How a Melbourne startup doubles staff numbers in 12 months

Office workers head to Flinders Street Station in central Melbourne February 10, 2011. Reuters/Mick Tsikas

Whispir, a communications startup in Melbourne, has revealed the need to double its headcount in 12 months to deal with customer demand. The company earned over $15.6 million in the 2016 calendar year.

Whispir had to add staff members, taking its headcount to 140 from 70 in just 12 months. Further addition in the company’s headcount is expected in the future. The company needs more people after it has seen a 56 percent compound annual growth from the 2015 to 2017 financial years. It also recorded a 68 percent annual growth in transactions per customer.

Founder and chief executive Jeromy Wells told Business Insider they intend to expand significantly. He revealed they are going to add another 250 staff this year.

Whispir labels itself as a communications-apps-as-service provider where clients can create content such as alerts on timetable changes and service outages with tailored messages to end users. Telstra is one of its major customers. Wells also revealed that the Asian market has been a major performer for the company in the past year.

The startup was backed by NSI Ventures, Rippledot Capital and Telstra Ventures in last year’s series A. It was founded in 2002.

The company has allowed a channel sales model. That means the consumer-facing selling is conducted by partners such as IBM, Telstra and Twilio.

Meanwhile, a communications software startup that powers Netflix, Uber and AirBnB seeks to provide jobs in Australia. Twilio builds software connectors for tech companies to consume mobile voice and SMS and other telecommunications services. It already has some Australian startups customers, including Airtasker, Deputy and ZipMoney.

It is now seeking to build a physical presence in the country. Twilio chief operating officer George Hu has confirmed to reporters in Sydney that they are building their presence here and that part of that is hiring a developer evangelist. A country manager is also part of their plan.

Hu has visited Australian fintech ZipMoney while he was here. He said the staff was shocked to have their first interaction with Twilio since taking up their services four years ago.

“You never talk to anyone but you’ve been a customer for that long? It’s really fascinating, this new model,” Business Insider quotes him as saying.

The San Francisco-headquartered company, which was founded in 2008, has over 800 staff internationally. It has declared 2016 revenues of $277.3 million and an operational GAAP loss of $41.3 million.

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