How 30X30 is fuelling the Thriday global expansion

Last Updated: Wednesday 11 October, 2023

For Melbourne-based founder Michael Nuciforo of small business accounting platform Thriday, continuous improvement remains one of the startup’s core values when it comes to running, operating, and scaling the business on a day-to-day basis.

Determined to make the frustrating and tiring weekly 6-hour grind of crunching the numbers and doing the books a thing of the past, Michael Nuciforo and Ben Winford founded the all-in-one business financial management platform back in 2020.

Their mission? To streamline financial admin for small businesses and help business owners take back control of their money and time by using Thriday’s AI platform to automate banking, accounting and tax.

Today, the Thriday team is making good on their ambition to launch overseas, with 30 staff members working tirelessly across the board and are on track to break even by the end of the 2024 financial year – a significant milestone for the startup.

Michael has credited LaunchVic’s 30X30 program with giving them a nudge in the right direction to kick start global expansion in the coming years, while at the same time accelerate the startup’s growth to the next level and its vision for the future of financial technology.

“Joining the 30X30 program felt like the logical choice for us,” Michael said.

“There were a number of things we had been talking about at Thriday in regards to people, culture and operations. Things that we were conscious of and that we knew we needed to work on.

“The program presented a great opportunity to network, work with and be mentored by other experts in different fields, while at the same time receiving tailored support and resources for scale-up founders.”

Tools for the future

Thriday’s Head of People and Growth Jaala Alex added that being able to implement the tools and strategies learnt through the program and put it to practice within the organisation had enabled the startup to grow closer together as a team.

“During the program we were surrounded by so many amazing minds and companies and different ways of thinking. Going into the program, we knew that we would only benefit from being involved,” she said.

“We were introduced to initiatives such as the HBDI (Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument) method which turned out to be a very helpful strategy for our HR team to implement and we learnt how to understand different characteristics and traits within the team.

“We have already started putting in place some of these strategies and initiatives which will improve people and professional development, while empowering and upskilling our team.”

For some founders and CEOs the startup journey can be quite isolating at the best of times according to Michael.

“Being around our particular 30X30 cohort, we were able to build relationships and have conversations and by doing that you start to see for yourself all sorts of different things that people are going through.

“It makes you feel a bit more normal, so to speak.”

“I’ve always tried to cultivate that myself. But doing it in a program like this is just even easier because you’re sort of stuck together. You’re in a room together, so you naturally build those connections that would usually take you months and months to build outside of a forum like that.”

Scaling up

Michael said if Thriday hadn’t done the program, the team’s idea to expand overseas probably wouldn’t have come to fruition and would have remained just that – an idea.

“We had been sort of talking about moving overseas next year or in 2025 and there can be quite a few challenges associated with taking a business global,” he said.

“Sitting in some of the sessions and hearing some of the teams that are a little bit older than us, because we were probably one of the younger teams, was great for us to see how they’ve approached obstacles, what are the learnings they’ve had and how much investment they’ve made.

“I think we’re much better for seeing what other people have gone through before we approach going overseas as well.

“Now I think the program has made it a really pertinent focus for us and we’ve got a plan. We’ve got concrete ideas, views and strategies. We are really trying to execute those expansion plans now.

“It’s going to be huge for us if we could nail an overseas market next year, and I think the programs put us in good stead to do that.”

Michael added that Thriday’s business model meant that it needed to partner with a local bank in every sort of market that it operates in or wants to operate in.

However, the ball is already rolling and the Thriday team is currently having some tangible conversations with different partners overseas, with the Victorian startup setting its sights on the New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia markets.

Michael said that Thriday would continue to go from strength to strength on its journey to achieving unicorn status – confirming that the next steps would be continuing to build up brand awareness in the domestic market and keeping an eye out for even more exciting opportunities overseas.