Hey. I'm Mitchell Davis, a Laravel developer.
Gavin Tye:I'm Gavin Tye, sales and marketing.
Mitchell Davis:Welcome to we are building sixsides.co, an events platform that helps you build a stronger community through events, and this is our b to b SaaS journey.
Gavin Tye:Don't cut that out, mate. Leave that in. Leave it in.
Mitchell Davis:I'm, I'm uncaffeinated at the moment, so the brain's still kicking into gear. I had enough You
Gavin Tye:are late. You have got high commitments and you.
Mitchell Davis:Well, I I went out to the cafe downstairs. I wasn't late at all. I allowed like, usually they're very quick. It's like two minutes. I get in line and, I get up to the till and she's like, it's a fifteen minute wait.
Mitchell Davis:I was like, okay. I don't have enough time for that. So I've had to bounce.
Gavin Tye:So No other coffee shop that you would go to? You just completely
Mitchell Davis:That's the one. It's where Nicole used to work. So I've kind of got like a bit of a a loyalty to them. There are lots of other cafes around here, but, I don't really like the coffee. Mate, if they were
Gavin Tye:loyal to you, they would have bumped you up.
Mitchell Davis:That's true. Sometimes they have. I have noticed. Like, sometimes if I'm just like, yeah, whatever. I'll just wait.
Mitchell Davis:And then it it is not that long of a wait. So sometimes they have. But, you know, Nicole left there. I'm sure the loyalty is is wavering. Less people saying hey to me now.
Mitchell Davis:You know? So I'm I'm on the blacklist.
Gavin Tye:Mate, you should have said to them, do you not know who I am? I'm the host of the B2B SaaS, our B2B SaaS journey podcast. I'm
Mitchell Davis:a big deal. I don't yeah. They ought to know that by now.
Gavin Tye:Here's an idea. Let's get a QR code next year on your shirt and just go, hey, scan my QR code. I'll tell you who I am.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. That could work. Where would we link that to?
Gavin Tye:Oh, everything. We would have a link tree. Yeah. If you have an OnlyFans, you can link it there.
Mitchell Davis:No. I don't. I don't have an OnlyFans. I have no plans to start one either next year.
Gavin Tye:So Don't say never say never.
Mitchell Davis:No. That's true.
Gavin Tye:Six sides haven't played my cards two years ago, but it is what it is. That's
Mitchell Davis:yeah. That's true. Yep. Mate, what are we doing this episode? To make a
Gavin Tye:is, we're gonna look back over the year and, just do our top five moments each. It's so much has changed, particularly in the last three months. An unbelievable amount has changed. And one of the things we've, really enjoyed, well, I've really enjoyed from the podcast. I can't speak for you is going back and saying, oh yeah, we spoke about that then.
Gavin Tye:I forgot completely forgot about it. So we've gone through and highlighted our five, top five moments. And yeah, we'll, and to be completely transparent, we're gonna share what our, what we spent in the business this year, not in time wise, because it's a bit harder to track, but definitely dollar wise what we've taken in and we've some stats. Yeah. Yeah.
Gavin Tye:So
Mitchell Davis:let's kick off with that. So why don't we talk about our revenue and then our expenses for the year? So to get the company set up, we were just going through our bank statements just now, to get the company set up and continue to fund it over the course of the year, you and I combined have put in $15 total, right, into the business. So I think we did about $5 right at the start of the year to get everything up and running. We had, you know, like accounting costs and stuff to get the company set up, then hosting costs through the year before we got AWS credits.
Mitchell Davis:So I think we put in some more money there. And then just about a month ago, we put in some money to fund the AIM sponsorship that we've at the booth at AIM. So, that's the money we put in, but then, the money that we've invoiced to our, paying customers so far has been, there was a, what's that called? A foreign exchange, like conversion in there. So, it's 10 and a half thousand dollars so far for the
Gavin Tye:Is the income we've taken? Yeah. Yeah. And that's not including the two clients that we've got, agreements with the, for next year. So that hasn't come in because we haven't received it.
Gavin Tye:So that goes into next year, but, which is good. And that would potentially dump like increase that by 50%, but we're not going to count that.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Somewhere around there. Yeah. That's right. So, yeah.
Mitchell Davis:So look, it's not a big number by any means. But it's a start and it was pre,
Gavin Tye:it was pre product mate. We took revenue before we had the release product, which is, I don't think many people do that. So I don't think it's, it was an indicator of value, which I think is the most important part. And spending wise, like we've spent just, just over 23,000 for the year on all those costs and stuff like that. So that does include AIM, for next year because we've already paid it.
Gavin Tye:But I think overall, we're trying to bootstrap this. So we're trying to do it. This isn't a massive impost. You know, it's not taking massive chunks out of my savings. Don't think it's taking massive chunks out of yours as well.
