TripADeal’s scorching growth gets it top spot on Fast 100 list
http://www.afr.com.au
Young guns Smart thinking blazes a trail to roaring success.
Australians’ love for bargains coupled with an appreciating currency have led to discount online travel agencies topping the Financial Review’s Fast 100 and Fast Starters lists of fast-growing companies for 2017.
TripADeal, founded by Byron Bay shopkeepers Norm Black and Richard Johnston in 2011, has clocked average revenue growth of 465 per cent for the past three financial years to top the Financial Review’s Fast 100 list, all while allowing staff to wear thongs to work.
Meanwhile Luxury Escapes, founded by Financial Review Young Rich Lister and ‘‘flash sale’’ veteran Adam Schwab, has topped the Fast Starters list, which rewards the highest revenue among companies that commenced trading after July 1, 2013.
Tourism is seen as one of the economy’s emerging hopes, and TripADeal has latched on to the demand from Baby Boomers for what Mr Black calls ‘‘bucket-list travel made accessible’’.
Fast 100 entrants must have commenced trading before July 1, 2013, and provide four years of turnover data, with a minimum of $500,000 in the first reporting period (2013-14). The Australian Financial Review seeks verification from external auditors or accountants if the entrant is not publicly listed, and calculates the average annual growth rate over the four periods, which determines its ranking in the Fast 100.
Second placing in the Fast 100 for 2017 was taken by a non-bank lender to small businesses, Prospa. Its 239 per cent average revenue growth since 2013-14 was fuelled this year by a $25 million Series B fund-raising round led by AirTree Ventures, and a $20 million debt facility from Silicon Valleybased Partners For Growth.
However, co-chief executive Beau Bertoli said the real reason Prospa had been able make more than $500 million of loans to 12,000 customers since its 2011 birth was that banks had never developed a comprehensive lending product for small businesses.
‘‘Banks do very well from consumer lending and big business lending, and SMEs have been left in the too-hard basket,’’ Mr Bertoli said.
Prospa claims to draw on 400 different data points for every loan it makes, from the potential customer’s own accounting software and credit providers, as well its ratings on social media and general demographic data related to its industry and location.
While disrupters of traditional industries took the Fast 100’s top two places, third place belonged to a pure technology company.
Brisbane-based Octopus Deploy has amassed 20,000 customers from across the globe in industries from hedge funds to manufacturing, for its server that automates a company’s deployment of new applications.
Such new economy plays will be important to turning around the flagging growth of Fast 100 companies. The average growth rate it took to place at 100th on the list declined in 2017 for the second year running, to 24 per cent from 35.6 per cent the year before.
The list itself also plays a role in promoting a growth mindset among small business owners.
Placing on the Fast 100 became a multiyear goal for management consultancy Pragmatic Thinking, which it finally achieved this year ranking 33rd with 68 per cent average revenue growth for the past three financial years.
‘‘A few years back there were four or five of us, we’d done well but we wanted to reach more people with the work we were doing,’’ said Darren Hill, Pragmatic Thinking’s co-founder and executive director.
‘‘We needed goals to inspire us and keep us on track, and the AFR Fast 100 became a centrepiece for us. It’s a wonderful mix of recognition and belonging, but backed by metrics and rigour.’’
Pragmatic Thinking added an extra office since becoming a Fast 100 aspirant, now employs 17 people and ‘‘is still hiring as we speak’’, Mr Hill says.