Brisbane-based marketing productivity firm SimpleHQ has recruited former Google and Canva executive Bob Mohan as its new chief financial officer.
Mr Mohan, who previously developed and led the mergers and acquisitions finance team at Google, and recently worked with Australian design start-up Canva, said he was looking forward to once again help build a global technology company.
He told The Australian the big appeal of Simple was its maturity and realistic aspirations after advising a number of Sydney start-ups over the past three years.
“One thing stood out most for me and it was the maturity in Simple’s management team — the basis in reality of what it’s aspiring to build,” he said. “We’re getting away from this moonshot unicorn focus, to building something that works.
“If you set attainable goals you can build momentum and trust within both investors and employees, and build a loyal group to surround you and support you,” he added.
SimpleHQ CEO James Charlesworth said Mr Mohan’s experience would be crucial to helping the company manage growth in both new and existing markets. He said SimpleHQ was in early preview and beta testing with customers on new product launches and additional features in the existing platform.
“SimpleHQ is developing the market for marketing operations tools that enable marketers and agencies to better manage the time and resources they spend creating — rather than simply distributing — marketing,” Mr Charlesworth said.
“Demand will only grow as the world’s biggest advertisers increasingly seek new ways to spend their marketing dollar more effectively.
“We are looking forward to using Bob’s experience as we push forward in our key markets of Australia, the US and Asia-Pacific in coming months.”
Recent client wins for SimpleHQ include Swisse, Domino’s Pizza and cloud accounting firm Xero which has been using Simple to manage its marketing activity across NZ, Australia, the US and Europe.
“We’re looking at the rollout of a version two product,” Mr Mohan said.
“We’re working on investment in the Australian market primarily, making sure we understand the right way to implement the product and keep our customers happy.
“Once we have that under our belt we’ll be moving into other geographical regions and making some investments there,” Mr Mohan added.
SimpleHQ, which has offices in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and San Francisco, last year announced it had raised $13 million in funding and more than doubled its revenues during the 2016 financial year.
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