{"id":47570,"date":"2023-10-20T15:54:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/why-ebay-liked-the-look-of-a-melbourne-start-up-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:54:11","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:54:11","slug":"why-ebay-liked-the-look-of-a-melbourne-start-up-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/why-ebay-liked-the-look-of-a-melbourne-start-up-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Why eBay liked the look of a Melbourne start-up – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"startupsmart-award-winners-2-thumb\"<\/div>\n

\"startupsmart-award-winners-2-thumb\"After picking up not one but two titles at the 2012 StartupSmart Awards, expectations were high for Melbourne-based business Ship2Anywhere, which was created in 2010.<\/p>\n

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The brainchild of Jack Fitzgerald and Michael Teasdale, Ship2Anywhere offers cheap and simple shipping solutions to individuals and businesses, with a strong focus on service.<\/p>\n

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In addition to winning Best Online Strategy at last year\u2019s StartupSmart Awards, Fitzgerald was named Best Young Entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

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When we interviewed the company last year, its aim was to make $1.3 million in the 2011\/12 financial year. StartupSmart<\/i> spoke to sales director Hugh McFadden to see how it has fared.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe business is doubling basically. It\u2019s growing at 100%,\u201d McFadden says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you just take the calendar year of 2011, we did about $650,000. Last year we did just over $1 million, and we\u2019re on track to continue that trend this year and we\u2019re hoping to double again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe 2012 award was really recognition for the work the boys had done\u2026 The challenge we have now is managing our growth as we enter that next phase of our expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With the support of transport industry veteran Peter Rocke, who acts as a mentor, the expansion of Ship2Anywhere is well underway.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re now the preferred supplier for eBay, so we have a contract with eBay International AG. That came through in September,\u201d McFadden says.<\/p>\n

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\u201ceBay is really committed to SMEs\u2026 Their confidence and endorsement of Ship2Anywhere really shows their passion to small and medium enterprises.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cHere we are, Ship2Anywhere, and we\u2019re now a preferred shipping supplier for eBay, which is a $4 billion business.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In addition to securing a contract with eBay, Ship2Anywhere has grown from five staff to more than 10 \u2013 including eight staff in IT development \u2013 in addition to contractors.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve also launched ship2anywhereusa.com. That\u2019s a mail forwarding business\u2026 That Ship2Anywhere has contributed to some of the success,\u201d McFadden says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re also launching ship2anywhere.co.nz next month and there\u2019ll be a big announcement around that. We\u2019re offering the same function we\u2019ve offered Australian SMEs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe other big exciting thing we\u2019ve had occur is we\u2019ve launched our API \u2013 application program interface\u2026 I think that API is really going to drive our growth over the next 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The business is also expanding its service range this year, says McFadden.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe really feel we have got the suite of products these online stores require\u2026 [For example,] we\u2019re going to be offering a want-it-now, three-hour, point-to-point courier service,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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And while Fitzgerald is only in his mid-20s, he\u2019s a good student and a fast learner, McFadden says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think Jack is a great listener and he really leverages the experience of those around him,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPeter Rocke has been a great mentor for Jack, and Peter has instilled in Jack principles like integrity and loyalty\u2026 We owe a lot to Peter and his mentorship of the business.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs the business has evolved, we\u2019re now specialising. Michael is heading up IT development, Jack is focused on service and SEO, and I\u2019m focused on sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Entries for the 2013 StartupSmart Awards are now open. Simply by entering, you will be mentioned on our hugely popular StartupSmart Daily newsletter. For more information, and to enter, click here<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After picking up not one but two titles at the 2012 StartupSmart Awards, expectations were high for Melbourne-based business Ship2Anywhere,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,28,11,23,18,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47570"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}