Dog food, deliberate decisions and durable growth w/ Mike Frizell and James Edwards, co-founders of Pet Circle [S3.E2]

Scaling up: Lessons from the world's best CEOs and Founders

Mike Frizell and James Edwards, co-founders of Pet Circle, are the quiet achievers of the Australian consumer business scene. Their story is largely untold and unknown. Whenever newspapers publish lists of Australia’s largest e-commerce players, Pet Circle is always a surprise omission to those in the know. Having grown at an astronomical rate over the last decade to now over $300m in revenue, Mike and James have built a business second only in size and scale to Kogan – the undisputed pure play online retail king in the country. This has been done without press releases, and public acknowledgement, but certainly with the deliberate decision making that enables durable long term growth. Many start a business and then adapt to patch the holes as they go. This is far from the Pet Circle scaling story – from day one both ensured the boat was water tight – from back end technology processes, to the front end consumer experience. I loved uncovering their magic to what is certainly one of Australia’s finest examples of growing an online business.

This series is set against the backdrop of Covid 19 and both Australia and the rest of the world on the precipice of the biggest economic slowdown since the great Depression. Millions of people are now working from home, and never has there been larger catalyst for structural changes to how we all live our lives. But it is also a time that has seen a huge divergence in outcomes for many businesses – some have exponentially grown due to these structural shifts, some have sadly put up the shutters, never to return.

Pet Circle certainly falls into the category of the former, but super growth set against this backdrop has its own challenges as well, and it was great to get some perspectives of how Mike and James have thought about this real time.

This scaling up story really is a masterclass in how to grow a online business in the digital age.

For those interested in further insights and commentary, TDM Growth Partners has been posting to their new medium publication – TDM tidbits – which can be found at medium.com/tdmtidbits, or it might be easier to follow @tdm_growth on twitter and get all the news and views there.

You can always find me on twitter @eddiecowan.

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