Elevator Pitch is a regular feature on Lifehacker where we profile startups and new companies and pick their brains for entrepreneurial advice. This week, we’re talking with Joey Nguyen, director of technology & enablement at Venntifact.
In 128 words or less, explain your business idea
Our business idea was to build a new type of digital consultancy; Venntifact not only enables brands to build strategies and plans for technology and customer analytics, but also to identify skills gaps within the business, and address this through training and recruitment services.
No other consultancy is helping brands to overcome the skills gap in digital. We are increasing the supply of digital technical talent, through training graduates and professionals on the emerging technology skills that are in demand. This hugely increases their value in the employment market.
What strategies are you using to grow and finance your idea?
We are fortunate enough to have an excellent reputation as marketing technology consultants, having worked with CMOs and CTOs of leading Australian brands for many years. This meant we were able to partner with innovative, enterprise brands such as Virgin Australia and Xero very early in our business. These early wins meant little seed capital was required to launch, and it helped us to grow to 10 full time staff within our first 6 months of operating. Our projections are to have a team of 25+ by the end of 2019. Looking ahead, international expansion is the point at which we’ll look to attract external investors.
How do you differentiate your business from your competitors?
No other agency is holistically tackling the development of in-demand digital talent in Australia – with a single central focus like we are. That focus, combined with our years of experience in consulting, gives us a very unique perspective that we bring to market. We compete with recruiters, who don’t understand the nuances and skill trends in the tech landscape, and we also compete with digital and technology agencies, who really struggle to find and retain tech talent. The “Venn” in Venntifact represents that middle point where we sit: where consulting, training and recruitment overlap.
What’s the biggest challenge facing your business?
The biggest challenge is that we are essentially scaling three separate businesses at the same time: consulting, training and recruitment. Making sure that the growth and direction is aligned across each area will be an ongoing tension, but a necessary one that differentiates our business in the market.
What one phone, tablet or PC application could you not live without?
We use a large number of applications through our consulting work with clients – Slack, MS Teams, Google Meet, Jira, Confluence, as well as enterprise solutions such as Adobe Experience Cloud and Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
But, as a data guy, my Screen Time metrics are telling me that WhatsApp is far and away my biggest time investment. As much as it pains me to say it, the numbers don’t lie!
What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever received?
“Just do them both”.
At a time when I was considering whether to quit my job and follow my passion or to double down and forge ahead in my career, these words completely flipped my perspective.
I excel in business because of my passions and my growth outside of work; I am far better equipped to deal with life’s challenges because of what I have learnt in business.
Just do them both!
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