Adrian Willis on his move from
beer lover to tech entrepreneur

Unless you’re a purveyor of fine ales, a bar owner or restaurant manager you may not be aware of the implications when the beer runs dry. Thirsty patrons, anyone?

Thank goodness then, for entrepreneur and MYOB Head Start for Start Ups 2018 finalist, Adrian Wills.

Hi Adrian, Trickle has to be one of the best names going around. What’s the story behind it?

Ha ha! Thank you.

Trickle is a tech-based beer monitoring system and I came up with the idea as a little side project to my day job as a software developer.

"I’m a problem solver, and when beer runs out…that’s a problem."

Some people say the best ideas arrive when you’re not looking for them. Was that the case for you?

My mind is always ticking over. The idea for Trickle came to me while I was working at my last company.

They had a beer tap which would inevitably run out at beer o’clock… and I wanted to keep it running!

When did you realise you were on to something?

That side project quickly turned into a business idea.

I realised a system for accurately measuring, recording and keeping track of beer would be valuable to anyone who owns a beer tap. Every bar, in other words!

"It was exciting to get out and pitch my idea."

When did you first hear about MYOB?

During their Head Start for Start Ups competition, last year.

I reached the finals and received expert pitch mentoring and business advice from Dan Khan at ZeroPoint Ventures. I pitched the concept onstage to an audience of industry professionals, which was a fantastic experience.

Is it fair to say life before MYOB looked very different?

Well, accounting and I haven’t always the best of friends because time management has always been a sticking point for me.

Now I don’t have to set aside a full day at the end of each month for invoicing and reconciliations like I used to.

Knowing that I can rely on MYOB to do all the nitty gritty stuff and not have to touch a spreadsheet means I can just get on with the business.

"With MYOB, everything is in the cloud."

As someone who’s good at pitching, how would you pitch MYOB?

The same way I pitched Trickle. It’s about taking a piece of admin you don’t want to deal with and automating it to make things easier.

It’s also about knowing where you stand, wherever you do business.

We’ll drink to that, thanks Adrian.

No problem!

"I can sort my payments and invoices in between the real stuff."