When furnishing his own home, Ivan grew frustrated with how difficult the process was with endless weekends of showrooms and sales people and ultimately decided he was the man to bring about change.
Ivan started Brosa in 2014 with a vision to optimise the furniture supply chain by focusing on vertical integration and a digital first shopping approach. By working directly with manufacturers and creating a platform with a heavy focus on ease of use, Brosa introduces newfound inspiration and simplicity to home furnishing!
How did your business come to life?
I got my own place in Melbourne and, for better or worse, my mother is an interior designer. After she took a tour of the place, I asked what she thought. She said, "I love you, but no Ikea". I had never bought furniture before, so I had no idea what that meant but I committed to one weekend of going shopping with her. It became four weekends of endless showrooms and salespeople. I couldn't believe how difficult the process was.
On the other hand, I was buying pants, glasses, shoes and other products through technology first retailers and the experiences were effortless. Why couldn't buying a sofa be that simple? That was when we came up with the idea of Brosa. Our goal is to transform the high friction and stress furniture buying experience into a simple, transparent and seamless one. Brosa also means smile in Icelandic which we think is a nice way of illustrating the ethos we care about.
What is your superpower?
I like to think that I'm fairly self aware which is what drives my passion for learning / self-improvement. I'm constantly receiving input from my external environment (people, situations etc) and calibrating it against my own beliefs, values and assumptions. It helps me see that the world is bigger than my own perspective and that I need to always be receptive to feedback. My desire to constantly listen, learn and grow has really helped me and compounds when done over a long period of time.
I also think I'm fairly good at summarising a lot of information into simple thoughts. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
What is you favourite thing about what you do?
I love that I'm constantly learning, growing and stretching my boundaries. I'm a big believer that teams / organisations can only grow as much as the leader is able to grow. To some extent the upper limit of the leader determines the maximum potential of the team.
Brosa has pushed me beyond my comfort zone in so many ways and has accelerated my learning velocity exponentially. It has been one of the most educational experiences of my life. Being trusted to lead our team every day is a privilege.
What are you looking forward to most about Thrive?
A business banking platform where the business customer is at the centre of how everything is designed / built. Running a business is hard. Having a banking platform that removes barriers matters.
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