Top Tips from the Pop Up Entrepreneur Event

The Gold Coast Hub teamed up with the Office of Queensland Chief Entrepreneur to hold their popular ‘Pop-Up Entrepreneur’ event last Wednesday, introducing a sell out crowd to special guest Michael Dempsey, one of Australia’s most successful e-commerce pioneers, the founder of Ezidebit and co-owner of Normanby Hotel.

The evening was opened by Sharon Hunneybell, the CEO of the Gold Coast Hub and Queensland Chief Entrepreneur Steve Baxter, who welcomed Michael Dempsey to the room to share the business journey that led him to sell his innovative e-commerce business Ezidebit for $305 million. Michael was interviewed by Kathleen Skeene, Business Editor from the Gold Coast Bulletin and talked about his beginnings in business, his main pitfalls, challenges and wins.

A few of his top tips were:

Have a cause that is greater than making money  -“If you’ve got a cause… if you’ve got a reason to be, you’ll give it a red hot go.”

You don’t have a business if no one is paying for your product – “Until you‘ve got a paying customer, your product is nothing more than an idea.”

Don’t let fear of failure hold you back – “Founders shouldn’t try to fail but they certainly shouldn’t be afraid of it. You will manage to pick yourself back off the canvas“.

Create the right culture in your business – “It’s not just about people, it’s about the right people. You‘ve got to have people in your business that absolutely believe in it. If they don’t, weed ‘em out.”

After Michael shared his story, Steve Baxter opened an opportunity to the audience to ask questions. This Q&A session with our special guest led to Michael sharing tips for young entrepreneurs, tips on how to motivate your team when you are a start up and finding challenges with cashflow, on what investors are looking for in a startup pitch, main challenging points when he was ready to throw the towel and many more.

The last hour a relaxed networking session took place, where participants could openly talk about their businesses, find valuable contacts, exchange ideas and just have a good time with few drinks and great food.

The event was a huge success – we thank everyone who attended and looking forward to our next event.

Check out more images from the night on our Facebook page.

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