00:18:41 · Adam Miller, Charlie Gearside
[00:18:41] S1: Do you have... Can you pinpoint a scariest moment of Euc's history where things felt most existential for the company? Because I think something I've realized with founders is that there's so many of those moments where there's a lot of doubt and real things happen that are affecting the business. Was there any one significant moment that you remember and you were just like [00:19:01] S0: Yeah. What's happening? There's probably two. I think one, it was so close to the start that it's almost like... It was like a a crash on the takeoff of the on the runway. It was when Stripe didn't... We weren't approved for Stripe. And we got taken off Stripe, like, maybe a month in because we were the the first, one of the first companies to charge for prescription medication in, like, a... In a legit way. And so all the big banks were just like, no. Haven't seen this before. You're done. You're done. And it took, like, Nikki at Blackbird, like, really using his contacts to sort of get us back there. But I just remember sitting sitting in, like, a room at that first office just like... We're just like, shit. This could be all over before we start. And then the other one is like, was a few years ago when we sort of, like, out of stock of these, like, GLP ones. Yeah. Well, you know, the partner pharmacies and we're like, holy shit. Like, maybe... This is, like, such a delicate, like, capital allocation inventory game, and it's happening at such a scale. This this thing could actually, like, sink the business. [00:20:12] S1: Mhmm.
00:20:12 · Adam Miller, S2, Charlie Gearside
[00:20:12] S1: Mhmm. [00:20:14] S2: I think what's interesting about all those moments is there's always a time lag. Because maybe, like, you raised money six months ago, and then you have to announce in six months, and then everyone's like, congratulations, but then something's on fire in the business. So there's always a lag between what the public knows about what's happening and versus what's actually happening. [00:20:30] S1: And some of those moments are also so mundane as well. Like, I think from the outside, you think there are these, like, big theoretical problems that could sink the business. But some of them are so, like, the banks aren't working. Stripe isn't working. Yeah. You know, the warehouse shipping facility isn't working. That's like the reality for a lot of start It's like just the rails of the real world economy. Yeah. [00:20:50] S0: I mean, the the... Probably for most startups, it's even more mundane than those examples, right, where it's like, our unit economics are like solid, but they're not amazing and they're not shit. [00:21:01] S2: Yeah. So we're sort of [00:21:02] S0: just gonna, like, die a slow dick. [00:21:04] S1: Yeah. Yeah. You you mentioned also Nikki helping out there. It's interesting because a lot of stories, like, with investors, they sort of don't get made public. Were were there any, like, investors or advisers that did anything sort of tremendous to help the company? Maybe not even investors, but someone that, like, really came to do something that was over and above what they had to do.
00:21:04 · Adam Miller, Charlie Gearside, S2
[00:21:04] S1: Yeah. Yeah. You you mentioned also Nikki helping out there. It's interesting because a lot of stories, like, with investors, they sort of don't get made public. Were were there any, like, investors or advisers that did anything sort of tremendous to help the company? Maybe not even investors, but someone that, like, really came to do something that was over and above what they had to do. [00:21:26] S0: We've we've sort of had, like, a really amazing bunch of sort of early investors and believers and, like, some of whom have been, like... So Sean Larkin who's a, like, a healthcare sort of legend and sort of just, like, always been there. And he now sits on our board in our, like, clinical clinical audit sort of committee and whatever. It's hard to call out specific moments, but it's like... Yeah. It's just been, like, we've been good at relying on those people and, like, asking for favors and connections and stuff. [00:22:00] S2: And, you know, through Euc, you've had this, like, visibility of the Australian startup ecosystem. You know? Eucalyptus very early, and then before that with Koala, one of first big data see successes in Australia. And then before that, PetFlair with with our mutual friend, Tyler. [00:22:16] S0: Yeah. [00:22:19] S2: Why has, you know, your kind of being in Australian startup ecosystem for this long led to you now on this new journey of becoming a content creator or a YouTuber and kind of sharing your opinions about Australia as a whole? What... What's that kind of connection?
00:22:19 · S2, Charlie Gearside, Adam Miller
[00:22:19] S2: Why has, you know, your kind of being in Australian startup ecosystem for this long led to you now on this new journey of becoming a content creator or a YouTuber and kind of sharing your opinions about Australia as a whole? What... What's that kind of connection? [00:22:35] S0: Well, I think it's like the first thing... I think the startup stuff's almost separate to it. Yeah. And you sort of realize over time that it's it's connected because it's like... Firstly, I love I love this country. Yeah. And I think, like, we're all super lucky to, like, grow up to be, like, nineties kids in in Australia in Sydney is, like, amazing. It's like... [00:22:58] S2: Yeah. I feel like you're checking that in your head. 90... I'm 99, so on the on the edge. [00:23:02] S0: Yeah. Jesus. [00:23:05] S2: Thank thank you. Tom's sitting back there. It's like 2006 or something. So... Yeah. [00:23:10] S1: Come on then.
00:23:11 · Charlie Gearside
[00:23:11] S0: So you were seeing the jigs. Like, you missed the actual high point of this country. That's right. It's like private equity cards and integrate. No. I I like... I love it, and I'm, like, worried about it. Yeah. I think when I joke about the Olympic Games being a high point, I'm actually like, wow. You know, the prosperity of this country was, like, at its peak there, and I feel like a lot of decisions are very short term since then. And so economically, we're in a bad place. Young people have it really tough when it comes to, like, housing, cost of living, yeah, like, wage growth, all those kind of things going nowhere. And then... So that... There's that sort of general sense in the back of my head. And then when you have it in parallel with startups, which have given me so much personally, you're kinda like, hang on. Is there a connection here? Like, young people aren't getting paid more and more. They can't afford houses. They're told, like, the way to to get wealthy is to, like, buy an investment property, you know, by these dodgy, like, real estate people. These spruikers sitting in the seminar or something like that. And then startups are crying out for good people. We're crying out for more startups. We're crying out for more capital over here. Is there a way that we can, like, direct more young people into companies rather than boom away as of getting getting wealthy and, like... And and at the same time, can we, like, get back... Get Australia back to, like, a place where we're producing... You know, we're prosperous and everyone pulls each other up.
00:24:53 · Adam Miller
[00:24:53] S1: Yeah. It sounds like you're almost asking for a new narrative. Is that there's been this boomer property minerals focused narrative of Australia. There's this startup thing happening and we haven't maybe fully embraced it as part of our character. Yeah. And for this next leg of Australian history, there needs to be this new techno sort of optimist narrative where it's not just about property, but it's about equity. It's, it's about getting high growth jobs in technology companies changing the world.