Gavin Tye:Yeah. But next year, I think we're gonna do a predictions episode in a couple of weeks, but I think, I don't I would not like it to be the, like, the negative this year. Next, like next year, I would love it to be the inverse of that. Right? So
Mitchell Davis:Well, we're still we're still positive because we've got currently like two and a half grand in the bank account. Yeah. And you could just work that out from, you know, the 15 and the 2 and a and the 10 and a half is 25 and a half. We spent 23,000. We don't have a breakdown of exactly how that's been spent, but there's been like some consulting stuff in there that we hired Chris, who works with me at Atlas to do some work.
Mitchell Davis:We had some accounting through the year and then hosting costs probably would be the the second biggest one in there. So yeah. A few things there. That it that number surprised me a bit. 23,000 seems a bit high.
Mitchell Davis:So where did that money go? But then you think about AIM as well. I mean, that's what a quarter or so of
Gavin Tye:the Yeah. The quarter the Crisp using Crisp was a was a was a quarter. Yeah. The biggest half of the year expenses. Right.
Gavin Tye:And then the large part of that was AWS until we got the credits, like there was big hosting costs. So, yeah. But what I think is really interesting is because we're bootstrapping. I know I've worked with companies that have had funding. Right.
Gavin Tye:And maybe I just wasn't privy to this, but they weren't necessarily thinking about if we spend $2,000 how can we make 20? Now I'm really aware of if we're going to spend a certain amount of money, is that revenue generating or, or, or costs like operational cost reduction and everything. Now I'm thinking about with a client, how much we, we would charge them, but can we turn, can we 10 X that? So like if we charge them $5, can we get $50 later, like through being awareness and stuff like that. So that's where my lens is coming from.
Gavin Tye:And I think, I think we're close. Like, I think that is a real multiply force, multiply the way our business is set up.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Look, totally. It would be very interesting to see if we can continue to multiply, and do basically what you've just talked about there. Can we do that? It worked quite well at volunteering WA.
Mitchell Davis:So if we can get some more of those happening, amazing. So anyway, we'll see. How how are you feeling about the fact that we are bootstrapping? Like, do you still prefer it? Would it be nice to have, you know, a $102,100 grand in funding from somewhere?
Mitchell Davis:Like, how are you feeling about
Gavin Tye:it all? I think at our current stage of growth where we are, I think it's the right thing to do. Yeah. Right.
Mitchell Davis:Is that because it's a bit slower than maybe what like a venture funding firm would want?
Gavin Tye:No, well, I don't, I don't necessarily know what they want, but I also don't think we have a work, like an actual working pipeline yet of how, like a proven pipeline. I think where, I think there's indicators there that we have something special. Right. So the question becomes, where does this change? I've asked myself, where would this ever change?
Gavin Tye:Right. We could continue to boot. Let's just say we have a great product. We do have a great, a great solution. Right?
Gavin Tye:Sure. Let's say we were lucky enough to win project rendezvous, which is we'll talk, I'm going to talk about that later. Cause that is, you know, spoiler alert. That is one of my top five moments. We will get a massive amount of exposure from that potential exposure.
Gavin Tye:Now, if we're just bootstrapping it and I'm only spending twenty hours a week, maybe five hours a week to, to capitalize on that, then that's wrong. That I don't think we're utilizing it. So I do think if you do have a market advantage, you won't have that for long. So maybe that makes sense to then proper build a business, hire people in to, to really get out and do some amazing stuff. I would, know, you could bootstrap it and own a 100% of 10,000,000, or you could take funding and build it to 200,000,000 and have 50% of it.
Gavin Tye:I don't know, 60% of it, 70% of it. Right. I think that's what we've got to weigh up.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Gavin Tye:Yeah. Yeah. Does that make sense?
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. It does. I just so hard to know. Right. Like what to do.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. I, I agree. We're probably not in.
Gavin Tye:I think it's so hard to tell right now. I think we probably need another six months down the track and then we'll know. Right.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Gavin Tye:But then that does require. It does require out like a 100% focus if we go down that path. Right? Yeah, that's right. And that does require a complete shift in both our businesses, both our, our personal lives to be able to accommodate that.
Gavin Tye:And we've, we just don't have an answer for that.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah.
Gavin Tye:My, my gut feeling tells us we will have to make that choice and like in the future, like, yeah. Yeah. And I think it's coming quicker than we think.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. We'll see. It's a bit scary to think about, to be honest, it's exciting, but it's like, if we do get to that point, then that's, some big decisions to be made there. So
Gavin Tye:Fuck. Yeah. It is. Like, there's a lot of risk, but then comes a lot of reward. Right?
Gavin Tye:Yeah. And it's pushing us both well beyond where we've ever been in our lives before. Like Yeah. Which I'm really excited about, to be honest. I really love this whole part of it, that thought of it.
Gavin Tye:Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, it's How, how are
Mitchell Davis:you feeling about that we are still putting money in to the business?
Gavin Tye:It is what it is. We're gonna put more money in before we take money out. Cause it always aligns to the business. So I don't, I still think we're going to hire that marketing person next year. That's going to require us, putting money in.
Gavin Tye:But eventually I think the tide will turn that we'll start getting money back. Right? Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Yep.
Gavin Tye:Yeah. What about how do you feel about it?
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. It I completely agree with you. It is what it is. Right now, it's just what we have to do. Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:And it's okay. It's not a an amount that's like crazy. Know? We're not putting in $50 each into the business. So far, it's what?
