Geo George founder of venture studio Mayfly Ventures outlines how Mayfly co-builds disruptive AI ventures with industry leaders.
@Geo George from @Mayfly Ventures discusses the innovative approach of his venture studio, focusing on investing in both new and existing businesses. He emphasizes the importance of navigating uncertainty in the startup world and how AI can serve as a transformative tool for businesses.
The conversation also highlights the value of 'boring businesses' and how they can be revitalized through technology and strategic partnerships. Geo shares insights on successful ventures in hospitality and MedTech, and offers practical advice for small businesses looking to leverage AI for growth.
"We're aiming to do things 2% better, but thousands of times."
Takeaways
"Boring businesses are great businesses."
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction to Mayfly Ventures and GA George
02:50 - The Venture Studio Model: Investing in New and Existing Businesses
06:01 - Navigating Uncertainty: The Startup Mindset
08:50 - The Role of AI in Business Transformation
11:53 - Boring Businesses: The Hidden Gems of Investment
15:02 - Case Studies: Successful Ventures in Hospitality and MedTech
18:11 - Practical Steps for Small Businesses to Leverage AI
21:09 - Conclusion: Embracing Change and Innovation
Michael (00:01.073)
A big welcome into edition 149 of Small Business Banter. Geo George from Mayfly Ventures is in the house today, GA. Thanks so much for coming in.
Geo (00:13.154)
Thanks Michael, great to be here.
Michael (00:15.611)
All right, let's talk about what you do at Mayfly Ventures, what you've done personally. I guess what we're really wanting to tap into today is your model for partnering, investing in businesses, both new and existing, and the particular approach you take to doing that.
Geo (00:32.142)
you
Michael (00:42.437)
I found it deeply interesting. One of the things I pulled off of your website was, we're aiming to do things to 2 % better, but thousands of times. So, you know, that as a philosophy for me is wonderful. So anyway, tell us about, Geo, George and Mayfly ventures.
Geo (01:03.586)
Yeah, absolutely. So look at the heart of who we are and what we do is this intersection of strategy, creativity and technology. So we're a venture studio that takes ideas to market and we specifically focus on vertical SaaS and AI. So building really incredible experiences and products that aim to transform industries that operate in.
Prior to this, I worked in a venture fund which had sort of a venture studio attached to it. And even before that, I've worked in government running a COVID operation. was consulting for a bit. I worked in a startup. I had my own startup. So I think this is one of those things where you can't quite connect the dots.
you know, looking forward, but sometimes when you look at all the experiences that you've had, it's an interesting way how everything just seems to align, even though it on face value seems really disparate and a bit of a dog's breakfast in terms of all the different things that I've done, but yeah.
Michael (02:21.423)
You've been, can I just, you've been on a Coddy Whomple. I found this really cool new word, which I'm about to put into my newsletter and it's basically taking purposeful steps towards an unknown destination or something. Sounds a bit like that. So, you know, you'll get somewhere good and you take first steps. So, pardon. Yeah, it's a Coddy Whomple, think. look, I.
Geo (02:28.596)
Thanks.
Geo (02:35.566)
it's okay.
Geo (02:43.758)
I can't like that. Just like, can't like that.
Michael (02:50.023)
You know, it's so brand new. can't even, I probably would, I'd be 90 % confident I can spell it, but I got the, I got what it was about and it's, you know, it's a new, new word to me anyway. So, but you know, that what she's talking about is bringing a whole lot of experiences to something and, you know, all, all owners of startups of existing businesses, all struggle with, you know, a whole lot of things, including, know, where do I go to, get some help or.
do actually need help. you know, bringing all that breadth of experience to a situation can be incredibly helpful.
Geo (03:28.206)
Yeah, look, I mean, at the heart of it, we're solving really interesting problems. you know, the Mayfly is an extension of my general philosophy of, you know, there's many problems out there to be solved and someone's got to do it, right? Like that's how you make progress forward. Yeah.
Michael (03:48.945)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that's the 2 % thing. And, you know, it's easy to put off something that looks like if I don't get a hundred percent of it done, I might as well not start. So you come back to, but just to, just to put things into the frame a little bit, you, there's a couple of things to correct me if I'm wrong. As a venture studio, you, you, you do invest your money. But you also invest in other ways in businesses through services. Is that
Geo (04:01.804)
Yeah.
