Podcast
The Art of Adapting in Business: Ash Brown on Building and Pivoting Empiraa
Learn how Ash navigated the often daunting world of startups, from conceptualising Empiraa during the pandemic to the highs and lows of fundraising in an unconventional manner.
About the guest
Ash Brown
Founder and CEO at Empiraa
Ash Brown spent 15 years as a senior manager and national sales leader in SME businesses, most notably at 1300 Temp Fence where he joined as employee number nine and helped grow the company from $1 million to $72 million in annual revenue. He then joined Taxibox as their first general manager before founding Empiraa in 2020, a business planning and execution platform for scaling SMEs. He has raised over $600,000 from angel investors and has expanded into the US market with a presence in Denver, Colorado.
Episode overview
Ash Brown, founder and CEO of Empiraa, joins Steve Grace to trace a 15-year career in SME leadership to the founding of a business planning platform, the unconventional way he raised over $600,000 without a finished product, and the two-week messaging overhaul that transformed user conversion. The conversation is one of the most practical on the show for any founder navigating the gap between a working product and a product people actually pay for.
From 1300 Temp Fence to Taxibox: 15 years of SME leadership
Ash joined 1300 Temp Fence as employee number nine in 2009, when the business was turning over around $1 million per year. By the time he left a decade later as national sales manager, revenue was around $72 million. That decade inside a high-growth business gave him direct experience of every stage of scaling from scrappy startup through to a structured, 160-person company. After leaving, he took a head of sales role at a waste management startup before becoming the first general manager at Taxibox, the moving and storage business, specifically to gain marketing and branding experience he knew was missing from his toolkit.
“I went to Taxibox because the worst case is I’ve been there for six months, they say see you later, but at least I’ve got six months working under a brand that had an incredible, militant approach to their branding and marketing.”
Ash Brown 8:00
Founding Empiraa during COVID and raising $600K without a product
Ash conceived Empiraa in 2020 during COVID while working as a general manager, identifying a gap he had felt for 15 years: there was no simple tool for SMEs to build and execute business plans. He joined the Hyper accelerator in Melbourne, which helped him get investor-ready. His fundraising strategy was entirely through angel networks: one investor backed him early, others followed on the Harry Met Sally principle, and he eventually raised $600,000 from angels before a single line of code was written. Melbourne’s tight founder community, made more accessible during COVID’s slower pace, was central to that success.
“I raised six hundred thousand dollars without having a product. When you walk into a meeting trying to get ten thousand dollars from someone for basically a pitch deck and a prototype, it’s an extraordinarily lonely, vulnerable thing to do.”
Ash Brown 13:00
The pivot from strategy platform to planning and execution tool
Empiraa launched as a strategy platform and quickly ran into a wall: the word strategy made people’s eyes glaze over. A strategist told Ash bluntly that his product was not strategy but planning and execution. Combined with a freemium model generating sign-ups but almost zero paying users, the feedback was clear. Ash acted in two weeks: scrapped the freemium tier, introduced a credit-card-based free trial, rewrote every piece of messaging to focus on planning and execution, and the MRR began to climb immediately.
“We changed the website. Took everything this is strategy out. Two weeks. We just went nuts. Removed everything that says strategy, changed it all to planning and execution, and MRR started to rise because people understood what the actual product was.”
Ash Brown 24:00
Expanding into the US from a standing start
Ash chose Denver as Empiraa’s US entry point after visiting and meeting with Denver’s Economic Development Office. The airport’s central location, a transient population open to new products, and a political environment aligned with Empiraa’s values all factored in. The launch was facilitated by a chance conversation with an investor whose son was based in Denver and looking for a new role. By the time of the episode recording, Empiraa had five US partners and was building toward a full market entry.
Key takeaways
Chapters
0:00Introduction and guest welcome2:00What is Empiraa: the business planning and execution platform5:0015 years in SME leadership: 1300 Temp Fence and Taxibox10:00Founding Empiraa during COVID and joining Hyper accelerator13:00Raising $600K from angels without a product17:00Building the platform and hiring the first team member21:00Launch realities: freemium failure and the strategy vs planning pivot24:00Two-week messaging overhaul and the MRR turnaround28:00Expanding into Denver, Colorado and the US market33:00Team culture, ownership, and why people join Empiraa
Mentioned in this episode
Frequently asked questions
What does Empiraa do?
Empiraa is a business planning and execution platform designed for SMEs and scaling startups. It gives business leaders a simple way to document their objectives, break them down into actions, and track progress in real time. Ash positions it as the missing tool in the SME software stack: there are CRMs for customer relationships and safety platforms for compliance, but nothing specifically designed to help an SME owner build and execute a business plan in a way that engages the whole team.
How did Ash Brown raise $600K without a product?
Ash raised entirely through angel networks in Melbourne, starting with an introduction from the Hyper accelerator. His first investor backed him on the strength of a pitch deck and a prototype alone. That investor introduced him to others, creating a chain of referrals Ash describes as the Harry Met Sally effect. COVID’s slower social pace actually helped: people had more time for coffees and genuine conversations, which enabled the personal connections that drove investment decisions.
