Bonus Episode: Kate Morris – Founder & Director at Adore Beauty

Bryce Leske: [00:01:26] Welcome to the Equity Mates Summer Series of 2020, brought to you by Super Hero over 12 episodes, we're diving into some of Australia's largest and most well-known companies as selected by you, the Equity Mates community. We'll be unpacking the company, its industry outlooks, financials, and in some instances, we'll also be taking the tough questions straight to the CEO. And in this episode, we are lucky enough to be joined by a co-founder and executive director of one of them. But before we do, as always, I'm joined by my equity buddy, Wren. How's it going? [00:01:58][32.2]

Alec Renehan: [00:01:59] I'm very good, Bryce. I'm loving this summer series so far. I'm going to make the big call that it's our best one yet. Yes. And I'm particularly excited for this interview because there's been a lot of highly discussed stocks in the Equity Mates community. You know, the Binalong highlighted sectors. Stocks have been very popular in the community. But I'm going to say this company may have been the most discussed and well, at least around its IPO, it was there was a lot of interest in this one. So I'm very excited to talk to the co-founder of this company. Yes. [00:02:31][32.4]

Bryce Leske: [00:02:32] Well, without further ado, it is an absolute pleasure to welcome Kate Morris to a show from adorability. Kate, welcome. [00:02:38][6.2]

Kate Morris: [00:02:39] Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. [00:02:40][1.5]

Bryce Leske: [00:02:41] So Kate is the founder of Australia's longest running online beauty store, adorability beauty cofounding, Adore, in 2000 as a 21 year old while studying at Monash. Kate has grown and scaled the company to over 120 million in sales and most recently, an IPO in the back end of twenty, which we have been following closely, as has a lot of our community. So, Kate, again, welcome. And we're very much looking forward to unpacking your journey a bit about a door and also sort of the future plans. So welcome. [00:03:13][32.0]

Kate Morris: [00:03:14] All right. Let's get into it. [00:03:15][1.0]

Alec Renehan: [00:03:16] So Kate adores a true entrepreneurial success story, I guess. And we're really excited to ask you about that and what that journey was like for you. But before we do, we do like to start these interviews by just asking company leaders how they say their own company. So to kick us off today, we'd love to hear you describe your company in your own words. So what is a door? [00:03:41][25.3]

Kate Morris: [00:03:42] Sure, sure. So Adobe is Australia's largest and first online pure play retailer. And we think about ourselves as being not just a retailer, but a platform that brings together over 250 brands, hundreds of thousands of consumers together. But the links that we with education and entertainment and presents beauty in a real and authentic and democratic way. So really, what we want our goal is to help our customers feel confident and fabulous when they engage with the beauty category and us. [00:04:19][37.4]

Bryce Leske: [00:04:20] So it hasn't been a an overnight sort of IPO. You know, you started two years ago. This has been something that you've been building for almost two decades now. So we'd love to hear about the journey of founding a door and perhaps like any particular tough moments that you faced during your entrepreneurial journey, as we sort of find that's where some of the key lessons are for, you know, members in the community. [00:04:43][22.8]

