Failure Analysis
Big Un's collapse was a textbook case of securities fraud masquerading as startup failure. Between 2013 and 2018, the company systematically fabricated financial performance...
Big Un \Australia
Big Un was an Australian digital media and marketing platform that positioned itself as a 'small business champion' connecting SMEs with consumers through video content, reviews, and promotional campaigns. Founded in 2013 by Richard Evertz, the company went public on the ASX and raised approximately $20M. The value proposition centered on helping small businesses gain visibility through user-generated content and video testimonials, creating a marketplace where consumers could discover local services while businesses gained affordable marketing reach. The 'why now' was the rise of mobile video consumption, the decline of traditional Yellow Pages, and SMEs' growing need for digital presence. Big Un claimed to aggregate small business reviews and promotional content, monetizing through subscription fees and advertising. However, the company became infamous as one of Australia's most significant corporate frauds, with ASIC alleging systematic revenue inflation, fake customer numbers, and misleading financial statements. The platform's actual user engagement and revenue were allegedly a fraction of reported figures, making this less a product-market fit failure and more a criminal enterprise masquerading as a legitimate startup.
Discover the reason behind the shutdown and the market before & today
Market Analysis
The local business discovery and marketing platform space has consolidated dramatically since Big Un's 2018 collapse, with clear winners and losers emerging. Yelp remains...
Startup Learnings
Financial transparency is non-negotiable in marketplace businesses: Modern founders must implement real-time revenue recognition (Stripe Revenue Recognition, Baremetrics), third-party verified metrics (Google Analytics 4...
Market Potential
The SME digital marketing market is massive—estimated at $160B globally in 2024, growing at 12% CAGR. In Australia alone, there are 2.5M small businesses...
Difficulty
The core technical challenge—building a video-centric local business directory with review functionality—is trivial in 2024. Using Next.js 14 with App Router, Vercel for hosting,...
Scalability
Big Un's model had fundamental scalability problems disguised by fraudulent reporting. True marketplace scalability requires network effects: more businesses attract more consumers, which attracts...
Rebuild & monetization strategy: Resurrect the company
Execution Plan
Phase 2
Step 2 - Validation (Weeks 7-12): Add payment processing via Stripe Connect. Offer businesses: 'Process payments through TradeOS and keep the AI agent free forever.' Take 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (same as Square, but bundled with AI agent). Build a mobile-friendly invoice generator (Next.js + Supabase) that techs can use on-site to collect payment via card reader (Stripe Terminal) or send invoice links via SMS. Add automated review requests: 24 hours after job completion, send SMS asking for Google/Yelp review with one-click link. Success metric: 50%+ of the 10 pilot businesses process $10K+/month through TradeOS (generating $300/month in payment fees), and 30%+ of completed jobs result in a review request sent. Validate unit economics: CAC <$500 (direct outreach), LTV >$3,600 (12 months * $300 payment fees), payback <2 months.
Phase 3
Step 3 - Growth (Months 4-9): Expand to 100 businesses across 3 cities using a self-serve onboarding flow. Build an AI-powered local SEO engine: for each business, auto-generate a public-facing page (tradeOS.com/[business-slug]) with GPT-4-written service descriptions, customer reviews, service area maps, and schema markup. Use Trigger.dev to run weekly jobs that create blog content ('[City] HVAC Maintenance Guide') and submit to Google My Business API. Launch a referral program: businesses get $500 credit for each referral that processes $5K+ in payments. Add a lightweight CRM: customer history, job notes, photo uploads (Cloudflare R2), and follow-up reminders. Success metric: Achieve $100K MRR ($1.2M ARR) from payment processing fees, with 70%+ of businesses processing $8K+/month. Prove that TradeOS-powered businesses rank in top 5 Google results for '[city] + [service]' searches within 90 days, driving 20%+ inbound lead growth.
Phase 4
Step 4 - Moat (Months 10-18): Launch the supplier marketplace and financing. Partner with HVAC/plumbing suppliers (Ferguson, Home Depot Pro) to offer net-30 terms and 2-5% discounts when ordered through TradeOS, taking a 3-5% affiliate fee. Integrate with Stripe Capital or a lending partner (Behalf, Fundbox) to offer businesses $10K-100K lines of credit based on payment processing history, taking 1-2% origination fees. Build predictive analytics: use historical job data to forecast seasonal demand (e.g., 'AC repair requests spike 40% in June—stock up on refrigerant') and suggest dynamic pricing (e.g., 'Raise emergency service rates 15% during peak demand'). Add team management: clock-in/out, route optimization (Google Maps API), and performance dashboards. Success metric: Reach $500K MRR ($6M ARR) with 500+ businesses, 40%+ using supplier marketplace (adding $50K/month in affiliate revenue), and 10%+ taking financing (adding $30K/month in origination fees). Achieve 90%+ annual retention because businesses can't leave without losing their financial infrastructure, customer data, and SEO rankings. Expand to plumbing and electrical, then raise Series A to build a national sales team and acquire competitors.
Monetization Strategy
TradeOS uses a multi-layered monetization strategy designed to align with customer success and create compounding revenue streams: (1) Payment Processing (Primary Revenue): 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction via Stripe Connect. A typical HVAC business processes $50K-150K/month in payments, generating $1,450-4,350/month in fees. This is the core revenue driver and creates lock-in—businesses can't easily switch without migrating their entire payment history and customer data. (2) SaaS Subscription (Optional Upsell): $99/month for the AI phone agent if businesses choose to use an external payment processor. This is a fallback for businesses already locked into Square or Clover, but we heavily incentivize Stripe adoption by making the AI agent 'free' when processing payments through TradeOS. (3) Supplier Marketplace (Affiliate Revenue): 3-5% commission on parts/supplies ordered through integrated suppliers. A business spending $10K/month on supplies generates $300-500/month in affiliate fees. This is pure margin with no COGS. (4) Financing Origination Fees: 1-2% of loan amount when businesses take lines of credit or equipment financing. A $50K loan generates $500-1,000 in one-time fees. As we process more transactions, we have proprietary underwriting data, allowing us to offer better rates than traditional lenders and capture the spread. (5) Lead Generation (Future): Once we have 1,000+ businesses with strong SEO rankings, we can sell excess leads to non-competing businesses in adjacent markets. A qualified HVAC lead is worth $50-150, and businesses generate 10-30 leads/month organically via TradeOS-powered SEO. Selling overflow leads could add $20-50K/month in high-margin revenue. (6) Premium Features (Future): Advanced analytics ($49/month), multi-location management ($199/month), and white-label customer portals ($99/month). Target revenue model at scale (1,000 businesses): $2.5M/month in payment processing fees + $300K/month in supplier affiliate revenue + $100K/month in financing fees + $50K/month in SaaS subscriptions = $2.95M/month ($35.4M ARR) with 70%+ gross margins. The beauty of this model is that it scales with customer success—the more jobs they book and payments they process, the more we earn—eliminating the misaligned incentives that killed Big Un.
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