Heath Raftery: Nah, I had absolutely no conception that there was a market even involved. Nah, I just thought there was a There was people there that would pay me to do things that, that I was good at.

Adam Spencer: Hi, I'm Adam Spencer, and welcome to Day One, the show that goes back to the very beginning, to share the story of some of Australia's most incredible people. Regional startups and entrepreneurs.

Adam Spencer: Today you're going to hear the story of Heath Rry from New Ventures. New Ventures is an engineering agency. They build solutions to their client's problems. Basically, their customers come to them with an idea and Heath and his team go to work figuring out how to build it. In the last 12 months alone, new ventures, client base has tripled and its headcount has more than doubled, but as HEA states.

Adam Spencer: Although those numbers sound impressive, in reality, things have moved very carefully and very deliberately. That little snippet you heard at the start just there was Heath speaking about his adventures as a kid making money. Putting his skills to use around computers, he thought, I'm good at this, other people might need help, and as Heath told me, I

Heath Raftery: did take it upon myself to, um, put up an ad down at the local Barlow and say, if your printer's not working, I'll come help you.

Heath Raftery: Not realising that had anything to do with an entrepreneurial idea or anything, I just wanted to play with computers and fix stuff.

Adam Spencer: So, how did Heath go from that little kid putting up an ad to fix printers to the co founder of Newie Ventures, an engineering firm that as Heath states, our mission is to turn ideas into products.

Adam Spencer: We will get to that, but for now, let's go back to day one where this story begins.

Heath Raftery: Yeah, so there was certainly no light bulb moment. There was no streak of light that, um, that where it came to me. It was a, A long process of weighing up options and thinking about where I wanted to take my career and those things that I thought that I could make a career out of.

Adam Spencer: I wanted to figure out what the motivation was behind Heath deciding to move away from working for someone else to going out on his own and starting newie ventures.

Adam Spencer: Often we think entrepreneurship is this big aha moment where something just clicks into place.

Heath Raftery: It'd be nice if there was something poetic about it. A germ of an idea was an itch that needed scratching and eventually it got scratched. I was working for a, a, a company. company, um, that largely services, uh, mining and heavy industry as a, as a product development or a research and development engineer.

Adam Spencer: In Heath's case, over time, he was becoming unsatisfied with where he was. Yeah, I mean, it was, it was

Heath Raftery: different stuff, but the way I describe it these days is that I was, I was comfortably useless. I wasn't, um, challenged. I was, um, paid well but, uh, wasn't achieving. Um, we could, we could never, uh, finish, um, or excel, or, um, delight the customer within that environment.

Heath Raftery: Um, we, we moved things from one side of the desk to the other until we were told to move them back to the other side of the desk. And I didn't think that was a good idea. Particularly, um, exciting utilization of my skills. Yeah, I was looking for, uh, application of my abilities, basically. I was looking to, to, um, uh, to achieve more.

Heath Raftery: And, uh, this is a, is a common longing of people who, uh, have access to the world's information and think, gee, um, I really should be setting the world on fire, right? It's a, it's a common feeling, I think. But, for me, it wasn't, uh, certainly I learned a lot of things at uni, but, um, I never let my My schooling interfered with my education.

Heath Raftery: I've always been a fan of lifelong learning and, uh, and, um, and that's what I've always wanted for my career is to continue to, to learn.

Adam Spencer: Among other things, it was that core belief of lifelong learning that helped to push Heath towards deciding to look for a bigger challenge. New Adventures, although not with that name at the time, had began to form in Heath's mind.

Adam Spencer: But how was Heath going to get started?

Heath Raftery: Step one was to get a couple other people on board. Because, yeah, I didn't want to do this alone. And, uh, and I always need to bounce ideas off people. And, um, and I need to get out of my head too. And so I needed other people around. And, and I was fortunate that the, the first two people I approached, um, were sold.

