{"id":43913,"date":"2023-10-20T15:32:03","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/1800approved-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:32:03","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:32:03","slug":"1800approved-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/1800approved-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"1800Approved – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n
Founders:<\/span><\/strong> Rodney Michail, Angelo Lauro <\/div>\n
Revenue:<\/span><\/strong> $20,000,000 <\/div>\n
Started:<\/span><\/strong> 2009 <\/div>\n
Head Office:<\/span><\/strong> Queensland <\/div>\n
Employees:<\/span><\/strong> 17 <\/div>\n
Industry:<\/span><\/strong> Finance and insurance <\/div>\n
Website:<\/span><\/strong> www.1800approved.com.au <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
(L-R) Rodney Michail, Angelo Lauro <\/div>\n

1800Approved is a business that never really sits still. Since its formation, it has been looking for the next sector to move into or the next market to infiltrate. It\u2019s an approach that has driven it to $20 million revenue less than four years after launching.<\/p>\n

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The Queensland finance and insurance broker was launched by Rodney Michail, who was a car dealer.<\/p>\n

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Michail felt that the finance providers he dealt with weren\u2019t very efficient and had a limited scope. Noticing that his customers were complaining regularly about the service they were getting, he decided he could do better himself.<\/p>\n

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After initially starting brokering for the car sector (this still makes up 30% of 1800Approved\u2019s business) the start-up began to systematically invade other industries in order to broaden its reach.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are very versatile business, we have forecasted change very well,\u201d says Angelo Lauro, who joined Michail as a business partner more than two years ago.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe moved into bikes, then marine and commercial \u2013 we can do anything from a $5,000 loan to a current deal which is with a group of private lenders for $600 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur business comes from consumers directly, or referral partners and dealerships. We are about the whole solution \u2013 car, house, about providing solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe do the same with the dealerships, to help them sell their products. We provide the tools, whether that\u2019s an online calculator or building them a website, to help them. We invest a lot into developing the products and tools.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This growth isn\u2019t haphazard. Michail and Lauro spend a huge amount of time on strategy, identifying and testing the next market they should move into. A diverse range of mentors and industry experts have been corralled into an informal network that can provide the duo with the key insights they need before they decide to make their move.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have a very detailed plan, done quarter by quarter, on the time to turn a product around \u2013 it\u2019s very strategic,\u201d says Lauro. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to manage it through the strategy, so we know exactly how much want to do. We found a lot of positive surprises.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sometimes, this ambition for relentless growth can come at a cost \u2013 Lauro admits that they were a little hasty with their plans for dealerships to process their own finance, as the market wasn\u2019t ready for it. But having taken a step back to develop the systems and tools to allow this, 1800Approved is benefitting from the partnerships.<\/p>\n

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The founders had to grapple with another, very different, problem in their early days \u2013 competitors trying to undermine them in the marketplace.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe were bullied a bit by competitors and had rumours spread about us to lenders, dealers and suppliers,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe had to overcome that by taking the high road on it. It reinforced our drive to do it better than the other guy. If we act and do better than they do, then we will get better results.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The next step is franchising, with a plan for up to 100 franchises across Australia. It remains to be seen what the next big step after that will be, but it\u2019s certain that this is one fast-growth start-up that isn\u2019t content to coast along.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Founders: Rodney Michail, Angelo Lauro Revenue: $20,000,000 Started: 2009 Head Office: Queensland Employees: 17 Industry: Finance and insurance Website: www.1800approved.com.au<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,18,1,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43913"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}