The Mumpreneur workshops this year are going to be theme based, so each month there will be a speaker with a theme relevant to mumpreneurs and business/personal growth, and  time for networking and discussing the things you want to know to get your business ideas growing – all suggestions for speakers etc will be happily taken.

We will have yummy chai tea and snacks, sometimes a pot of soup, bring along your lunch or something to share, and we can keep the communal ‘kitchen table’ overflowing.

See the flyer for details – see y’all there!

The first offering from Sentralize, much like Eatability, brought together foodies, and many of the other early feature offerings such as friend circles and relationship assumptions are now commonly used by Google and Facebook.

The lack of commercial focus in the early days had some strong benefits, aside from the obvious downside of a lack of strategic market focus. It allowed Byron and his team to keep evolving and creating their ideas without the pressure of having to compromise the innovation, and cemented the relationships and the base of the business for when the rubber eventually hit the road.

Once he graduated and completed his residency, Byron temporary put aside his Dr title for CEO, giving himself   a year to take Sentralize to the next level. At this point, the cushioning he had from the business world with his dual medical income became sharply underscored as cash flow trickled. All peripheral ‘playing around with ideas’ was streamlined to focus on products that would make money.

Over the next couple of years Sentralize grew, both in clients and staff. Byron embarked on an overseas mission looking to the US for investors. It was here that he realized, to his surprise, that what Sentralize were doing in Tasmania, was cutting edge in the US, and that his own cultural cringe/tall poppy was his biggest limitation.

Turning down several offers for funding, mainly feeling that the product was too early and could be grown so that when it was sold or invested in Sentralize would have a bigger stake, Byron came back to Australia and made several strategic changes to his business model. Growing rapidly had grown costs, the business dealt with customers that took a lot of time and therefore were costly.

Keeping the existing clients, he scaled back the business so it was leaner and his core staff remained, he then changed the product to be proprietal and he could sell the traffic not the product, and expanded his offerings to   a number of real   time community driven products that articulate with social media and where community gathers. He continues to work in his other love — medicine, doing gigs all over Australia, where ever he is working, thus remaining true to his passion for helping people, as well as his drive to work in the fast growth tech space.

If he could do it all again? The 5 key learnings from Dr Teu in his startup success story are below.

Top learnings:

1. Products have to be driven by a deep understanding of ‘what problem do we solve’ — where the solution to that problem has revenue attached to it.
2. Is there is a clear value proposition: is the solving going to make more money or save more money for the client?
3. Pricing — is it right, do the value and cost meet the expectation for the need of the client such that all parties feel they have a good deal.
4. What are my core abilities, where are the gaps, and do I have the right relationships to expedite my route to market through the decision makers in the companies I am working with?
5. Is the timing right? While all the elements are in alignment.

Byron has been in the US, China and Nationally expanding his business for the last 12 months: negotiating for capital and learning the lessons of taking a fast growth technology company out of Tasmania and into the world. He will be sharing his experiences, good and bad, and candidly answering questions. Other Startup Tasmania co-founders will participate in the Q&A session to help you strategically consider your path to market for 2011/2012.

Cost is $25 members/$30 non-members, refreshments and nibbles included.

Ex ministerial advisor, and principal of xtp Consulting Tasman Stacey will deliver you the insight and skills needed to write clearly and succinctly to your audiences for a variety of media, ensuring your message hits the target on centre every time.

Martin Anderson, Business Owner of Ionata and Startup Tasmania Co-Founder and Senior Consultant of Ionata Oliver George will complement Tasman’s writing for humans with a session on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), so now you’ve got your copy right, you can ensure that the traffic to your website is flowing like a tsunami.

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Book online

What: Write Like A Human + SEO Workshop

When: Wednesday 19th October, 9:30am-12:30pm

Where: Basement, 71 Murray St, Hobart, Tasmania

Price: $25 for Members, $30 for Non-Member

Book online: Reserve you space by booking online

For More Information: tas@xtpconsulting.com, oliver.george@startuptasmania.com

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