Mitchell Davis:7 and a half grand over the course of twelve months now. So it's not that bad, but
Gavin Tye:yeah. The other thing is, is if we don't want to take funding, then at some stage we will might have to put in $50,000 each. Right. To grow a team. But then again, it's like, woah,
Mitchell Davis:like,
Gavin Tye:yeah, that's scary. It is. But well, it's not scary.
Mitchell Davis:I think maybe we wouldn't hire. I'd prefer to not hire unless we can afford it. Right. Like, and just slow the growth down. Like, that would be hiring ahead of revenue, which already, like, with this marketing person, that's what we are effectively going to be doing.
Mitchell Davis:But the the hope is that, like, that is a growth generating role that we are hiring for.
Gavin Tye:Yeah. There are so many things that we need to do. The the one thing is for certain is I'm glad I'm doing it with you. I'm glad we're doing it together. So we'll tackle at the, what makes sense for us both.
Gavin Tye:Yeah, whatever choice we make will feel like we're making the best choice for that particular moment at in time. Right.
Mitchell Davis:Well said, Well said. Yeah.
Gavin Tye:Bit of a teary moment.
Mitchell Davis:No. Well, on that note, why don't we get into our our top five moments
Gavin Tye:for the year? You go first.
Mitchell Davis:You want me to go first? So we're gonna go in from fifth to first.
Gavin Tye:Whatever any particular order. I don't, I don't mind.
Mitchell Davis:No, that's the order that we're doing.
Gavin Tye:Okay. Cause I don't have, I don't have a particular one to five. Yeah. Okay.
Mitchell Davis:Not as prepared as I was, but yet you were giving me shit about like being late and stuff. They're all
Gavin Tye:I have so many to choose from. It's like having many kids. There's no favorites.
Mitchell Davis:Right. No. I've got I've got a favorite. Anyway, so my fifth best moment of the year was starting a podcast with you. Oh, amazing.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. So quite a few of mine some of them are business related, but then quite a few of them are more like personal ones. Mhmm. So starting the podcast, I'm so glad we've done this. We have talked a bit about this over the last few episodes, but, yeah, it's just really nice to have we do this on a weekly cadence.
Mitchell Davis:We get together. We talk shit. Like, it's fun. We got this journal of, like, where we were in the business. Presumably we will continue to do this for the next few years, you know, maybe at some point we get a bit overdoing it and we slow it down a bit.
Mitchell Davis:I don't know. But you know, we're gonna do this for a while and it just continues to be fun. Every time we get on, I'm just having a ball with it. And it's a fun thing to do. It's a bit different.
Mitchell Davis:It's like, you know, having a YouTube channel or whatever. Like it's a creative outlet that it is very minimal work other than just it's not like low effort. Yeah. We still have to get on and know what we're gonna talk about, but like the workload is just get on and you and I talk. And we identified that pretty early on that like it's not like we're here writing out a script or anything of what we're gonna say.
Mitchell Davis:Like, we just get on and we've got you know, we organize this in Trello, list out like 10 bullet points of what we might wanna talk about. We used to not come up with titles beforehand, but now we do so that we know like, okay, this is what we're talking about. It's the main subject. And then away we go. And then like the I'm doing all the editing at least at the moment, and it takes me, like, fifteen minutes, and I've got the episode published.
Mitchell Davis:So it's just like it's really simple. So, yeah, I'm loving it. So
Gavin Tye:Yeah. It's been fun. Like, I I really enjoy our Friday mornings doing a recap, particularly when we can it's it's in the moment. It feels like it's just right now, it's quite memorable. But sometimes when you go back and look at that and you're like, oh shit, like I completely forget.
Gavin Tye:And I know a lot of founders who wish that they had documented their growth better and they have, and they just didn't, and it's not easy to do. And I don't think we're going to see the real value of this for a while to come yet. So yeah, we're, I think we're doing it in good faith to think that in the future, it's going to have a massive payoff. And I don't know what that is. It might be a book.
Gavin Tye:Like, did you get here? Like, it could be could be anything. Like But I've I know I really like it too.
Mitchell Davis:I know that for me, like, I do go back and listen to the episode after. Because during the edit, the reason it only takes me fifteen minutes is because all I'm doing is like we record in Riverside. It's got this ability to mark a clip and go, hey. Okay. Something just happened that you should pay attention to Yep.
Mitchell Davis:While you're doing the edit. Right? Yeah. So I can then go in and all I'm doing is just looking for those, figuring out what went wrong or what I need to change or whatever, and then I hit, export. So, I don't listen to the whole thing until it's fully published.
Mitchell Davis:Do you still listen to the episodes?
Gavin Tye:Yes. I still I love listening to them on Tuesdays when I come out.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Yeah. So I listen to them and then that helps to like because in the moment, I am listening to you, but also I'm thinking of, okay, what am I saying next and all that sort of stuff. So then I get a bit more value out of listening back to that conversation. Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:So, yeah,
Gavin Tye:it's pretty cool.
