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[Voiceover]: Welcome to the Checkout. We catch up with previous add to cart guests and ask them five quick questions to get to know them better and leave you with a little extra inspiration to get you through your Friday.
[Ad]: Today's checkout features Matt Allen, CEO of Tract Ventures Tractor Ventures offer revenue based finance meaning that they can provide capital in return for payback with interest. Once you start generating the returns from the investment, it means that founders don't have to give away big chunks of equity to unlock growth. They've already attracted lots of interest, including e commerce leaders such as Kate Morris from adore Beauty, Ed McManus from Deliveroo and Rob Ward from Quadlock who are all involved in the fund.
Nathan Bush: Matt Allen, welcome to the Checkout. We are going to get five quick questions to learn a little bit more about yourself. We'll get straight into it. Number one, what is the weirdest thing that you've ever bought online?
Matt Allen: I bought two cars from Tesla and I almost bought a tow bar last week so I don't know if that's weird.
Nathan Bush: And I heard that your Tesla, you were the second person in Australia to
Matt Allen: have a Tesla in Victoria.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, in Victoria.
Matt Allen: The Sydney folk got it first. But yes, it was a very different experience back in the beginning of 2015.
Nathan Bush: How did you order it? Because I just told my story on because I was weird story. I was a guest on my own podcast and I told my story. I had to answer this question. I said Tesla as well. But mine was 18 months ago and it was a pretty slick experience. Yours probably wouldn't have been that slick, would it?
Matt Allen: No, mine was rolled off the back of a car carrier in industrial state with a dude in a high vis vest gave me the key and said I assume you know what to do with this and I drove off. It was January 15, 2015.
Nathan Bush: Wow, that's high confidence in Tesla back then. Yeah, yeah. Beauty.
Matt Allen: All right.
Nathan Bush: Number two, who is your Favorite retailer.
Matt Allen: It's. I'm going to say Tesla. It's the fact that you. Minimal choice. Minimal choice, high quality product, slick buying experience.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Have you got the Cybertruck on order?
Matt Allen: No. No, no, no. Actually, it's interesting. I think my next car will be a Rivian, which is an electric suv, not a cybertruck guy.
Nathan Bush: You expect the market to heat up like Tesla's kind of got a monopoly on cool electrics at the moment.
Matt Allen: It will heat up, but nobody knows how to do an interior like Tesla. I just have no time for knobs and switches.
Nathan Bush: You don't want to get into a car that looks like an airplane.
Matt Allen: I do not.
Nathan Bush: All right, number three, which retail fad do you wish was history?
Matt Allen: I know it's a retail fad, but I'm just. The NFTs are a waste of everyone's time at the moment and John Henderson from Airtree can have a jab at me, but I just think it's adults buying weird things because they've got too much crypto.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Do you think there's going to be a place for them at all and we haven't got it figured out, or do you just think that it's just not going to be a thing?
Matt Allen: I'm sure it'll be a thing. I'm just not interested in it. Yeah.
Nathan Bush: Cool. All right, number four, can you recommend a book or a podcast that our listeners should immediately get into?
Matt Allen: Yeah. My favorite book, and I'm listening to it for the fourth time at the moment, is called Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday. I really enjoy sort of being hopefully self aware enough to know when it needs to be dialed up, if you need some help, kept in check, if things are going well and dialed down so you don't blow things up.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Cool. Number five, finish this sentence. The future of retail is.
Matt Allen: The future of retail is people buying off people. I spent two and a half years inside Amazon and that's a beast. I genuinely think that people will come right around and want to know the origin of the things they're buying.
Nathan Bush: Yeah. Great, Matt, thank you for sharing on the checkout.
Matt Allen: Pleasure. Thanks for having me.
[Ad]: To hear more from Matt, jump back into episode 111. That's 111, where Matt shares how the Tractor venture investment model works and the types of businesses it is most suited to. We also cover Matt's observations around how male and female founded businesses difference. We hear about the two Shopify apps that Tractor Ventures have already backed. And we hear why Matt thinks moves like Afterpay's 39 billion dollar acquisition will lead to nonlinear growth for the Australian innovation sector. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep adding to cartoon.
