Oneflare Founder on Building a Marketplace, Raising Money, and Being a First-Time CEO

I caught up with Marcus Lim, founder and CEO of Oneflare, after the startup’s recent capital raise of A$500,000 ($461,000). Oneflare is a Sydney-based services platform that connects customers with local businesses. It can be used to find local services such as a plumber, electrician, or a cleaner.

I first met Marcus in 2011 when he had just resigned from Deloitte to work on Oneflare full-time. We were introduced through some mutual friends, as we had both decided to pursue our own startups. As an observer, it’s been really interesting to watch Marcus and his business grow for the past two years from the point of launch to where it is now – a thriving marketplace that has processed A$16 million ($14.7 million) in jobs requested. The marketplace plans to launch in Singapore in 2014.

You previously spent time working in Deloitte as a management consultant. How has your corporate experience helped you with your startup?

Marcus: Working at Deloitte as a management consultant gave me the opportunity to consult for various types of business across different sectors. This gave me a good foundation of understanding growth and cost reduction strategies in business which I was able to transfer to Oneflare.

What made you take the jump from a graduate job at Deloitte to do your own startup?

Marcus: Funnily enough, I started working on Oneflare, formerly known as Pick A Quote, a few weeks before I started as a graduate at Deloitte. While I was working full-time, I was building the site with my co-founder during nights, weekends, and holidays. We launched Oneflare in 2011, after less than a year of working at Deloitte, because we were starting to get some traction, I decided to take a leave of absence for six months and eventually resigned to run Oneflare full-time.

What was the inspiration behind Oneflare?

Marcus: It started in the living room of my apartment where Adam – my co-founder, whom I met through university – and I met regularly to brainstorm different internet tech ideas that we could start. I was renovating my apartment and I had to call around to so many renovators with no understanding of price, quality, and reputation. I decided there should be a more efficient and effective way of doing this. This is how Oneflare (as Pick A Quote) was born in 2010. We took the entire year to build the platform and launched it in early 2011.

Oneflare is your first company that you have started. What’s it like being a first-time CEO?

Marcus: Being a first-time CEO is a completely new world to me in regards to corporate responsibilities and being accountable for the financial performance of the company. I guess every founder of a startup can call themselves CEO but I think the true test of a CEO is really about how to take the company from where it is to the next level and being able to thrive through adversity when things are not going according to plan.

In regards to managing people and teams, I do have some experience being a military commander for two years. Creating a culture within the company is very important and it involves many factors like hiring the right people that fit the culture, knowing how to inspire the people that work with you and knowing how to recognise their achievements when it is due.

I find being a CEO of a startup is a bit of a juggling act and it is very overwhelming all the time. The trap is always wanting to focus on everything at the same time and this is where you spread yourself too thin. The key is being able to delegate and create efficient processes and know what is absolutely critical to the company – knowing how to prioritize.