Michael (04:21.779)
So if, you know, if somebody's got a really interesting venture, you could be an investor in a couple of different ways. And also it sounds like you work with newer ventures, but it hasn't stopped you anything in the past from working with existing ventures who perhaps, you know, want to carve out something or just totally re-engineer their business. So it's not like it's just
totally about a new startup. It's about a business with a need.
Geo (04:54.648)
Correct. Yeah. So that you've actually kind of defined the two parts of our business pretty well. the first part is, you know, working on those greenfield new ventures. And for that, you know, depending on the circumstances, we might invest in the venture ourselves. It might be a joint venture or we might be building out a venture on contract. Right.
And what we're really bringing to the table is the experience of having launched multiple SaaS and AI products. So we can roll out the playbook in a fairly repeatable way of combining venture strategy with the design, the development, and the execution piece. So on average, ventures that
start off with a venture studio have a 30 % higher chance of success, right? As compared to new startups that might go out on their own. So there are oftentimes we're working with people with deep domain expertise and a great familiarity with a particular industry who've identified a burning platform problem.
Michael (06:01.075)
as compared to if they DIY.
Geo (06:23.022)
And more importantly, they have access to the customers who would pay for a solution to that problem. We partnered with them to execute on the product itself, the technology solution. We were either investing our own capital and or bringing in investors in our network to fund the venture. And the idea there is
That's how we get the best alignment possible between the founders, the investors, and the venture partner, which is us. The second part of the business is more along those contract venture building. So we're partnering with sort of bigger established businesses who want to launch a new product into the market, but
either don't have the capability or it could be a capacity thing as well. So they would partner with someone like us to understand the problem, design the solution, develop it, and then take that to market. And then we can help them scale that venture through our partners, hiring the right talent and setting up the right structures and the processes to build sustainable growth over time for that venture.
Michael (07:52.339)
So get to market quickly. And it is part of it about the minimum viable product kind of philosophy, which is about not waiting for perfect, getting there, iterating, learning, remodeling, redesigning, but being there. Is that a major part of it?
Geo (07:56.29)
Yep.
Geo (08:10.317)
Yeah.
Geo (08:21.23)
100%. So it all comes down to having an intimate understanding of the core root of a problem that you're trying to solve. Oftentimes you build a product and then you release that to the market. And it's very unlikely that you've hit the problem on the head and identified that right solution.
It's about engineering your venture in such a way that you maximize your chance of getting to that problem solution fit by taking in rapid feedback, being able to iterate on your product or service, and then executing on that, and then repeating that over how many cycles it takes to eventually get to that what we call product market fit.
Michael (09:12.679)
Yeah. Is it, and is that a, like a, a cultural thing potentially in maybe in bigger organizations, but even in smaller where, you know, we don't do something until it's, we're really sure it's going to work. you helping to shift the thinking that, you know, if you've got a big enough problem, you know, to wait for perfect, it could be years. Someone else could come in and take you, eat your lunch.
So you have to work on that psychology or that philosophy about getting away from being absolutely 100 % sure this is going to work too. We're to get in there and iterate.
Geo (09:41.314)
Yeah.
Geo (09:57.452)
Yeah, look, it's a human thing, right? Humans are deeply discomforted by uncertainty, right? And Reid Hoffman has a good saying around this, which is, if you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late, right? And it goes to the heart of, you can never engineer out the uncertainty in launching a new venture, right?
Michael (10:19.027)
Yeah.
Geo (10:26.766)
If you count it, it's probably not an exciting enough problem and it's probably not a problem worth solving. And ultimately the startup mindset is that you have to be deeply familiar with uncertainty. And it's about navigating that uncertainty in real time and make progress towards solving a real problem.
And that doesn't happen in an abstract conceptual sense. It happens by getting direct feedback from the market. And, you know, put simply like doing more of what works and less of what doesn't. Oftentimes, you know, and we do work with sort of larger businesses and there is a bit more of an education curve around this approach of
Michael (11:13.064)
Yeah.
Geo (11:25.61)
making the risk profile work for you. So we can never completely eliminate the risk of a new venture, but we can certainly help manage that. And the reason why these businesses come to us is often the risk profile of established businesses is very different to how someone starting from scratch would view the opportunity.
