Unconventional Business HubSpot Podcast Network

Boden Westover, SVP Marketing at me&u and former VP Marketing at Mr Yum, joins us on the pod for a candid chat on the intersection of technology and customer service in the hospitality world.
Boden shares his perspective on why marketers need to hone their focus on retention, and how the brilliant minds in the marketing team at me&u are innovating to drive retention, loyalty and uncover new revenue streams. We cover the much-discussed merger of Australia's top two mobile ordering companies in me&u and Mr Yum to form one true market leader, Boden's advice for marketers today and so much more.

Podcast Show notes: Unconventional Business - Season 3 Episode 2
Host Kat Warboys, Senior Marketing Director APAC for HubSpot interviews
Boden Westover, Senior Vice President (SVP) of Marketing at Me&U.
Boden's background includes experience in fast-growth startups, ed tech, and sports technology.
This episode of Unconventional Business delves into the dynamic landscape of hospitality tech, the power of personalised customer experiences, the role of data-driven marketing strategies in driving growth and loyalty, and what a spicy marg has to do with this.

Key Episode Moments
Company Background:
me&u is a platform offering sales and marketing tools and services for hospitality brands.
Notable acquisition of My Guest List and subsidiary company Sprout, enhancing technology offerings for the industry.
The focus on personalised customer experiences through data capture and application.
Navigating the Pandemic:
The impact of the pandemic on the hospitality industry and Mr. Yum's pivot to pick up and delivery services.
Strategic move towards supporting local venues and reducing fees for customers.
Industry Evolution:
The evolution of hospitality tech post-pandemic, emphasizing seamless customer experiences and operational efficiency.
me&u's successful pivot and integration within the tech ecosystem to enhance user experience.
Future of Hospitality Tech:
The trend towards consolidation and integration in the hospitality tech space.
The importance of data-driven, personalised marketing strategies to enhance customer engagement and loyalty.

Insights and Takeaways:
Boden highlights the importance of brand marketing in the age of AI and the evolving role of the CMO.
The significance of tailored customer experiences and leveraging data for effective marketing campaigns.
The impact of technology integration and partnership in transforming the hospitality industry.

Want more?
If you enjoyed this conversation, make sure you hit follow and subscribe so you’ll know when the next episode drops. Head to www.hubspot.com/podcasts/unconventional-business for more information.
Unconventional Business was written and produced by HubSpot ANZ, Catherine Sumner and Amiria MacKinnon, and VidPod (www.vidpod.com.au).

In season three of HubSpot's Unconventional Business we delve into the journey of Australia's third technology unicorn, Airwallex, and how the company is disrupting the banking and financial services sector.
We're joined by Luke Latham, Managing Director and GM of Airwallex ANZ, and explore Luke's diverse career background (from AWS to MILKRUN) and the importance of a builder's mindset in challenging and disruptive industries.
On the show, Luke takes us on the journey of how Airwallex became a global disruptor in such a short space of time, where the company's growth (they now have over 100,000 customers worldwide) stems from, and insight into how the founders and leadership team think, build and go to market.
You'll leave the episode with valuable lessons for businesses aiming to disrupt traditional sectors and prioritize customer-centric practices, and insight into the significance of trust-building, and broader trends in the fintech industry.

Key Episode Moments:

Luke Latham's diverse career background spanning Microsoft, Groupon, Amazon, and now Airwallex, with a focus on disruptive industries.

Discussion on the importance of a builder's mindset for thriving in challenger brands and disruptive industries.

Overview of Airwallex as a global disruptor in banking and financial services, offering infrastructure for payments and money movement.

Explanation of how Airwallex addresses the costly and timely nature of cross-border transactions and the unique market timing for its establishment in 2015.

Building trust with consumers through reliability, credibility, service level monitoring, and personalised customer support within the financial technology sector.


Want more?
If you enjoyed this conversation, make sure you hit follow and subscribe so you’ll know when the next episode drops. Head to www.hubspot.com/podcasts/unconventional-business for more information.
Unconventional Business was written and produced by HubSpot ANZ, Catherine Sumner and Amiria MacKinnon, and VidPod.

Unconventional Business is back, with season 3 coming May 14th.
Follow the show and get ready to hear from some of our best homegrown challenger brands, including Airwallex, Tracksuit, me&u, HotDoc, Gelato Messina and more.

Every minute, a garbage truck worth of rubbish goes into our ocean. If we don’t make drastic changes as a global community, there’ll be more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050. 
Despite what we've all been taught, recycling is not the solution. In Australia, just 15% of plastic that we send to recycling is actually recycled. The other 85%? It ends up in landfill or in the ocean. We have to shift our thinking to a refill model, reducing the number of new plastics that we buy while simultaneously removing existing plastics from the environment. 
Mike Smith, founder of Zero Co, joins us for an eye-opening account on the environmental crisis we're in due to the prevalence of single use plastics. Mike shares lessons on how to crack the Kickstarter model - Zero Co ran Australia’s most successful Kickstarter campaign in 2019 - what it was like starting a business in the height of the pandemic and how building a passionate community has been crucial to Zero Co’s early success. 
Changing consumer behaviour is tough. The price - quality - convenience trifecta is a key driver for consumers. Mike shares how he thinks about changing behaviour, and how it’s no longer  enough to just launch a business. To grow, businesses now and in the future need to solve for the world’s biggest problems. Doing good and deep purpose has to be baked into the DNA of the company and their reason for being. 

Australia's used car industry's worth $55 billion and about 1 million cars are sold every year, some are new, some are used.
Despite the huge market for car sales and our reliance as a country on personal vehicles, the process of buying and selling used cars is fraught with risk and hasn't evolved a great deal over the years. Whether you're buying a car off Gumtree or from Dave at the dealership down the road, you never really know if you're getting an absolute steal, or a total lemon. Given the size of the market and the evolution in how we shop and buy almost everything else, it's incredible that the industry has seen so little disruption.
If you follow disruptors and innovative business models, you probably know of Carvana - they’re the fastest growing online used car dealer in the United States and were recently added to the 2021 Fortune 500 List. Well, Australia has its own disruptor in the car sales space.
Meet Cars24. Erin Williamson, Cars24’s Chief Customer Officer, joins us on the show to talk about used car horror stories, the opportunity Cars24 saw to disrupt the market and provide an alternative model for used car buyers, how their business model works, why Cars24 doesn't have sales people, and why their online model is the way of the future for car sales.

Ever wondered just how the aged care and disability services industry actually works? Well, this episode's for you!
Like many developed countries, Australia has an ageing population. Today, there are around 3 million Aussies who are aged 70 and older, and just under half a million people living with a disability who access support services through the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Together, older people and people with disabilities who live in their own homes, with care and support, represent a significant proportion of our country and our community.
With a sizeable number of people accessing these types of services and a huge number of businesses operating in this space, why is the aged and disability care industry lagging behind when it comes to being truly consumer-first and delivering an exceptional customer experience?
This week, we're joined by Mable's Chief Operating Officer, Rachel Debeck, for a behind-the-scenes look into the aged and disability care industry, an industry under immense pressure to both evolve and meet the increasing needs of our population. We take a look at the systemic challenges that exist in the industry, gain an understanding of how complex the customer journey is and discuss why disruption hasn't occurred sooner.
We also explore the new, alternative model that Mable offers, a model that leverages a peer-to-peer marketplace to solve workforce shortages while also putting choice and control back into the consumer's hands.