Rosterfy raises $9.8m from VC Bailador

Founded in Geelong by Bennett Merriman, Shannan Gove and Chris Grant in 2015 , Rosterfy raised $2m in 2019 and a further $4m in 2021 at a $30m valuation hitting a $3.3m  with 100 Customers, and  a team of 23, with 7 engineers. 

Rosterfy , 2 years on has raised $9.8m from Bailador - an ASX listed VC,

So - what does Rosterfy do? 

Rosterfy manages more than 1.5 million volunteers in more than 20 countries, providing  volunteer and workforce management software to not-for-profits such as Lifeline Australia and St Vincent de Paul Society, and was used to manage volunteers during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and the 2023 Super Bowl in Arizona.

The SaaS platform allows organisations to recruit, screen, train, and schedule their volunteers better engage and retain them. Their mission to connect communities to events and causes they are passionate about.”

Bennett Merrrman tells Sentinel that they are excited to leverage Bailador’s experience in successfully scaling Australian-born SaaS businesses globally and welcome both David Kirk and Michael Hayes to the Rosterfy board.

 “This is the start of the next exciting chapter of our growth and timely acknowledgement that our global team and platform are making a real impact.”

So, who is Bailador and what is their take on the VC market 

Bailador has positions in eight companies after e-furniture company Brosa was wound up in December.

Michael Hayes, investment director at Bailador points out to tech reporter of the AFR Tess Bennett that Investors are  saying ‘no’ to high valuations and that the appetite for growth at all costs had ended .  

The latest Cut Through Venture figures show that of 82 deals, only $661 million was raised in the first three months of 2023, compared with $1.8 billion in the final quarter of 2022. 

“Companies needed to demonstrate they have  a path to profitability, with strong fundamentals and  unit economics so they’ll scale to profitability over time,” says Hayes 

We will support these companies - and  have recently invested an additional $10 million into existing portfolio company InstantScript, a digital healthcare platform, to took its holding to 30%.

Source 

https://www.afr.com/technology/why-fintechs-are-facing-the-same-problem-as-milkrun-20230416-p5d0uz

$300m for Climate And Sustainability companies

Abe Yokell’s Congruent Ventures Raises $300 Million for Climate Startups and will now have more than $700 million in assets under management. 

The fund will  help its stable of climate-focused startups  scale their operations,

Investors include

•  the California State Teachers Retirement System —
• Grantham Foundation, 
• Sobrato Capital, 
• Three Cairns Group and 
• investors advised by Cambridge Associates.

 Two  of Congruent’s companies had already been acquired by oil giant BP Plc: Amply Power, which offers electric vehicle charging for fleets, and Blueprint Power, which provides energy management for buildings. 

The Yokell gem 💎 

“A story is not going to get you a good exit, here,” he said, in an interview. “You’re going to have to build good companies.”

why so many cofounder relationships fail and what you need to do to find the right co-founder

Phil Morle - has seen many startups - and those that succeed usually have co-founders. 

“The best advice I could give to a new startup founder is to find others to share the journey.” -Forbes Ludovic Huraux ceo shapr 

• Cover your weaknesses
• Gain perspective 
• Build together
• Mitigate risk 

So how do you find the ideal co-founder ? 

You don’t! They will find you !- says Phil 

He shares his take on why so many cofounder relationships fail and what you need to do to find the right co-founder 

These are some of his insights 

Finding cofounders is so hard is because lots of people like the idea of building startups, but few people are capable of devoting the kind of effort that you are prepared to give to make a viable idea into a functioning, sustainable, scaled-out business. As a result, most cofounder relationships fail because of an uneven commitment to the venture.

If one founder believes another founder isn’t as committed, resentment will brew and ultimately rip apart the founding team’s relationship.

So what does your co-founder  need to do to earn his/her stripes? 

• work 24/7 just because they think your project is interesting 
• Be as committed and passionate as you about the project 

This is the gem 💎 

“The right cofounder won’t need to be sold. All you’ll have to do is tell the person what you’re working on. The right cofounder is going to sell him or herself on the project and then start pushing you to let them work on it.”

So tell as many potential cofounders about your startup as possible, then be patient and wait for the right cofounder to chase you. It’s going to feel like a nearly impossible test for both of you, but, when you both pass it, you’ll have finally found a great cofounder.”

Some interesting links 

https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/great-startup-cofounders-have-to-pass-this-one-nearly-impossible-test-eed7f3c1f137

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pmorle_great-startup-cofounders-have-to-pass-this-activity-7050021837388333056-syn8?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/neilpatel.com/blog/finding-perfect-co-founder/%3famp

https://startupsavant.com/do-you-need-a-co-founder-for-your-startup

5 key insights on how to grow a successful business

So we came out of a meeting identifying how we are going to grow 

These were some of the takeouts 

• Creation of new products to drive revenue growth
• Determine whether the business is B2B or B 2C
• Automation of systems
• Sharing costs
• Growth by acquisition - “roll up”
• Territorial expansion
• Hiring the brightest and best 
• Great marketing 

After years of building businesses , watching other businesses grow into unicorns , failing forward and being an entrepreneur - 

These are 5 key insights  on how to grow a successful business 

• It’s  all about the people - build a great culture
• It’s all about the brand
• Know your numbers 
• Do your due diligence when doing mergers and acquisitions 
• Take action 

It’s all about the People 

As you grow - it’s all about the people in your team. 