Heath Raftery: They were really keen. They had similar ideas, uh, of their own, and they wanted to be part of something new and exciting. So that helped. And then number two was, um, to do it on the side for a little bit. Uh, so a lot of people say, you know, um, you can't do anything worthwhile unless you're a hundred percent focused on it.

Heath Raftery: And that's probably true, but that's also terribly, um, risky.

Adam Spencer: And so at this point, this is what was going through Heath's mind. So yeah, have a feel, have a

Heath Raftery: go on the side, see what you can put together. And, um, and it was the, it, it wasn't until we had, uh, collected enough evidence that. We could sustain ourselves in the future that, that I made the jump.

Heath Raftery: We're probably pretty fortunate in that our, um, requirements were very meager. Uh, we, we didn't, our, our rent was really low. Our overheads were really low. Um, and we hadn't, we hadn't accumulated a lot of, um, Um, and so, uh, by the time, uh, we had our first customer, um, income was great, it could sustain us. And then during the period of that first customer, the second one came knocking on the door.

Heath Raftery: And so there was a fairly nice transition from the first to the second. Um, which, which really helped bootstrap things.

Adam Spencer: One of my biggest questions that I like to ask everyone is, How did you get your first customer?

Heath Raftery: So the first customer didn't come about until after I had quit my job. Um, and to be honest with you, our first paying customer, money in the bank, uh, was my ex employee.

Heath Raftery: Which, which I've subsequently heard is pretty common. It was basically, there was a job that my ex employer had on from an external customer, who requested I be part of it because I'd been involved in the past, and uh, and it made sense to outsource it to this new entity.

Adam Spencer: New Adventures is up and running now.

Adam Spencer: First customer acquired. A lot of New Adventure clients were coming in via word of mouth. Things were going well for Heath and the team. And I asked Heath if there were any people that were really influential and helpful in, in getting New Adventures to where it is today.

Heath Raftery: There's, there's probably quite a few but one that, that comes to mind is, uh, is, is Gunilla Burrows.

Gunilla Burrowes: I'm Gunilla Burroughs, I'm chair of 1804.

Heath Raftery: She has a, um, underappreciated, um, uh, selflessness in, uh, in, in, in building networks and ecosystems so that, uh, other people can prosper. Um, and that, uh, and I think, uh, Lots and lots of people benefit from that, but lots and lots of people don't identify that as the source of their benefits.

Adam Spencer: We'll hear more about this in a minute, but just to give you some context, Heath and Gunilla first really met at an event that 1804 put on quite regularly, and still do, called the Innovators Lunch.

Gunilla Burrowes: I mean, he was a great founder in the fact that he had had so much great experience already, um, through his own career.

Gunilla Burrowes: And then he had this real passion for not only the technology, but for doing something, um, good. And, you know, so he fitted perfectly into the, um, to what 1804 was trying to do. And then of course, his area, um, that he was interested in was in the smarts. space and the internet of things. And, um, look, he's been going from strength to strength and I really can't keep up with everything that he and Newey Ventures is doing, but it's just wonderful to see them grow.

Adam Spencer: Heath and his team currently work out of 1804, a start up hub that focuses on smart city and clean tech, and I wanted to learn about how they settled on 1804.

Heath Raftery: It was all via the Innovators Lunch, which was a meet up that had just started around the time that the idea for Newey Ventures was forming. And, uh, so I would, um, sneak out of work to go to the Innovators Lunch and discover this world of people who were trying to make things wonderful, um, doing, putting the hard yards in to create, create the world that they saw for themselves.

Heath Raftery: And, uh, yeah, that was very inspirational and, and that was, It's basically run by 1804.

Adam Spencer: So between being behind Innovator's Lunch, being one of Heath's lecturers at uni, and sitting on the board of 1804, where Heath was. office is located. Gunilla seems to have been very instrumental in getting New Adventures or helping New Adventures get to where it is today.

