The Annual General Meeting is one of the important events in the EO Melbourne calendar. It is the time of the year when members play their role in the election of the Chapter President and Board for the next financial year.
Recently, the chapter has gathered and elected its Board for the FY 2023/24, ratified by the current Board. The following are the newly elected officials, who will start their term in July 2023:
President: James Murray
President-Elect, Communications Chair and Finance Chair: Costa Vasili
Strategic Alliance Chair: Damian Blumenkranc
Mentorship Chair and Key Executive Chair: Tom Ormerod
Accelerator Chair: Anthony Lam
Membership Chair: Kate Save
Membership Co-Chair: Jeni Clift
Membership Engagement Chair: Rob Roy Rankin
Learning Chair: David Fastuca
Forum Chair: John Bevitt
Forum Co-Chair: Ben Beattie
During the AGM, Michael Fox, CEO and Co-Founder at Fable Food Co, gave a talk about the lessons he learned from the failure of his first business, Shoes of Prey, and how he has brought those lessons to Fable Food.
“Failure isn't fatal, but failure to change might be" are the famous words of known basketball coach John Wooden, to which Michael also subscribes.
His experience with Shoes of Prey was something he and his co-founders described as "the kiss of death," "one of the most horrific days of their lives," and "learning the hard way" as they witnessed the collapse of their business, which led to losing $35 million of investments and laying off over 200 people after 10 years of hard work.
The experience left Michael "physically ill" to go back to the entrepreneurial track. Still, starting a new business he eventually did, and Fable Food Co was born.
Taking in both the highs and the lows of his Shoes of Prey start-up journey, Michael shared his experiences of expanding a business, not being able to scale to the mass market, and personally applying the lessons learned to his new enterprise, Fable Food, making it right this time, and building his latest venture into a successful business.
What also made Fable Food successful is Michael’s personal commitment to the company’s purpose. Growing up as a meat-loving Queenslander, he became a vegetarian in 2015 and is now vegan for health, environmental and ethical reasons. He co-founded Fable Food to help people reduce their meat consumption.
EO Melbourne Members found Michael’s entrepreneurial journey a fantastic story with great learnings and key takeaways, such as:
Do your research on your product fit carefully and thoroughly
Cut deep when you need to reduce expenses
Be careful who you take investment from, look for smart money
There will always be challenges in every business and failures are inevitable. But what’s important is how to bounce back and turn things around to make them in your favour.
With these lessons from Michael Fox’s talk and the promise that the new Board can bring to the table, we look forward to a more exciting journey for EO Melbourne in the upcoming FY 2023/24 and the years ahead.
