00:00 Have you ever wondered what successful entrepreneurs wish they knew before starting their business? Brace yourself, because today, we are uncovering the top secrets with a startup pro that could save you from common pitfalls and set you on the path to success. What you’re gonna learn in this episode from Natalie Rafer, who’s the founder of SplashUp. Choosing the right business partner, how building a strong network can significantly impact your business, why separating business and personal finance is crucial, the value of staying committed despite setbacks in your own entrepreneurial journey, the challenges and strategies for female founders in business, and more on this episode of Content On The Go. Hey everyone, I’m Darren Lake and welcome to content on the go, a podcast by Podpaste. Each episode we answer questions or talk about one specific idea to help you market your business or brand better. And we do that by making them easy to digest, short and concise, because we all have a business to run. Let’s go. E-commerce has had its ups and downs with the COVID boom and inflation, and Natalie Rafa has ridden those waves like a champ. Natalie is the founder of SplashUp, who is creating the largest network of brands and retailers that allow cross promotion and checkout to cut costs of customer acquisition. She’s also a mentor and startup consultant at various universities across Sydney, Australia. This is where we recorded it. Let’s go. What are the top things you wish you knew before you started your business SplashUp?
01:37 Wow, it’s a great question. I would say there’s definitely a few things. The first thing I would say is really think hard about who you go into business with. And this is not to scare anyone, but it’s more like just because you get along as friends doesn’t mean that you may have the same way of building a business and executing on it. I had the unfortunate event of having a co-founder breakup with no shareholder agreement before. So it was a bit of a messy journey for me as well as a very difficult phase when I had to, you know, recalibrate everything in the business, but also have a friendship breakup and a co-founder breakup. And it was something that, you know, initially I was super excited to build something with this person, but, you know, they might as well just mean well, but like the execution of the day-to-day on how to bring that vision to life, didn’t really align. And so one of the things that I wish was like, you know, rather than just like think about, oh, we get along, let’s just start a business, to have a different formula to think hard about, you know, do I need someone? And if so, then, you know, can I start by myself first? Or, you know, is it someone that I need to get along with necessarily as a best friend? Or is there like other criteria that is more important around trust, around where you’re thinking around execution. And this might come with like trial and error and having someone on board that you work with initially, but there’s no bulletproof formula. Like, you know, how do I have the best business partner? Because, you know, if things happen, shit happens. It’s just that, you know, I would definitely think about, you know, if you’ve got someone that you get along with, it doesn’t necessarily mean you might be great business partners, even if you’re both great people.
03:16 Business partnerships are like marriage. Number two, Your network is everything. That’s what you told me beforehand. So tell me a bit more about your network being everything.
03:24 Yeah. I mean, before starting in this space, I didn’t really know much about what happens in the e-commerce industry outside of running my own store or knowing other people who had their own brands. But when I started going out there, building relationships, being in places where this network hangs out, slowly I started building out these connections. And I grew so much personally. And it all is thanks to the network that I surround myself with. So I cannot, I’m not where I’m at without the network that I’ve been able to foster to this date. So it has an incredible amount of value. And if you’re someone that may not have the network, but there’s people that you look up to, people that you know would be great to learn from and to connect with, then I absolutely advise you to double down on that and network as much as you can.
04:21 As generic as this is, I’m coming with the one-liners, your network is your net worth. Yes. Network, net worth. Number three, being patient to see results. So tell me a bit more on that.
04:34 Yeah, so this touches on everything. Whether it’s fundraising, getting your first customer, getting the right product, it’s a really long journey. And I don’t think that my journey is how most journeys are. I think I definitely have had a bit of a slower, really tough sort of challenges along the way. But if I were to think about the first time when we It took me like, you know, five months to get my first angel check. And I was really about, you know, to give up fundraising. But I had to meet with 84 different angels and VCs to sort of like get, you know, overall, get around like six or seven investors. But to get that first one, it was like around investor number 60 or 50 or so. where I had lost hope and it took me months. And then, you know, months later, we were able to actually get an incredible investor on board, which I never would have thought could happen had I given up. The other thing is, you know, going through pivots, it’s soul-sucking when you’re trying to figure out what it is that you’re trying to create and how do you, you know, How do you build the product? And you’re into it, and you’ve already quit your job. You already don’t have this salary that you’re getting on a regular basis. So it took a lot of mental muscle building to keep myself focused on the long-term goals. And weirdly enough, magic happens when you’re just about to stop wanting to try, but then you just keep trying a bit. And then, I don’t know, things sort of happen.
06:20 And this is, I’m a strong believer in the reward shouldn’t be necessarily in just the results and the outcome, it should be in you doing the thing. You know, whether it’s the action that you do in the business or whether it’s actually running the business, you like the operation side, the sales side, whatever it is in your business, that should be the reward that you get to show up every day. You don’t have to do it, you get to, and it’s just a slight rewarding and a psychological trick. Number four. Treat your business bank account as a personal bank account. Don’t do that, and you wish you wouldn’t.
