07 Jun Episode 36 – Art, Philanthropy and Start-ups with Nathan Cher
Art, Philanthropy and Start-ups are three of Nathan Cher’s passions and have played a major role in his personal and business journey. According to Nathan the common theme in all three endeavours are: backing individuals, investing money and taking risk, and providing guidance to help the business, artist or charity reach its goals.
Nathan has had a fascinating business career from co-founding a tech company in his early 20s and growing it to staff of more than 1400, to investing in multiple start-up companies and helping to bring to Australia a crowdfunding platform to provide every day investors with the same opportunity. Nathan believes strongly in providing ongoing guidance and governance to the businesses he is involved in and his views on the role of directors are relevant to all businesses, regardless of size.
So whether you are interested in art, philanthropy and start-ups, or are looking for a new perspective on business and investing, you are sure to enjoy listening to this week’s show.
“If you are a young entrepreneur make sure the problem your enterprise is solving is a real and big problem”. – Nathan Cher
“You need to prepare to work really hard. A young business can be like a highly dependent child”. – Nathan Cher
“Be realistic about your research and forecasts and be pragmatic and conservative. There is nothing worse than feeling of being half undressed when someone interrogates your numbers until they confess something that you should have known better ” – Nathan Cher
Today on the Finance Hour Podcast:
- Nathan’s first computing experience as a teenager with a clone of an Apple2E.
- The four movies which influenced the direction of Nathan’s career (hint: Ferris Bueller’s day off is one of them!)
- How Nathan co-founded Com Tech (later to become Dimension data) in his early 20s during the 1980s and grew the business to a staff of more than 1400 people before selling the company. The culture of the business remains intact to this day.
- Nathan’s investment in ‘Moula Money’ which is taking on the big banks by leveraging technology to provide loans quickly and efficiently to small businesses.
- How Tonic Health Media uses the dead time in the waiting rooms of Doctors and Dentists to provide targeted advertising.
- Nathan’s 3 tips for people embarking on a business start-up.
And be sure to listen to my “Propellerhead of the week” where I talk about a fantastic way to plan your tax-deductible giving using a Public Ancillary Fund
Mentioned Resources:
Thanks for tuning in!
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