Building a startup is hard. You’re taking a concept, ideating it, growing it, then figuring out how to explain and sell it to investors, to your team, to customers, and even to your mum. You’re doing all this with limited funds, limited time and a small team.

And that’s just month one. The secret is that startups are hard, especially when you are successful.

Join us on March 12 as the Head of Marketing at Autopilot, one of Australia’s fastest-growing tech companies, chats with the founders behind two highly successful Australian businesses; OSCAR RAZOR and Blys, about their early experiences and challenges, and how they were overcome.

Key Takeaways

● Never lose sight of your customers

● Working smarter will help you survive

● Embrace your challenges

● Hire for your weakness, but be smart!

About the Speakers

Ellen de Vries

Ellen de Vries is the Senior Marketing Manager at Autopilot. In 2014 she co-founded the highly successful, Australian-based direct-to-consumer business OSCAR RAZOR with her father, Oscar. Recognising a gap in the market, Ellen and Oscar sought to offer Australians high-quality razors, at a low price, with the convenience of home delivery. Ellen became a ‘power user’ of Autopilot to grow her own business, and in doing so demonstrated what is possible for small, high-growth companies that make the most of technology to increase revenue, engage with customers and automate tasks. As a strong advocate for helping Australian startups and businesses, Ellen also leads our team’s efforts to create new opportunities for SMB’s, and to articulate "what’s possible" for customers of Autopilot.

Ilter Dumduz

Ilter is the Founder & CEO of Blys, the fastest growing on-demand wellness app in Australia and New Zealand. Ilter is passionate about wellness and technology. Having personally experienced the difficulties of practising self-care, Ilter launched Blys in 2016 with a single goal; to improve the quality of life for people around the world by making wellness services easily accessible. A recognised leader in Australia’s tech ecosystem with a strong track record in product management & growth, Ilter has been featured in Business Insider, TechCrunch, and The Age.

Prior to Blys, Ilter held senior product roles at some of Australia’s most successful technology ventures such as Domain.com.au and Freelancer.com. Ilter is actively involved in the Australian tech community as a mentor at Founder Institute, Entrepreneur-In-Residence at the University of Sydney, co-organiser of Australia’s largest product meetup Product Hunt Sydney - and in the wider community as a volunteer for Sailors With Disabilities.

About Fishburners

Fishburners is much more than a coworking space. We are a not for profit, passionate community of 300+ scalable tech startups that only exists thanks to our amazing sponsors - Google for Startups, UTS, Chartered Accountants, and Jobs for NSW. We are dedicated to inspiring and helping startups get started, grow and succeed. Our goal is to make the hardest thing you’ve ever done easier!

We do this through our different memberships which provide the facilities, resources, learning and development, mentoring, and connections that you need for your idea to come to life and flourish. We also open our doors and host some of the largest, regular events in the Australian startup ecosystem, including our weekly lunchtime learning workshops, and Shark Tank-style, Friday night pitches. Member or not, you're welcome to attend and/or get involved! Any questions about memberships or events, please feel free to email events@fishburners.org.

Details

Please head up to L3 of the Sydney Startup Hub, and walk down the yellow corridor to the Ideas Space. BYO lunch!

Contact the host of Founder to Founder: Things I Wish I Knew