37. Solv Solutions

Revenue: $4.5 million
Growth: 90.2%
Founders: Glen McIvor, 32
HEAD OFFICE: Perth, WA
Year founded: 2009
Employees: 23
Industry: Information and Communication Technology
Website: www.solv.com.au

It’s something of a cliché that all the best tech companies start in a garage or spare bedroom, but that’s exactly where Glen McIvor found himself when creating injuryConnect – the country’s first fully online and hosted injury and claims management system.

Before the system was built, most companies were using individual documents and Excel spreadsheets.

Bringing the product to the cloud opened up a new market, and now companies including McDonald’s, Bunnings and ANZ Bank all use injuryConnect, one of two products offered by McIvor’s company, Solv Solutions.

But while building out the software was difficult enough, McIvor didn’t anticipate how costly the entire venture would become.

“For example, we had to start getting security certifications like ISO 27001. These cost a lot of money, [and] required us to develop a lot of policies and procedures and then an external auditor had to assess it all.”

“Other areas where we had to re-visit because of large clients were legal agreements, increasing insurance levels and improving the redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities of the business.”

Lesson learned. McIvor points to one thing as the reason for his company’s success: the product itself. By putting so much time and effort into actually developing a robust system, he says, everything becomes easier.

“If you have a great product, it makes it easier to hire staff, to sell your product and to retain your clients. It makes everything else easier,” he says.

Solv Solutions generated $4.5 million in revenue last financial year, and has grown its revenue by 90% over the past three years.

The secret to high performance? A happy team, says McIvor. But that performance can only come with clear set goals and generous rewards.

“Last year the goal was to gain 70 new clients – we ended up with 76 new clients,” he explains.

“And because we hit the goal, each employee was given a paid holiday anywhere in Australia, including flights, hotels and an extra leave day.”