HOW DO YOU LAUNCH, GROW AND SELL A MULTI $MILLION BUSINESS?

 

“Giving it a go” is not for everyone! Some people like to push the boundaries more than others – and that’s fine. There’s no right or wrong or better or worse.  I have interviewed over 5,000 people throughout my career and I’ve been very fortunate to have met many individuals that have succeeded in entrepreneurial pursuits, and others who have not. Well, perhaps not economically – but they have gained immense experience in their learning. To close out our entrepreneurial showcase series we were delighted to recently meet up with one of my old connections that have been able to launch, grow and sell a multi million dollar business to gain his first hand experience of the journey – both the highs and the lows (learnings).

Acquire was delighted to host a Q&A evening with Adam Trippe-Smith, Founder and Managing Director of Kegstar.  As part of our “Top Talent” Community Group we had over 50 talented professionals join us for the Q&A and our own ‘Shark Tank’ session. Adam’s early career started in accounting and corporate finance, moving into corporate development with Ernst & Young, Diageo, easyGroup, Rinker Materials and APN News & Media. He then unplugged from the corporate world to set up his own business interests.

As an entrepreneur, Adam was a co-founder of McLaren Vale Beer Company in 2008, co-founder of the Independent Brewers Association in 2011, founder of The Balmain Ball in 2014. He founded Kegstar in 2012 when he identified the opportunity for an asset pooling business specialising in stainless steel kegs used to transport beverages. Kegstar now owns and manages a growing pool of 240,000+ kegs and operates in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Ireland, and launched in the USA in April 2017. Adam sold the business in late 2016 to global supply-chain logistics company Brambles Limited. Adam holds an MBA from Melbourne Business School and was a previous Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist.

Adam and I first met back in 2002 when he just arrived back from working in London with easyGroup. Back then it was pretty clear this lad (mid 20’s) was going to go places. For the audience to gain a greater appreciation of “Adam’s journey” we broke the evening’s discussion down into three chapters of his life: His Corporate days, Building and selling businesses and then him as an Individual. Adam is clearly an authentic and transparent leader and these traits were very much on the table from the opening remarks. I have been reflecting on the key takeaways and wanted to share the most salient points:

• Having your entire career plan perfectly mapped out is less likely than likely! One of the key drivers for Adam was thinking about any business he worked within as a “whole business” rather than a single view / department. Adam strived to gain broad experience in the early years of his career. Execution and ownership of a challenge was key – win or learn.

• Reflecting on his Corporate days, Adam had some very fond memories of working within APN News & Media. It was clear to all that this was both due the ‘task at hand’ in Corporate Development and his ‘leader’. His boss at the time’s approach was to “delegate and abandon” (in a good way) so he was given lots of scope. His leader assembled the right team and then gave them plenty of rope. Due to the corporate activity (defensive work), Adam soon developed many external networks and relationships and learnt how to leverage these.

• Cash flow modelling is a skill many have! However, when starting, growing a business being fully aware of your cash position in reality, and not just in excel is so critical. As they say: CASH IS KING. When we explored the top 3 challenges that kept Adam awake at night – it was no surprise that Cash was his first card. As this is the oxygen to the business, be that raising it in the early days or for supporting future investments or to drive the growth agenda in Kegstar’s case. His other priorities were naturally then People. Identifying the right people for a start-up business and then engaging and developing them (to develop the business) is critical to success. Competitors also popped up, as this is how the business model was born, as the market was ripe for disruption.

• Adam has built and sold a couple of businesses, so I was keen to explore some of the professional highs and lows. He was very candid – “everyday in start-up there are many highs and lows – It’s very intense”. On winning your first customers: Adam first purchased 1,000 kegs and Stone and Wood took 880 of them! Adam shared the journey of bringing in investment from Brambles (in April 2014) when they took a 30% stake. This provided them the oxygen. Then in late 2015 Brambles took 100% of business “giving up your baby is very hard”. Adam was also kind to be open around the massive learning of one of his first ventures McLaren Vale Beer Company. At the time they were one of the top 5 Craft Brewers in the Australian market. However with 7 shareholders the dynamics were not fully aligned so he decided to exit the business – this was a great lesson in business for him.

• We explored leveraging of one’s skills vs. others. In growing a business (or even a project) how he balanced what he took on vs. what he delegated. Adam shared how previously he had made some mistakes at Vale Ale. However in Kegstar he wanted to be in the background not the face of the business. Leveraging his core skills and then bringing in the right people from day one. They invest heavily in people, fun, experiences, travel, the more people have relationships, the more emotionally invested in the business they are and great things then happen.

• Working in a start-up can be really exhilarating and rewarding, but also draining (as it can suck up so many hours across 7 days per week!). I wanted to know what Adam has done outside of this? He was open to say he may not be the perfect person to showcase. However, like most busy people – we soon discovered that he had previously started up a charity, and is involved in other start-up ventures (in both mentoring and investor capacity). He decided to take up skiing recently and loves spending time with his family when not travelling around the globe.

• I wanted to explore the pros and cons on working within a start-up. Who do you turn to when you (historically) don’t have a boss? It seems Adam has a good network of confidantes and mates who he trusts. His networks from his old corporate days – Lawyers and Bankers have come full circle and past Investors and Strategists play a semi-mentoring role to him now.

As mentioned at the outset, start-ups are not for everyone: They can be high risk and you really need to back yourself, you need to protect the team you assemble – but in reality you just take one step towards your goal each day, each week and have simple goals. Breaking the business down to 3-4 simple priorities only. Also it’s important to have the right sponsor if you are going to nudge the dial. Be that financially or someone / something pushing you to keep the motivation going. Culture is critical, and finally balancing burn out and demands on people, one needs to be careful.

As they say in the trade “there’s no such thing as a free beer!” So after our audience had heard from Adam (our entrepreneur in residence) we then set about creating a ‘Shark Tank’ exercise from within the audience. The team at Acquire are passionate about expanding individuals’ Knowledge and Networks. so we quickly formed around 15 new start-ups from the community. They then had to develop and share their new business venture for our investment panel to judge.

Congrats to the team Baby Rice for their winning innovation and a massive thanks once again for Adam and the team at Kegstar for being involved with our “Top Talent” Community Event – more to come in 2018!