Expert: Steve Baxter – Life as a serial entrepreneur, investor, mentor… and shark

Bryce: [00:00:15] Welcome to another episode of Equity Mates, a podcast that follows our journey of investing, whether you're an absolute beginner or approaching Warren Buffett status. Our aim is to help break down your barriers from beginning to dividend. My name is Bryce and as always, I'm joined by my equity buddy, Ren. How you?

Alec: [00:00:29] I'm very good, Bryce. I am very excited for this interview. We are joined by an expert investor and entrepreneur who we have spent a lot of time watching on TV and we are lucky enough to have him on the show today. 

Bryce: [00:00:43] That's it. It's our absolute pleasure to welcome Steve Baxter to the studio. Steve, welcome. 

Steve Baxter: [00:00:47] Thanks. Thanks for having me. Great to be here again. 

Bryce: [00:00:52] Well, we might pick that up a bit later on. Steve is an Australian investor and entrepreneur living in Brisbane and as Ren alluded to, many people will know him as one of the sharks on Channel Ten's Shark Tank and we're excited to unpack that, but we're also excited to unpack his life as a serial entrepreneur, investor and mentor. So we'll start at the top. Steve, your founding story from growing up in rural Queensland to joining the Army to being right in the middle of the first tech boom is a great one. So can you just sort of briefly take us through that period of time?

Steve Baxter: [00:01:28] Yeah. So to get in there quite quickly. Born in Cloncurry in north west Queensland, I grew up in Emerald and in Rockhampton in central Queensland. I'm the world's best thermal coal and that we need some of that now. But I was 15 years old, joined the army as a boy soldier. I can no longer do that thankfully, because that's wrong. But sort of a nine year contract, 15 years old and did an electronics apprenticeship that took me to Oldbury, then Victoria, Albury Wodonga, Wodonga specifically on Victorian side of the border and for three years there, then back to Brisbane for three years in Adelaide for three years, for my nine years in the military got into computing along that way because that's the sort of what electronics was. We were on the edge of what we call discrete components, actually fixing things with altering ions as opposed to sort of changing modules and reprogramming. So we were right on the edge of that. So it was it was a weird time to be in that trying to come across this really weird operating system called learnings through a user group meeting took a duplex modem in the back of it and I've seen people dial up and charge the money for them for the privilege, and that was it. The dollar buys people, they seen it, which we operated in the suburbs of Adelaide that started in November 94. I got out of the army in September 95. My bosses didn't quite appreciate my second job. Probably the best description. That's like good asking if I could do it because I knew they'd say no. So I just went and did it. I'm going to take on a business partner. So I met him on Chris. We sold that business in two tranches between 99 and 2000. Two Aussie male, most famously at the time was chairman by Malcolm Turnbull. I didn't meet Malcolm until about 2003 though I have to admit I'm going back to Brisbane, met with chat partners, go with Ben Slattery and mums are best mates. I used to work together, we slide tennis together, ended up starting a business or a little bit of consulting form I suppose in some money he was trying to raise. And then we started a business together called Networks, which we ultimately listed on the ASX in 2005, sold that to TPG Telecom Settle in March 2010. It's about a six hour process. Since then I've been an investor, an early stage supporter of an investor in early stage businesses and tech businesses in Australia. I didn't really want to get back into telecoms because I figured the Indians buggered that up. I wanted to steer clear of things that made my teeth groan. 

Alec: [00:03:40] Well, plenty, plenty to unpack there. Maybe get your thoughts on the NBN a little bit later. But see, the way we want to approach this interview is sort of in three parts. Steve is a founder, there is an investor and then finally is a mentor. So starting with your time as a founder, as you mentioned there, you started and exited multiple businesses, SCA net pipe networks. What have you learnt about founding and then scaling companies from from your time as a founder? 

Steve Baxter: [00:04:08] There's two things they're founding. They did very two separate things for sure. So there's the founding, which is scary. The first time is scary, exciting, scary that the whole thing, the biggest piece of advice I give advice of my journey has been just do it. Just, you know, did that 0101 Yeah. It's not really about this, but it's a good analogy. There's a lot to that. There's got to be 0 to 1 in that book. But, you know, the hardest thing is starting and then you just get more problems after that, get somewhat simpler. So get out there and just do it. You never know. Do it with some intelligence. I always tell people, you know, the things I didn't do along the way is I didn't know enough about just placing bookkeeping. One of those skills that is really boring. So what's the one thing you wish you knew before we should do? Double entry bookkeeping. The things that make a business go away is running out of money. Yeah, that's to be just for an opponent that lots of things cause that but that's the ultimate goal the ultimate reason I go broke so that didn't happen to us is what we had a luck in the early years because we just weren't aware of things you should be doing, I suppose. Get some skills, get some business skills. That's sort of very important. But getting there. Whatever you start on, you're not going to finish what little, little, little change along the way. Call it pivot, call it whatever you want. It'll morphing. That's for sure. [00:05:20][71.9]