Kate Morris: [00:04:44] Yes. No, we have it. We have 20, 20 year overnight success. So, yes, the business was started. I could say it's actually the classic old maybe the cliché garage startup story. So it's really well, a bit more than 20 years ago, actually, and it came about I moved to Melbourne Uni from Tasmania and had got myself a part time job working on the beauty can design department stores and which to me was the funnest job ever. I loved it. I thought it was great, but it was very clear to me. I think once I'd been doing this for a little while, that so many women who were approaching the beauty counters in department stores really hated the whole experience. And it was very intimidating. And it was like a lot of sales pressure, which I knew because I was on sales targets that I thought I had to keep myself in. And so many, so many people were finding this experience of having to having to go into a department store, which is really just intimidating and unpleasant. And it was making them you know, they really didn't feel confident or great after having that experience. And to me, that didn't make any sense, because the whole point of the beauty category is to make you feel like your most confident and fabulous version of yourself. And so to me, to me, that, you know, the whole channel was a bit broken. And when I started to say this is I mean, you're thinking nineteen ninety nine here and we started to say online shopping become a bit more of a thing where we could say. In the US, not happening very much in Australia, and I thought someone really needs to do this would be because I think there is a lot of people who would who would prefer to shop this way and being able to take their time and have access to all the information. And and it just wasn't anything. And so I decided that I was going to start the first one, having no business experience at all, no money and no connections or anything. And yes, ended up pinching my boyfriend's dad, who ran a small motel near Melbourne Airport. He was the only business person I knew and pitched in this business plan. And, of course, you know, having taken it to the banks already and getting pretty much laughed out of town, as you can imagine. And he said, yes, alright, I'll lend you the money. And I had to go and try and get a website built because, of course, it wasn't you could just get like Shopify or whatever, something ready to go. Thinking back 20 years ago and and set about the process of trying to convince the entire Australian beauty industry and all the women in Australia that shopping online for beauty products was going to be great. [00:07:31][166.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:07:32] Yeah, it's been no small feat. And I imagine your boyfriend's parents or your boyfriend's dad at the time would be very happy with his investment with a door now worth a little bit over half a billion dollars. [00:07:47][15.1]

Kate Morris: [00:07:48] So it was actually a loan. And so probably he should have gone for equity funds. But yes, it was it was certainly speculative at the time [00:08:01][12.9]

Alec Renehan: [00:08:02] asking your boyfriend's parents for a loan as a 21 year old uni student. That's a big step to take. Can you can you tell us what that conversation was like [00:08:13][10.3]

Kate Morris: [00:08:15] to was just he was just such a lovely and supportive man. And he's no longer with this, unfortunately, because I think he would have just I mean, he just absolutely loved to say this, to see what the business has become in the last few years. But it was more said, OK, right. Well, you need to go and write a business plan. And of course, I had to go and borrow like one of those for Dummies books from the library in terms of how to write a business plan. And so I went away and we did that exercise with my boyfriend as well as my co-founders do. And we went and pitched it to him. And he says, OK, well, I think this will be a really good experience for you both. And I think he was fully prepared to lose the dough and they were particularly well off. But I think what a tremendous thing to give someone permission to try and possibly fail. I mean, I just think that's one of the greatest gifts that we were ever given was that permission to have a go at it. [00:09:18][63.1]

Bryce Leske: [00:09:18] So you started to in, what, 2000 '99 2000 and chose to go purely online with the e-commerce approach, which is it's pretty fascinating given I guess back then the penetration of online shopping would have been incredibly low relative to today. What is the last sort of 20 years taught you about the broader shift in consumer shopping preferences in retail? Alec and I both had have come from a retail background, and I've certainly seen how covid has changed the retail landscape. But what about sort of the last 10 years or so? What have been some of the big changes you've you've noticed? [00:09:58][39.5]

Kate Morris: [00:09:59] Well, I think really the fundamental shift that we've seen and e-commerce is kind of it's only the technology that's enabled that. But really the big shift is the shift towards customer-centricity. So she thinks about the old department store model, particularly for beauty. Well, the customer has to, you know, has to go in there themselves at a time when is maybe not convenient for them and approach any one of the sort of separated counties. And there's so many barriers put in place for them to be able to access information. Everything is very much around, you know, the brands and the retailer controlling that experience. And the customer is treated like a student until like a patient. And they have to go up to the counter and receive very limited pieces of information and be told what to buy or have to ask permission to be able to buy what they want to. And that's just not customer centric at all. And so really, what e-commerce is dynamite. There's the whole, you know, extra convenience factor. But really what it is, is about kind of democratizing that access to information and enabling customers to be the one controlling the experience and controlling how much interaction they have. And so that's, I think, the really fundamental. A disruptive difference around what we've done then, sort of more broadly than that. The change that I've seen over the last 20 years is the way that customers are thinking about e-commerce. And if you think about it, sort of in the early days in Australia, people who are adopting e-commerce were kind of only shopping online if it was cheaper to do that. And for us as a premium retailer, we weren't really competing on price. And so that that didn't really help us very much. And then and then it sort of shifted to being more about convenience. And we've been working on our customer experience for a very long time and getting amazing results. And so that sort of worked well. But the thing that we're seeing now is the customer shifting towards a more of a discovery mindset. And so we see in the beauty industry, it's not just all around repurchasing the products that you've tried before. We're finding very much now that customers are willing to discover a product entirely online and buy something online that they've never bought before. And for us, that's where things have gotten really fun. And we've been able to develop a lot of different, different ways of connecting with our customers and creating content to help them with that discovery pace. I mean, our podcasts, we have our own podcast, IQ Uncensored, which is Australia's number one fashionability podcast. We have a YouTube channel that we launched earlier this year from down, actually, which presented additional logistical challenges, and I'm sure you can imagine. But, you know, and that's had millions of views already. But ways that we can actually help customers navigate to and discover new products to solve the concerns that they've never tried before. That's where things have gotten really powerful for us. [00:13:20][201.3]

