Jodie Imam - Entrepreneur, Advisor, Mentor
Jodie started her journey founding Occasional Butler, a marketplace for outsourcing odd jobs, which was later acquired by Airtasker. She also started Depo8, one of the first co-working spaces and startup incubators in Australia.
Jodie now works as the General Manager at SBE Australia, an accelerator for Women-led businesses, as well as working as a mentor and advisor in seed funding and accelerator programs such as Startmate.
Depo8: https://depo8.com/
SBE Australia: https://sbeaustralia.org/
Jodie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jodieimam/
Verbatim from the transcripts — each quote links to the moment.
“We don't really, don't think so. We were like, okay, that's enough from you then.”
“The job was buy a packet of Doritos, eat it, and take a photo.”
“I guess for me it's, will you eat this pack of Doritos?”
“There's no one else that can ask for money for your business better to ask for it than yourself.”
“I just never want to get to that point where I'm 50 and I'm out of a job. And then what do I do? I'm stuck.”
“85,000.”
How should a founder decide if their business idea is good before building it?
Talk to potential customers early and often to validate whether they would actually use the product, rather than relying only on friends' opinions or an internal business plan.
What's the best way for a founder to raise capital?
No one can sell your business or ask for money as well as you can yourself, and seeking mentorship from someone who has personally raised capital before makes a major difference.
How do you know if a founder should remain CEO as the company grows?
A founder needs to drive the business in its early stages, but once it reaches a more corporate size (30+ employees, needing formal processes and culture), it's worth questioning whether they're still the right person to run it.
How should someone start learning to invest without risking money?
Set up a mock or 'play' portfolio on an investing platform, track pretend trades over time to build understanding and test your skills before committing real money.
Jodie and her husband sold their house and quit their jobs, then sat in Bali with a blank piece of paper and a margarita to brainstorm business ideas, eventually narrowing six ideas down to a fashion marketplace or Occasional Butler before a looming c-section deadline forced a decision.
On the day Occasional Butler launched, the first job posted was for someone to buy and eat a packet of Doritos and take a photo; it turned out to be posted by a user-testing employee at Airtasker, and when Jodie's team went to complete it, they discovered a bug meant they couldn't process the $5 payment.
After months without jobs, Jodie started posting butler jobs on Gumtree, which brought in huge numbers of workers; she then realized those same butlers could become customers and began posting customer jobs there too, growing the marketplace until Gumtree banned them for effectively diverting their user base.
Jodie describes paying an advisory firm to ask investors for money on her behalf because she didn't want to do it herself, only for the firm to ultimately fail to secure funding; the firm's real strategy turned out to be recruiting board members who would become investors.
Drawn from the episode transcripts.
When they advertised as a 'coworking space' they got no interest, so they switched to 'shared office' which better matched what customers were actually searching for and wanted—a place to get work done without the beer-on-tap, Friday drinks, or lunchtime yoga culture associated with coworking.
From episode 607→After a slow start (including a bizarre first job asking someone to eat Doritos and take a photo, posted by an Airtasker tester), Jodie Imam began posting jobs for butlers on Gumtree, which brought in hundreds of workers; she then realized those same people could be customers too and posted customer jobs on Gumtree as well, until Gumtree banned them for effectively building a competing marketplace.
From episode 607→Occasional Butler was acquired by Airtasker, which had launched just a week after Occasional Butler and had already raised $1.5 million before launch; the acquisition was described as bittersweet but a good outcome, occurring while Imam was pregnant with her third child.
From episode 607→Mentioned on 1 episode Jodiewasn’t on.
Every episode featuring Jodie Imam on The Daily Talk Show.
