In their main chat on Add To Cart, Melissa Wilkinson and Matt Mosse-Robinson showed us how they’ve built one of Australia’s most impressive ecommerce engines: scaling personalised gifting without losing speed, control or their minds.
But in this Checkout, we get a look at the people behind the polished laser engravers. And let’s just say… things got weird (in the best way).
The tiny sandwich press that sparked regret
Mel’s answer to the weirdest thing she’s ever bought online was a bright yellow sandwich press. But not just any press: this one slices a standard sandwich into four miniature squares, each roughly four centimetres wide. Cute in theory. Slightly chaotic in practice.
Like a lot of ecommerce founders, Mel has a soft spot for quirky, clever products. But as she admitted, the sandwich press falls into that “used it once, looked adorable, now lives at the back of the cupboard” category. Sound familiar?
The Better Brother trophy (and a five-year losing streak)
Matt’s answer one-upped the press, literally. He and his brother are locked in an ongoing rivalry, commemorated by a real trophy engraved with “Better Brother Award”. The winner gets to keep it until the next showdown.
The bad news is Matt’s been on the losing end for five years. As Mel cheekily pointed out, “He’s gotten older”. Their words, not ours.
It’s the kind of story you’d expect from the team behind a business that specialises in meaningful, cheeky, and deeply personal gifts, and it’s proof they live their brand as much as they sell it.
Asana, Shopify and a fully customised stack
When asked what tech they couldn’t live without, Mel didn’t hesitate: Asana. Not just for its workflow capabilities, but for the flying unicorn that appears when you tick off tasks. “It gives me that dopamine rush,” she laughed. Totally valid.
Matt, ever the steady ops mind, called out Shopify Plus, the platform that finally freed them from the clutches of Magento. Since migrating, they’ve built a mostly custom ecosystem on top of Shopify, tailored for their incredibly complex product and production workflows. There’s a reason they’ve stayed profitable while scaling custom at volume. And it’s not luck.
P&Ls, transparency, and real-world financial frameworks
Matt’s book rec was undoubtedly Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. It’s a classic among ecommerce founders and for good reason. As a former corporate banker, Matt found the simple framework surprisingly powerful in keeping a handle on margin, cashflow, and sustainable growth.
Mel gave a shout-out to Brittany Saunders’ Big Business podcast, especially the episode where Brittany opens up her profit and loss publicly. That kind of transparency is rare in ecommerce, and both Mel and Matt see it as essential, not just for learning, but for normalising the messy reality behind the polished social feeds.
Balancing ops, growth and a bit of self-worth
When it came to their biggest challenge right now, both Matt and Mel landed on the same pain point: focus. There are more ideas than hours in the day, and AI has only made the backlog bigger. For a business running everything from production to marketing in-house, picking what not to do is half the battle.
But Mel’s main challenge is probably not being able to clone herself. Between strategic planning, running a complex business, raising two kids and keeping her marriage happily alive, she’s got a full dance card. And like most founders, she’s learning that burnout doesn’t scale.
Still, when Nathan asked if it was hard for them to toot their own horn, Mel didn’t hold back: “We’re a really good business to deal with.” And honestly? No arguments here.
🎧 Whether you’re scaling complexity or just trying to find five minutes of focus in your day, there’s plenty to take from Matt and Mel’s story (even if you don’t have a Better Brother trophy). Listen to the latest Checkout episode with the founders of one of Australia’s leading personalised gifting brands, now live:
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