Smart50 rank: 42
Revenue: $1.24 million
Growth: 30.02%
Founders: Charlie Gunningham, 35; Nick Streuli, 44
Based: Western Australia
Employees: 7
Industry: Internet
Website: www.aussiehome.com
A focus on useability and a foothold in the strong Perth property market has helped Aussiehome.com to thrive in the highly competitive online real estate classified market.
Founders Charlie Gunningham (pictured) and Nick Streuli came up with the idea for a map-based property classifieds site as MBA students in 1999. After some positive feedback from their professors, the duo took advantage of the easy money available in the dot-com boom to take the idea from classroom project to funded prototype in a matter of weeks.
Gunningham and Streuli experienced some hard times early on, particularly when the tech crash dramatically increased the performance demands of investors overnight.
The business is now on a steady footing, however, with its three areas of operation - the classified website, web development and print design, each making a solid contribution.
The incandescent growth of the Perth property market (until recently) also hasn't hurt, helping Aussiehome.com to average 30.2% growth in 2006-07 and 2007-08. Revenue was $1.23 million in 2007-08, compared with $1.01 million the previous year.
Aussiehome.com now has big plans for international expansion, with a team on the ground in India and ventures up and running in Singapore and Bali.