What was wrong with Empiraa’s original messaging?
Empiraa originally positioned itself as a strategy platform, but the word strategy caused immediate disengagement: most SME leaders have been burned by expensive strategy exercises that produced plans no one followed. A strategist pointed out to Ash that his product was actually a planning and execution tool. Once he changed the messaging, freemium-to-paid conversion improved significantly because customers could immediately understand what the product did and why they needed it.
Why did Ash choose Denver for Empiraa’s US expansion?
Ash visited Denver and was introduced to the city’s Economic Development Office, which gave him tours of co-working spaces and made introductions. Key factors included the airport’s central US location (direct flights to every major city), a 51 percent transient population that is receptive to new products, and a progressive political environment aligned with Empiraa’s values. The expansion was catalysed by an investor whose son lived in Denver and was looking for a new role, becoming Empiraa’s first US hire.
What is Empiraa’s ideal customer?
Empiraa is built for SMEs and scaling startups, roughly from 5 to 200 employees. It is designed for business owners and managers who have always built plans but struggled to execute them, or who use a combination of documents, spreadsheets, and project management tools that do not connect the plan to day-to-day work. The platform intentionally avoids the complexity of enterprise tools like Workday, focusing on simplicity and engagement over feature depth.
Topics discussed
Full transcript
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Show full transcript (37 minutes, 8 sections)
0:00 Introduction
Welcome to Give It A Nudge, getting very close to the 100th episode. Today we have a good friend of mine who has finally made his way up to Sydney to come on the show. Ash, welcome. Thank you Steve, how are you. I’m Ash Brown, founder and CEO of Empiraa, a business planning solution platform. It’s one of those platforms where you’ve got CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot, and safety culture for auditing, but I could never find anything to control my business planning and execution.
4:00 Background in SME leadership
For 15 years I was an SME leader: national sales manager, head of sales, general manager. The most formidable role was 10 years at 1300 Temp Fence. When I started in 2009 they were doing about a million dollars a year. By the time I left in 2019 it was around $72 million. I was employee number nine when I left it was 160. I left as national sales manager. I then went to a waste management startup as head of sales, then became the first general manager at Taxibox, specifically because their branding and marketing was unbelievable and I knew I needed that experience.
9:00 Founding Empiraa during COVID
In 2020, sitting there during COVID, I thought you know what, I’ll just design this. I caught up with Sam from Hyper and said I’ve got this crazy idea. He’s Mr Positive, never has a bad day, and said let’s do it. I joined the Hyper accelerator while still working as a GM, because we were all working from home. The accelerator helped me get my stuff in order for term sheets and pitch decks. Then Sam and others made introductions and I started getting some market validation from business leaders saying yes, I’d pay for this.
13:00 Raising $600K from angels without a product
I had one meeting with a founder who was pretty rich. I was all over the shop, had no idea what my pitch was, even though I’d been in sales for 20 years. But he ended up investing because he saw something there. Then we raised $100K, and it snowballed. I invested about $100K of my own, raised another $100K, then a round of about half a million. Raised $600,000 without having a product. All through Melbourne angel networks, the Harry Met Sally effect: when someone says I’ll have what she’s having and everyone follows.
17:00 Building the platform and launching
I built the platform with Item Group in Richmond, an equity partner who took a small stake and built the product. They usually build for companies like Lendlease; this was their first SaaS product. I hired my daughter as the first employee while she was at uni. The Vic government gave grants too. Launch was like most startups: you think 2,000 people are going to sign up on day one and $50,000 MRR from day one. It doesn’t happen.
21:00 The strategy to planning and execution pivot
We launched as a strategy platform but strategy is so abstract, people’s eyes glaze over. A strategist told me bluntly: you’re not a strategy platform, you’re planning and execution. That really hit home. We also had a freemium version, got 50 sign-ups in an afternoon, two stayed. So I looked at it and went: the product is right but the messaging is wrong. 408 companies on board now, 25% paid. Once we targeted the messaging properly everything changed.
24:00 Two-week messaging overhaul
We changed everything in two weeks. Scrapped freemium, added a credit-card-based free trial. Removed everything that said strategy, replaced it with planning and execution. Changed the website, changed how we spoke to customers. MRR started to rise immediately because people finally understood what the product was. The beauty of a small business is you can move that fast. No committee, no approval chain, just do it.
28:00 Denver, US expansion, and company culture
I visited Denver and met with the Denver Economic Development Office. They rolled out the red carpet. The airport is central, 51% of people weren’t born in Denver, very transient and open. An investor’s son happened to live there and was looking for a new role. We launched with him in Denver in May. Already brought on five US partners. International expansion is less scary than it looks: WeWork Remote handles payroll, forming the entity runs in the background. We empower our team to think as founders. Everyone owns what we’re doing. That ownership is what makes people want to join us.
About the host
Steve Grace is the founder and CEO of The Nudge Group, a technology-focused recruitment and advisory business. He has built and scaled companies across Australia and the US, and hosts Give It A Nudge to spotlight founders and operators building something meaningful.
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