Alec: [00:05:20] Yeah. I feel so lucky that, you know, Bryce and I are starting this business in 2022. Rather than when you started saying that in 1994. Just the amount of tools and like software platforms that are available to help us, you know, do things like 004 accounting, oh, like all those website builders and stuff to help you like get a website off the ground. I don't want to say it's easier now than it was then. You know, there are always challenges, but it feels a little bit different challenges. [00:05:47][27.0]

Steve Baxter: [00:05:48] It's true. We had I think we had 65 full time equivalent. So I want to say that when I sold it, I think eight of those were programmers, literally sea level plus like literally code programmers would sometimes have to modify the Linux kernel too because it was bugs and it was open source software. But we had kernel hackers working for us because we could couldn't make it do it. We wanted to do it. Imagine that nowadays. Yeah, Salesforce and all these sort of whizzy tools. So look, which is great. Which means you guys, you put more intelligent capital in and just more productive things. I think it's it's a benefit for sure. [00:06:17][29.4]

Alec: [00:06:18] Yeah. [00:06:18][0.0]

Bryce: [00:06:19] So starting SNL in 1994 put you like right at the forefront of the tech boom. So did you sort of see this disruption coming? Was it right place, right time? What was the sort of moment? [00:06:30][11.3]

Steve Baxter: [00:06:31] Yeah, I think both of those things. I mean, basically, business is about business. Success is really about timing. You know, you can timing is so important. This is probably the most one of the most important factors. A lot of time you can't really control that because a lot of the macro stuff that that that comes into that one, not at a computer user group. I saw someone using a web browser even before it had had them using graphical advice on Linux and actually interacting with the common gateway interface. The one I think had just come out, just standardise how people can actually write scripts and forms and interact with the computer. And there was a shocking moment actually. So that was a moment I knew I had to leave for that. I could see the window open and just sort of go through with both feet. But I mean, back then, I mean, the biggest companies, one of the biggest companies around, I'm pretty sure that goes through the body Roll the Doors was actually roller door company. It was like a garage door roll it all be and had like ten depots around in Australia and had to communicate through their software so end up building they're actually one of Australia's libraries pays the job and then never followed through. So they had been far, far better from internet than bloody garage doors. Corinthian. Corinthian doors screened indoors. It was called quantum internet and it came through the door company was really, really we saw all sorts of TNT, the big transport company, one of the biggest networks in Australia at the time. And out there across the state, it was it was a weird landscape back then. [00:07:47][76.2]

Bryce: [00:07:47] Yeah. Wow. [00:07:47][0.2]

Alec: [00:07:48] I love that idea of timing being so important and it feels like, you know, we look at today and it feels like the media, there's all there's always talk about the next disruption coming or the emerging technology. You know I machine learning recently it's been blockchain and web3 for a long time has been Internet of things you know it feels like the media or are always writing about us being on the cusp of something else. But many of them we never really seem to really get into. Do you look at the world today, the world of technology today, and see a similar opportunity to what you saw with the Internet in 1994? [00:08:23][34.4]

Steve Baxter: [00:08:23] I'll probably become quite jaded on technology, to be honest. It did tell you that a server to solve a problem and there's always that. I call it the latest hybrid in computer science or networked technology. So whether it's you know, I was there when job was the last language the rule the more like a like a Tolkien type sort of computer language then one one line and that never happened I was that when when we have what area protocol which is the precursor to what we do with data on phones now. And that was just a streaming resource. So it's got government interference in it too. So I was always bound to be a family to start with. Promoting goes faster and cheaper to operate and cheap and I'm going to say cheaper to run. So in terms of networks, in terms of bandwidth, in terms of bandwidth utilisation, in terms of that, the infrastructure need to drive up to a point before. But having zeros and all these whizzy websites, I mean, someone else has done that. How can you just sit on top of these these you know, these geniuses before us, which is all really good. So providing, you know, if you pick the right people, an investment and they are using the latest in appropriate technology, that's what you want to put together who do back technologies and that deep technology investors and I'm like I tell the NBN range is I tell the story that we started in it, we started with 44 4K modems, then we'll try to change them all that to get to 20. Okay. Okay. Then we had to change them all that to go up more up to 33.6. Okay, that was huge. And then the 56 guys, I mean and there was two different flavours, those had two different flights where the truck rolls out twice. Then we had three different flavours. I stand at 60 excuse me, two different flavours of ice to 64 and then DX So come along with it. Five different, very early days, all kind of fog flags. So you don't understand technology. This is the last technology. [00:10:01][97.7]

