I mentioned the management software we built for Sleeping With The Enemy in a previous post.
This wasn't any software.
I'd sponsored one of my lodgers, a whiz kid from Holland, to live in Australia and work for us for three years. His desk was in my office next to mine, he became my technical brain.
The kid was beyond good.
Before working for us he had used his skills for evil, not good as a hacker. He built every functionality into the software that was needed, wanted and not wanted...
… but hey why not?
He had lived in our properties for 2 years as a customer so knew the business from that viewpoint, better than I could.
He used to add nice to have functions (why not’s) into the software all of the time, just to show off.
I loved it!
The software became my pride and joy. My long term vision for Sleeping With The Enemy had always been to grow the brand organically, beyond property management.
I visualized the brand becoming a global marketing co-op that promoted our unique style of working holiday accommodation throughout the world.
Pairing this marketing company with a property trust specializing in property assets that were simpatico with our style of accommodation. The software would have just been a tool we provided local property managers to manage their properties, under our systems.
Just as the software always had been.
“Sleeping With The Enemy” Shared Living that Works!
What a great story.
From our humble beginnings to global accommodation network in less than a decade. At no stage had I felt the company's DNA was in property management, software development, or software as a service.
My view had always been the company's core strength was community building, and marketing.
Be Careful What You Wish For...
Sleeping With The Enemy's unique model attracted attention of the Australian university campus accommodation housing association.
They wanted what Sleeping With The Enemy had, in university campuses throughout Australia.
Before I knew it, I had sold Sleeping With The Enemy (in 2004), the trademark, business assets, income and properties in one deal. Needless to say the price had a lot of zero’s in it.
The Sleeping With The Enemy story had become that hot, it took just one phone call to an associate. Who had expressed interest in the company a year earlier.
SOLD!
The buyers owned a chain or bars (pubs) around Australia and wanted an accommodation network for young party goers they could dovetail into their expansion.
It made perfect sense.
As for me, building an enterprise version of our management software to sell as a service to university campuses throughout the world seemed a much more exciting opportunity at the time. The truth be known. I was sold out on myself!
I founded:
"SWTE" Shared Living That Works!
SWTE is the acronym of Sleeping With The Enemy.
Within months I had raised $1.7 million dollars. People I knew and people who knew them threw money at me. It was an easy sell off the back of my Sleeping With The Enemy success.
I always put my own money where my mouth was.
By the time this new start-up had collapsed, just 24 months later,
We had blown it all.
Just under $1 million dollars of my own money, and $800,000 of 14 shareholders' money, between them.
"WTF"
You're telling me!
But you know what, looking back this monumental flop became the catalyst for what is my greatest asset today.
I’ll explain why in my next post.
Be interested. Not interesting!
Simon U Ford
Engage Smarter!