Heath Raftery: Yep, that was our, that was our leg in the door. From when we were three people that no one had ever heard of, we, we stood on the the coattails, um, of the board of 8. 84 and Andrew Mears and, um, and Gunilla Burroughs and And use that enormous leverage to, um, to represent ourselves as, as more authoritative than, than we could do, um, just for our backs.

Heath Raftery: We've had a, uh, a wonderful past eight months or so of, um, of defining what it is that makes us valuable. And, and we've come out of that, um, feeling very positive about our mission actually. And, and, and our mission is simply, uh, turning ideas into products. And, uh, and that is exciting and that is, um, really valuable to our customer base.

Adam Spencer: Heath is getting really clear on why Newie Ventures exists and this is a good three years into the business. And as wonderful as things are going for Newie Ventures and the team, Heath is still very focused on the business and building something that isn't reliant on any one person.

Heath Raftery: At our end of financial year celebration that we had with our staff, uh, recently, That, that my goals for the next 12 months are to build, uh, resilience into the company, to ensure that it's, it's not reliant on one individual person.

Heath Raftery: That your, your bus factor, as they call it, goes up, uh, from one or two to a few more, so that, um, it is self sustaining.

Adam Spencer: And the next step in doing that is putting the right people in the right places. We're in

Heath Raftery: the process of recruiting, so we're building out our engineering team. And, um, and the plan after that, once we've got, uh, sufficient capability in the engineering team, is that, um, we appoint a, uh, a managing director, um, who, uh, who oversees operations.

Heath Raftery: Uh, and at that point, we, we'd be a team of, um, say, eight full timers. And, uh, and, and that's my immediate goal, is to be a, a, uh, organization of that size that can, um, Give great attention to our clients and, and follow through on the, on what makes Newie Ventures, uh, great.

Adam Spencer: The theme of people comes up again and again throughout these interviews that I'm fortunate enough to be able to conduct.

Heath Raftery: It's something that the Newie Ventures journey has, has allowed me to do is, um, discover just how, um, how vibrant, uh, people are. Um, who are, who are building businesses and involved in, uh, entrepreneurial, uh, stories and, and innovation journeys and whatnot.

Adam Spencer: As I mentioned near the beginning of this episode, one of the main things that I wanted to know was why go into business at all?

Adam Spencer: What, what is the motivation behind that decision?

Heath Raftery: So for me, it was to, um, uh, to be responsible for the work that I was doing. Transcribed I didn't want to be, um, uh, have, I've always liked, um, being the, uh, being in charge of my own destiny, um, being independent, um, being, uh, resilient and, uh, to have an organization dictate my career, um, wasn't good enough for me.

Heath Raftery: So I wanted to be responsible. So if I'm working on boring jobs. If I'm not, uh, changing the world, moving the dial the way I'm supposed to be, that I feel I should be, then it's my fault. So I wanted that responsibility.

Adam Spencer: To always be learning and challenging himself and then bringing in two friends to help to launch new adventures And having amazing people around him like ganilla burrows and andrew mears of 1804 to where we are today Building a solid business that aims to give Neweventures clients the attention to detail that they deserve.

Adam Spencer: Heath's journey is a remarkable one and in my mind serves to reiterate the importance of the people we surround ourselves with and the relationships that we have. Speaking about relationships, Heath credits his parents with a couple of lessons that were essential in his business journey.

Heath Raftery: My parents have taught me.

Heath Raftery: Perseverance and stoicism and, uh, and, um, grit, uh, and, and I think that's very important in, in what I do. Um, they, uh, uh, they never expected anything and so I guess that's, uh, that's, um, filtered down to me.

Adam Spencer: I wanted to finish the New Eventures story with a great piece of advice that Heath has for other entrepreneurs.

Adam Spencer: Heath has three pieces of advice, and I would probably say ignore the first one he gives you, and you'll find out why right after this short break, because there's something that I really want to tell you about. It's a brand new podcast app, and I love it. Podcasts.