Mitchell Davis:Alright. That was my fifth highest moment. What's yours?
Gavin Tye:So mine is starting this venture together. Right? Going through it in it was in about November. We had that conversation and then I remember thinking, should we do this? Well, I think we just talked about looking at the Laravel situation, and then we decided after that to do it.
Gavin Tye:And I thought it was, that sometimes like looking back, just that little decision can have little, a little decision like that can have a massive impact on, on our lives. And, yeah, that was probably my, who knows?
Mitchell Davis:It could
Gavin Tye:have been a sliding door moment for, for both of us in time. We'll know. But that was, yeah, to, for me being non technical going, how am I ever going to start a business like, like a tech business like this? And, and not even even really thinking about it, going something will pop up. And then you and I met and then, yeah, that that was probably one of my key moments.
Gavin Tye:Right? And it was right at the beginning.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. That's a huge moment in time for for you and I that kicked everything off. I was just having a look at the emails we got from Roman, our accountant. The company was officially created on the March 24. Okay.
Gavin Tye:So it
Mitchell Davis:was actually March. So we mustn't have invoiced volunteering WA and
Gavin Tye:We would have set the company out to invoice after we started the company. Right? We were working on it since December. So Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:So that took us a while. That's surprising because we were talking in November. Yeah.
Gavin Tye:We delayed it until we had a paying client. That was, so we didn't have to fork out that cost. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Gavin Tye:Alright. Your next one, mate?
Mitchell Davis:Next one. Catching up in June. So you came down here, down my way, in June, and that was fun. So that was our first time meeting in person. I got to meet Heralie and also Dean, your best mate.
Mitchell Davis:I assume your best mate.
Gavin Tye:Is that how you would describe Yeah. Mate. Whatever. Just kidding. No.
Gavin Tye:No. He's a great he's a
Mitchell Davis:great mate. Yep. Oh, he's just a great mate.
Gavin Tye:He's a, he's, he's my, I've known him for a long time. He's not one of my bet. One of my, he's a best mate. Yes. Yeah.
Gavin Tye:I think he's coming.
Mitchell Davis:This is like a sore spot.
Gavin Tye:Oh, dude. No,
Mitchell Davis:no, no, not at all. Not at all.
Gavin Tye:I just don't wanna sound.
Mitchell Davis:Is he your best mate
Gavin Tye:or he's not? Like No. No. He's he's my best mate.
Mitchell Davis:Yes. Okay. There we go. I shouldn't have opened this care to work. Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. I met Dean regardless
Gavin Tye:of his current mate He's a friend.
Mitchell Davis:Status. Yeah. I don't even know if he's a friend at this point. Is he an acquaintance?
Gavin Tye:Fair enough.
Mitchell Davis:Anyway and that was really good. It was great having you here in the office and just catching up. I got to show you this space, the new office before it was ready to go. I remember walking around. Then
Gavin Tye:as it was now.
Mitchell Davis:I know. I'm still I'm in the ordering, furniture phase right now. Thanks for pointing that out. Yeah. So that was really fun.
Mitchell Davis:And going to play ex golf, was it? Yeah. And that was very humbling and fun, but humbling. Mostly humbling. Yep.
Mitchell Davis:But, yeah, it was good. So that was that was number four for me.
Gavin Tye:Number four. So my one was, turn creating a living case study for Six Sides, which was the founders collective, like, to try to give back to the community, to add value and bring people together, but also try, use it as a living case study for six sides where when we started it, we didn't think that we thought only a few people would be interested, but we've had two events now. And in both times, more than a 100 and it was about a 120, a 130 on the first one RSVP'd. And then on the last one, a 156 people RSVP'd. And it was just the feedback was phenomenal.
Gavin Tye:And then also to use six sides, as a, as a tool to help people connect. And then also indirectly as a lead generation tool, to give exposure to six sides, was great. It's absolutely working. Right? So, I have an opportunity that I'm working with with deal buddy now with sale market fit that has come from that.
Gavin Tye:So as well. And then also with, some other pilots who ran with a, you know, prescience and stuff like that. So, just starting that and getting, to be able to give back to the community and grow help community, which is what our mission is, is, and use six sides as a living case study and become a client of it. That was a big one as well for me.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Yep. Well, my third one, our successes at volunteering WA. Mhmm. So that was a big like, think about the buildup.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. We first started talking with them in February. We delivered it in November, early November. It's nine months of, like, this is it. We have to get these guys right.
Mitchell Davis:And we did. Like, it went all in all, it went really well. You flew over there and got to meet everyone and you calling me and saying, yes, like, okay, there were some little issues that we needed to resolve and that was fine. But just largely you calling me and saying, like, it's working. I'm having a lot of people coming up and shaking my hand.
Mitchell Davis:And, you know, you mentioned on the show about being a bit tear teary eyed when the Six Eyed's screens were up on the main screens that they had there and all that sort of stuff. Like, it's it was a big deal. It's our first, like, big we did run Laravel Live Denmark, but neither of us were there. Didn't go as well as we we would have hoped. So this was our first like big successful event that we could be at, you know, in some form.