Bryce: [00:10:02] Yeah. So Steve, you co-founded Pipe Networks with Bevan Slattery, who alongside yourself is recognised as one of Australia's leading entrepreneurs and founder of Next DC. So you could say pretty good choice of a co-founder. How did you navigate finding the right co-founder and then building a team from there? You know, there's a lot of people listening out there who have an idea searching for a co-founder. What advice would you have for them? [00:10:26][24.1]

Alec: [00:10:26] And I guess in particular, Bryce and I are co-founders, so any advice for us? [00:10:30][3.5]

Steve Baxter: [00:10:32] It's a fraught relationship. So between Ben and I, so we literally went to where we met the same age. But a greater part in school was to play tennis on a Sunday morning together. My mum's best mates and work together. When I moved back to Brisbane, Ben in contact me and he was trying to raise some money for a programme that looks a bit like pipe wasn't quite pipe. I made to change it quite a bit and that was just as a first as the 99 2000 take work was just descending and murdering things. So it was really hard to raise money. And from that we decided to just try to change out actually the business plan and get into it. The background I started, we used to call ourselves sort of, you know, this co-founder thing and CEO. We used to be like business partners and managing directors and boring old stodgy terms. We were funky terms and entrepreneurs. So co-founders in general. So one of the biggest risks we have when we invest has lots of questions and they help with that. How do we scale? So I think we stayed the same size of pipe. We've come to smoke crack pipe or taken ten months worth of rent free in the place. We met in Brisbane and I just might as lazy. We used to to long lunches and something wasn't quite that bad. But as is, as is, as these rental payments were approaching us, we knew we had to actually get probably pretty serious in the business. And we were we were so lucky at the time that so few things fell on their laps and we managed to find some good people. We went through, you know, people, staff. It was it was a definitely a journey where we cycle people out, that's for sure. And in general, what the co-founder dynamic like the lack of a co-founder for people like services such as myself is interesting. We rarely ever we have it. We all go live 60 cupcakes, probably about three times as a single founder. Wow, I was way too much. We say so. And then when you do get multiple founders, you want to make sure you get that balance right at the same time. So that is why is you can line that up. I always like having in the core founding group, I mean the appropriate technical skills people think I demand take everywhere I don't you need the technical skills in the core founding board getting the person who knows how to build this thing again. Yeah, equity incentivised. So that's what it's really about. So it's good to have a mix of skills if you can, business versus tag centric centre operations. That balance really happens in life, if you know what I mean. There's always a bit of a compromise that's left to compromise. And then when that relationship goes bad, I mean it can go stratospherically bad. We've had some of the rumours. I just can't talk about it, to be honest, because we had to actually march people out. I can't say nasty things about excuse me, don't use that name, but the ones we don't have non-disparagement agreements with a coalition. So there's been a couple of pleasant ones where they're both the teams. I just got to get what we can't do this work together like that. It's amazing. The amicable split. Yeah, right. And I always find that happens one in four times. Yeah. That the other three and four times the stress of my business that job and stress does weird things to people. It comes out at 90 degrees it's as a physical force called in gyroscopic precision. Set your wheels running really fast and you're pushing that force actually times at 90 degrees to the right stresses like that, you push a person a certain way. It comes in a weird direction and you can't blame them in person under stress in a business that might be hitting its targets. You really can't judge them on that day because that's that's not that's that's not they've got their best days. Right. So you need to manage that process and manage it well. A lot of it comes down to the set up before where you want to make sure that the equity incentives are correct. So we talk about investing here and other bits and pieces. So there's ways you can get a great fan of Bonds, but, you know, sometimes you just get you just need to put a big black dog of a lawyer on to want to come out of the business, basically. [00:14:04][212.4]

Alec: [00:14:05] Fair enough. Well, I'll make sure I get my lawyer on to Bryce before he gets on save. You mention there are pipe networks. You know, you sort of. We're working on it. 1999, 2000, 3000, one. In the darkest days of of the first tech boom, we're saying that 2022 is shaping up to be quite difficult as well. Rick. Yeah, a lot of companies, especially in the States, but now in Australia as well, struggling to raise money, having to freeze, hiring lay people off. Do you have any advice? Have you been sharing any advice with your portfolio companies? Any advice for any budding entrepreneurs? Listening. [00:14:39][34.8]