Adam Spencer: I have to start off by saying this is not a paid advertisement. I'm going to speak about this app simply because I love what they're doing. I love podcasts and I've been listening to podcasts, mostly business and entrepreneurship related podcasts since at least 2011, but something has always bugged me about the podcast app that I use and practically.

Adam Spencer: Every other podcast app out there. Well, that's about to change. Hello,

Curio Podcast App: this is Monica.

Adam Spencer: Hi Monica, it's Adam. How you going?

Curio Podcast App: Oh, hey, I'm good. How are you?

Adam Spencer: Monica is one of the co founders of a brand new app called Curio.

Curio Podcast App: It's all about following your curiosity.

Adam Spencer: I love podcasts because I can listen and learn, but some podcasts go for over an hour.

Adam Spencer: For example, the most recent episode of The Tim Ferriss Show goes for around three hours, and I love it, but there are really useful bits of information that I'd just like to bookmark so I can come back to later if I need to, and not have to skim through three hours of audio to find it again. That's an extreme example, but I think you get my point.

Adam Spencer: So how do we solve that problem? Introducing Tim Ferriss. Curio.

Curio Podcast App: So Curio is a podcast app that allows listeners to retain and share the best bits of their favorite podcast with their network.

Adam Spencer: I downloaded the app on launch day and I personally love it. I would really love for you to try it out, if you're an avid podcast listener like I am.

Curio Podcast App: If you're, you know, not satisfied with whatever podcast app you currently use, then, you know, what's the harm in giving us a go, uh, and, and seeing, and seeing where it takes you. Super easy, we're on air, we're on iOS at the moment, where I've got, uh, Android coming up. And you just go into the app store and you look for Curio with two H's on the end and the symbol is some headphones and there's yellow backgrounds.

Curio Podcast App: It's very easy to find, very easy to go through and download it and be able to figure out how to use the app. The, the bookmarking and snippeting function, we've really tried to highlight that as easy as possible.

Adam Spencer: For those of you on iOS, go to the App Store and search for Curio. That is C U R I O H H And download the best new podcast app around.

Heath Raftery: Uh, well number one would be probably don't take advice from me. There's plenty of other, other sources of advice. Thanks. Um, and, and number two, very much related to the first one, uh, trust your gut. Um, so take on board advice, but, uh, feel free to ignore it. If it doesn't apply to your situation, no one else knows your business and your situation like you do.

Heath Raftery: Um, and then number three would just be persevere. If there's, there's any quality in an entrepreneur, which dictates success, um, across the board, if you, uh, average everything out, It's those that stuck at it longer.

Adam Spencer: I hope you enjoyed listening to Heath's story. If you like this episode, please feel free to check out the show notes for this episode at welcome today, http://one.com/, which has the links to everything that was mentioned in today's episode, plus a way to leave a rating for the show wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Adam Spencer: If you enjoy what we are doing, we will really appreciate it. If you take a minute. to leave a review for the show, as it really helps the show get in front of more people that might also enjoy the stories that we are sharing.

Adam Spencer: Next time on Welcome to Day One, James Rabbitt from Broader Learning.

James Rabbitt: I'm James Rabbitt. I'm the Managing Director of Broader Learning. Broader Learning is a company based out of Newcastle that provides interesting and fun STEM learning programs for students. So the idea is that where there are 50 schools in an area all trying to teach quality coding or robotics, for example, learning programs, we have the opportunity to do that 50 times a week instead of them each doing it once a week.

James Rabbitt: And so theoretically we can deliver a better experience or at the very least an experience that is Fairly cost effective.

Adam Spencer: Thank you so much for giving this episode of Welcome to Day One your attention. I really appreciate it. This episode was created by me, Adam Spencer. Interviews conducted by me, Adam Spencer, and a big thank you to Heath Raftery from Newey Ventures and Gunilla Burrows from 1804 for their time.

Adam Spencer: The script was written by me, Adam Spencer, music by Leigh Roseveare, full attribution is on our website at welcometodayone. com. This episode was produced and mixed by me, Adam Spencer. Thank you for listening and see you next time.