Join Richard and Andrea on the journey of their lawn mowing startup GreenSocks. Mistakes will be made. Fun will be had!
Yeah, it’s Boring but your Startup Needs Legal
Companies and their founders can lose millions of dollars because they didn’t have their legal stuff in order. Sometimes they lose their entire company. Before GreenSocks started, I personally lost over $100,000 due to various legal failures. I failed/learned...
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5 Reasons to Apply for RiverCityLab’s Accelerator
When Andrea Martins and I found out we were accepted into the RiverCityLabs Accelerator program, I knew we were in for adventure that would kick start our lawn mowing start up. Even if we didn’t know exactly how. It’s now been several months since...
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4 Things We Didn’t Tell Prime Minister Turnbull
Earlier this month, we had the privilege of meeting Australia’s Prime Minister, The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, alongside the Assistant Minister for Innovation, The Hon. Wyatt Roy. It was at a breakfast hosted by Shark Tank’s Steve Baxter at his co-working hub...
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Remove that Divi footer. Wreck it like you mowed over it.
Finally! You can remove that pesky divi footer and change it for your own. Just like the footer of the greensocks website. Currently works as of Divi version 2.5+ Download the Divi Footer remover plugin...
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4 Mistakes When We Met Premier Palaszczuk
One of my favourite idiosyncrasies of startup culture is its ability to embrace mistakes. To me, this has always stood out as the key differentiator between a standard business networking event (where attendees tend to exhibit a contagious compulsion to fake their...
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Final Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Geez! It’s hard to believe it’s been six months since we started in Brisbane’s inaugural muru-D / River City Labs startup accelerator program and posted our Epic Week 1 Wrap Up. It feels like only yesterday that we survived pre-selection bootcamp!...
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If you’re not failing at something, work on harder problems
It’s time to embrace failure. If you aren’t failing at something, then you aren’t working on hard enough problems
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Why I recommend Meteor and React JS for your business
Less than 24 hours after purchasing a locked-in 12 month subscription to another platform, I made a tough call to dump it. As a coder, it wasn’t going to cut it. GreenSocks needed a new solution. Meteor and React JS was it. 1 month after switching to Meteor, a...
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This ridiculous haircut grew social reach from 50 to 5000
The boring corporate haircut had to go. I wanted something new. Something so ridiculous that it could also promote GreenSocks, my lawn mowing business at the same time. As I strutted into Crown and Co in Brisbane, I was thinking “Is this really going to...
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Why we jumped for a Brisbane Lawn Mowing Photoshoot
Don’t you just love it when journalists call you for a Brisbane lawn mowing photoshoot, rather than the other way around? Unexpected press is a godsend, because even if the press feature does not result in any immediate boost in lawn mowing jobs, you never know...
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Week 14 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Woohoo! The first part of our River City Labs (muru-D) accelerator program – 14 weeks full time in River City Labs – is now officially complete. We’re happy to report that all five teams (GreenSocks, ProcessPA, Outbound, ParkFit and Puntaa) have been...
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Week 13 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Week 13 was all about Demo Day. So, apart from an unexpected detour for a photo shoot for The Courier Mail, everything else this week was about pitch practice, pitch feedback, venue inspections and getting ready for Demo Day. GreenSocks featured with Malcolm Turnbull...
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Week 12 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Whilst not as intense or exciting as week 11 in Sydney, we all continued working hard in week 12 of our River City Labs (muru-D) startup accelerator program. GreenSocks gained another awesome team member. Steve Baxter’s group ran a free two-day conference....
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Week 11 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
A visit to Apple Australia’s HQ, a UX/UI workshop with the design teams from Telstra Digital, a visit from ABC’s Innovation Teams, Tank Stream Labs, That Startup Show, and the muru-D Xmas Party – these are just some of our adventures (in between coordinating lawn...
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Week 10 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Welcome to our GreenSocks wrap-up of week 10 highlights from our River City Labs (muru-D) startup accelerator. Only one masterclass again this week, with the rest of the time allocated for us to keep chasing our November 30 traction targets. (Traction will be one of...
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Week 9 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Week 9 came and went too fast. We only had one formal (double) masterclass this week, but by a unanimous accelerator class vote, it was undeniably “one of the best so far”. Here’s our lawn mowing startup’s week 9 recap: UK Trade &...