Steve Baxter: [00:14:40] It's really for how big a smash these things tend to be. They tend to they're pretty slow motion things. They happen over weeks and months. Right. They're just not all of a sudden wake up one night down 30 days and what, six weeks, which is pretty slow motion. Yeah, we're actually in the US three weeks ago, late May, mid-May. And when like the Nasdaq fell for half of the day, we had these people coming into the markets ashen faced that were coming. Yeah. So we couldn't raise money actually the initial. His business plan needed massive alterations and change anyway, but it was a pretty good plan. And then and even then on day two, we changed it and day three we changed it with business plans. So and we up them our rights to another million bucks and then we're not funding it with a 150. Great a pace on the money. I think that alone has got to be the most about three or green. I think I want to stay between us. So we didn't make everything. But once we actually started selling we got we got less lazy, we started selling and got money. It was actually a very profitable business, to be honest with you. So right now, though, with everything that's going on, the market's not as bad as mostly because everyone who's funding the middle and the growth stocks have walked out of the early stage because they're running away from the carnage. And so they're flooding money into that lower end of the market. So what we're recommending people do is to understand their runway, use this as an opportunity to potentially take your problems as either a business issue that would stop essentially and clear up anything that you possibly can get some runway behind. You actually start getting back to the basics of know comics about how you know how you going to survive two years with maybe with no fundraising. Mind you, we said the same at the start of COVID at the same time, right in the old days of March and April, May 2020, where everyone thought literally what was going to die. Right? Thankfully, that didn't turn out to be the case. You know, we gave similar advice and we're not through this shit, but this is a real market correction going on in our space. We've had the crossover guys in the last three or four years, a bit amazing sort of disruption. So you had the initial crossover point of term. So like with the Vision Fund, that's $100 million that came in and just upset the apple cart. And then Tyre and the other crossover guys came along and said, Hold my beer. And these guys are doing like in 2021, they did a deal a day. Yeah, 2020. So and, and it looks, I have a ten minute phone call and offer like a $50 million term showing. [00:17:10][149.4]

Alec: [00:17:10] How good. [00:17:10][0.3]

Steve Baxter: [00:17:13] Everyone kind of realises they also on the back end of that that deployed by an or someone with some consulting group BCG or some consulting group to go in and buy say a hybrid research to say up research the ten best opportunities and then and then, you know, turn up what cowboys and just go, huh? [00:17:27][14.2]

Alec: [00:17:29] Yeah. But they've been smashed this year, so I think they're probably not going to be doing that anytime soon. [00:17:34][4.7]

Steve Baxter: [00:17:35] But in the Valley a few weeks back, you know, the level of cloud in so many people, it was palpable. [00:17:42][6.8]

Alec: [00:17:42] Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:17:43][0.6]

Bryce: [00:17:43] JS Well, Steve, before we turn to unpacking your sort of experience as an investor, moving on from the founder side, we're just going to take a quick break, Dave, from our sponsors. So Steve, you've been a prolific investor here in Australian start ups through right paddle studios, River City Labs and now your current work at 1013. How would you assess the current State of Australia's Start-Up scene? [00:18:09][26.0]

Steve Baxter: [00:18:10] You know where I asked that in December last year would have been, yeah. And as we speak right now, there's actually a video conference happening up at Noosa, I want to say and do some sunshine go some way off at times lolling off to knees and God bless them. So, you know, people are still and there is still money out there. So, you know, if you're aware of in the Start-Up Space, it revolves around raising money, to be honest. And well, it come from the standard venture capital model where these guys got no raise from limited partners, big piles of money to deploy over three to 5 to 10 years, whatever it might be. That's what called the dry capital. Excuse me, dry powder. That's how much trouble I've got. So there's a lot of it lying around because there's a lot of money raised last year that hadn't been deployed yet. How they will deploy that will be interesting. Obviously, the visa firms, a VC funds job is to deploy capital to charge fees in order to get to run their business that they need to invest money. So ours is a little different with 1013. So we raise on a deal what your basis from we have 560 investors a syndicate LP for want of a better term and we put a deal by deal to them at the moment and we've we did them, we were small and we talk about the stats and we did 2 million bucks in the first year, which is our first three months of the move for calendar year. And the second one was 12 and then we did 40 and we'll probably do 40 this year as well. So I don't think you go from four before to us. [00:19:32][82.8]

Alec: [00:19:34] Yeah, that's big. [00:19:35][1.0]