Michael (11:53.969)
Yeah, yeah. I think it is part of what you're saying there. The bigger organizations need to keep, they got more to lose in some ways. So they need to trying new ways to tap into their customers more deeply or to, you so is that a part of it? They're almost like a bit of a portfolio investor. They got this nice core business, but
Yeah, if it's nice core business, someone's going to be looking at it going, I want a bit of that. So they can have, you know, various different new innovations to, to kind of rebirth the business or renew it.
Geo (12:28.716)
Yeah.
Geo (12:38.294)
Yeah, I think it's interesting, right, because we're in a really, really sort of
meaningful state of transition, right? There's this concept that came out of RMIT recently called the state of super transitions. So it's this intersection of a number of different technology paradigm shifts that are happening, including AI, blockchain, zero base, zero knowledge proofs. That's almost forcing this
Technological shift in how business is getting done. And I think a lot of these existing businesses will have to reconcile with the fact that you're either moving forward or you're dying. And look, sometimes the death of that business takes a longer period of time. Sometimes it happens a lot more quickly. But I think...
The role of innovation in that sense, the role of taking risk is, you know, so you're born again and again, right? The existing parts of your businesses might die, but entirely new product lines and new ways of solving customer pain points arrive. And businesses who can recognize that, but still hold a common narrative across that innovation cycle.
Michael (13:57.5)
Yeah.
Geo (14:16.226)
whether that's been a deep connection to a particular industry or a common customer base, whatever that might look like, I think those businesses will strive in this age of really fast software, AI, changing labor dynamics. This is really interesting time.
Michael (14:35.665)
Yeah. Yeah, it's deeply fascinating. Do you want to talk about your take on, it you AI hasn't been, it seems like it's come from nowhere. It's been in all sorts of different iterations itself for a fairly long time, but it's certainly in terms of general business discussions now, you can't have one without.
having some reference to AI and what it can do for you. So what's your take on it? What possibilities is it creating, especially for smaller businesses who are tapped out with all the things they need to do day to day, how can it help them as well?
Geo (15:21.134)
Yeah, I do think a lot of people are looking at AI in bit of a strange way. Like they're looking at it as a threat. They're looking at it in terms of like, how could I extract more value? You know, like, how, like, how do we stay ahead of the curve? Like that, that kind of themes. But the reality is like,
that AI is this horizontal enablement layer, right? Where the heart of the business, the IP around it is the proprietary set of workflows, knowledge and capabilities that gets deployed on a day-to-day basis, right? What AI has the ability to do, at least this wave of generative, almost agentic,
AI is it either enables improvements in how business is getting done currently, either by ways of efficiency or efficacy, right? So in that sense, it's not just enough to think about AI in very isolated sense. It's about how can we leverage this suite of new capabilities?
right across every aspect of the business and fundamentally re engineer our processes so that you can you can I guess the word is a not get left behind but it's how do you drive greater progress towards the outcomes that you're seeking to get to right because
there's gonna be a rift between businesses who could do this horizontal enablement integration really well and those that can't do that. And in that age, it's almost like, know, there's like a, like everyone's been driving a five-speed manual and then, you know, all of a sudden you get like the sixth gear that, you know,
Michael (17:45.105)
Mm.
Geo (17:45.646)
some people have access to it and others don't. You just got to go, you know, faster, you got to perform better. And then that's going to cause a big rift in the value that these companies that understand AI very well can provide. And the other companies, you know, who don't quite understand AI and who haven't been able to think through that deep integration of AI into their business, you know, they're probably likely to get left behind.
Michael (18:11.089)
Yeah.
Michael (18:16.208)
Yeah, and this is, I think that's a really significant turning point. It's unquestioned that it's going to disrupt, change, put businesses out of business, create new ones. for a lot of founders and owners out there, I think one of the things that I like about what you do with Mayfly is that you can be that for them. So you must...
Embrace you must understand and embrace AI You don't necessarily The way you invest in businesses is to become a partner with them and so you Someone scratching the head going. I know I've got to do something about this AI You know, but you don't have to you know, you don't have to It's not like it or leave it. It's you got a deal to it get a partner get some you know
Geo (19:02.478)
Mm.
Michael (19:15.603)
Try something, do a 2 % thing. Get somebody to get you going with a little bit of R &D yourself, but if there's a fundamentally important opportunity or restructuring of your business needed, think about somebody coming in as a partner in some way to do all that for you, because that's what you do day in, day out.
