• Shaun Quincey.
  • The Quincey's – Charlie, Shaun, Mac and Lisa.
  • Shaun on his Tasman rowing adventure in 2010.
  • Shaun and Lisa in San Francisco, taking son Mac to his first Golden State Warriors NBA basketball game in Oakland.

Leading, building and scaling

Talking business with Shaun Quincey...

As Channel Magazine readers will be well aware of, we love highlighting Shore people who are achieving great things. One such person is 34 year old Shaun Quincey. The Bays resident will be best known to most as the first person to row solo across the Tasman from Australia to New Zealand. What many won’t know is he’s gone on to quickly carve out a successful career in business, recently selling his first start-up business when it was just over two years old. Channel Magazine's Aidan Bennett caught up with him for a chat in mid-April.

At age four years Shaun Quincey first moved to the Shore as his father Colin was based with the Navy at Devonport. He attended Vauxhall Road Primary, Belmont Intermediate and Takapuna Grammar. The sports-mad youngster played a range of sports with rugby becoming a passion in his teenage years. Shaun made the Takapuna Grammar First XV at age 14 and played in various age group teams at the North Shore Rugby Club. Rowing also entered Shaun’s life at Takapuna Grammar School, providing the stepping stones to Surf Boat rowing and eventually his Tasman rowing adventures. The Mairangi Bay Surf Club has also been a constant for Shaun and he is still an active member today.

What makes Shaun Quincey’s story even more intriguing is that before he was born his father Colin became the first man to row solo from New Zealand to Australia – the opposite direction to what Shaun would do some 33 years later. Colin’s feat took a gruelling 63 days while Shauns took 54 days.

During the period when Shaun was preparing for his rowing adventure he was working in business development and advertising and doing a Masters degree in Business Administration. So when the buzz of the adventures curtailed – and the book had been written and published –  it was time to earn some money. He went back to business.

Shaun joined Shore-based business Debitsuccess, part of Transaction Services Group. Debitsuccess was founded in 1994 to offer payment services to the fitness industry.

“I had a good mate working there and he said there was a sales job in the offering, so I applied,” explained Shaun Quincey, when recounting how he first got into the data driven payment services sector.

“I spent five years progressing through the business and then an opportunity came up to help them launch the business in the States. So my wife Lisa and I relocated to San Francisco with our then six month old baby and we really did have a ball. It was something I enjoyed immensely and was a great opportunity. I pretty much got immersed in the Silicon Valley culture and travelled all over the States. We experienced exciting growth  with Debitsuccess and it was a wonderful learning experience for me. I was exposed to the recurring revenue business model on a large scale as well as the mergers and acquisitions process.”

Shaun says that the pull of home – and the Shore, and his desire to own his own business, was behind the decision of Shaun and Lisa to return home in 2016, after two years living in San Francisco.

“I had always had a passion to own my own company and the family had grown with our second child born in the States. The kids were still young so we felt it was time to come home. I had seen business models in the States that I wanted to have a go at. By that time I had also developed some pretty good expertise around creating software for business. So we came home and kicked off a new venture we called Genoapay.”

Shaun Quincey says he chose the name as the Italian city of Genoa was where money was invented. His aim with Genoapay was to build a global platform that gives organisations the easiest way to create payment plans with customers at point of sale. The concept is that Genoapay lets shoppers pay for goods or services of up to $1,500 in 10 weekly instalments using their debit or credit card and attracting no interest. Instead, it charges merchants a fee for being able to offer the instalment payment option. The business has gone on to offer a world class mobile friendly digital purchase interface that establishes payment plans with customers quickly. Genoapay supports clients through an automated payment plan tracking and digital negotiation platform.

The business started with Shaun using a desk for eight months in his brother-in-law’s office in Vega Place on the Shore. He also spent three months using the Browns Bay Library. At that time he also turned to The Icehouse, the respected business assistance organisation, to help him with business coaching and to assist with raising the capital needed from investors.

“While I had built up some funds during my time working in the States we really needed capital to scale the business quickly,” explains Shaun. “Our initial goal was to raise $1million."

At that time NBR reported Shaun's ambition was to "build his instalment payment platform into a $1 billion business”.

Shaun managed to raise the $1 million he was after. He pitched Genoapay to investors at a demo day after being involved in a six-month Flux Accelerator Programme co-funded by The Icehouse and Callaghan Innovation. This success in securing investment capital caused little surprise at the time as the experts were saying that Shaun Quincey’s offering had many of the features that investors and funds were looking for in startups. This included targeting a market that needs disrupting and attracting support and interest from key users and supporters in the ecosystem.

As part of the process Shaun brought on 27 investors. He retained 50% ownership of the business with the 27 investors representing the other 50%. The business was launched in August 2016.

“The capital was important and I am also a big believer in the need for coaching and accountability and The Icehouse programme provided a way for me to get both of those,” said Shaun when explaining why he choose to work with The Icehouse.

This process of investment and coaching from The Icehouse also connected him with experienced business people who have played a role as investors, directors and coaches for Shaun and Genoapay. These people have included Phil Ellison of Finance Now, former Paymark CEO Mark Rushworth, Graeme Ransley founder of M-Comm and Rod Snodgrass.

The business hasn’t taken long to grab the attention of other players in the market. In December 2018 Genoapay was acquired by consumer finance business Latitude Financial Services. They were keen to add Genoapay to its portfolio alongside Gem Visa and other products. The deal was based on Shaun continuing to lead the business.

“We were growing quickly in a sector with a lot of competition and we needed to supercharge scale quickly to stay competitive,” explained Shaun about their decision to sell the business. “Lattitude came calling and we believed the alignment was pretty good. They have scale, security and would enable us to grow quicker. The offer was obviously attractive for Genoapay and its investors as well, with around a 300% return on their investment.”

So what are the key things that Shaun Quincey has learnt on this journey of establishing, building and selling his first business?

“As I have already mentioned, coaching and accountability are important. The willingness to continue learning and listening are also important. Having a good team around you is a key ingredient and we have that at Genoapay. We have pretty much had the same team right the way through. I am of the belief that it is easier to coach than recruit. If you’ve got people with the right values, good people – and we implemented a values contract at the start – my belief is that you are better to coach and up skill those good people than look to recruit.

"I am also a believer in the importance of building tension in business. It is healthier all round when you are trying to achieve a maximised result. Two people going for something means competition, which is healthy. It is very hard to sell a business if you haven’t got two people or organisations trying to buy it. People thrive off FOMO!”

You’ve achieved some great things already in your life and are still only 34. What does the future hold for Shaun Quincey?

“I really enjoy leading, building and scaling. So that will remain a focus. I am also passionate about New Zealand business – we thrive on being the underdog. I am keen on taking New Zealand businesses global while keeping their bases in New Zealand. With my experience overseas and in New Zealand I can tell you that Kiwi’s get things done!

“I am also now an investor myself as I have a couple of small companies I have invested in. I am enjoying a mentoring role with those businesses and am also mentoring in the Kiwibank FinTech Accelerator programme.”

Shaun Quincey is also a sought-after public speaker. He is the keynote speaker at the North Harbour Club’s North Harbour Business Hall of Fame Dinner on Thursday May 2nd at The Wharf, Northcote Point. Shaun was a recipient of a North Harbour Club AIMES Award for excellence in 2010.

During the hour I spent with Shaun Quincey it was pretty obvious that he is passionate about the North Shore and the lifestyle it offers his young family. His youngsters Mac and Charlie are now aged four and five. There is no doubt he will be a valuable leader in our Shore community in the years ahead.