Bryce Leske: [00:13:21] Yeah, it's interesting. I think one of the parts of the business that I was interested to see is the focus that you have on the content side and you know, it's very rare or I can't really think of another online business that does do the amount of content that you do. Where do you see that side of the business sort of going? Is it is the idea to just grow into a not necessarily a medium, but like where where where do you see that going? [00:13:48][27.4]

Kate Morris: [00:13:49] Look, we do kind of thing ourselves, think of ourselves in a way as being kind of a combination of retail and media. Because if you think about the way the media industry used to work, it was all very much about the big brands with advertising glossy magazines. And hopefully, that would at some point lead the customer into a store to go and look at a product. And I guess we're kind of replacing both parts of that loop, the discovery part, and then also actually the fulfillment of the purchase. And then obviously, you know, the sort of the postal service as well. So I guess it's the way that we think about it is very much having that integrated model. And the really key point in all of that is to continue to maintain the customer centricity and the authenticity as our focus. Because I think the problem with the way that, you know, sort of media is a standalone business model works is that, you know, you kind of paying for eyeballs. And that's that's not necessarily leading to the best outcome for the customer. And that's why we don't sell advertising or anything like that because actually the really important thing is that we create content that's useful for the customer, that we can continue to do that and continue to actually maintain kind of a brand agnostic voice. [00:15:05][75.8]

Alec Renehan: [00:15:06] So we've touched on a couple of elements that have contributed to success, the customer centricity, the authenticity, and then the media as well. I just want to introduce some numbers for our audience to get some context. So in terms of sales in 2010, did two million dollars in sales. By 2016, that was six million. By 2019, it was 70 million. And then this year, twenty, twenty-one hundred and twenty million, which is a pretty phenomenal growth curve because aside from those factors that we've already touched on, is there anything else that you sort of attribute that growth to? [00:15:44][37.5]

Kate Morris: [00:15:45] So it's really funny, actually, when you talk about the growth curve. If you look at the first half of the growth curve, growth curve, it's just really, really flat. It's the way it is looking. Hockey stick you ever saw? Look, I think I think what it comes down to is having a commitment to customer experience in terms of doing all of the little things right over and over and over for a very long period of time. Because what you're seeing there is us, you know, acquiring customers and then. I'm sticking to the platform, and so if you look at the patterns of behavior for our customer cohorts, once they are retained from the first year to the second, that basically, they don't go anywhere. They continue to stay around, and then every year they purchase more frequently and they spend more each time they purchase. And so what we're kind of doing is building up these layers of customers who rely on us for information and a fantastic customer experience every single time. But to be able to maintain a really hard thing is to continue to do it year after year after year after year and to continue to scale it as well. You're thinking about, OK, well, we do. I mean, we've still got an impressive 80. And to do that, when you're increasing your volume of orders and volume of customers, your server serving every year, it's actually really quite hard. But that's kind of what we've done, is we've continued to build out these really loyal and sticky customer cohorts that have continued to come back to us. And then obviously now it's I mean, I guess Cauvin was sort of an accelerant for that in terms of lots of people suddenly discovering e-commerce all at once and that sort of slow channel shift from bricks and mortar through to online. It's been happening for a long time. And you see, I mean, here in Australia, I think we're still only at about 12 per cent of retail being online. If you look at China in the beauty category, it's like pushing nearly 50 percent adoption. And so it's just kind of one of those those J.A.G. things. But if you want to hold onto those customers, you have to prioritize the customer experience over and over and over time. [00:18:09][143.5]