Geo (19:36.717)
Yeah.
Absolutely. I look and you know, from our experience, what ends up happening is you gain deeper insights into your own business. Cause a lot of the success around integrating AI into your business is going to come around to how well do you know your business, right? Like what are the key value drivers? What are those catalysts convert
inputs into outputs in an asymmetrical way. Like, so either way.
Michael (20:12.359)
That can be scary because there are sort of even for owners who have got really good businesses, it can be unspoken or they think of it just as the way they do things. It can actually be quite unique or quite complex, it's just how they do things. So it doesn't seem special sometimes to them or it doesn't seem worth documenting or...
Geo (20:29.806)
Mm.
Geo (20:39.648)
Yeah, which yeah, I mean, look, I get that because, know, we're like Mayfly is a small business as well. So we have our own kind of, you know, processes and systems that, you know, like there's the stuff that gets recorded and documented. And then there's the stuff that just happens. Right. So it's almost like the systems and processes versus the culture elements. So that's always going to be.
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a confronting process, but I also think it's a beneficial process as well.
Michael (21:18.995)
Yeah. And it's one, I think that needs context to drive somebody to think about it. And the context could be, I'm not making enough money. Maybe I'm wanting to think about selling. Maybe I've been approached. Maybe I'm spending just way too much time there and I'm done with that. think particularly this time of the year, a lot of
A lot of founders and owners have had, hopefully had a bit of a break and then coming back going, really, do I want to, what am I going to do differently this year to make it easier, more profitable, less time, less stress? And so that's, I think that's the context and that is so vital to prompting somebody and in fact, motivating them to actually take a
2 % step and so all right, I'm gonna I'm do something new and different. I'm gonna I'm gonna make a change
Geo (22:21.324)
Yeah, that's right. And that 2 % thing could just be having a bit more of a structured approach in understanding how your business operates. So creating some documentation or even having you think about what are those low hanging fruits in which we can make a meaningful
difference in terms of efficiency or efficacy.
Michael (22:54.919)
Yeah. And, and, these, it's a, it's a good time of the, it's a good time of the year to, have that reflective, time to, you know, if you do want to, if there's something down the line that you know, about it knows coming or that it's your time to perhaps move on or it's time to really capitalize, it's a good time. What are just practically what, what are, I mean, we, talked about the
minimum viable product approach, which is a brilliant book. can't, I can't remember that. it Eric, Eric, lean startup? Yeah. I mean, it's like, you got to, it's a great book to read. It's, really kind of encouraging you to be brave and just get it out there. But, as a, there's so many reasons not to do something, but that is a, that's a brilliant, you know, read and a brilliant approach, but practically
Geo (23:31.615)
Eric, wait, lean start up.
Geo (23:47.297)
Yeah.
Michael (23:55.047)
the sort of the AI tools or approaches or opportunities, the couple that you think might be really achievable or doable to get someone some momentum in their own business.
Geo (24:16.054)
Yeah, I think one area that a lot of businesses could utilize AI on is just like customer service or connecting with your customers, right? A large part of driving sustainable growth in your business is how well of experience your customers have in engaging with your brand. And there's some really low hanging fruits there.
integrating useful generative AI tools in being able to respond to customers, customer inquiries quickly, providing customers with self-service options in, if you're running an e-commerce business, changing your package delivery or your address, whatever those common...
customer pain points are, you could probably implement AI to alleviate quite a few of those, right? So I think that there's some really low hanging fruits in how businesses connect with their customers. And another one is how businesses acquire customers. So using AI in your top of funnel stuff, whether it's across like digital marketing and like doing programmatic SEO.
or the content marketing side as well, like creating engaging content on a regular cadence and schedule that resonate with their users. There's some opportunities there as well that businesses can start actioning straight away.
Michael (26:03.779)
Is that programmatic SEO? Do just want to explain that briefly? I was having a conversation yesterday and the SEO agency that is, we've all probably used and with varying degrees of success, there's other opportunities to do SEO cheaper.
Geo (26:30.286)
Mm.
Michael (26:31.697)
more quickly. that what programmatic SEO is about?