Steve Baxter: [00:19:35] Yeah, yeah, yeah. We also had one exit along the way, which is great. So last year we sold a company called Champ or a microsites, acquired a company called Champ, but we had a portfolio, it was 1013 investors and that all was in the two previous rounds as well. So you get to shake outflows at the end, probably giving you maybe by January, February, probably before Putin did is stupidity. We were different to the end to now and now given the fact that finally the money printing part is over, now the hangover is going to set in. So inflation, inflation's yet to kick in. There's been a lot of pressures out there, but at the same time, there's lots of historical parallels about these times in the market. But the 2000 Google was in a global fund in 98, but there's a lot of great companies came out during the first dot com boom as you powered through. Yeah same as with during the GFC. At the same time there's a lot of good value was created in that period of time because it also obviously creates opportunity that people can exploit. Yeah you so long term investors you know most of our portfolio from where to sort of get themselves through 18 months two years we can wait it out and we're still pretty big believers in so far as Australia is concerned in Australia, start-ups funding seems good. You have the likes of Blackbird near True Rise. You shed loads of money. There are tons of smaller funds out there as well have been able to fund their sales and it was already called. Cheryl MACRURY runs Aussie Angels as well. She's doing something very similar. Colleen Fraser from flying Fox Ventures does something very similar. So there's some innovation in that space, which is nice insofar as funding models is concerned. Yeah, we are well placed with successes and the likes of Canberra, Atlassian in Brisbane, the octopus deploy up those guys that come a no nowhere to be $1,000,000,000. Yeah you've got one here in Brisbane. They just raised it. 2.2 billion right in the middle of a smash. So that doubled their value like the middle of this match. So yeah, I think that's proof point that if you're doing okay and then you can actually raise money and you can raise an eye good like yeah, I'm doing before so I think you could be winning. You're not so much effective if you still can't prove your business model. You probably probably heard. [00:21:41][126.3]

Alec: [00:21:42] Yeah, yeah. Now, Steve, we can talk about your career as an investor without talking about Shark Tank. I think for people who aren't, you know, weren't intimately involved in technology, are aware. [00:21:53][11.3]

Steve Baxter: [00:21:53] Of the continent. I know. [00:21:54][0.8]

Alec: [00:21:55] No, I can I can say that Bryce and I watched it and we pitched a very half baked idea that never got past the very beginning. And we're very glad that we didn't we didn't get on. But yeah, we were watching. But I guess as an investor, you know, what did you learn from your time as a shark? What did you think of the shark taking Shark Tank experience? [00:22:16][20.6]

Steve Baxter: [00:22:17] I guess all it anyone that says it that like celebrity probably never had it you know it you know as a pure pure selfish why it's great and so but it did become some downsides because there's more it more more than outweighed the negatives the experience and the experience on reflection to talk me through that humility because, you know, you can be flippant and typical and pecuniary. Sometimes you get picked it off and you just well, you know, you can be a little bit inappropriate. But, you know, these people, the money that pitch in front of you but you know, lucrative if they get a bad TV ad, this could wreck their business. So if you're really good, do the right thing and understand the equation that was done. Dennis Hopper through the. Season. That's a play that, you know, that channel tends to offer good pacing TV. That style of softball, really good TV. And all of those offer a good deal, to be honest as well. So. So there's there's a fair bit of tension at play. They settled in I think did well Endemol Shine and Channel ten between and did a really good job. They portrayed it quite honestly. There was a few things. It was never end of order. There's a few things I probably overemphasised like the read to my dramatic table. Some pictures are pretty bloody boring things and good luck to them. Right? But a lot of people gave me amazing access to various parts of this investment and business in Australia wouldn't have otherwise got. So I'm very thankful for. Yeah. [00:23:39][82.5]

Bryce: [00:23:39] Nice world, Steve. There's plenty of entrepreneurs in our audience and you've obviously there's obvious, you've obviously had a lot of pitches come across your desk as well. So what's one thing you wish more start-ups would do in their pitch process, or perhaps stop doing so? [00:23:56][16.7]

Steve Baxter: [00:23:57] What we see that we see about 120 pitches a month that matter that we would otherwise. The good funding, I suppose, of which about I have about a thousand a year, but one or a year I'd probably get to say 250. That's whatever deal time that filters out to the things that we wouldn't otherwise do. So so the question is what are we sure to lose out and what are noisy with pitches and decks that are too long and all the shit out of me? [00:24:22][24.6]

Bryce: [00:24:22] How long is too long? [00:24:23][0.7]