Bryce Leske: [00:18:10] More and more retailers obviously moving online or adopting that sort of hybrid bricks and clicks model. So I guess the question would be how will it or continue to really compete and differentiate yourself from increasing competition? I imagine it is going to be around the remaining customer centric. But what is it about a door that, you know, makes your view on being customer centric better than the others that sort of having that similar idea? [00:18:38][28.0]

Kate Morris: [00:18:39] Yeah, sure. And I mean, look, the beauty category is always been a super competitive one. And if you think about us, tried to log in, there is as a garage startup with no funding and saying, right, I'm going to take it up to my friend David Jones, who is just that's, you know, giant behemoths. I mean, we had no right we had no right to succeed, obviously. But I think, you know, I think we've been very good at continuing to innovate with the customer in mind, continuing to be agile. And the business model that we've built kind of combines these three main elements. So obviously, you have the product selection and we have a unique product selection that spans across stage brands, across professional brands that are usually only found in skin clinics or hair salons nationwide to find brands and match these brands as well. So our product selection is unique. We have an incredible customer experience that people kind of gloss over. And Ghorayeb that, you know, anybody can do that. But they have is that they don't. And I think that's what our customers discover, is that, yes, if you tried shopping with any of our competitors and then shop at the door like the experience is just not comparable in terms of how fast you get your order and, you know, really highly trained and brand agnostic people on live chat to help you out in free samples and all of those sorts of things. And then also you combine those things with the product selection, the customer experience, and then we add data and content capabilities. And it has this kind of flywheel effect that it really continues to just reinforce the success of the model and that sort of personalized and reach content where we're able to help our customers continually discover the products that are going to make them feel amazing and then give them that instant gratification of getting your order the very next day. It is quite powerful. [00:20:38][118.8]

Bryce Leske: [00:20:39] It's so before we jump into, I guess, the process of going public and the IPO will just take a quick break to hear from our sponsors. [00:20:46][6.7]

Alec Renehan: [00:20:50] So it was 20 years between founding a door and then going public, which is a long time compared to some of your tech and e-commerce peers. You know, Bryce and I were doing this podcast was saying companies a year or two into their lives becoming public companies. So I guess the first question is, why did you decide to stay private for such a long time? [00:21:15][25.5]

Kate Morris: [00:21:18] OK, it's funny. I mean, maybe. Yeah, I don't know. I guess we're actually we're not an overnight success. And we've grown sustainably and profitably over 20 years. And I guess the way that I thought about going public was, you know, this is such an important step in building something enduring and actually capturing water, all of the things that have continued to make this company great for the last 20 years. And how can we make sure that, you know, that we protect and nourish those things so that we continue to grow for another 20 years? I guess I guess I didn't think so much about it as being sort of a decision to stay private. It is more about making sure that the company was where it needed to be at a particular time. And this company was actually bootstrapped for, you know, for most of its life. We didn't raise any capital at all for the first 14 years unless you count that since 2011, which probably most people don't count that. So I don't know. I mean, I guess everybody has different approaches to me. If I'm going to build something, I want it to be something good. And I think it's really important to build the foundations for this right. And do things until you. Good. Ready. [00:22:45][86.9]

Bryce Leske: [00:22:47] So 2020 was obviously a pretty chaotic year with covid and a lot going on in markets. Was the decision to IPO made pre 2020 and this was your target year? If so, why 2020? And when it hit, did you kind of reassess and go or do we need to push this? [00:23:05][18.5]