Geo (26:35.798)
Yeah, look, I don't think SEO businesses, agencies are going to exist in five years time. And that's being conservative as well. So programmatic SEO is creating really tailored niche content for what your potential customers might be searching for. And it's
Michael (26:45.107)
you
Geo (27:00.206)
It's hard to do at scale if you're writing really long form articles or content about a specific topic, but then it's about thinking how can you take that better content and personalize it to different locations, different customer demographics, different keyword searches? How do you kind of improve?
increase the footprint of your content marketing efforts through personalization and customization. So these are areas where generative AI really shine because it can do that personalization at scale.
Michael (27:38.173)
Yeah.
Yeah, it's, it's often there are a lot of small businesses that are good, good performers and we can all go in there and we can all be, constructive about what you might do differently and, and, and, and 10 different ways to grow the business. And some owners at, at a stage where they it's like, no, I just want out.
And, know, it's, still, it's still a solid business, but I haven't seen any businesses that from trades to services, to manufacturing, to wholesale distribution that couldn't benefit from having a presence online and now with generative AI and, the sort of tools to create for relatively low investment. Cause it kind of.
when somebody comes along to buy that business or one of the things I want to understand is, you know, is their presence, their brand. So if it's all in the owner's little black book, it's pretty, you know, having an online presence and a strategy and a sense of new
new customers coming to you because we've got something out there is just, it just adds so much confidence for the buyer of a business and having an about page as your website is to start, but you can do more and it creates energy in a sense of, there's more to the business than just the existing.
Geo (29:27.139)
Yeah.
Michael (29:35.077)
owner's relationships or the staff's relationships.
Geo (29:38.604)
Yeah, I can imagine how for the purposes of selling a business or from the perspective of someone acquiring a business, what are they buying? If they're buying the relationships that the owners have with their customers, that could be a fickle asset.
The owner changes and then you might not be able to count on those relationships. Yeah, I guess it has to be the culmination of the systems, the processes and the brand that's associated to that business.
Michael (30:04.551)
No.
Michael (30:15.217)
Yeah. And look, it gets to a more tradition. It's goodwill. It's a brand presence. It's a market presence. more potential buyers for your business will find you as well if you're with doing that kind of stuff. it's just, you can have as many, you can have contracts with customers, but that was in...
traditional exit planning, if you're gonna buy a business, you wanna make sure all the customers are locked in and it's as good as the exit clause in the contract. And so those broader things, always thinking about ways to paint a richer story about a business that wants to sell in five or 10 years time. And those are some of the things that AI is enabling.
Geo (31:10.786)
Hmm.
Michael (31:12.861)
But can you talk about some of you know, not the names, but the types of businesses that Mayfly have invested in, partnered with?
Geo (31:26.06)
Yeah, I could go through kind of the order of involvement that we've had across different industries. So by far we've done more hospitality tech ventures. I think we've done three, three hospo tech ventures where we're invested in those ventures. And then hospitality is a super interesting place because, you know,
think they cumulative contribute to 70 % sorry, $70 billion in income across the Australian economy, bars, pubs, which is a huge, huge number, but cumulatively they're working on three to 5 % net margins, which is like, that's not a great place.
Michael (32:13.363)
Yeah.
Michael (32:21.863)
Flying by the seat of your pants kind of stuff, isn't it?
Geo (32:24.054)
Yeah, correctly. And the stats around first time hospitality businesses, it's not great. So there's a lot of opportunity that we see in that space purely because the volumes are so big and any improvements in sort of marginal margin expansion directly goes to the bottom line, which represents a significant opportunity.
Michael (32:31.857)
Yeah.
Michael (32:49.191)
Yeah. Is that, yeah, it's like, it's a, it's an incredibly vibrant and fast moving industry. And if you're, you can be killing it with a new wine bar, new restaurant, new cafe and like, can turn it on tomorrow. Like I've, you know, I'm, I know of some outstanding operators and there can be 20 venues in a, in a precinct around say Collingwood or
Geo (33:18.125)
Yeah.
Michael (33:18.483)
And some will, some just have a, it must look easy from the outside because so many other people start up and don't succeed like some of these really experienced smart operators. But what sort of stuff were you doing with those businesses, Gio?
Geo (33:33.558)
Yeah.
Geo (33:39.84)
Yeah, so everything that we do has a like a tech focus around it. So one of the recent ventures that we just launched, it's called Choosy. So it's a partnership with Clipboard Hospitality and MaFi where we with Clipboard Hospitality. they're a platform to connect hospo professionals with each other and businesses.
