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Eddie Geller, Sarah-Jane Kurtini and Stephen O'Young started Tinybeans (ASX: TNY) with the goal of creating a scrapbook where parents could capture, share and save memories of their little ones through a secure online platform.
Little did they know, off the back of Tinybeans' landmark IPO in April 2017, the trio would also be reshaping the concept of the 'mum and dad investor'.
As a seasoned entrepreneur and angel investor, Geller wasted no time joining forces with Kurtini and O'Young who he met through the Pushstart Incubator in 2012.
The fledgling Sydney-based business blossomed under Geller's leadership and bootstrapped toward its first capital raising round in July 2014.
By the end of 2016, the business was cashflow positive and the trio decided the time was right to go public.
"We actually had a lot of our users reach out to us, wanting to participate in the stock," said Geller.
"We just felt that was a great opportunity to evaluate the possibilities, and within six months we ended up listing on the ASX in April 2017."
Despite inevitable growing pains and statutory loss associated with publicly listing, Tinybeans' revenue grew by 28 per cent to hit $747,000 during 1H18.
An army of mums and dads helped Tinybeans raise $6.5 million on IPO, an army which also comprises more than 2 million users on the platform worldwide.
"We're very excited to get to the 2 million mark," says Geller.
"Most of those users have come through word of mouth and referrals. We don't spend must on advertising at all and even during the last quarter we have reduced advertising significantly."
While the company may not be in the habit of spruiking itself, it has recently partnered with a host of mega-companies which now advertise to Tinybeans users.
Last week Tinybeans revealed that The Walt Disney Company has become the platform's newest partner. Disney joins the likes of Walmart, Macy's and General Motors as big-name advertisers on the platform.
With an impressive group of advertisers on board, collectively contributing just over half of its revenue, Tinybeans now has its sights set on becoming a household name in the US market.
"We think the US has enormous growth potential and we really haven't fully saturated the market yet," says Geller.
"In the US there is more than 4 million newborns a year, meaning roughly 7-8 million new parents and many more family members, so that is definitely our focus for 2018."
Despite his company's success overseas, Geller says it's important that the team remembers where it came from.
"In the past its been almost impossible to build a consumer brand our of Australia, they just don't grow here," says Geller.
"So we're really trying to build a great consumer brand that Australians can be proud of.
"I think Aussies are special, we spread sunshine, we're positive and I think it's really important for us to share those values with the world."
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