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Week 8 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Hi Everyone! Here’s our GreenSocks recap of week 8 of 14 in our River City Labs startup accelerator program (powered by muru-D) in Brisbane. Whilst week 8 was not as high-powered as our epic week 7 trip to Sydney, we had a good mix of class time and work time,...
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Death Star with Brisbane for Scale
Hi Brisbane, I’m doing a test to see if people are interested in seeing Star Wars stuff to scale on Earth. Here’s the Death Star with Brisbane to scale. What do you want to see next? Comment below and I’ll make it...
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Week 7 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Woohoo! We’ve reached the half-way point. 7 weeks down, 7 weeks to go, for our River City Labs (muru-D) startup accelerator program in Brisbane …although most of our week 7 news is from Sydney, because GreenSocks was in Sydney for the week. Here’s...
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Week 6 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Welcome to our wrap up of week 6 of 14 for our River City Labs startup accelerator program! Lots of fun to share, so let’s get to it… Binna Burra – 2 Day Retreat Yes, thanks to the powers that be, our cohort was whisked away, Bachelorette-style, for...
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Week 5 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Better late than never, here’s a super-quick overview of week 5 of 14 in our River City Labs startup accelerator program (powered by muru-D) last week. Not many scheduled accelerator events, but River City Labs was still abuzz… How to be a Rockstar Founder...
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Week 4 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Welcome to our wrap-up of week 4 in Brisbane’s River City Labs (muru-D) accelerator. This week was a bit quieter on the guest speaker front, which meant more time to work on our startups, plus spare time for some sweet press features. The photo above comes from...
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Week 3 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Another week, another dollar. Oops, wrong sector! Okay, let’s try that again for our startup accelerator teams… Another week, another tranche of awesome presentations, priceless connections, and good ole’ startup fun. Here’s our GreenSocks wrap...
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Week 2 Wrap-Up! River City Labs Startup Accelerator
Did Matt Barrie (one of the current kings of the Australian startup scene) come to visit? Did Andrea really meet The Greek God of Gardening? Is there really a seed fund that invests pre-revenue, pre-traction and pre-prototype? What did the Puntaa boys get up to? Week...
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The Epic Week 1 Wrap-Up @ River City Labs Accelerator
Okay, I confess, after blogging about day one of our River City Labs (muru-D) accelerator program, I have not been able to keep up on the blog front. There have just been too many fantastic people/events, and in between serving customers and trying to meet our...
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River City Labs Startup Accelerator – Day 1 of 70
Six weeks ago, we saw a promo for the River City Labs startup accelerator in Brisbane. It sounded pretty sweet – muru-D (the startup accelerator backed by Telstra) and River City Labs were offering to each invest $10k in exchange for a 1.5% equity stake in five...
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Why did Homejoy fail? 5 Homejoy mistakes to avoid
One of the questions in startup circles right now is, “Why did Homejoy fail?” Seriously, how can a Y Combinator backed startup fail, when it had $40m of funding and it was in both: (a) the Uber-inspired, mega growth, on-demand services industry; and (b)...
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I was busted power napping in the car
So, I was busted power napping in the car at the local super market. See more embarrassment from the GreenSocks co-founders on their twitter accounts: GreenSocks: @GreenSocksAU Richard Eastes: @eastes Andrea Martins: @andreaexpat...
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The Prime Minister hated my other Startup Idea
My startup weekend pitch received immediate criticism from Steve Baxter from Shark Tank. Even Prime Minister Tony Abbot said it was like malware. It made $1200+ in sales. It “mini blew up” on Reddit.
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How Many Hot Dogs Could Your Startup Eat?
Have you read the book Think Like A Freak? If not, do yourself a favour and grab a copy. It’s the perfect inspiration for startup founders wanting to disrupt traditional ways of thinking. The book’s brilliant collection of stories include: How Takeru...
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Doing Things That Don’t Scale: Paul Graham Style
A famous catchphrase in startup circles is to “do things that don’t scale”. It was a phrase made famous by Silicon Valley VC Paul Graham in this 2013 article and it is preached in startup incubators (including Y-Combinator, co-founded by Graham) all...
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The Story of Our First Lawn Mowing Job
They say that you’ll always remember your business’s first customer. We certainly will! Here’s the story of our GreenSocks’ first lawn mowing job… The surprise phone call It was Wednesday 8 April. Richard and I had busted open our laptops...
