{"id":46891,"date":"2023-10-20T15:51:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/afl-players-set-to-launch-a-start-up-to-deliver-alcohol-within-the-hour-to-your-door-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:51:40","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:51:40","slug":"afl-players-set-to-launch-a-start-up-to-deliver-alcohol-within-the-hour-to-your-door-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/afl-players-set-to-launch-a-start-up-to-deliver-alcohol-within-the-hour-to-your-door-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL players set to launch a start-up to deliver alcohol within the hour to your door – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Melbourne Football Club players Joel Macdonald, James Strauss and Rowan Bail are preparing to launch their own start-up delivering beer, wine and spirits later this year.<\/p>\n

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Liquorun will see customers order their alcohol online and have it delivered within the hour.<\/p>\n

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MacDonald, who started his AFL career with the Brisbane Lions, told StartupSmart<\/i> the idea was a culmination of several experiences, and was born over a post-training coffee brainstorm three months ago.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA little while back, I was involved in an altercation in a taxi rank in Brisbane and ended up getting arrested. I had this vision that the hospitality and late night transport industry needed a bit of a shake-up,\u201d MacDonald says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cStraussy [James Strauss] had a night where he was drinking with a couple of mates and they ran out, and the night ended because they couldn\u2019t drive to a bottle shop and it was too far and a bit risky to walk.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Macdonald, Strauss and Bail have partnered with a 24-hour bottle shop in Melbourne and venture technology group Blue Chilli.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe needed a tech partner, because that\u2019s not our experience and we\u2019re quite new to start-ups. We\u2019re also time-poor when we\u2019re playing football,\u201d Macdonald says.<\/p>\n

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Start-ups in the alcohol industry come with risks and responsibilities. According to Macdonald, Liquorun is designed to minimise risk and violence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a vision that no one should get to a point in the night when they have to risk drink-driving or put themselves out on the street to go and get more. It can be pretty unsafe, especially for women, but even for guys,\u201d Macdonald says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe biggest issue when we were speaking to bottle shops early on was how do you stop under-agers calling up and how do you know they\u2019re not completely wasted when you deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Liquorun will require a licence number to prove the buyer is an adult, which is cross-checked automatically before the order is processed, and then again by the delivery person.<\/p>\n

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All delivery staff will have Responsible Service of Alcohol qualifications and be trained on how to assess if a client and situation is safe to deliver to.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur delivery drivers will be paid by the hour, so there is no incentive for them to deliver it or not,\u201d Macdonald says.<\/p>\n

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Macdonald has had a couple of successful start-ups previously, including a real estate company and a t-shirt company.<\/p>\n

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\u201cStart-ups have always been a passion of mine outside of football,\u201d Macdonald says, adding that launching this idea with team members has meant they work together well.<\/p>\n

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\u201cComing from the football background, every day we get feedback on our performance. Most office jobs you don\u2019t get that much, but we have the mental resilience and trust that comes from daily feedback,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some pretty robust chats about who is doing what. I\u2019ll be leading the guys and having to identify the different strengths and working out how we can work as harmoniously and effectively as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The team is seeking 100 people to be part of the beta test period. They plan to launch in Melbourne in October, with launches in Sydney and Brisbane by the end of this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Football Club players Joel Macdonald, James Strauss and Rowan Bail are preparing to launch their own start-up delivering beer,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46891"}],"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=46891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}