How do you hire them , how do you retain them , how do you upskill and reskill them ?

Recruiting 

How do you find and recruit the brightest and best ? 

Some  of the questions to ask in hiring your team 

1. The Big Why – why do they want to join us and not other companies?
2. Communication skills – can they communicate their thoughts well in clear concise manner?
3. Technical, qualification and work experience – The CV stuff
4. What’s their 10X-factor – the “umph” in their application

It’s not all science.

People who do amazingly well during interviews – underperform

People who are ok during interviews – outperformed .

The 3 months probation period is key  - use it!! 

Retaining 

The Culture of the business 

Culture is key if you’d like to build, retain and grow a high-performance team.

What are the successful people doing? 

Richard Branson , Apple , Google, Atlassian and Canva 

They know that by treating their people right and having a conducive and fun work environment, it will trickle down to their product development, innovation , customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.

Their formula:

Happy employees = Happy customers = More revenue = More profit

How do you get your team to connect, communicate, collaborate , contribute , learn and grow together on a continuous basis? 

Maybe this? 

1. Daily huddles - meetings between team members - to make sure they feel part of a team 
2. Water cooler chats -Weekly meetings with leadership team
3. Monthly Town Hall - a relaxed event where you share key wins and make jokes. 
4. A blog for your group where we encourage our team to post and share stuff about them 
5. Objective - Share your vision, values and goals - and ensure they are aligned with our team 

The goal is to ensure that  your team  knows your mission, vision and behaves in a certain manner according to your values and to get everyone on the same page.

BSI values - TREAT

1. Team - No Finger Pointing Policy – Operational screw-ups happen. Don’t finger point! 
2. Respect Appreciate One Another – Say thank you and buy each other lunch!
3. Energy - Work hard, play hard – Have regular meetups , forums , sports and  lunches  (maybe forums where we can share experiences - good and bad - collaborate learn and grow together . 
4. Action and adventure – Do things now, not later –Always be Experimenting – take risks (tour team has your back ) Experiment on new features/products that will drive company growth.
5. Trust Open Communication – Be honest and open with each other. If you haven’t got trust amongst your team and stakeholders - it will be nigh impossible to survive 

The goal is to ensure your team knows your pulse ! What makes you tick? What is your mission ? What is your vision ? 

Bsi’s pulse is to help you achieve your generational legacy  and by doing so build a $100m plus organisation within the next 5 years !

Every Town Hall should talk about your vision and  “treat values”and repeat them until our team gets it and they can repeat it in their sleep.

It’s all about The Brand 

Get your funnels and UX nailed!

Nail you digital strategy and expertise - become the centre of influence in your target market 

Digital marketing is key -  includes all our Google , LinkedIn and Facebook ads campaigns.( if you do it yourself look at  Quick Sprout and Backlinko. ) 

SEO in terms of click throughs, funnels and copywriting, A/B testing, measuring  clickthroughs and conversions .

Make sure all has a call to action 

Why did it work? Not quite sure.

Some tips 

1. Catchy headline that states the problem
2. Reaffirm the problem
3. Mention the solution
4. Soft sell with call to action
5. Provide customer testimonials
6. Remove customer objection
7. Provide bonus/money back guarantee, if any
8. Hard sell and provide call to action

Special thanks to Haryzat Zulzahary for this formula.

Make sure the look and  feel of the website and app is amazing - it is your shopfront and needs to cut through !

Do you have apps for clients to use ? 

Build an app for your customers to use …. Make it easy for them to engage 

KPIs is to create a Facebook post that gets at least 100 shares, on a monthly basis.

This led to many experiments on how best to generate shares which in turn leads to brand awareness.

Don’t do it yourself - get the best 

What this means is instead of a simple ad with body text of about 50-75 words, we created an ad with 500-600 words of content complete with headline, copy and call to action.

Know your numbers 

What you can measure you can manage 

• How many leads to get how many proposals to lock in the sale 
• What is your  cost per engagement was consistently below 10c . Sometimes as low as 1c .
• What’s your margins
• What’s your break even 
• What’s your cash flow forecast - what’s your runway 

Here are some amazing calculators to help you know your numbers  - BSI Health check 

https://bsi.skillsoptimiser.com/BusinessHealth

Do your due diligence when doing m and a 

Before making an opportunity and taking on an acquisition  - analyse it - cheap often turns out disastrous ….. it’s a fine balance …. 

Do you take a huge bite and chew like mad ? 

The potential growth in top line revenue might be great but what about the costs and focus? 

If decision is a bad one - cut early - and take your losses or punishment 

 

• people management and leadership - are key - communication clearly your vision, goals and KPIs 
• delegate and outsource - ux ,digital marketing ,
• Give people what they want and you will get what you want 
• Know your numbers 
• Do your due diligence and take action 

I recommend 

• reading John Maxwell’s books 
• Doing a Dolam (diploma of leadership and management )
• Being part of a forum where people collaborate learn and grow together 
• Have a session with someone to get to know your numbers (dm me and I will do this with you - no charge! )