Steve Baxter: [00:24:24] Long in that? Seven. Ten pages. [00:24:25][1.2]

Bryce: [00:24:26] Okay, nice. [00:24:27][1.0]

Steve Baxter: [00:24:28] Tell us what you saw. You know, I used to say, like, it's very easy to intro this is the problem. This is this is the market have a solving this is about us. Yeah. I mean this is that you might have some stuff, you know, there's always a market. So there's about 5 to 7 areas which might be one or two slides on anything more than that. It's just crap. Oceans that early say businesses that have a real don't have a great deal of traction. So, you know, if your business has a great deal of traction and numbers and some stability to it, then you don't have a pitch. Me first up, you mention my manager or someone that I don't like. People don't like numbers and you know, it's I tell my daughters a pair of five and a nine year old and we get the Times titles up on the wall and it's it's it's a hour up to 12 puts it up to 12. I call it the square metre of power. And if you can do that in your head and want to look at it, understand that you'll be 10 seconds in front of half of the conversation because I was told trying to work out what was what. Right. And on small integer mathematics, which do I find personally embarrassing that you can't do it? But look at numbers and I just go, Well, that's wrong. And you can instantly say, use the rules of thumb, you can say what's right, wrong, and then they'll either get indignant or they'll be I'll be wildly wrong and I can be instantly wrong in chat about and understand what made their assumptions. That's different to having a lie or to just not knowing the all your tried and so mistakes in pitch text because when you consider as refined product as well, mistakes and pitch stakes are really bad. There is things like you know, if it wasn't as I want to get the most obvious, I love the for the real answer. People say, you know, there's two millions more businesses in this drawing. You know, like I've got six of lesbians myself. There's only 10 million households in this country. I think backing it is literally there's no point in there was there was a pride in the in destroying market. More important to my own lines in Australia yeah which is a roughly 10 million households are right rounded up. As I said this is what every five household is it a small business when you consider, you know, the numbers that some businesses of employees and businesses have and there's, you know, 2.4% etc. etc. I'd just like gone online so people don't think about the numbers and what it actually means because it's fundamental to what they're pitching. So so you're getting things wrong. You pitched it because let's face it, it's a, it's a sexed up lie that you're giving us. You know, it's it's actually convince us that your view on the world is something that we should take care of. This problem exists, and we know how to solve it. We've got the best time over here to solve it. And it's all that basic stuff is passed up to legal firm puffery and and we get that. So it's our job to say through it. So what we research, so when we get a pitch like in more research will understand what will see pasta the marketing spin and try and do around. [00:27:11][163.7]

Alec: [00:27:12] Love that well if you're an entrepreneur pitching 1013, keep it short. No mistakes and do not say there's 2 million small businesses in Australia. [00:27:20][8.5]

Bryce: [00:27:22] Maybe don't put any numbers. [00:27:23][0.9]

Alec: [00:27:25] Maybe put your 12 times table to bed. Say, look, one thing that really stood out for us when we were watching Shark Tank was that you are very proud of being from Queensland. You love Queensland. I think maybe you were kinder to entrepreneurs from Queensland. That might be controversial. [00:27:42][17.2]

Steve Baxter: [00:27:44] It was true you had a stick, right? Even though it is, you know, it is it is meant to be a bit of fun. So people say, look, I'm more proud to be an Australian than a Queenslander. But you know, I'm very proud Australian kind of for. For this country for nine years. And I do it again at that. Really desperate, but pretty desperate. Right. So behind that Queenslander I think it's, it's a lovely state, you know I go and neither live here but I spend my money here. I put up until recently owned and property in the sun holiday house. I've just come back for weeks fishing in the Gulf of Carpentaria. I'm going back again in three weeks because it's the best place in the world. I think a wave up my mug causes I'm a slave to go to exercise my causes from a wallet oceanside. So I don't like people who besmirch Queensland you know that we and that goes and industry as well so we have lots of farming, we have lots of extractive industry that Australia has lots of farming and lots of extractive industries in general. I'm actually exceptionally proud of those and I think it's, it's, it's, it's the stability that last is all the tech stuff, which is great. [00:28:36][51.9]

Alec: [00:28:36] In 2017 to date you are Queensland's chief entrepreneur and I don't know what before we were preparing for this interview, we never heard of that term before. So what is it? What does a state government chief entrepreneur do? [00:28:49][12.8]

