It certainly put Greg Roebuck on the road to creating a car business that not only attracted some of the country’s best-connected equity partners but created the opportunity for his business to reach many entrepreneurs’ dream: a public listing.
Roebuck is a paid-up Richmond AFL supporter, which he says has been good for his inner strength. “It has been such a great character-building exercise that I’m considering making it a requirement for employment in the business,” he says. “Clearly paid-up supporters are prepared to tough out difficult challenges.”
Building a business is easier said than done but at least Roebuck’s time in the centre has resulted in a lot more goals than for his beloved Tigers.
His company is Carsales.com.au and it successfully listed on the stock exchange on September 10, which is a nice achievement for a guy who had to ditch his old business so he could get a bank loan to buy a house. He says his high school was the first to have its own computer, a Digital PDP 8F.
“That gave me the bug,” he says. “I started a science degree at RMIT before computer science as a degree even existed.”
Roebuck later switched to a formal computer science degree but, after a couple of years of study, all his mates were out earning money, so he gave it up and started at a company called Hartley Computers.
He left Hartley after 18 months and joined a company, Solution 6, begun by six other ex-Hartley staff. “I suggested they change the name to Solution 7, but it didn’t happen,” he recalls. “After leaving there I contracted as a developer for a while, earned some money, but when I wanted to buy my first house the bank — back when you had to impress the bank manager — wanted a more regular income, so I joined a business supplying computer systems and services to car dealers.”
That was 1983 and nine years later the chief executive and the other senior executives, including Roebuck, bought 86 per cent of the business from the US parent.
Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,26079491-5018019,00.html
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