Case Study: GrownUps®
Building and Scaling – From Startup to Fortune 500 Exit

In 2006 I co-founded GrownUps - a lifestyle and community platform for New Zealanders over 50. It wasn't a calculated market play. It came from a genuine belief that this demographic was being ignored online, and that community and connection could be built around that gap.

What followed was ten years of the full ownership experience. Capital raises. A joint venture with Yellow Pages. Regaining control. Managing through the GFC. Multiple conversations with potential buyers - local and international - that didn't close. The long, grinding patience required to hold course when the market wasn't ready.

At its peak, GrownUps had 200,000 monthly visitors, 160,000 members and 10,000 articles. It was judged NZ's Lifestyle Website of the Year. Eventually, after years of positioning and a lengthy due diligence process, we achieved a successful sale to Cigna (now Chubb) - a Fortune 500 company.


What it taught me

Exits are rarely clean. The gap between a business being ready to sell and a transaction actually closing is where most owners get hurt - emotionally, strategically and financially. I lived that gap for years.

I also learned that ownership decisions - about capital, about control, about when to hold and when to move - are never purely commercial. They're personal. They're relational. They're shaped by identity, family history and fear as much as by numbers.

That's what I bring into the room now. Not theory. Not a framework from a textbook. The actual experience of sitting inside a difficult ownership situation and having to make consequential decisions with imperfect information.

Why it matters for my clients

When I sit across from a founder navigating a succession conversation, a shareholder dispute or a potential exit, I'm not imagining what that feels like. I know what it feels like.

That changes the quality of the conversation.

About...