Steve Baxter: [00:28:50] Pretty critical business. So I was working with them well this year, working with the Campbell Newman LNP when I was in power there as well. And about what to do with respect to innovation. This is what I still thought government could actually do something without getting in the way and I'm firmly disavowed of that notion at this point in time. They didn't win that election or re-election, I should say. But the Palaszczuk Government people took that plan change and I'm pretty people did something very similar so it wasn't too bad. And part of that was we went need like a cheerleader in chief for one of the term, we need a focal point and we ended up sort of buying something, something called the chief entrepreneur, which was supposed to be the first one. And the second one we discovered we're having twins. And my wife said, Nina can do that for nobody else. So Mark Salbi, who was a great first chief entrepreneur from Blue Sky, he was awesome. He was just so much energy needed that one. So and basically you get to make the role whatever you want. So I said, look, I want to do I want to do a large multiday event outside of the south east Queensland corner every month I want to take a whole bunch of entrepreneurs I've got lined up. I saw the big ABC, the sort of seven seater plane back then, and we just put really strong people in Brisbane and we'll go out to, you know, we got to like Blackwater and Emerald and Longreach and St George everywhere, absolutely everywhere. And we just went to the local chamber of Commerce and the local business made up most people and business like networking and I think most people in business should network. But you know, when you're in Blackwater, you have the same three butchers, bakers and candlestick makers in every meeting. And so you bringing in fresh from butchers like are you not? I mean, same same people. Some bring fresh blood and bring different ideas and there's no more different idea coming to regional communities. A bunch of people invest in loss making stops. Yeah, that's something that Benji hit around right away, right or wrong. History will tell with respect to that. But at least we bought different we bought a different set of people and network and understand and talk and that was it about was about telling stories and taking stories back. But I got them on to do three things on wanted to do that those networking tools from the moment I want to do change telecommunications in Queensland so state had large tracts of unused fibre optic cable running through the Powerlink. I'm I really can't get enough electricity to keep out heaters at the moment but anyway and so we were trying to free the locks of that ended up something happened there but to wait long and it was a bit too gutless in the end and I wanted to do one cars look I actually thought that what's the I have a big hairy audacious goal right behind bigger audacious go so that's that all well you know if you if you literally don't want a flat in the city in a flat, mostly not a destructive sense, but in a logical sense, it's all an allegory, I suppose. So there's a lovely place at Noosa Beach, right? It's 123 kilometres I think as the crow flies from Brisbane to Peregian Beach front. And there's a vehicle maker at the electric flying vehicle maker called Lilium in the US in the, in the EU. Um, it came out so the 23 minute. So I'm one of those vehicles and for five bucks, 50 with electricity you can live pollution. But 70 minutes or 23 minutes why excuse me, if you got to sit half hour and a commute, where would you rather live? Friggin beach or half hour through shitty drive that way, if you know what I mean. So rather than build these huge big ribbons of concrete and steel that just take ten years to build, and then. And then the second that they're open, they congest. And let's actually think out of the box and do that because there's a lot of technology involved, there's a lot of software required is that there would be an amazing amount of of of things that would have to be credit for it to occur and other jurisdictions are doing it. But I couldn't quite get that across the line. You couldn't quite picture having to that. When was the last time you were 50 metres away from another car or a freeway? Never on, and sometimes within a mile of them and almost head on. Right? So in a cubic metre resolution for 4000 people separated by 50 mile, it's not that you would probably see a few too many, but, you know, it's just amazing. Just kind of thinking realign that. What might you know, what do we have to live only a half hour away, but what can that be? The Toowoomba Range where it's like five degrees cooler. Every every, every step of the way. So that was my big, hairy, audacious goal for our chief entrepreneur. And I just thought I was mad to jump. [00:33:02][251.7]

Alec: [00:33:02] So I feel like you have to be mad to be a cheap entrepreneur, to be an entrepreneur in general. [00:33:07][4.7]

Bryce: [00:33:08] Love it. Staple for those that have been listening and would love to follow you or find out more about what you're doing at 1013. Are you on any socials? What's the best place to sort of keep up to date? [00:33:18][10.8]

Steve Baxter: [00:33:19] Yeah. Oh, yeah. We have LinkedIn. That's one of the best place to do professional. 1013. Got Face Your Things of the Mind. Well, the deadline is 1013. So you just got a LinkedIn top 1013. No, I think I probably find it. That's up to you. And one, three. Follow me on Twitter. Do that if you're able. I'll do that. But don't blame me on certain right of centre opinions that tend to rub some of the wrong way, which is pretty cool. Now I spoke very well. Steve Baxter was shocked by the shock. Baxter and I'm a PR company got when I was I just click on the Facebook link that takes me there. So but judging by my height is I'm not that hard to find, which is pretty cool. [00:33:58][39.1]

