The remarkable story of Propel

PROPEL
COMICS
ISSUE: FIRST ISSUE #02
JUNE 2019
THE REMARKABLE STORY OF PROPEL
LIMITED
EDITION

As news broke about the launch of yet
Another game changing product Jim’s
Fixation on this amazing company grew...
who is
propel?
what are they
all about?
i must
know
chapter 1 : what is propel?

AT PROPEL WE CREATE TOMORROW’S

“WE CALL OUR COMPANY
PROPEL BECAUSE THAT IS THE
WORD WHICH DESCRIBES OUR
IMPACT ON OUR CLIENTS
– WE HELP THEM TO MOVE
FORWARD... FASTER!”
BUSINESSES
chapter 1 : what is propel?

HOW DO
THEY DO IT?

THEY DO THIS
BY APPLYING A FOUNDER’S
MENTALITY TO CRAFTING
SMART SOLUTIONS.
Because the clever
application of technology
by a small passionate team
can create businesses
which have a big impact
on our world.
chapter 1 : what is propel?

But to really uncover the genius w
Where did it all sta
As a strategist at INTUIT in California, Ben got to
work with both great people as well as products.
It was here that saw what good looked like and
was driven to create something on his own…
He then went out on his own investing both his
time and money in QUOTIFY. He learned how to
build an enduring business with agility, tenacity
and a bias for action.
They met at MYOB where they worked
introduced to an idea developed by Ba
deeply with the guys, and would subse
Ben put all the hard lessons he had learned
into practice to develop the award-winning
MYADVISOR app. For the go-to-market,
he partnered with myob, and with the success
of that partnership, a new business model was
born, which became…

e must go back to the beginning.
rt? Who are they?
As a software leader and
engineer for many years, Paul led large
teams to build many successful products.
He saw that great products require great
teams and are nothing without a great
go to market strategy.
in a high performance culture. It was here that they were
in, about The Founder's Mentality. This idea resonated
quently be a foundation of the culture for Propel Ventures.
PROPEL VENTURES is a scalable, repeatable business model
which combines the best of:
• Intuit’s model of rockstar product management and design;
• The agile and entrepreneurial dna of Quotify;
• The high performance and values-driven culture of MYOB; with
• The incentives from having skin in the game, from Bain’s PE
model and the myadvisor experience.
This creates a compelling business model with potential to make
an outsized impact.
Start your engines...
chapter 1 : what is propel?

How is Prope
FOUR STRATEGIC ANCHORS
WHICH HELP US DECIDE WHICH PROJECTS TO
1.
PROPEL leads or co-leads the
product strategy & design from
inception - with team members
taking deep and early ownership.
2.
PROPEL works with partners to
define and agree the commercial
outcomes early. Usually partnering
with companies that have
established go to market
channels.

l Different?
WORK ON... AND WHICH TO DECLINE
3.
PROPEL requires candidate
opportunities satisfy a high
burden of proof of likely
in-market success before
committing.
4.
PROPEL only pursues
opportunities where Ben & Paul
have the conviction to make an
equity-type investment in the
opportunity. PROPEL prefers
to take a shared stake in the
commercial outcome, over
a fee for service.
chapter 1 : what is propel?

I wonder how it would feel like
to work with this team at propel?
Our clients feel our focus on building trust and
an enduring relationship because we invest the
time to understand your business, market and
opportunities.
trust
We get really excited about
developing 'Can't say no'
propositions to help
our clients grow
Essentially we
become a thought
partner for your
business.
yes!
yes!
yes!

what are the secrets to their success?
We grow talented people to enable
them to do their best work by:
1. Inspiring high performers.
2. Financially aligning team members rewards
with the opportunities through Propel's unique
employee investment model
3. Applying constant focus to the most
important thing for each project
strive
chapter 1 : what is propel?

VALUE NO.1
Being focused, taking
ownership and having
a bias for action
We smash
through obstacles,
always finding new
and better ways
to achieve
our goals.
We resolve open
questions fast, and favour
using data and direct client
feedback to make decisions.
For example, it is not unusual
to call a client to obtain their
input in the design process
in real time - take the insight
and move forward.

