around competency of employees and potential hirings.<\/p>\n

Now, more than 15 years later, the idea has transformed into Seera, a startup turning over $1 million annually, with a $10 million Series A round in the works and a potential ASX-listing next year.<\/p>\n

Birchall says he never envisioned the concept he first mused in the 80s transforming into a successful tech company.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then it wasn\u2019t something I was particularly thinking about in the future,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an immediate need for Telstra and it was something I came up with.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time if someone had said to me I\u2019d be heading towards an IPO in the future and coming up with a breakthrough innovation I probably would\u2019ve thought they were crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that isn\u2019t even the half of it \u2013 by 2019, Birchall plans for Seera to be a $1 billion Nasdaq-listed company.<\/p>\n

A competency gap<\/h3>\n

Based in Melbourne, Seera offers a cloud-based platform for talent management. The people management tool generates a user\u2019s job ads, and then follows the performance of the employee once they are hired. It also incorporates machine learning to help employers identify the best candidates.<\/p>\n

Launched in 2013, Birchall says the startup is now turning over more than $1 million annually in the highly competitive HR tech space.<\/p>\n

It’s a saturated market, but he says Seera stands out from the pack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat differentiates Seera as a solution is the competency framework,\u201d Birchall says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely based on competency and the analytics with machine-learning.”<\/p>\n

Birchall says Seera is at the forefront of a new HR movement away from traditional resumes and hiring techniques.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine a person going for a job and being evaluated on the basis of a resume, a LinkedIn profile or some simple questions,” he says.<\/p>\n

“With Seera it\u2019s completely different because we base it on people\u2019s competencies, not skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe the resume is dead and people are now being evaluated more and more on competencies. This is not new, the HR market knows this but we\u2019re the first company to actually build a platform based on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from his time as an executive at Telstra and SEEK, Birchall has also been immersed in the startup world, having founded two successful companies before turning his attention to Seera.<\/p>\n

Reverse engineering<\/h3>\n

Unlike most founders who view a lucrative international public listing as a far-off pipe dream, this was the goal from the very start \u2013 in fact it was the basis for the entire company.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike most companies that would first build their product and survey the market, we tried to make an innovative leap forward and say, \u2018what does the market actually require? How do we get to a billion-dollar Nasdaq listing? Where do we want to be in 12 months before that and 12 months before that?\u2019\u201d Birchall says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we worked from that backwards. We basically forecasted what revenues we needed and used that to define the products sets and our approach to market.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the lofty goal of being a billion-dollar public tech company, Birchall has placed a series of milestones on the path towards the IPO and the ambitious entrepreneur says everything is on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re ahead of our targets,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith our first key targets we\u2019ve exceeded on revenue numbers and on product development. It\u2019s looking really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funding plans<\/h3>\n

With rapid growth in Australia, the company has now appointed Newport Capital to undertake a $10 million Series A funding round to accelerate its launch into Asia and begin preparations for an ASX-listing in 2017 – two of the main milestones before the planned Nasdaq listing.<\/p>\n

Seera will be opening its first international office in Singapore as it looks to aggressively expand into the Asia-Pacific region, with the $10 million cash injection helping to spur marketing efforts in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funds will be used predominantly for sales and marketing,\u201d Birchall says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have spent the last five years investing our money wisely and building a scalable global platform and we\u2019ve reached a point where our investment in that is now negligible.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur spend on marketing was less than $100,000 for a year \u2013 just imagine how much we can accelerate growth with a capital raising.\u201d<\/p>\n

The startup has achieved its rapid growth and adoption thanks to a range of collaborations and alliances, the most significant being with Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Although not putting an exact price on what he hopes the company will be valued at through the funding round and IPO, Birchall says he\u2019s confident it\u2019ll surpass the valuations of his competitors.<\/p>\n

One of its biggest rival, 1-page now has a market capitalisation of around $106 million.<\/p>\n

But Birchall says Seera’s revenue figures compare strongly with its competitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that with the present revenues for those companies, their valuations are over-valued,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m quietly confident that with our strong revenue base we\u2019re well-placed for a high valuation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The power of persistence<\/h3>\n

In terms of advice for other budding entrepreneurs, Birchall says it\u2019s important to stick to your guns and back yourself, no matter what other people are saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is going to tell you that you can\u2019t do it, that it\u2019s a crazy idea. Never listen to them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll trip up along the way, you\u2019ll make mistakes and you\u2019ll change your plans, but never give up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not prepared to persist with something in the face of criticism you\u2019re never going to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersistence is success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter,<\/em>LinkedIn <\/em>and <\/em>SoundCloud.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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