Mitchell Davis:Yep. And it was awesome. So Yep. And it's led to a lot of opportunities. Right?
Gavin Tye:So, yeah, look, I agree. The It pre I was feeling a lot, quite a lot of not pressure, but there was a lot of workload on, you know, it was pressure a little bit. Like there was a lot of workload on you from March onwards, or even the beginning of the year, all the way up until Laravel live in Denmark and, and pass that into, volunteer in WA. And I've always thought if, if we do design a great experience and people will naturally want to talk to us and, but. And we were doing some lead generation, but it was hard to get leads when we didn't have a product to show people.
Gavin Tye:Right. So I was feeling pressure with like, oh fuck, like is Mitch doing all this work and I'm not going to deliver. And I'm like, no, no, I think it'll change. But I had no, that was just a hunch. Yeah.
Gavin Tye:And it was, I was like, fuck. Anyway, and delivering those two, because it ties into my other top moments here
Mitchell Davis:as well, which we'll get
Gavin Tye:but yeah, that, that was, that was key. Cause I didn't think that with Laravel live, it was, it was okay. I don't think it was fantastic, but the other two were in my eyes fantastic. So, but that also what ties into my mom, my, my one is back earlier in the episodes, were talking about designing holy shit moments. And what, and I got to see them play out in real life.
Gavin Tye:Right. Like we were talking about, you know, the photo like tag your read and actually changing the screen and making it more interactive, but then watching people at volunteering WA and also LaraCon to a smaller degree, but watching that happen and watching them connect and hearing the chatter and all that kind of stuff, I was like, holy shit, like shit, it's working. And, and I've always believed it probably ties in a lot to the rest of here is, is I have a lot of instincts on what I think is right. And, and you, and I have to give you credit here. You are trusting me in those instincts.
Gavin Tye:Right. And saying, no, no, it's gotta be community building or, even the, other translation thing that we spoke about, you are, you're trusting me on those instincts. And, and the instinct that I had was if we just get it in front of people, people will want to use it. There'll be people there. And my instincts are proving to be right, which are like valid, which is validating.
Mitchell Davis:I think your instincts have played out well and have served us very well right from the start where you identified, it is about community, that's going to be our unique value proposition, community building. To some degree, I think, like, I I feel like I'm also contributing with some of that stuff. Yeah. Of course. 100%.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Yeah. But I think, yeah, there have been a few things that you have a few paths that you have led us down that have proven to be fucking glad we're doing this path. Yeah. Not trying to do something else.
Mitchell Davis:And that largely those decisions have come from you.
Gavin Tye:Your instincts come from the, Hey, we're gonna design it like this for future proofing. Right? And then when we were talking about the profile in the app and you go, oh no, no, I've designed that. It's largely there. I just gotta like, and you're, you're thinking, you're thinking three or four, four or five steps ahead and I'm doing the same, but I'm doing it in the, in the market.
Gavin Tye:You're doing it in the product. Yeah, we are visionaries. That's
Mitchell Davis:right. Of our of our own domains.
Gavin Tye:That's right. Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:Excellent. Alright. Well, for me, then because you've done two now, I'm gonna go. You did. You said your other one was that your your top moment was that it's your instincts.
Gavin Tye:Oh, no. I'll wrap that into the one. That's still only
Mitchell Davis:Two bites of the apple.
Gavin Tye:Yeah. Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:Well, for me, my second best moment of the year was at LariCon AU sitting in the crowd as Michael was saying, hey. We're gonna stress test Mitch's app at that point. That's what he was calling it. And it god, it was stressful for the first one that he did because I was like, yep. I don't know.
Mitchell Davis:Is the app just gonna fall over? And we got like, yes, we got a handful. So to set the context for those that weren't there, sitting in the crowd at LaraCon AU, and Michael asked everyone to get their phones out, take a photo of you know whoever's sitting next to them, take a selfie with them. And then that means now we're getting like a couple 100 photos all of a sudden into the gallery. And how does the system handle that?
Mitchell Davis:Does it work? Does it fall over? Etcetera. Largely worked. Like we got like we did genuinely have then hundreds of photos ended up in the gallery within a few minutes.
Mitchell Davis:They all got the facial recognition run on them, people got their points, etcetera. So the system worked I think and he did this like a few times, maybe three times over the course of the event and it worked each time. I didn't have to think about scaling the system up to do that. Like, it just it was okay. I think there were a few photos that maybe didn't go through because I could see some errors.
Mitchell Davis:So we were hitting some limits on some things, but like if 95% of of the photos are going through, like, that's good enough. People can always just retry the upload, you know, if their photo didn't go, it's okay. So that was really cool to see and and had me feeling very good about the infrastructure that we've got. Yeah. And that it's there and that it works.
Gavin Tye:And even socially watching everyone in the in the auditorium talking to each other, taking photos, like, and then all smiling and stuff like that. Like, that just sets a great tone for the whole set, the great tone for the whole conference, which is essentially our crux is, is to help people connect and then get out of the way. Right? That's all we wanna do. We don't wanna be there.
Gavin Tye:You can't have to communicate through the app. We don't want that. We want them to connect and relax. And it, and it worked. It was great to see it.
