“I build and grow ideas. With a heavy focus on business strategy and automation, I am focusing on the interception of technology, marketing and design.” This is how Michael Macrae, Director and Founder of Appetiser Apps, describes himself. Michael, who is also a Director at WebHype, joined EO Melbourne this year.
Michael shares with us a bit about himself as well as his experiences and insights as an entrepreneur.
Q: Can you give a brief background about you, your family and your business?
I'm Michael, I grew up in Germany with a single mother in less than modest circumstances. I spent the last 6 years building Appetiser together with my amazing cofounder and best friend, Jamie Shostak. We signed our first contracts sitting on barrels in a room where pipes came out of the wall, but now I am proud to have over 200 team members who are a lot more talented than me. Simply, I love what we do.
Q: What inspired you to be an entrepreneur?
I never saw myself as an entrepreneur, at the beginning. I just fixed things. I built smaller projects and apps and some of them started scaling up to millions of users. I just focus on things I truly enjoy to make an impact in the world. Up until this day, I feel weird calling myself an entrepreneur, I just do my thing.
Q: What do you enjoy most about being an entrepreneur?
When I read interesting facts, strategies, or even studies, I have a team and a company that allows me to test and try things for myself. We are extremely experimental and I have often been told that 3 months at Appetiser is like a year elsewhere. I enjoy the journey of never-ending improvement of our company, our team, and even myself.
Q: What are the biggest challenges you have faced as an entrepreneur?
The toughest thing I had to go through was my entire management team burning out during COVID. I had to address mass depression and look after suicidal team members. At this stage, I had 180 team members directly reporting to me without middle management, the company bank account was sailing towards zero, I was going through a divorce, my cofounder was burned out, and due to health issues, I could walk no further than a few meters and lost my hearing for a while. Despite this humbling experience, I can say that we continued growing and we became a lot stronger as a company and a team.
Q: Why did you decide to join EO?
I don't usually speak about the things that trouble me, but ultimately all of us founders go through the same challenges. I truly want to learn how others do it, and if I get to make some friends along the way, I would consider myself very lucky.
Q: Can you share a golden nugget that you learned from your experience or from another entrepreneur or mentor in the past?
We'll all be slapped in the face by misfortune, and things are never fair. I'm not very smart, and I'm not the best leader or manager. But I don't give up and I always keep going. Don't give up, and just stand up again. And if cheesy quotes are your thing, I like what Warren Buffet says: If in doubt, take the high road, it's far less crowded. Just be good to others!