VALUE NO.2
CRAFTSMANSHIP
Investing the right amount of
time to work your magic
The product development process is like a game
of snakes and ladders, and we are always on the
lookout for ladders to accelerate development.
Craftsmanship at Propel embraces the capability
to identify parts of the design process where we
can disproportionately invest effort vs parts
where we can go lean.
“
At PROPEL,
we balance a
healthy respect
for process with
a delight for
breaking rules.
How do you
spend more
effort on the
right parts of
the process?
chapter 2: our values

VALUE NO.3
CLIENT OBSESSION
Building empathy for and
understanding of our clients
This value is
universal for
businesses - for us,
we go deep by living
the experience of
the client.
FOR EXAMPLE…
WE DIDN’T JUST BUILD A
CORPORATE COMPLIANCE
PRODUCT, WE WENT A STEP
FURTHER TO UNDERSTAND
THE CLIENT EXPERIENCE
BY RUNNING OUR OWN
OUTSOURCED CORPORATE
COMPLIANCE SERVICE
FOR ACCOUNTANTS, WITH
ENGINEERS DOING THE
WORK THAT ACCOUNTANTS
USUALLY DO.
We use all our
own products
to run all
our businesses

VALUE NO.4
Having direct honest conversations,
focusing on the issue not the individual.
Equal measures of heart and head.
We
recognise that
conflict is the pursuit
of truth - conflict always
exists, we just expose it through
forthright conversations.Forthright
conversations are predicated on
building a foundation of trust amongst
team members. We use the level of
constructive conflict in the
team as a barometer for
the level of trust.
We always
assume
‘good intent’
in our
interactions
chapter 2: our values

VALUE NO.5
We make an outsized impact
relative to the time spent
We have a
preference to take
on projects which
make a material
impact.

I Wonder
what it would
be like to work
there…
HINT: TURN THE PAGE TO FIND OUT...
chapter 3 : The Employee Value Proposition

Work and Life and not two distinct things at opposite ends of
a spectrum, there is no trade-off between these two things
- they instead usually rise and fall in tandem.
If your home life improves, your work life improves and vice versa,
so we want to ensure both are balanced and ideally integrated
with each other in a flexible way.
We want you to be able to use technology to help manage work
life balance eg. working from home to avoid a long commute.

How does a team like this behave?
At Propel we are looking for people that are not only
SMART, but are HUNGRY yet HUMBLE. It is these three
characturistics that define all the members of our team.
We value teamwork and
collaboration and nourish
our culture like a plant. We
check in on our culture as we
grow to ensure we are happy
with where we are going and
how we are getting there.
We believe
everyone
should feel
like a
founder,
sharing
the upside
of your work.
We ensure you have
the right tools for
the job like standing
desks and all the
latest tech.
chapter 3: The Employee Value Proposition

THE ADVANTAGE
Word on the street is that the PROPEL
leadership model is influenced by a
high powered group of thought leaders
- which keep them ahead of the game
Manage
Lead
HIGH OUTPUT
MANAGEMENT
inspire
MYERS-BRIGGS
PERSONALITIES
RADICAL CANDOUR
Drive
MYERS-BRIGGS
THE ADVANTAGE
TUCKMAN’S STAGES

What is Propel
Propel is a set of startup
businesses, which share a
strong common foundation that
includes a clear mission,
defined and embedded
culture & values and an
What is
efficient, well funded Different about
and stable business. Working at Propel
Propel is a startup, which means
that we have a faster
pace of learning and execution than a
big corporate –
which increases the velocity of your
learning and career
progression, which means that
you are rewarded by seeing
the impact of your output
in the market sooner.
chapter 3: The Employee Value Proposition

did you know that they believe that working
through difficult challenges is better?
At Propel, we push through
difficult challenges.
Our world view is that we
recognise that difficult times
are our opportunities to change
the way that things are done
and improve the world around
us, oftentimes accomplishing
something that no one else
has done before.
“The reason most people
do not recognise an
opportunity when they
meet it is because it
usually goes around
wearing overalls and
looking like hard work”

“We hire great
people, and then
empower them to do
the greatest work of
their professional
career”
are you up for the mission?
chapter 3: The Employee Value Proposition

233 Punt Rd, Richmond VIC 3121
propelventures.com.au