Gavin Tye:And, we're taking learnings from every conference and then applying it to the next one. And, yeah, there was some massive learnings there and, yeah, it was, it was great. And I can imagine it would have been so fulfilling for you. Like, because you're responsible at the end of the day and your peers are looking at you going well done. Tip tip of the keyboard to you.
Gavin Tye:Well done. That's good.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. That's good. Yes. It did feel like that. It felt great coming away from LaraCon knowing like, okay.
Mitchell Davis:Didn't fail. Like, it worked. You know? And we had less issues there than we did at volunteering WA because we fixed some during volunteering WA. And yeah, so it's like each big event that we run just keeps getting better.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. You know? So eventually it's gonna get to a point where there are zero issues. But it's great. Like, yeah, it was fantastic.
Mitchell Davis:It did feel good to know that the people there genuinely liked it, used it. That was their second time using it as well. So, yeah, it was just great. It was really good. So Anyway, over to you.
Mitchell Davis:So the my
Gavin Tye:top two moment my second moment has been the end of the year. Like and it's a follow on from both of those conferences is we weren't we didn't have a lot of momentum. Like, one of the biggest things that I've seen in businesses is trying to get momentum. And we were trying and trying and trying, and we got some, you know, got some response from, cold outreach on LinkedIn. But the the momentum that was built off just those two conferences in November is, it surprised me.
Gavin Tye:It's surprised me. And even now there's, people coming through to talk to us even on Friday when I was, I took the kids to dream world, Whitewater world. I was having a conversation. The kids were running off into the water and I was like, man, I can't, sorry, I can't talk today, but, there is things coming in. We, we, we don't have a lot of momentum.
Gavin Tye:That's not what the goal is, is we having some momentum and I think two will turn it to 10 or fifteen, fifteen will turn into a 100, like fifty and fifty will turn into two fifty. I think we will see that in the business. That's why I probably think that going all the way back to the bootstrapping question or funding is we wanna maintain that momentum and continue that growing. We're bottle capping ourselves by head count or not bottle capping, bottlenecking ourselves by head count, like we may need to spend before we receive. And that's the only thing like, and I'm sure that plays on infrastructure, and development capacity with you and all that kind of stuff, in time.
Gavin Tye:But yeah, just the end of the year has been really surprising. And I really think that just even in the last four weeks, some pretty big opportunities have kind of coming our way, not just project run of you, but there's another couple here that could be pretty decent opportunities for us.
Mitchell Davis:Right? Yeah.
Gavin Tye:So that has been a big surprise and I've never been in a business that has had this. So this is a surprise for me too. So, I'm looking forward to seeing where 2026 goes for sure.
Mitchell Davis:You and me both. Yep. Alright. Well, my top moment of the year was, again, another personal one. It was a bit of fun when I went up to Brisbane and got to hang out with you and your family before LariCon.
Mitchell Davis:Yep. My top moment of the year I've got here is drinking on the couch with Gavin Mel. That
Gavin Tye:was fun. Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:It was fun. I was having a ball. It was great. Mel got to ask you and I so many questions and, like, getting to getting to connect with Mel and you and see you guys just in your natural element in your house and, like, it was great. That was a just a really fun moment.
Mitchell Davis:I like that sort of thing the most. That's what I like with my family and my friends and stuff. Just hang out. Let's talk some shit. We were laughing for hours.
Mitchell Davis:We stayed up till midnight, I think. And, yeah, it was just, like, that was an awesome moment. So that's my And
Gavin Tye:I feel bad. All your top five moment, most of them have been about us, and I mine were all about six sides. I feel yeah.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. That's okay. Like, that's fine. So I I told you last week as we were all prepping for this, like, yeah, most of mine are gonna be personal because it's it's great that we have customers and that we can create all these moments for people and stuff. Absolutely.
Mitchell Davis:That's the goal of the the business goal. Right? But, also, we need to take stock, and I do, that, you know, we're also creating all of these, like, shared memories together of you and I and our families and stuff like that. Like, that's 100%. That's meaningful.
Mitchell Davis:So, yeah, I I like that. If it I contrast this business, what you and I are doing with some of the other businesses that I'm involved in that have other business partners, which I don't talk about on this show. And, like, I've never had any of those types of what would you even call them? It's not emotional moments. Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:Like like this sort of a thing, you know, this, like, easygoing friendship, like, we have going on and sharing that with our families. Like, I've never had that ever with other business partners in other businesses. So Okay. Yeah. I really appreciate it.
Mitchell Davis:So
Gavin Tye:Yeah. Well, I've seen, like, another businesses that I've been part of where the founders are founders, but they speak at work and then they don't really interact after. Like Yeah. I'm like, well, if it's to me, work's work. It's work blends into everything.
Gavin Tye:It's not just stopping at nine to five, though I do stop and make sure I hang out with the kids in the afternoon and stuff. But I like, I will text outside of work. It's just about fun shit. Like I texted you my smoked ham that I'm, pulled ham that I'm doing today. What I do, that was great.