Kate Morris: [00:23:06] Oh, look, there's 20, 20 was chaotic on many, many levels. Look, we've been thinking about it for a while. And that was kind of the plan that we made with Quadrant, who we are within 2019. And that that was what we wanted to build towards. And we kind of sketched up a roadmap in terms of what the company needed to look like to be ready. You had like we needed to sort of getting our full executive leadership team in place. And we'd kind of recently completed a big warehouse upgrade and we needed to bid that down. And then, you know, and then we had some kind of milestones in terms of how many active customers we want to have and what, you know, what sort of size in terms of, you know, in terms of revenue and all of that kind of thing for it to kind of make sense as a listed entity and then the conversation just we just I mean, completely stop thinking about it because it was just you just had to knuckle down and go into crisis mode, which, you know, if you've been a bootstrap business for 20 years, you really quite well suited to crisis mode. So it's like, oh, OK, we're doing this again. Very good. And it was really it was just knuckling down and going, OK, how can we make sure that we keep our staff safe and keep our customers happy? And that was really all we thought about for the first few months. And then I guess, you know, we've experienced just this huge influx of new customers discovering the platform and continuing to repurchase and that the sales trajectory was was amazing. And then we kind of got to sort of midway through the year and went, oh, actually, you know, suddenly, suddenly the size of the businesses where we projected it to be in eighteen months time. And we just fast forwarded us said and all of a sudden we looked and just went, oh, well, if we're going to go, we're actually where we plan to be now. And can we cope with the idea of doing an IPO in lockdown down? And in the end, I decided, well, it's not like we're doing going anywhere. Yeah, so why not? It was more like we've gotten ourselves to where we felt that we needed to be able to take that step. And then the window was open and it hadn't been for a while. And then we thought, well, you know, if I've learned anything in the last twenty years, sometimes you've got to take your moments when they come. [00:25:33][146.1]

Alec Renehan: [00:25:34] So as part of the IPO, a raise of two hundred and seventy million dollars. What does the company plan to do with that money? [00:25:42][8.1]

Kate Morris: [00:25:44] So it was primary and secondary. But as far as the primary, it was really. Giving us the flexibility that we need to be able to I mean, the business always been profitable so we can execute on our organic growth plans. We've been through cash flow. And so so we don't necessarily need to be able to fund the growth. But it's more about just having a bit of flex on the balance sheet and being able to take any additional growth opportunities that might come up as we sometimes do. [00:26:14][30.4]

Bryce Leske: [00:26:16] So let's turn to people and culture, Kate, because, you know, over the last four or five years of doing this podcast, we have spoken to many, many fund managers and investors and experts in the field, and they all sort of point towards management and understanding what drives you and how you react in crises as sort of one of the key indicators as to whether or not a company is going to be successful or not. So for a retail investor, though, it's actually really hard to get that information and hear it right from, you know, the mouth of a CEO or executive director. So we'd love to speak to you about how you think about leadership. And maybe we'll start with your leadership philosophy as executive director and co-founder. And have you developed one? How do you sort of think about you as a leader? [00:27:04][48.0]

Kate Morris: [00:27:05] OK, so when I really think about is is values first. So as we were growing, we realized kind of early on in that scaling when you all of a sudden bringing lots of new people into the company that you have to have if to have guiding principles in terms of making sure that you hire the right people and that you continue to keep all of the things that are good and that work well about the company and that the existing people enjoy. And so we went through a process of what we will retain at the time. And this is going back ordinary 12, 13 years of sitting at what our values were as a company. And these are very much living values. So what we didn't want was to do this thing where you, your managers, put together some kind of, you know, list of things, and it gets put in a frame on a wall somewhere. And nobody ever told us all this is what is the point of that? No. So it's very much around a set of kind of decision making principles that a team can use every day. So one of them, for instance, is doing the right thing, which sounds flip. And everyone's like, oh, yes, of course you do the right thing. But the way that we interpret that is that we have to do the right thing for our customers. We have to do the right thing by each other as a team, and we have to do the right thing by our suppliers as well. And sometimes sometimes that's painful and you have to values absolutely must come first, even when it's difficult, even when it's embarrassing. You know, if you have to admit to a supplier that you've made a mistake or you have you realize that you've let customers down in a particular way, you have to put those values first and you can't ever compromise on them. And that goes for when you're hiring people, when you're measuring performance, when you're looking at all the decisions that you have to make. Because sometimes sometimes, you know, there might be a path of action that you think, oh, well, that's probably the easiest thing to do. But if it doesn't align with the values that you set for yourself as a leader and face off as a company, you absolutely cannot compromise on that level. And that's been such a useful thing as we've scaled. And we have a team of well over two hundred now. And I think our culture is as strong as ever, but only because we all can we all continue to leave the values on the Day-To-Day basis. [00:29:49][163.1]