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How hard can it be to design a logo for a startup?
When you create a wish list for your new business, it’s normal to want the most amazing logo design your money can buy. This is especially true if you’re a self-confessed perfectionist like me who loves everything to be the best it can possibly be. The...
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The Day Richard and Andrea Finally Met
No, it’s not the climax to a Tinder love story. You’re safe. It’s the story of how Richard and I only met for the first* time today, despite having worked together as co-founders on our handyman lawn care startup Odd Jobs GreenSocks for the last 3-4...
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Do You Really Need A Business Plan For Your Business Idea?
Last week, I was talking to a very smart lady. She runs two or three local businesses on the Sunshine Coast (north of Brisbane) in Queensland, Australia. She’s business savvy, she knows how to get clients and she knows how to make a profit. Yet for months now, she’s...
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Lawn Mowing Guys: How Far Are You Willing To Drive?
Dear Lawn Mowing Guys: How Far Are You Willing To Drive? Here’s the first screenshot of location selection and slider to choose how far you’d be willing to drive to get a lawn mowing job for customers on GreenSocks – Australia’s first online...
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2 Reasons Why Startup Weekend Changed My Life
Have you ever thought about going to one of those crazy 54-hour-long events known as a Startup Weekend? The ones where you spend all weekend with a cohort of strangers who, like you, want to see what starting a startup is all about. What started in Boulder, Colorado...
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Important VS Hard – A Startup Tip
We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. JFK said that, didn’t he? In life, hard things are usually better than easy things. Work harder? Make more money. Run harder? Get fitter....
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I Nearly Gave Up. The Sunk Cost Fallacy Kept Me In It.
10AM – IT’S CODE CUTTING TIME. Todd Terje is playing loud. I’m writing code for a handyman lawn care app so that handymen lawn mowing providers can register to make more money. 10:05AM. Code not working. Don’t know why. The stupid thing should...
read moreWelcome to our Startup Blog!
If you’re a bootstrapping startup founder who’d prefer to avoid the mistakes we’ve made, or equally, you’d like to be inspired by some of the wins we’ve had (or should we say, hope to have), you’re in the right place. Welcome! We’re Richard Eastes and Andrea Martins and this startup blog is where we’re adding our learnings and lessons from our startup journey with our lawnmowing marketplace, GreenSocks.
So, who is Richard Eastes?
Richard Eastes is a business guy and computer geek with a secret love of lawn mowing and startups. Just for fun, he’s been known to try to out-mow and out-green the lawns of his Brisbane neighbours. His background includes running the car insurance comparison site Captain Compare (sold in 2010) and the successful car rental startup VroomVroomVroom (in which he is still a shareholder).
And who is Andrea Martins?
Andrea Martins is a busy work-from-home Sunshine Coast mum who never gets time to mow her lawn. In her search for a reliable and trusted lawn care provider, she’s had contractors not return her calls, refuse to quote on the phone, not show up, overcharge, leave cigarette butts in her garden, and accidentally over-poison (and kill) her grass and even her family’s guinea pig! Her background includes running the global resource site Expat Women (sold in 2014).
What else can we tell you?
MMMmmm… Richard works from (and is a mentor at) River City Labs (the co-working space started by Steve Baxter from Shark Tank Australia) in Brisbane. When not with Richard at River City Labs, Andrea works from home on the Sunshine Coast. Richard’s a Ludum Dare fan. Andrea’s a Startup Weekend fan. We don’t have any amazing claims to fame. And no, we’re not love interests. We’re just two people (with very supportive partners) who are trying to make a dream come true, just like you?
Were we in a startup accelerator?
Yes! We were honoured to be one of five teams chosen to be in muru-D’s first Brisbane-based accelerator (also known as the River City Labs accelerator) based in River City Labs, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.
The program was split into two parts. Part one ran 14 weeks (to 18 December 2015) and was an intensive full-time gig in Brisbane, with lots of mentoring and masterclasses, plus a couple of trips to Sydney. Part two ran 15 weeks (to 31 March 2016) and was a more hands-off, flexible working scenario. The startup accelerator experience was awesome and we highly recommend it. Huge thanks to everyone in muru-D and River City Labs!