Tag: Spreets

TechSydney is a not-for-profit enterprise led by some of Australia’s most successful and influential entrepreneurs and innovators who have a mutual determination to see Sydney boom onto the global tech stage.

Mad Paws aka the "Airbnb for pets" and Australia’s largest & fastest growing marketplace for pet services has raised $1.1 million in an oversubscribed round

For those of you who’ve not had the pleasure, Innovation Bay’s Angel Dinners bring together angels and entrepreneurs. To date, the organisation has assisted entrepreneurs raise over $10 million in seed investment as a result of these dinners. (Heard of Spreets? Yup? Innovation Bay kick started the group buying behemoths capital raising endeavours.) If you're an entrepreneur in the high-tech space and fancy a bit of funding, you may wish to apply.

In an interview with Anthill’s Cynthia Karena, the duo says entrepreneurship should be all about building value, not selling out. Early in Spreets’ life, McEvoy realised the importance of this when a friend declined to put a deal opportunity on his Facebook page. That is when the penny dropped, he says, and Spreets began to focus on quality deals and the user experience, rather than focusing only on discounts.

Earlier this week, Australian company Dealised, which peddles group-buying platforms, pocketed a cool $5 million in funding from global big-wig SingTel Innov8 and Perth-based venture capital firm Yuuwa Capital LP to assist with its development and international expansion. We've said it before and we'll say it again: In the event of a gold rush, don't start digging. Start selling shovels!

A Melbourne hairdressing salon was in dire need of a quick, low-cost marketing plan. Although the daily deals phenomenon is still new and coming of age, Jo Macdermott decided to take a punt on the online discount model as a quick way to boost sales. As she reveals here, the final results surprised even her.

Australia could always use more angel investors, says Dean McEvoy, co-founder of the wildly successful group-buying site Spreets. "Doing a startup in Australia is kind of like growing a plant in a dark cupboard. It's really bloody hard," McEvoy said in a talk presented at VIVID Creative Sydney.

Last year's Mother's Day gifts of showy bling and fancy perfume will likely give way to chocolates and bouquets. It's not that we love you any less, Mum. It's the economy, y'know.

Dean McEvoy, founder of Spreets -- the subject one of the most jaw-dropping business acquisitions in recent Australian history -- shares his insights about raising money and wooing investors (two talents in which he appears to excel).

Last Friday, with great excitement (coupled with a small amount of nervousness and a hint of embarrassment), we were finally able to unveil Antmart -- Anthill's take on the 'group buying' model. In summary, it's a group buying website (sometimes also known as a 'collective buying' or 'daily deals' site) developed specifically for business builders.

Tim Morris is the founder of The Pantless Postman, a subscription site for busy gentleman, who wish to avoid the time consuming task of buying underwear. Recently, Morris trialed a promotion through Australian collective buying site Spreets. In this intimate exclusive for Anthill, he explains what worked, what didn't and what he'd do differently next time.

Collective-buying behemoth Groupon is coming to Australia and is now hiring. The company that triggered Australia's recent obsession with deal-sites, such as Ouffer, Cudo and recently acquired Spreets, will initially be trading under the name StarDeals and is rumoured to be considering former MySpace HQ to set up shop in Sydney.

Offer Me, one of Australia's early adopters of the group-buying model, released a media statement on Friday alerting the media that it is on the "verge of" receiving "substantial" venture funding from overseas investors. But being on the 'verge' of a big deal is, indeed, not a big deal (and possibly not even news). So, why would someone produce a media release and court the media's attention about a deal not done?

This morning, it was confirmed that Yahoo!7 has acquired Australian group-buying business Spreets for $40 million. The deal is the first of what is expected to become a consolidation of the Australian group-buying market. However, what's truly remarkable about this announcement is the short time-frame between Spreets' launch and its sale, after only 10 months on the Australian market.

Last week, I posted a story that asked Anthill readers to suggest new revenue streams. The post was triggered by a theft (and the loss of some expensive equipment). The surprising flood of responses to this post, received by phone, email, tweets, Facebook messages and, of course, your comments had me both thrilled and alarmed. It also got me thinking.

In business circles, Groupon will, for a long time, be known as the Chicago-based startup that scored itself a $1.35 billion valuation within a year of launch. For the rest of the world, it is a website that harnesses collective buying to get consumers cheap products and services. But for ambitious startups, the model could also be employed to sell their own goods and services (and never buy advertising again).