{"id":45582,"date":"2023-10-20T15:44:55","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/what-it-takes-to-build-multi-million-dollar-startups-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:44:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:44:55","slug":"what-it-takes-to-build-multi-million-dollar-startups-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/what-it-takes-to-build-multi-million-dollar-startups-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"What it takes to build multi-million dollar startups – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Matt<\/div>\n

Over the past nine years, property agent service comparator Local Agent Finder has become one of the fastest rising stars on BRW\u2019s Fast 100 with its compound annual growth rate jumping to more than 80% in the last year.<\/p>\n

The company turns over more than $7 million and talks for an ASX listing have commenced.<\/p>\n

How exactly did they achieve such a feat in an increasingly saturated market battling against new competitors everyday?<\/p>\n

Local Agent Finder CEO Matt McCann says it all comes down to a smart approach to data, great culture, the right people and a dedicated strategy to learning and responding to your customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been 17 years in startups for me,\u201d McCann, a founding director of music app Shazam, tells StartupSmart. <\/em><\/p>\n

Shazam now boasts more than 100 million users worldwide.<\/p>\n

McCann has also been the CEO of Comparethemarket.com.au and iSelect, brands made popular on national TV with ads starring meerkats and Jason Geary.<\/p>\n

But big budget advertising aside, McCann says at the core of great startups are some best practice strategies.<\/p>\n

Here are three of them.<\/p>\n

1. Know when to pivot and ride the wave<\/h3>\n

McCann says Local Agent Finder hit a growth spike when they decided to pivot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a subscription based agent profile site,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pivot for us was moving the business from a publishing model into being a real advisor and comparison service.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, he says, reset the business onto a sharp growth trajectory over the past four years.<\/p>\n

The decision to pivot was driven by their data.<\/p>\n

McCann says the market value, determined by their target consumers, for the publishing model was not enough to take Local Agent Finder on a sustainable growth path.<\/p>\n

Looking at consumer behaviour and spotting this gap, enabled Local Agent Finder to ride the wave when a \u201cfanatic shift\u201d occurred with a growing expectation that the internet would be a primary source of information for all types of products and services.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike a real estate or a domain publishing style model, the comparison model is driven by acquisition marketing, building a propelling brand proposition for consumers, a deeply data driven comparison platform and a significant agent network,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

2. Be clear on why people should give a damn about your startup<\/h3>\n

The difference between startups that make it and the majority that fail is not simply a beautiful product or service, but whether other people could actually see that value.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuild a meaningful proposition for consumers and communicate it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

3. Fuel your startup with a great team and culture<\/h3>\n

One of the worst things new entrepreneurs can do is put growing a business ahead of building a strong team and culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, people have the perception that comparison services are simple things to launch,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s a false belief that if you create a great product it will simply find its own legs and take the world by storm.<\/p>\n

This is why it\u2019s vital, says McCann, for founders to reach out and bring in people with capabilities, knowledge and experience that\u2019s relevant in the space they\u2019re trying to crack.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy having a team that has been in comparison in one form of another over the most recent years [means] we\u2019re not learning as we go,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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

Over the past nine years, property agent service comparator Local Agent Finder has become one of the fastest rising stars<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,17,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45582"}],"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=45582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}