Michael (33:56.121)
With who, sorry?
Geo (34:08.376)
They provide a lot of recruitment solutions as well within the hospice space. And we created a contract employment marketplace. So think Uber for hospice shifts. It's got some really interesting and fun features in the product that make it super appealing for businesses who want to get short-term staffing in either for events or to cover what they call rock star shifts.
Michael (34:12.744)
Ryan.
Geo (34:36.91)
or for hospo staff who want to earn some extra money on their own time and get paid straight away. So you finish your shift, you get cash on your phone count. thinking about like, yeah, these.
Michael (34:47.207)
Yeah. Yeah.
Michael (34:53.523)
This is a of a vertical that you're talking about where your infrastructure, a platform.
Geo (34:57.834)
That's exactly right, yeah.
Geo (35:02.516)
Exactly. So focusing on like really niche problems around short-term employment. Another one that we did is around providing the ability for hospitality businesses to connect with their own community. So we created a rewards and loyalty platform called Makutu, where we partnered with a hospitality group, Zengal Hospitality. Two really incredible founders.
they came to us trying to solve this problem and then we just loved how they worked and how big of a space that this was. So yeah, that hopefully gives you a sense of the types of problems we solved.
Michael (35:44.243)
Yeah, your ears are always open for what problems business owners have.
Geo (35:51.948)
Yeah, correct. And we love it if there's a theme involved as well. If there's a theme like hospitality, it's a really fun industry to work in. So we would love to do some more hospitality ventures. But just recently we're working on a MedTech venture with these three incredible founders who came to us with a problem and an opportunity.
Michael (35:54.323)
If that's right.
Michael (36:03.442)
Yeah.
Geo (36:20.27)
And we partnered with them, helped raise some capital for their venture. And we're looking at launching a new product in the space for managing musculoskeletal diseases. So yeah, we'll the space.
Michael (36:36.677)
Okay. So again, yeah, very nice. But, was the profile of those founders, there was there a sense of urgency? We, we know what the problem is. We know how, we know how, it could be fixed. We could do it ourselves. Take all this time or just smash it out.
If that's not the right terminology, you yeah, you talk to you and you, your business has expertise in maybe how, you know, helping find that capital, but also just getting to market.
Geo (37:15.724)
Yeah, so in this particular case, so maybe I could just talk about how we think about these investment cases, So there's a, so our hypothesis is very much around like finding boring businesses, right? That are solving for very niche problems in a sizable enough industry. And the criteria that we use is, you know,
do we have a partner that provides us with asymmetric insights into a particular industry? And the way that you do that is they have a deep familiarity with that industry. Like they're domain experts, they know what the burning platform issue is intimately, right? The second thing is, can they provide us with sort of the capability to distribute
Michael (38:08.136)
Yeah.
Geo (38:15.424)
a solution, right? So having access to the customers who are willing to pay for that solution. So there's a there's a bunch of tactics that we can kind of roll out here and we have a whole validation framework that we worked that we applied on this particular venture around securing partnerships and letters of intent and you know, these pre sale contracts. The
Third element is, what is the execution capability look like? So do the founders have a demonstrable experience or track record in being able to just execute in different domains? Not necessarily in startups and technology, can, what we say to them, can they get shit done? And that's a...
that ability to execute is probably the most crucial thing that we look for. And if all of those factors align, then that represents a great sort of first basis for us to kind of make an investment case around, okay, is this something that we can add a lot of value to? And is there a sizable opportunity here to pursue?
Michael (39:20.434)
Yeah.
Michael (39:42.563)
and the right people on the team who have incentives but also have a proven or a capability that is obvious to you.
Geo (39:44.694)
Yeah, correct. Yeah.
Geo (39:55.574)
Yeah, yeah. And which is why when we work with investors to fund some of these deals, it's a great opportunity for them because if they were to try and do traditional angel investing, they're working. There's a lot more risk involved in angel investing because they don't know what the quality of the execution is going to be like for the founders, right?
Whereas in this case, it almost becomes a financing activity where we've got the demand validated, right? We know that the founding team has a capability to kind of execute and take the product to market. And then Mayfly as a technology partner, as a venture share, has a track record of being able to execute on that technology component. So...
for the investor, it represents a much more de-risked approach to investing in high growth companies.
