Firstly, startups are hard work. New, risky, vague, emotional, financial, complex and constantly changing. In the past two weeks we’ve taken some huge steps forward and at the same time I’ve screwed a bunch of things up. Some big ideas haven’t worked out, a change of approach back fired, a partnership didn’t gel and in all the work a few details got missed. I don’t expect perfection but it still hurts. We’re a young company, applying a new way to kick start new ideas. It’s hard.

Secondly, there were a few things missing. The Pollenizer team is everything. A group of committed, talented, creative, caring people who turn up day after day to deal with the uncertainty, risk and high walls of startups. We are currently working on 6 live businesses and advising 6 others. To think I could even start to do 1/100th of it myself is crazy. Let’s not even start talking about the amazing finance, product, engineering and design work that I can’t even contemplate. (OK, I could probably do the design… just kidding crew.)

Thank you team for making Pollenizer what it is – an amazing engine trying our best to produce great web businesses.

The big one missing is Phil. Typically we are joined at the hip on things like this but for some reason they picked me out. Maybe because I’m the ego of Pollenizer doing talks and workshops around the country in an attempt to placate my failed drama career. For whatever reason, to miss Phil is to miss not just a limb, but a heart, brain and soul.

I try to thank him as much as I can, but even with Wooboard I couldn’t do it enough. But lets face facts. He’s an ex theatre director, philosophy student who taught himself to build websites for money. Then he takes a crazy job at Kazaa as CTO and just keeps going. Then he has the audacity to think he can also do business deals by starting this thing with Dean called Spreets and sells it in 13 months. But it doesn’t stop there. He rolls the IP from Spreets into Dealised and raises $5m. CTO’s aren’t supposed to do that. He is a true entreprenerd and he’s completely nailing it. I’m working hard just to keep up.

Phil brings process, discipline, big thinking, integrity, openness, and relentless hard work in the face of intense, obscure adversity. He continues to blow me away with his ability to get things done and I’m starting to think his capability is limitless.

We refer to each other at times as our other wives. So a big thanks to my startup startup wife Phil, for putting up with me and lifting me up with you. I’m proud to be in the trenches with you.

Recently, Mozilla launched a new programme called Web FWD, where  young businesses are invited to spend 4 weeks in the Mozilla San Francisco HQ building their products.

They’ll have access to Mozilla-spiked resources and, at the end of four weeks, an MVP ready to launch.

Pollenizer’s Phil Morle is a mentor, along with guns from the Mozilla team, VC’s and entrepreneurs. Check out the full list of mentors here.

The program runs on a rolling submission schedule with the first spots opening in August.

You can find more (and apply!) at the Web FWD site.

Yahoo!7 acquires Spreets – leading Australian and New Zealand online Group Buying
company

SYDNEY, Australia, 20 January, 2011 – Online media company Yahoo!7 today announced it has acquired leading Australian online Group Buying site, Spreets Pty Ltd, including its New Zealand operations.

Spreets (spreets.com.au and spreets.co.nz) was the first Group Buying site in ANZ having been in operation for almost a year with 500,000 members and more than 274,000 vouchers purchased since inception.

The Yahoo!7 business delivers a new audience to the Spreets site through distribution on the Yahoo!7 Network as well as access to the benefits provided in Australia and New Zealand through its joint venture partners Yahoo! Inc. and the Seven Media Group, including marketing and promotions.

The acquisition helps Yahoo!7 to deliver on its Local and Social strategies as well as providing further diversification of revenue streams outside of display advertising.

“After carefully reviewing the market it was clear that Spreets is a market-leader in what is becoming a highly competitive and fast growing market. The Spreets management team in Dean McEvoy and Justus Hammer come with strong expertise and experience in the Australian Group Buying market,” said Rohan Lund CEO of Yahoo!7.

“At its core Spreets is about leveraging insights to deliver the best local deals through an online social experience, and this maps perfectly to the Yahoo!7 Local and Social strategies. The acquisition of Spreets means we can bring the best of Yahoo!7 to grow the business even further,” he said.

According to Dean McEvoy, CEO of Spreets, the Group Buying model has rapidly evolved over the past year delivering cost-effective marketing to small businesses and addressing an unmet and growing demand from consumers for online coupon deals.

“Australians and Kiwis love an amazing deal and Spreets has seen significant growth delivering over $40 million in savings to consumers over the past year. We’re proud to be an Australian born company leading the market in this rapidly evolving space,” he said “We’re thrilled with the acquisition by Yahoo!7 as we see the huge potential that one of Australia’s leading online media companies, which has huge momentum in the market, will bring to the Spreets business.”