Alec: [00:34:00] That's great. We really appreciate you taking the time. We even more appreciate the fact you came back a second time. We did have some audio issues. So but see, we always like to finish these interviews with the same final three questions. So we'll move on to those. The first one is, do you have any books that you consider a must read? [00:34:17][17.8]

Steve Baxter: [00:34:18] You know, pretty boring to some degree. So it's a miss girl, just foundational if you want to get in the business. Very simple book read by probably a grade seven or eight but it's pretty good I like I like angel by Jason Calacanis is a is a lovely chap who loves himself tell you how much he loves himself but it's a really good book but angel investing hard thing that hard things is actually really good luck otherwise you know, I read books, you tend to be sort of zombie apocalypse, sort of space sci fi and, you know, just escapism. So I try and I read contracts and books and blogs all day. Like the last thing I do is do that like at home. [00:34:57][38.7]

Alec: [00:34:57] Yeah, yeah. There's some great book recommendations will include them on our website. But Steve, our second question we like to finish with forget valuation or the company is an investment today just purely on like what the company does. It's fundamentals, it's competitive advantage. What's the best company you've ever come across? [00:35:16][18.7]

Steve Baxter: [00:35:17] I guess I have come across the ones that we founded on networks works because it was the most fun I've ever had, to be honest. It was it was amazing. I worked at Google for a year and Google for the worst place ever worked. Oh, wonderful. So much fun. You can't have fun and chaos and you kind of inefficiencies. Never fun. I find that I get a lot of probably from a military background, I get a lot of personal satisfaction from professional fulfilment. And if you can wake up and go to work at eight or nine a morning, finish at five or six or whatever it is, and you know that you've done this, this, this and this, and you go back and you feel fulfilled. And that was almost every day about that was we had we changed the face of telecoms in Australia before we started have vacation. I was 1.5 megabits per second. By the time we finished it was in the hundreds of makes it. Then we almost drive it instantly to 24 meg a second, the top of two. So so I was, it was an amazing company. [00:36:10][53.3]

Alec: [00:36:11] A lot of people answered Google to that question. So I loved that you told us that Google wasn't a great place to work. [00:36:16][5.4]

Steve Baxter: [00:36:17] Over entitled Children. [00:36:18][1.0]

Alec: [00:36:21] Well, we'll have to get Steve back on to talk about Google and NBN. Yeah, that obviously is. [00:36:26][5.3]

Bryce: [00:36:27] Awesome market to. [00:36:29][2.0]

Steve Baxter: [00:36:30] Work with at Google. We're fine, we are lovely. Everyone is lovely in there. Really made it on the will. But it's when you put them together you sort of force systems around them, they tend to go agenda. I know it's been fun. Yeah. [00:36:43][12.3]

Alec: [00:36:44] But and Steve, final question. If you think back to your early days, you know, founding essay now or even before then as a 15 year old signing a nine year contract to join the Army. Not sure how how you got away with signing a nine year contract as a 15 year old. But what advice would you give to your younger self. [00:37:01][16.9]

Steve Baxter: [00:37:02] With a young family? Now, it's interesting because I'm thinking more and more about that, right? So and I speak a lot at school. If it was to say, yeah, I got a high school. Yeah, I lifted young people for grade 11 from 511. Join the army. No. Worked out and I'll talk all that sounds really bad. Desire few because it shouldn't be at all. So I think we're an exceptionally lucky country because you can you can file into a pretty into something that's pretty good. Right. And I found that it was pretty good. Always the very lucky that it wasn't work involved, but it wasn't. Yeah. You can recover from poor education and or poor choices when you, you know, you're young, black out, full hormones and just in a stupid behaviour I would say go to university, go back university, for God's sakes, do it easier. There's a easy way to do it. I've done that being the same. I think if you look you now and actually love right now because of my family situation, my beautiful girls, I wouldn't change a bloody thing if we told you how to. Did you know it would be another hour and it's so that every tragedy can come across. But I wouldn't hope any of that at the same time for where we are now. [00:38:02][59.9]

Bryce: [00:38:02] Well, Steve, thank you so much for joining us for a second time. We certainly appreciate you making the time. And I know that our audience would have taken a lot of inspiration from that episode, particularly those that are at the early stages of their entrepreneurial career. So thank you so much. [00:38:17][15.1]

Steve Baxter: [00:38:18] Thanks, fellows, and good luck with your business, too. I thank you. I I'm gonna look forward to that as well. [00:38:22][3.8]

Bryce: [00:38:22] It'll be four pages with no numbers. Sure. [00:38:24][2.2]