Michael (40:59.143)
Yeah. This concept, this pool of boring businesses, it's really fascinating because there are a lot of businesses out there that are the owner and the business kind of fly under the radar. Things are okay. They don't need to shout from the rooftop because the business is working well enough for them.
It's, you know, there's an American, I can't think of her name right now, but she's, her platform is about buying boring mainstream, main street businesses, which they call them in the US. it's, she's unbelievable to, I think she's inciting a movement, but you know, right here, right now in Australia, there's many, many businesses that are,
would meet that criteria, they're solid and bring in some other capabilities around tech or just better processes. You could really ignite some of these businesses and it's, pardon?
Geo (42:07.694)
and
Geo (42:14.828)
Yeah, that's a great point. That's a great point because I know we've spoken about like, yeah, I think there is this opportunity around rolling out these businesses and introducing some of these new technology or enablement layers that could appreciate the value of the business quite significantly. I just haven't seen anyone do it in a very like...
consistent way. yeah, that was a good one.
Michael (42:44.967)
Yeah. No, it's look, I think there's a few there at the moment. There, there are these, there's this growing awareness of, I think it's a movement away from the really sexy unicorn startups to solid main street, boring existing businesses that, have customers, you buy it and the, and, and, and the faxes
pinging tomorrow or that you're getting emails, you've got all people are walking into the business and there's a lot of them. I think where it, and there's plenty of money around to buy these businesses, get approaches all the time. Their criteria has got to be really highly profitable. It's got to be under management ideally. If you've got one of them, you're not inclined to sell those kinds of business. So if we go back to, there's a whole other,
lot of businesses that aren't for sale. Cause the stuff that's for sale is something, there's some gems in there. There's a lot of stuff that you've got to pour through a lot of stuff. So, you know, if you don't know what you're looking for, it's time consuming and part of your education. But so there are these other, there are businesses that are not for sale. So you got to, they, are boring, solid. And that's where, you know, so yeah, I haven't really,
Geo (44:08.418)
Yeah.
Michael (44:13.863)
I've come across a few people that have, that have, that have taken quietly gone about doing that and, and, and started to, they can build off a base of this, there's existing cashflow, there's existing customers and take a while to get to know the business. then, yeah, it's look, it's a, think that's where we'll, you know, we'll that whole entrepreneurship through acquisition. that, know, another iteration of that will be.
investors coming together. Mayfly brings the tech, someone else brings a bit of capital, bring an experience operated from the industry. Let's buy one and then let's buy another and another and we'll platform it all.
Geo (44:59.598)
Hey, maybe there's a start of something right here, you know, get a couple more people on board. Yeah.
Michael (45:03.091)
Ha
Well, there are hundreds of thousands of small businesses out there and there's a large number for sale, but there's a lot more that aren't for sale, but you knock on their door or ring them and a lot of them will be interested to have a chat, but that's another story. Geo, I think that's probably a good note to...
Geo (45:25.986)
I bet,
Michael (45:34.515)
to wind up and I'm conscious of your time and you got plenty going on down there in Collingwood and really thank you. I love what you're enabling owners and of new businesses, of existing businesses to consider at least and you're kind of on top of what's a few of the things that intersect around taking an idea or an existing thing
business to something bigger and better and more sustainable. So if someone wants to have a chat with you and tell them, tell you all about their problems that you can turn into a solution, what's the best way to get a hold of you?
Geo (46:21.504)
Absolutely. So feel free to check out our website mayflyventures.com or just Google Mayfly Ventures. Feel free to add me on LinkedIn, Geo George or shoot me an email, geo at mayflyventures.com.
Michael (46:36.019)
All right, any parting pearls that you want to share with us?
Geo (46:42.454)
Yeah, I think just to emphasize what you saying before about boring businesses, one of the things that we say at MAFIA is like boring businesses are great businesses, right? So yeah, everyone tends to focus on the sexy, know, bleeding edge stuff, but there's a great deal of value being created from these businesses that very much fall under the radar. So shout out to you.
foreign businesses.
Michael (47:13.703)
We're in unanimous agreement on that, Gio. Well, I look forward to hearing more about Mayfly and to catching up when it works. So really appreciate your time today, Gio.
Geo (47:28.93)
Thanks Michael.