Creative Biz Series: Jess Rhufus, founder of collabosaurus

I first met Jess Rhufus, founder of Collabosaurus at the New Beginnings Fair, where she was doing a marketing workshop. Since then, I have been following her journey over on the beautiful Collabosaurus insta feed and listening to her wonderful marketing podcast; Stop, collaborate and listen. Collabosaurus is a fantastic tool for marketing, especially if you are starting out and do not have a big budget.

It’s like tinder for business and connects complementary businesses for powerful brand partnerships. These collaborations can happen across social media, products and events, leveraging each brands’ existing assets as a means to grow. Think GoPro x Redbull, Chandon x Seafolly, TimTam x Gelato Messina. You can check out some awesome case studies here.

So without further ado, grab a cuppa and get stuck into some seriously meaty biz advice!

Jess Rhufus! Tell us what you are up to today?

I have just polished off a strong coffee and I’m getting my inbox to ‘0’ before tackling the to-do list. Today is a bit of a ‘meetings’ day! I have check-ins with everyone in the team, chatting through the soon-to-be-launched analytics feature with our new developer. Then, I’m off to the CBD for a meet up with a friend who just started with ANZ and an old university friend who now works at Google. When I’m back at the desk, I’ll be building out some new marketing content and finalising a design brief – then organising some assets for potential investos. Thank goodness for coffee.

What do you LOVE about your business?

I love so many things! I love the freedom it gives me, as well as the drive and agility. There’s no better way to learn things than to put them into real-life scenarios, and I’m really fascinated and passionate about the whole marketing space. Collabosaurus allows me to be a complete marketing nerd, all the time.

What are your daily habits to keep you on track for world domination?

I have very few daily habits – every day is different! The one constant is walking to the coffee shop and getting a morning caffeine fix. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but I take that 10 minutes to get clear on the day ahead, take a moment for myself and indulge a little.

What has been your biggest business challenge to date and how have you overcome it?

I hit a new challenge every week it seems haha. I suppose the biggest challenge so far has been the cost of building and maintaining a software platform. Tech, while incredibly scalable, is expensive if you want quality developers. I’m still overcoming this, but how I’ve approached it is by incrementally making improvements and going after a capital raise to help us significantly scale.

If you could pick just one thing that has contributed to your success to date, what has it been?

Proactively going after opportunities, even if they’re uncomfortable.

If you could only work 2 hours per week ‘on’ your business (ie growing the business, not client work) what would you do to get the most results?

I would collaborate of course! Brand -to -brand partnerships, the ones we facilitate through Collabosaurus, are up to 30x less expensive than other digital advertising and help you grow your network at the same time. GoPro x Redbull, Spotify x Uber, Moconna x Peter Alexander – these are all examples of two businesses joining forces, and leveraging each others’ assets as a means to grow. It’s no secret I’m obsessed with business collabs, and that is absolutely what I would invest my time into.

What is your go-to for getting a dose of inspiration?

Good old Instagram and podcasts. It depends on what kind of inspiration I’m looking for, but I’m loving podcasts at the moment.

What is your favourite quote that gets you fired up?

Don’t wait for opportunity, create it.

If you could give budding entrepreneurs one piece of advice, what would it be?

Read the above quote and put yourself out there!

Jess Rhufus is the Founder of Collabosaurus, a B2B marketing software that match-makes brands for clever collaborations. Her passion for creative brand experiences & marketing moved her from a background in fashion publicity and SME education, to developing Collabosaurus. Jess now runs entrepreneurial events around Australia and has built the Collabosaurus platform for over 4500+ members seeking product, event and social media partnerships. Jess has also spoken for Apple, General Assembly, The Collective Hub, ADMA & The College of Event Management.