The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Media Contacts:

Amanda Millar
Trade Marketing and Communications Mgr Yahoo!7
Tel: 8288 4758
Mob: 0407 454 229
Email: millaram@yahoo-inc.com

About Yahoo!7

Yahoo!7 (yahoo7.com.au) is one of the most comprehensive and engaging online destinations for Australian consumers and advertisers. Formed as a 50-50 partnership between the Seven Network Limited (ASX: SEV) and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), Yahoo!7 brings together the successful Australian internet business, Yahoo! Australia & NZ, and the online assets and television and magazine content of the Seven Network, one of Australia’s leading media companies. The company also combines the strengths of Yahoo! search and communications capabilities and its global internet network, with Seven’s rich media and entertainment content and marketing capabilities..

/media release

Congrats to Dean, Justus and the hard working Spreets team for really driving hard at this incredible new space for the last twelve months. Big congratulations also to the Pollenizer team, particularly Oliver, Jon, Fleur and Phil, for their enormous contribution throughout the year. A massive effort and a job well done.

Today’s deal in Sydney – $90 for $181 at Jordons Seafood Restaurant.

Tomorrows deal? Sign up!

News Coverage

Yahoo!7 Acquires Spreets: Leading Australian and New Zealand Online Group Buying Company – Yahoo!7 Advertising

Yahoo!7 buys online deals site Spreets - Sky News Australia

Yahoo!7 buys only deal site Spreets – The Age

- Sydney Morning Herald

- Herald Sun

- Brisbane Times

- Perth Now

Yahoo!7 buys only deal site Spreets – Australian Financial Review

Yahoo!7 buys only voucher site Spreets – news.com.au

Yahoo!7 acquires Spreets in $40m Deal – AdNews

Yahoo!7 buys group buying site for $40m – B&T

Yahoo!7 buys Spreets for $40m – mUmBRELLA

Yahoo!7 buys group buying site Spreets – iTWire

Yahoo!7 buys Spreets for $40m – Delimiter

Yahoo!7 snaps up Spreets for $40m – ZDNet

Spreets sold for $40 million in the biggest and fastest group buying deal of the year so far – Anthill Online

Yahoo!7 invests in retail – Inside Retailing

Yahoo!7 acquire Spreets for $40m – Startup Smart

brandsExclusive Congratulates Spreets and Yahoo!7 – brandsExclusive

Spreets acquired by Yahoo!7 for $40 million – Dynamic Business

Our goal: Invest our team and money in 10 web startups by June 30, 2011.

Pollenizer’s focus is on:

• Startup, idea-stage web businesses,
• In Australia,
• Targeting consumers,
• Commercially focused,
• With a committed founder, with industry experience,
• That need an experienced co-founder to invest time and money.

To clarify, Pollenizer only ever invests in businesses that we are already a shareholder in.

What do you get?

• A majority shareholding.
• A co-founder committed for two years.
• A team of 15 in Australia and 55 in India across technology, marketing and business at your disposal.
• Experience building over 80 web businesses, in ten countries, 100m users and $100m in revenue (portfolio).
• A network of experts on call.
• Access to our exclusive founders and friends discussion group.
• Connection to Angel investors in Australia, Europe and USA (we’ve helped raised $5m in seed and angel investments in the past 12 months including Spreets).
• Founder minimal viable income (in certain cases)

What does Pollenizer get?

• 20-45% shareholding

Why Pollenizer?

• We have a strong, committed team.
• We have a reputation for integrity, action and results.
• We are uniquely positioned between technology, entrepreneurialism and investment.
• Our companies have already employed over 100 people.
• We have made more than 14 investments, many outlined in our startup portfolio.

What is the process?

1. Starting Up

• You come to a Startup Bootcamp. Held every few months.
• You propose a partnership.
• Pollenizer conducts basic due diligence on you and the business.
• We sign an agreement and are co-founders for two years. (It’s all ‘we’ from here.)

2. Customer Development

• We continue customer discovery and validation until confident.
• We build out a minimal viable product and keep iterating until traction.
• We get the company and ourselves investor ready, including pitch training.
• We pitch the company until we raise capital from the right investors.

3. Growth

• We put the team in place to grow the business towards profit.
• Pollenizer transitions into advisory roles if required.
• Exit or return on investment options are pursued.

Next Steps

If you’d like to talk to Pollenizer about being a co-founder in your next web business  contact us here.

If you’d like to invest in some of our web businesses, please contact us here.

We’ve had a few iterations of start-up based podcasts here in Australia, some of which I’ve been involved in, but since there are none that we know of at present, we thought we’d fill in the void with the Pollenizer Podcast.

In this first podcast, Phil Morle and I talk about lean start-ups, a term coined by Eric Ries.

Have a listen :-)

This is the Pollenizer Blog, and it’s mainly going to be for Pollenizer specific news. New people joining the team, new companies we’re working with, big news in those companies, local industry stuff, etc.

Our own thoughts and ideas are still going to sit on our own blogs, which we’ll feed into the sidebar and are clickable here;

* Phil Morle’s Blog
* Mick Liubinskas’s Blog

If you have tips or suggestions, please email us