Alec Renehan: [00:29:50] So speaking of leadership, one thing that I mean to add to everything else that you had to do in 2020, you also transitioned to a new CEO to Neil O'Shaughnessy, took over a door as CEO in late August this year. So right before the IPO. Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about, you know, what you were looking for in in a new leader and I guess what the process was to try and find a new CEO during Kovar? [00:30:22][31.9]

Kate Morris: [00:30:23] Well, actually, we started looking for a new CEO in September of last year. It was just that it took a long time to find the right one. And then, of course, you know, she had her experience that we actually hired her earlier this year. So it was like in March or something, I think. And then so obviously everything changed quite dramatically in the meantime. But for us. For me, what I always wanted and had been and we've been planning for a number of years to bring on somebody who could help to really guide a door and to scale its culture and also obviously and obviously the business itself for that kind of next stage of growth. And I think one of the things that I've learned is when you bring the right people in and really amazing people with the right kind of experience and the right values orientation is that, you know, the impact that it has on the business is extraordinary. So we're already saying that. And so it was more about, OK, we're going to need to find a rock star. And we looked and we looked and we thought, you know, it's probably not going to be somebody from retail because I don't want anybody caught up in old ways of thinking. And it's definitely not going to be someone from beauty because, again, you know, there's these assumptions that you kind of develop and that you probably don't see anymore when you've been in an industry for a long time. So we wanted someone that had that experience of scaling fast-growth businesses and innovative and agile businesses. But that, most importantly, was aligned with our values. And Tenille is just it's just absolutely amazing. So I'm just as the months go on, I'm more and more thrilled with our decision. So, yeah, she's incredible. [00:32:13][110.3]

Bryce Leske: [00:32:15] So speaking of sort of fast scaling over the next period, let's turn to the future and what sort of the next 12 months hold for a door, but particularly if there was sort of one thing that you wanted to focus on over the next 12 months. You know, we speak in business about prioritizing and getting the right things done. First, what would you be choosing or focusing on as your number one priority? [00:32:42][27.1]

Kate Morris: [00:32:44] Sure. So, look, I mean, first and foremost, we think we just have an absolutely massive opportunity to continue to grow and scale the core business. And so that's really about how do we continue to introduce more and more customers to the O'Doul platform? Because we know that when we do that, we're building these sticky and returning cohorts that continue to come back to the platform for years and years and years afterward and actually become more valuable the longer that they stay. And so there's obviously a pretty, pretty sizable opportunity there. And to continue, I think we have a particular opportunity to build brand awareness. And we started doing that a little during covid. I think if you look at the 20 year history of a door as being sort of a self-funded and bootstrapped business, we've never been able to invest as much in brand building as we would have liked. Because, of course, you know, you have to focus always only on the things that are, you know, directly measurable and immediate. But we know that that's kind of left a gap in our brand awareness between ourselves and say, you know, the department store competitors, which obviously everybody knows. And so so we know that when customers discover us, they absolutely love us and they stay for years. But there's still a lot of customers out there who haven't discovered us yet. So we have a very big opportunity there. There's a lot more that we want to do as well around continuing to build loyalty in our existing customer as well, because obviously we recognize that, you know, if you could move the needle, even just a small amount, and that is a huge multiplier effect across the business. So we've just sort of launched our mobile app, which is very much designed around kind of an engagement and content experience to support returning customers and support that discovery pace, as well as just being convenient way of reordering, which, of course, you know, is sort of title stakes. And then also we have a loyalty program rolling out in the first half of next year, which we've done a lot of sort of individual pieces of work around loyalty and data and all of that sort of thing, but really tying that together for customers and building a bit of a community around that, too. We have. And then so this is this isn't just one thing that we're focusing on. I do want to say I have to say it's typical idealist, although, like if we're not going a million miles an hour, we probably get bored. So and then and then we have we're developing some private labels as well. So we have a few projects underway there. Obviously, we have a huge amount of data and insight from our existing customer base that we're using to develop some brands to do fit nicely in some gaps along the. And third party brands, surfboarding Xibalba. That's been my baby, actually, so I'm having great fun at the moment. There are tons of sandals all over my dead [00:35:57][192.7]

