Angus Syme and Cam Leigh are the Co-Founders of The Flatpack Company and Icehouse Coaching alumni.
This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 2 February 2023, and all figures quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.
How did The Flatpack Company come about?
Angus: Cam and I both studied at Otago University, and we were in the same halls of residence in our first year. We used to sit up until two o'clock in the morning, and talk about starting a business – or at least a little project on the side.
We were wracking our brains on what to do. Small things would come and go, of course, but nothing really came along until the end of the year, when this whole bed idea came into play.
Cam: We were both moving out of halls into our first place down in Dunedin. We went through the process of looking to purchase second-hand beds. We didn't have a car, let alone a trailer, we were in the middle of exams, so it felt like nightmare.
What we ended up doing is buying thirty second-hand beds, and sold them to all of our mates, delivering them on the same day they moved into their house or flat at the start of the new year. And that's really how it kicked off. We sold the beds before we purchased them – we didn't have any cash to start the business – so that was the first round of funds!
And then from there… we looked down the route of importing product out of Asia, and came across these flat pack mattresses and bed-frames, and then very quickly began selling them into Dunedin and then expanded to Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland. It’s been all go for the last four years!
How did the Icehouse coaching with Kevin D’Ambros-Smith come about?
Angus: My uncle was linked with The Icehouse, and he sent me a LinkedIn article about coaching. I just clicked on the link and had this ‘Aha’ moment, thinking ‘maybe this is what we're looking for?’ An account manager linked us up with Kevin very quickly. We had our first session, probably three or four weeks later, and it was just epic. So, so, good.
How did you find that experience?
Angus: We probably booked in for an hour session, and he ended up giving us three and a half hours of his time. We nearly missed our flight afterwards, but we were almost in the mindset of, ‘the flight doesn't matter, we need this’. And it was awesome. And from then on, we've had multiple sessions with Kevin.
We’re at the point now where we’re driving to Auckland Airport on the way to the US FaceTiming him. He’s giving us tips and tricks… and he's really involved with the steps that we're taking now.
Cam: We’re a little bit more informal now. We’ll just have a chat – half an hour here and there. His background is awesome as well. He’s been through it, and both Gus and I respect what he's done… [it helps] to be consulted by someone who's been there, done that.
Angus: One of the best things for us, or one of the most valuable things for us early days, was coming to him going: ‘We’ve had this success, but we don't know where the direction is,’ and him saying: ‘You're really stuck in this tunnel vision, what are the actual steps that you need to take to get to where you want to go and let’s identify what you will need to do.’
And now more expansion and a move to the US?
Angus: Because we had no other capital injections, we continued to build scalable models - that was just the way we did things. And now, what's awesome is the multiple on those systems and processes is huge, because we can take them to the US without needing to raise a million bucks.
We can go over and we can execute on them because we've ironed them out here in New Zealand. We know how they work. A good analogy is building the plane while you fly it. That's how we approached it early days.
We’ve built this back-end that works only for the university model. It doesn't work for the regular market, it supports university students going from halls of residence into flatting. And now we're four years on with this unreal back-end that we’re taking to the US, with the capability to service thousands and thousands of students.
Cam: I guess it's that fine-line between maximising what we can do right now, without falling over if things don't go to plan. We've got a Plan B, and if things don't work out in the US, that's fine. We can come back to the New Zealand market and continue growing that.
Gus and I still own 100% of the company. We don't have any debt. We don't plan on raising any capital or giving away any equity at this point, but that may change down the line. It’s just been really cool to do this ourselves.