SmartCompany50 rank: 15
Revenue: $2.1 million
Growth: 74%
Founders: Jeff Bresnahan, 45
Based: Sydney
Employees: 12
Industry: Property & Business Services
Website: www.superratings.com.au
Superannuation is a key part of the Government’s retirement income policy and after changes to regulations, billions of dollars has been poured into superannuation funds recently. The companies that have been the recipients of such largess now dominate the list of Australia’s largest private companies.
But back in 2002, Jeff Bresnahan could see there was no measurement of the funds and consumers had no information on which to judge the value of their fund.
The initial launch was met with a frosty reception. “What we were proposing had never been tried before,” he says. It was particularly hard because the upstart was openly challenging the value offered by large financial institutions. Consumers are now provided with free and basic information online and the site now attracts 17,000 unique visitors a month.
Once one key client was in place, much of the rest of the industry was forced to follow. Cashflow in the early years also provided interesting moments, he says, because of the continual need to do research and development. “We now take a long-term approach and reinvest all available assets back into maximising service delivery.”
Since launching, four competitors have come into the market and now superannuation ratings are part of media reporting. “Our statistics are widely quoted and Australians at least now have a reasonable basis for comparison.”
Bresnahan says growth will come from international markets where their systems can be easily replicated as different markets adopt models similar to the successful Australian model. There are also more opportunities with Australian consumers as they become more engaged with superannuation, although the industry is becoming more professional and increasingly competitive.