06:52 Oh my God, yes. I had a wake-up call from my boyfriend, actually, who I would just go up to and just complain about, like, my God, this costs like $80, $90 a month. And then he kind of just told me this one thing that’s still stuck with me, which is like, you know, Nat, you’ve got to stop treating your business account like your personal bank account. You raise money for a reason. It’s not about burning cash, but it’s really about looking at expenditure in a way where $500 is not the same as, even though every dollar counts, but it’s not the same as spending it from your own personal money. And so if something’s worthwhile, like legal costs, I wouldn’t go. cheaply on legal cost. I’ve learned my lesson. But, you know, don’t hesitate to like spend money on experiments or not saying like, you know, break the bank, but don’t approach like double digits the same way that you approach it with your own personal bank account. You just got to spend money to make money sometimes.
07:47 Yeah, that’s something I’ve personally also learned, which is the investment side of it, and you have to trust yourself and you have to trust your own finances. So I guess when you first said you were like business bank account, and I thought it was more like don’t mix the two bank accounts, but actually this has more like, I could exactly say it’s the metaphor for… Mental accounting. Yeah, mental accounting. So yeah, it’s more financial. And the last one, number five, which is not really something you’ve learned, but I guess, have you had any struggles being a female
08:22 founder CEO kind of running a business or not so I I Kind of did and didn’t I think I’m really thankful for all the women that paved the way For for other women to be able to have the opportunities that I’ve been exposed to So I’m really grateful for that, but I actually haven’t really had any sort of gender-related struggles, or maybe I’m not really aware. If I was male, would I have raised more money? Would I have done X or Y? This is a bit of a gray area for me. I’m still trying to figure out, is it because I’m female or is it because of my own capabilities? I’ve never really put this thing as a thing where, oh, it’s because I’m a woman. I hated that. And interestingly enough, every person that helped me on the way, and I’m not saying this proudly, but they’ve been men. And they’ve been men who just like, you know, were like mentors or giving and not expecting anything, you know, like just really wanting to help, really believing in backing me and just being there to help. And I wish I had, you know, more of that from women, but I haven’t really had that luck. And also it’s a numbers game. So there are more men in my space that at least are in, you know, where I worked, I had more exposure. And like, but I will be, you know, I think the only thing that really resonates with me was like, two weeks ago, I had a meeting with someone that was an ex VC. And this person basically was like, you know, not entertaining this conversation, really sort of rolling his eyes. And I didn’t take him seriously, I didn’t respect that. Because if I’m there, you’ve given me your time, at least, you know, like, give me your time properly, or just don’t give it at all. So I wasn’t giving, you know, this whole like, you know, big smiles on the call, I was very much like, you know, really, you know, dry, or maybe mimicking his body language. The one thing he told me was like, if you actually want to raise money, especially as a woman, you’ve got to play to your gender strength and you’ve got to show that more. And I was like, what does that mean? And he said, well, you’ve got to smile more. You’ve got to be a bit more feminine. That’s how it works in VC. And for me, I was already put off. by how he was conducting himself. And maybe it’s a strategic thing where I need to step out and be like, oh, well, leverage these traits. But for some reason, it didn’t really feel good hearing that. And I didn’t like that. He was like, you’ve got that, but you’re a bit too dry or something. You’ve got to touch on that a little bit. And I was like, that’s a bit, that’s not nice.
11:13 It’s not nice, and it’s also inappropriate, I think. But, you know, obviously you’re asking him for money, so I guess… I wasn’t, actually. Oh, he wasn’t. So, yeah, I mean, I’m not gonna say he can do whatever he wants. But, yeah, well, thank you for all those points, especially the last one. As a black American, you know, kind of a double, I’m not a female, but a black American, I’m always questioning, you know, I’m like, did I not get that because I was black? Or did I get that thing because I was black? You know, because I have an American accent? I don’t know, but we’ll never know. We’re humans, we’re complicated. Thank you so much for your time today with the panel discussion and obviously on this episode and all the best with Splash Up. Thank you. From Podpaste, you’ve listened to content on the go. Again, I’m Darren, and Podpaste hopes you found more insights and tips into your business or brand. If you’ve liked what you heard, please share a link with other businesses or marketers if you think they would get something from this. And for a limited time, we are offering two special services for people. The first is aimed at businesses that have never done podcasting and want to try it out before committing to a full series. Think, try before you buy where we will edit and repurpose a podcast episode into 10 pieces of content for you for only $95. That’s 82% off our normal rate. But if you’ve already have a podcast going, we’d love to edit an episode for free for you or repurpose it into 10 pieces of content to show you what is possible. Either way, sign up at the link in the show notes or YouTube description below to jump on a quick 10-minute discovery call where we can brainstorm ideas or audit your existing podcast and help shape your next series. See you on the next episode.