Gavin Tye:One thing that I would like to do in 2026 though, is have Nicole more involved because she it's you into our family mostly, well not us into yours. So, I think we could work on that as well.
Mitchell Davis:I think so too.
Gavin Tye:I would like to do that, because she's part of this, you know, she designed the logo. She has a yeah. Yeah. And, but that, yes, that was fantastic. And it makes me think that we do need to spend not just one or two times a year together.
Gavin Tye:Like we have to spend more time together, but, but again, we speak so often. We have to be more purposeful, especially if we're growing a business and doing a, we're going to bring team members on like that's we, our culture is our culture here, but if, when we start bringing on others, particularly with, we grow fast, we have to be able to, We have to be able to, be more deliberate in certain things, I think. But yeah, I agree. That was a fun night. Yeah.
Gavin Tye:We'll get it. Didn't like it the next day. Felt a bit rough, but other than that, yeah.
Mitchell Davis:And I had to travel up to Funny Brisbane to go go to conference.
Gavin Tye:Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:Anyway. Alright. Let's hear about your boring business oriented top one goal of being boring.
Gavin Tye:My main thing, my main one at the moment is so I I think if I round mine out is opportunity, right? Like we're always trying to create opportunities. My biggest one at the moment is it's still not to conclusion is the potential of project rendezvous. Right. You know, I was in a business once where we won a ma where we got a written letter of intent from a massive Queensland government organization and it would have changed the business completely, but then there was an election and they changed the direction.
Gavin Tye:But project rendezvous, which was an come from one of the conferences has the ability, if we are successful is to completely change us. It's take us to somewhere that we may not have been looking at for another couple of years. And I listened to a podcast I was on the other day, which was, the product bus. And I laid out my plan with Scottie Allen. And when I look back at what we delivered on that last meeting with, project RundaView, I delivered that to a tee.
Gavin Tye:Absolutely nailed it. I would say checkbox a 100% of what I was trying to achieve when we did it.
Mitchell Davis:It wasn't that complicated, but, and You laid that out. That conversation that you had with Scotty was like a month in advance or something like that.
Gavin Tye:Yeah. No, it was two weeks in advance, something like that. Was it
Mitchell Davis:two weeks?
Gavin Tye:Yeah. Okay.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. And,
Gavin Tye:and it, and it hit it and now I'm going, I think, I think I've been doing sales market fit and, deal buddy and all that stuff. I think that's been in preparation for this. Right. I think why couldn't we win it? Why couldn't we win it?
Gavin Tye:Right. We're a good shot at it. We're a bloody good shot at it. And, I really look forward to the time where we can reveal what project Rhonda view is right to everyone that's listening. Right.
Gavin Tye:Yep. Yep.
Mitchell Davis:We'll see hopefully early next year, January, February, somewhere around there.
Gavin Tye:Yeah. And this is, this is the reason why at the end of the day, I think you asked me to partner with you is for this. Right? Oh, you don't, you don't get many opportunities like this and you cannot fuck them up. Cause they don't come along.
Gavin Tye:They won't another one like that. If we don't win that won't come along for another couple of years. Right. You know, we may not win it. Who who knows?
Gavin Tye:But we'll do our best shot. It won't be because we didn't do the right things. So, yeah. Yep. So that that is my top moment because of the, what it can present us or what it could do for us in, 2026 and beyond.
Gavin Tye:Yeah. Two thousand thirty two Olympics. That's what I'm chasing, mate. And I'm still, it's still on my mind.
Mitchell Davis:Yep. Yep. Yep. Well, you can continue to keep us posted. I think it says a lot about us that your top moment is like about the future and mine is just about drinking on the couch.
Gavin Tye:Not outdoors and not in the sun. Yeah. That's it.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. I don't know that I I've come out favorably there in that equation. Probably not, but that's okay. It's all right.
Gavin Tye:You know? You're dealing with the now when I'm out out out trying to think about the future. Yeah. Yeah. It's now getting pissed.
Gavin Tye:Mate, I've been two weekends or two weekends now, not drinking again. So I feel
Mitchell Davis:a bit better. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Okay.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Well, are you gonna do you plan to continue that over Christmas?
Gavin Tye:I don't wanna say yes or no, because I know what the holiday season's like. So I don't wanna say, oh no, I'm not gonna drink and come back and give you a murder drink.
Mitchell Davis:No. That's right. Yeah. Just, just, just do what you can. And you've got a birthday coming up soon.
Mitchell Davis:One week from today, it will be when this you do. I've got it in my calendar. Yep. One week, it will be yesterday as you're listening to this. So send Gavin a a belated birthday.
Mitchell Davis:Yep. To
Gavin Tye:Happy birthday. Birthday journey at Six Eyes. Yeah. So I guess I'm
Mitchell Davis:not setting up another inbox. Just just normal journey at Six Eyes.
Gavin Tye:So I guess that's, our top five moments. I I agree. All those moments that you said are really special. Right? And I think getting to know each other I think doing this podcast every week is a really good way to get to know each other.
