Launch and grow your business in 2018 with Zambesi

What do you get when you put Sydney’s renowned startup specialists in a room with new, creative entrepreneurs?

Last night’s ‘Launch and Grow: Learn from People Who Do It’ event, from Zambesi, featured advice that could make or break your startup.

Rebekah Campbell, the cofounder of Hey You, was excited to provide a platform for renowned leaders to share their expert advice on startups.

She featured a number of hosts from different start up backgrounds and also spoke of her new business venture Zambesi, a workshop series that provides expert advice from experienced professionals to up and coming entrepreneurs.

Each guest speaker is hand picked to suit the workshop and they all differ in areas of experience, coming from specifically different industries. The guest speakers that were hosting workshops gave the audience a sneak peek of the course and some startup tips to take home.

Mike Knapp, the Cofounder of Shoes of Prey, kicked off the event with his insight into new businesses.

“90 percent of startups fail,” he explained to the audience.

Mike discussed the plateau of customer interest after the initial launch of a startup. He described ‘innovator’ customers who will basically buy anything. This will make you think that you have more of an interest than you actually have early on.

Business owner only become aware of this a few years into their business venture when customer attention slows. Mike’s workshop is a platform for advice on how to continue traction in your business after the initial launch attention wears off.

The next guest was Elyse Daniels who is the Founder of Exodus Wear. Her topic covered detailed advice on how to manufacture products in China. Coming from someone who admittedly did a business degree but still had to learn how to start a business from scratch, she has first hand advice.

Elyse shared that she had experienced a lot of trial and error whilst leaning how to manufacture products in China. She even admitted to being scammed in the process! Her workshop revolves around how startup founders can learn from her mistakes.

She is also very hands on in her approach; Elyse will actually make you call a factory on the day so that you know exactly how to handle it.

Lyndon Maher was another guest speaker at the Launch and Grow event. As the Head of Product at Domain, he discussed why sometimes you have to say no in business. He also shared tips on how to keep engineers motivated and how to avoid ‘frankenstein products.’

Another key note speaker was Robert Coorey who is a Sales Expert and best-selling author. He spoke about sales funnels and different places that you can find sales leads.

“It’s like playing Where’s Wally,” he said.

“It will take you time to find him but if you do the same book again you can find him immediately.”

His experience with dozens of businesses allows him to immediately identify a sales funnel that would work for different kinds of startups.

Mat Beeche, who is the founder of Startup Daily also shared his expertise. He shared ideas on how a startup could work with media to drive business growth. He explained people’s assumption that media will automatically brings in sales.

Many startups spend a lot of money on Public Relations in the first few years. However, once the media attention dies down, many people find that sales have dwindled.

Mat’s course focuses on building a relationship with journalists. It covers ways to make your business stories ‘newsworthy’ so that it is more likely to be picked up by media outlets.

Ursula Hogben also shared her expertise as a cofounder of LegalVision. She described the key features from her course and even showed a list of legal documents that you can take home after the course. She mainly explains IP protection, how to structure your business how to trademark correctly.

After a night of networking, expert advise and startup chef nibbles, Rebekah closed with a description of her course and why Zambesi can help any startup. Having founded a few herself, Rebekah shared her experience with growing startups.

The key topics she covers in her course is the different types of investors you can find and her advice on what to put in a pitch deck. She also has expert advice on how to time your capital raising and answers the age old question ‘how do you close a deal?’