Alec Renehan: [00:36:00] sock over the 20 years, bootstrapping this business. From a start-up to what it is today. You've constantly been dealing with risk and managing risk. You know you made an early bet on e-commerce and then you work to disrupt some of the big department store players. If you think about a door as a business now and the risks it's facing, what would you say is the biggest risk Firdaus business right now? Ha! [00:36:26][26.0]

Kate Morris: [00:36:29] Well, look, I mean, you know, I think I think any business with a digital presence has to take cybersecurity extremely seriously, and we absolutely do. And, you know, that's always front of mind for us. That's probably my biggest fear. I mean, I think I mean, these competitors, obviously, and certainly everybody and we've probably poked the bear somewhat with our IPO because perhaps there was some who didn't realize quite how big we'd gotten. And I'm sure that will continue to it's always been a competitive and aggressively competitive space. And that's where I guess we kind of used to that. And I think we would continue to back ourselves in that respect. And then I think I mean, you know, operationally, the challenges of scaling can be difficult sometimes and trying to get all of the different pieces to work together seamlessly. But I mean, obviously, we continue to hire some pretty amazing people to make sure that we are always kind of laying the track down ahead of us before this, before the steam train comes, comes rolling along. So, again, I think we've gotten pretty good at that for the last 20 years. But you can never get complacent. [00:37:47][78.4]

Bryce Leske: [00:37:48] Mm-hmm. It's okay. First of all, a massive thank you for your time this morning. Very much. Appreciate you coming on the show. Before we close out, though, one more question. And if you would think about a door in 10 years time with all the disruption that's going to continue to come and all the plans that you want to put in place, what does success look like for you? [00:38:11][23.0]

Kate Morris: [00:38:14] I'd say world domination. [00:38:15][0.7]

Bryce Leske: [00:38:17] That's right. [00:38:17][0.2]

Kate Morris: [00:38:19] I mean, why not? Right, exactly. That's where we were you always going to be going for. I think. I mean, look, I think you we will say, you know, the impact of e-commerce to continue to scale. And if you look at where China is now, they were they had the same penetration levels as Australia six years ago. So I think. All right. Well, in 10 years' time, that's a good amount of time to catch up there. Yeah. Look, I. I really want to see a door as just fundamentally making a change in the way women get to interact with this category and what we really want for all and for all of the people buying beauty. And it's you know, it's one is an 11 billion dollar industry in Australia right now. You we want to see everybody shopping the ads away and feeling confident to say, hey, if you want, you know, 10 step Korean skincare routine, we can absolutely help you with that. If we want to do is just check a bit of mascara on in the morning. That's also perfectly OK. We'd love you to feel great about that, too. So, yeah, I think bringing that sense of just confidence and freedom to you, to all of the beauty shop is not just in Australia, but, you know, in other markets, too. [00:39:46][87.0]

Bryce Leske: [00:39:46] Yeah, nice. I hear that Korean skincare routines actually top cost though, so [00:39:50][4.0]

Kate Morris: [00:39:52] I'm looking for a look. I mean we can chat afterward. [00:39:54][1.9]

Bryce Leske: [00:39:57] No. But look, as I said, very much appreciate you coming on the show, you know, giving our audience the opportunity to hear directly from the co-founder of some of the companies that they're able to directly invest in themselves is a pretty good opportunity and definitely give them a lot of value. So thank you. We're looking forward to seeing how it plays out not only on the markets but in its business plans as well. So I appreciate your time. [00:39:57][0.0]

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