Gavin Tye:We have I was almost gonna say our conflict was a top five moment of us because we actually, it's not smooth sailing, but where is maybe ten or fifteen years ago, I would have gone, ah, fuck it. Like I would have not, I wouldn't have known how to deal with it, but I think that we've become stronger from it. Like, that's a, that's a bonus moment.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Well, yes. So if you give me the opportunity to do a six and seven, then that would be
Gavin Tye:Six, seven.
Mitchell Davis:Thank you. Sorry. Got it. Then that would be one of those two. I don't have them in order.
Mitchell Davis:I completely agree. So for some context, I don't know how long ago, but maybe a month or two ago. Yeah. We had a disagreement, about something, and I was just questioning you on something and I didn't handle it very well. And yeah.
Mitchell Davis:It's just like Exactly. We don't have to rehash it, but we then took a day or two away, and then came back and spoke about it really openly. And since then our communication has gotten probably a lot better, and we'll continue to always get better whenever we have any of these sorts of issues that come up.
Gavin Tye:Yeah. Do you know, it's hard. One thing I've noticed is when you don't have leads or clients or opportunities coming into a business and you're not getting any feedback from the market, whatever's a little issue becomes way worse. Like, it's like the tide goes out and it shows all rocks, but when you're getting momentum and you're getting positive energy and positive moments from clients, then all that stuff seems to fade away a lot more because it's like, you're getting excited. But that doesn't mean there will be darker times where we'll come into times where there's not much or real testing times, but I think we have a good framework for communication or not, maybe not.
Gavin Tye:Yes. But I think for resolving stuff as well. I think that's really important. Right?
Mitchell Davis:So, yeah, it was episode 36. If you want to go back and There was
Gavin Tye:also one before that earlier in the year too, right at the beginning. And I can't remember what it was about, but that was our first, our first mom and dad fighting episode. But I do
Mitchell Davis:I'm the dad. I'm the dad. So just so quickly. Maybe it's dad and dad fighting.
Gavin Tye:Yeah. Right. This is weird.
Mitchell Davis:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You opened the the metaphor, man. So the, seventh, I guess, moment for me was with Laravel Live Denmark.
Mitchell Davis:So I'm very pleased that we got them and that we were able to run the event there. I've the the highlight part, like, reason it's a top five moment, top seven moment would be, like, the first hour or two Mhmm. Of that conference when things were going pretty well and people were installing the app and they were taking photos, etcetera. We could see it, like, starting to get used. After that, things started to go not as well, and it was, like, some really late nights on that weekend and Yeah.
Mitchell Davis:Issues with servers and all sorts of stuff that we've now hopefully addressed. But, yeah, that was in there as well. And I thought about adding that to to my list here, but, just didn't make the cut.
Gavin Tye:We turned that around and took some massive lessons and then even like where your mental state of going too far into the red too, how that impacts you and like, okay. Yeah. Even sometimes after that, you've gone, no, no, no. I'll do it. And then me being able to go, hang on.
Gavin Tye:No. No. No. No. Like, that's too far into your red zone.
Gavin Tye:Let's just bring it back a little bit so it's more sustainable. And I think from that event onwards, we've been able to help. You've been able to run close to that red line, but not really get over it and be a lot more. Mentally stable is not the right word, but not stressed out as much. I get you.
Gavin Tye:Yeah. And even when you were trying to over commit and I'm like, no, no, no, Let's just bring it back a little bit. And at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. Right? So, what we commit to and what we don't, what, but you ended up going above and beyond anyway.
Gavin Tye:And I think that in itself is when we're working remotely, I think that is really, important to know where your each other's limits are. I was feeling it only a few weeks ago myself. And because we've gone through that with you, I was able to go, Hey, look, this is what I'm feeling. You're like, okay, I get it. I understand.
Gavin Tye:So, yeah. And I think that's probably one of the biggest challenges working with someone remotely is you don't get to have that, informal communication many times a day. Right.
Mitchell Davis:And just like observing, oh fuck, Gavin looks really stressed, you know? Like I don't get to see that, you know? So, yeah. Anyway, it's good. Well, we've we've overshot it by you got a couple extra moments there for the year.
Gavin Tye:Bonus track one and two.
Mitchell Davis:So, mate, where can people find you online?
Gavin Tye:LinkedIn, Gavin Ty. Find me there. And also the delete podcast by Founders Collective on there as well. Got some great ones coming out over the break. Yep.
Gavin Tye:And you, mate?
Mitchell Davis:Ah, well done. Okay. Very good. You can find me on LinkedIn and in all other places with Mitch Dev. That's where you'll get me.
Mitchell Davis:We wish you a very happy New Year. We hope you had an awesome Christmas if you are a Christmas person, and we will catch you all next week with a special long form episode getting to know Mitch and Gav. Alright? So we kinda walk through our backstory and how we met and how we felt about the year and different moments and all sorts of stuff. So get ready for that one.
Mitchell Davis:We'll be back to normal episodes releasing on the January 13. Crazy. It's already here. So Yep. Awesome.
Mitchell Davis:Alright, mate. I will catch you in a couple weeks.
Gavin Tye:Alright, mate. See you later.
Mitchell Davis:See you.