Lisa Qi
CO-FOUNDER OF SHARE WITH OSCAR
Interview by Tim Carroll
Share with Oscar is a Sydney-based company founded by two female entrepreneurs who are passionate about the sharing economy and creating smarter cities. The company was developed to help alleviate the pain of searching for parking in crowded areas.
Find your next parking spot here www.sharewithoscar.com
What ignited the spark in you to start a new business venture?
I’d been working in consulting for about 7 years, which is where I discovered my passion for tech and innovation. I was specialising in growth and innovation strategy, but I was frustrated at the pace that these big organisations moved when it came to innovation - so many missed opportunities and great ideas that never transpired into anything tangible. That ignited the fire in me to have a go at it myself.
It was over Friday night work drinks (of course!) that I shared the idea for an app with some colleagues, including my co-founder Louise, and by Christmas break that year, we were working on it.
How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
The idea for Share with Oscar came about when I couldn’t find parking at Bondi Beach. 45min spent circling the streets unable to find a single parking spot. I ended up pulling into an empty driveway, knocking on the door and asking the owner if I could please park my car in his driveway for the afternoon for $20. And he let me. So that’s how the idea for Share with Oscar was borne.
How did you choose your company name and why?
Oscar is the kind fella who let me park in his driveway that Saturday afternoon in Bondi. He represents the persona of that friendly neighbour who shares his parking space.
Where did your organisations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it? How did you obtain investors for your venture?
My co-founder Louise and I self-funded the first development of the Oscar app, and subsequently raised a small seed round. Our goal since then has been to run the business extremely lean, work out the playbook for growth, iron out the kinks and grow it to cash-flow positive, and we are just about there.
How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?
Starting out, neither of us had any practical marketing experience and we were not sophisticated in our approach to marketing. When we launched our pilot at Bondi Beach, we simply handed out flyers. Each week weekend we would do letter box drops to get residents to list their driveway, and then standing at the beach and the car parks, handing out flyers, sticking flyers in car windscreens. As primitive as those methods sound, they worked.
Since then, we’ve evolved our marketing mix to include more digital marketing. The most effective channels are still word of mouth and referrals and some affiliate marketing. I think, especially with consumer businesses, a referral holds more weight and credibility than simply pushing your own ads.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
When running a start-up, you have complete accountability and ownership over what you do. Everything that you do or don’t do has an impact and you see that impact very quickly. It forces you to be more agile, creative, and problem solve, and that’s the type of environment where I feel most energised.
How do you conquer those moments of doubt that so often stifle or trip or stop so many entrepreneurs with great ideas...what pushes you through?
You have to remember that all of the doubt is in your head. So have a mental dialogue that lifts you out of that rut. What works for me is to remind myself of the vision, why I started, what I want to accomplish, that others are counting on me, and that all of the sh*t that I face will make for a great book one day.
Excluding yours, what business or organisation do you admire the most?
There are many. It’s hard to put a finger on just one. It’s probably more a trait of the organisation that I admire, and that is - authentic and purpose-driven. Companies who know who they are and what they stand for. For example I really admire social enterprises that are doing it for the greater good.
Besides money, what are your favourite ways to compensate people?
As your business grows, I think it’s important that your staff grow with you. So make space for those around you to grow within the organisation. It shows them they are valued and that the company and leaders care for them.
If you could offer a first-time entrepreneur only one piece of advice, what would it be?
Get comfortable with going off only your instincts when making quick decisions. Much of the time, that’s all you have, as you don’t have the luxury of time and data.
Where you see yourself and your business in 3 to 5 Years?
Hopefully, Oscar will be very successful nationally, and would have expanded internationally.
We’ll be a formidable player in the smart cities/mobility sector – enabling the future of transport.
In one word, characterise your life as an entrepreneur?
“Elastic”. As an entrepreneur, you’re stretched and strained and tested, but will (have to) remain resilient and adaptable. And you will recover.