{"id":42128,"date":"2023-10-20T15:18:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/thank-you-groups-justine-flynn-on-why-they-never-gave-up-we-still-are-a-startup-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:18:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:18:56","slug":"thank-you-groups-justine-flynn-on-why-they-never-gave-up-we-still-are-a-startup-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/thank-you-groups-justine-flynn-on-why-they-never-gave-up-we-still-are-a-startup-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Thank You Group’s Justine Flynn on why they never gave up: “We still are a startup” – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
A founder of one of Australia\u2019s most prominent startup success stories says the local entrepreneurship landscape is very different now to what it looked like eight years ago.<\/p>\n
Justine Flynn is the co-founder of social enterprise retail startup Thankyou Group, and says a decade ago the business would have been called something completely different.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we started in 2007, a ‘social enterprise’ wasn\u2019t even a thing,\u201d Flynn told SmartCompany<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a really foreign thing to step out and start your own thing, I think a lot of people thought I had lost it a bit,\u201d she says, reflecting on the journey of the company during Global Entrepreneur Week.<\/p>\n Read more: Thankyou Group\u2019s Daniel Flynn wins emerging entrepreneur award: \u201cI was just a kid who got an idea\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n These days Thankyou stocks over 40 products in retailers across the country, and has contributed over $4.8 million to social enterprise projects in 16 different nations.<\/p>\n Despite its rapid growth and widespread success, Flynn still considers the business a startup.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a lot of senses we still are a startup, but at the same time as we scale, we\u2019re seeing growing pains. We\u2019re experiencing a lot of common problems with such fast growth, like hiring the right talent,\u201d Flynn says.<\/p>\n Maintaining the social enterprise angle while growing so fast can be difficult, but Flynn notes that Thankyou\u2019s business model lends itself to sticking to these goals.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re a for-profit business but we\u2019re owned 100% by a charitable trust, and we have commitments that we make to them. All of our hiring and marketing decisions are based on the core of what we do,\u201d Flynn says.<\/p>\n \u201cEven from the beginning we realised you don\u2019t necessarily need $3 million to do a national marketing campaign, we just got creative and thought outside of the box,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we were just thinking about our budget, we never would have gotten any ideas, and then how would have we grown?\u201d<\/p>\n Flynn\u2019s role in the business has changed though, noting that she\u2019s less \u201chands on\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve stepped back a bit now, and now other people who have come on for the journey are stepping into new roles,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Thankyou is powered by not just the entrepreneurship of the founders, but by the ongoing support from consumers and suppliers, which Flynn says have supported the business \u201cin one way or other\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThankyou is where it is today thanks to everyone who got on board, from our suppliers to our customers, they\u2019ve jumped on and used their spheres of influence to see our idea become a reality,\u201d she says.<\/p>\nSupport a key to success<\/h3>\n