Acquisition Stories – Jo Burgess, Shortcuts

Thank you, Joanna for taking the time to meet with me today, really appreciate it.

You are welcome. 

Let’s get started with a couple of intro questions. Can you give us a little bit of background on Shortcuts?

Shortcuts is a salon management solution. We provide a solution for all aspects of the salon, including appointment booking (walk-ins, online, mobile), filling in forms upon arrival at the salon, accessing client records, managing inventory, and reporting dashboards.

How did you first discover Jonas Software and how were we compared to other acquirers?

I believe that Jeff McKee, Group CEO of Jonas’ Australian portfolio, was introduced to Shortcuts through our other founder, Paul Gordon. They knew each other and that’s how Jeff came to know about Shortcuts.

We were the leading brand in the hair and beauty industry in Australia. We were very industry-specific. Our niche was really suited to the type of acquisitions that Jonas is so interested in.

Why did you decide to sell to Jonas?

We courted for quite a while, and we had a relationship with Jonas for multiple years.

The main reason that we decided to sell to Jonas was because we were able to continue to run the business the way we’ve been running it. We had the autonomy to continue on, so we would be able to keep our beautiful staff and maintain our culture. That was really ours.

We were able to maintain our own identity culture, team, our industry knowledge, yet become part of a bigger family that could support us and help us grow even more.

Can you describe life at Shortcuts after the Jonas acquisition?

It was pretty much business as usual on a day-to-day basis. From the minute that Jeff walked in and said, “Hey we’re your new owners, but just keep doing what you’re doing.” Day-to-day, very little changed.

We had to learn a little bit about the Jonas model and the KPIs and the metrics. Then we were able to consolidate some daily activities like payroll and HR. But as far as our outward-facing identity and what 90 percent of our employees did every day, there was really no change. That was great.

At Jonas, we often talk about our ABCs as differentiators. We have our autonomy, our decentralized operating model. Buy-and-hold forever, allowing us to invest for the long term. And culture of sharing best practices, learning from the Jones and CSI family of companies.

So how’s your experience aligned with these three differentiators?

Very well. I’ve already talked about autonomy. What was said in the early days is actually what happened. I always a little bit nervous about, “Well they say they’re not going to make any changes. But what if they make changes?” And they didn’t. That’s a thousand percent our experience, which was really great.

I’ve personally learned a lot. When you’re running your own company, you only know your industry, product, and customers, and you do the best you can. But when you have access to others that are also doing the same thing in a different industry or country, you learn a lot. Connecting with those people has been really amazing, particularly for our senior leadership team. Rather than just doing something the way we’ve always done it, to kind of go, “Hey, I wonder what some of the other Jonas companies do with this particular process, or in this particular instance.”

I’ve met so many amazing people that have worked yet for Jonas and CSI, and I always learn something from spending time with them and sharing experiences. I’ve also learned so much from attending the Jonas Software Academy (and a best practice sharing event), which was fantastic.

It has fast-tracked and elevated my knowledge in the software industry, particularly in the vertical market space, so it’s been wonderful.

What tips and advice would you give to a business owner thinking of selling their business?

If you’re a good fit for Jonas, then they’ll be a good fit for you. If you are good at what you do and you really know your niche market in your vertical, then you will be interesting to Jonas.

You want to be open and honest in the dealings. I’ve found that to be the best approach in life anyway. There’s no point in having secrets between parties like that.

You’ve been involved with other ventures in addition to shortcuts. For example, the Life Sorted app. Can you elaborate a bit on these other projects?

I’m definitely a bit of a serial entrepreneur.

Always loved solving problems, and especially with technology. The Life Sorted app is a little passion project of mine. It’s a shared family organizer app. It does everything from a shared family calendar to shopping list to-do list birthdays, reminders, all that sort of stuff.

It really came about twenty-five years ago when I was looking for a solution to help me grow and manage my salon, I was looking for a solution to help me manage my crazy hectic life because I was traveling a lot for Shortcuts, since we have customers all around the world. My husband was busy. My kids were getting busier, we were driving everywhere, and I didn’t really have a good system to manage it.

I took the knowledge that I had from booking software for salons and thought, how do I apply something like this to this environment? It has been super fun to build a product that has nothing to do with a vertical market, but it’s still solving a problem that I had in my life using technology.

I definitely enjoy doing that sort of thing.

Any other projects in addition to the Life Sorted app?

I offer mentoring for female founders here in Australia for start-ups, which I really love because I just think there’s so many amazing ideas and particularly females who maybe have families and they’ve got ideas that they’re trying to sell for themselves.

I’m on the board of a company that I used to be a shareholder in, which is a distribution company. We distribute eco-friendly, consumable products to the hair and beauty industry. I’m still a director of that company, which I really enjoy since it’s different because it’s distribution. It’s not software, but it’s still in my industry. I just still really enjoy doing that.

Very interesting. It seems like you’re very well connected to the salon and spa industry.

That has been my whole life. I started hairdressing at the age of 16. So I’ve spent a long time in this industry, and I really love it.

Just before we head off, is there anything else, any other comments or tips that you can give to anyone else?

All I can just say is that my own personal experience with Jonas has been wonderful and fantastic.

I have just loved watching them grow, particularly in Australia, because we were one of the first acquisitions in Australia. I’ve just loved seeing the new companies come on board from all of the different verticals and getting to know those people.

It’s wonderful to be part of such a great success story.

Thank you Jo Burgess for sharing your experiences. If you own a software business, we would love to learn more about your company. Feel free to reach out to learn more.

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