Key takeaways

Don’t be afraid to change your company name if it no longer suits your product or service.

Carefully time getting in front of decision makers before they’re due to make buying decisions.

Steven Zinsli, the founder of a start-up which helped companies deliver employee health benefits, recently announced a rebranding to from HeathNow to Extraordinary.

The name change was made to reflect the fact that the business was helping employers provide and deliver a much broader suite of auxiliary employee benefits, from a clothes allowance for new graduates, to coffee shop, fuel and healthcare benefits.

In recent months, his clients had been telling him they wanted him to help deliver all work- related payments from gift cards, reimbursements and worker allowances.

“The brand needs to evolve where the product is already,” says Steven, whose clients include ASB, Steel & Tube, Booth Logistics and Ports of Tauranga.

When introducing your brand, go to where your clients are

The entrepreneur has been investing a lot of time building his company brand among large companies, seeking speaking opportunities in the B2B HR sector.

His firm’s internal brand champions are HR or People & Culture experts of really large businesses and the buyer of the Extraordinary product is the company CFO, he explains.

Brand building to help close the deal

“Brand building is not something that’s done super well in New Zealand,” says Steven, who has a previous start-up under his belt “Not everyone wants to buy right now, but if you’re building a brand successfully, when the time suits, they’ll know who you are.”

“The buying process is cyclical, so with the financial year ending March 31. if you’re not building the brand before the buying moment then you’ll miss out,” he adds.

Know your dates, get in front of that and find out where decision makers spend time, he recommends.

How to work with investors

The Extraordinary founder is grateful to his investors for their support, his last funding round raising $3.4 million in June. His backers include Peter Huljich, ZURU entrepreneur, Anna Mowbray, Icehouse Ventures, the NZ Fintech Fund and Enterprise Angels.

“I’ve found when I ask for money people give advice and when I ask for advice people want to give you money,” he says.

Investors want to back the people in a business, he finds. “They’re looking to find the team who can work through different problems and come out the other side,” says Steven.

Extraordinary isn’t making a profit yet and his investors are fine with that. “There are a lot of ways to view profitability. It’s all about making the right decisions at the right time,” he says.

As well as expanding his product offering in New Zealand, Extraordinary will be going to Australia next. The entrepreneur is going across the Tasman a couple of times a month to meet with prospective companies. He is hoping some of his New Zealand clients will introduce him to their Australian-linked businesses.

See the full story on Stuff.

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Physical vs Digital

Start-up rebrands to Extraordinary 10 months after launching as its offering expands