GABBY and HEZI LEIBOVICH might not be immediately recognisable names in Australian business, but the leading tech companies they have built, resulting in exits of more than $1 billion, certainly are.
Brothers Gabby and Hezi Leibovich grew up in war-torn Israel near the Lebanese border and emigrated to Australia with their family in 1986. They sold scratch and dent electronic goods from their parent’s business in suburban Melbourne, where they learned the basics about retail and buying electronic goods from their parent’s business in suburban Melbourne.
In 2006 they co-founded online shopping behemoth, Catch of the Day, with no money and a belief that e-commerce would one day change how people shop.
The concept was to have one best-price deal every day from a retail category on a website – and everyone thought they were destined for failure. In 2019 the company was acquired by Wesfarmers for $230 million.
The pair then transformed Scoopon, Menulog, and Eatnow into multi-million-dollar Australian tech brands, resulting in sales and mergers worth more than $1 billion in 13 years.
As professional investors, Gabby and Hezi recently became the largest shareholders in the online travel company Luxury Escapes.
“Steve Jobs once said that those who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones that do.”
Gabby Leibovich, entrepreneur and businessman
Today, the brothers travel the world, meeting with tech entrepreneurs, business leaders and startups, predicting the next trends in business. They have documented their incredible story in the biography, Catch of the Decade.
Self-confessed “football-mad” Gabby recently travelled to Qatar for the World Cup.
Never one to miss a networking opportunity, Gabby wrote on LinkedIn in December: “I’ll be in Israel (and a bit in Qatar) from this weekend until the beginning of January. Time to catch up with my Israeli contacts. Reach out to talk e-commerce, logistics, tech investments, startups and, of course, World Cup football.”
Personality-wise, the brothers couldn’t be more different. But having vastly different skills has been one of the key secrets to their success.
Gabby is an extroverted “people person” known for his networking, buying and selling skills and ability to connect people. Hezi is the quieter – albeit just as influential – younger brother who focuses on the detail and strategy of investments. Together they make a formidable, potent force.
Both brothers joke that they are now “happily unemployed”, with no office or set hours during the working week. But with more than $1 billion in tech deals under your belt, there’s time to smell the roses.
They recently spoke to Forbes Australia about what makes their partnership unique and how they became the pioneers of e-commerce in Australia when everyone believed they would fail.
You started Catch of the Day with very little money and an idea that people thought was crazy. What gave you the courage to do that?
Put simply, it was out of necessity. When we started in 2006, I was 36, and Hezi was 30. My second child had just been born, and the bills started piling up. Before that, I worked in an electronics store for about ten years selling TVs, fridges, microwaves – you name it. Taking risks is a trait that gets easier with repetition. We have been taking risks all our lives and will continue doing so in the future. It is in our DNA.
What skill did you have to learn quickly as your business began to rapidly grow?
Even though we’ve built and grown digital businesses, we don’t see ourselves as tech nerds.
I oversaw buying in the early days of running Catch of the Day, and Hezi led the business operations. As for everything else, we simply hired people that are much better at doing their jobs than we were.
They say that if you are the smartest person at the table, you should move and sit at a different table – and we firmly believe that. Throughout our careers, we have always surrounded ourselves with experts that are complementary and much better than us in their different fields.
The founder’s job is to be the glue that connects all these roles and moulds them into a cohesive team happy to execute that same dream.
You must have had sheer belief that the idea would work. What gave you the belief?
Our idea to launch Catchoftheday.com.au, an e-commerce website that sells only one deal every day, was a crazy revolutionary concept back when we started. As a matter of fact, we still think it’s pretty crazy! We spotted a similar site called woot.com in the US, and we were inspired to replicate their success by “importing” the idea.
The truth is that we really didn’t know whether it would take off or not. I clearly remember sharing the idea with many businesspeople, and most thought we were crazy.
Steve Jobs once said that those who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones that do exactly that. Stay crazy and inquisitive, we say.
When choosing which trends to back, what is your decision-making process?
Our book ‘Catch of the Decade’ outlines the 200 lessons that we have learned throughout the journey. Our last lesson, and the most important one, is that it is all about the people.
When it comes to backing a trend, we often tend to ignore the trend and back the leading founding entrepreneur. Trends come and go and quite often will require a bunch of pivots throughout the journey we often tend to ignore the trend and back the leading founding entrepreneur.
I don’t believe we have a specific decision-making process when backing ideas. My general advice is to keep educating yourself, stay inquisitive and trust your gut feel.
Is there anything in your daily routine that you can attribute to keeping you sharp, sane and motivated?
Before selling Catch at the end of 2019, we were workaholics in every sense of the word. We didn’t know any other way.
They say you need to ask a busy person if you want something done. In saying that, we were very busy, and a lot was achieved.
I feel both lucky, sad and happy to say that we actually don’t have a daily routine these days. We don’t have a busy timetable, nor do we have an office.
In saying that, we keep in close touch with the tech and startups, and our finger is on
the pulse of what is happening in the business. I am sure there will be many opportunities
in the coming months.
Is there a characteristic of yourself that is underrated by others?
Gabby on Hezi: Hezi has an uncanny ability to connect the dots. He is well-informed about the tech space, knows the players globally and locally and can often see three steps ahead. This has benefitted us in the past, with him spotting current and future trends that allowed us to build companies like Catch of the Day, Scoopon and Menulog.
Hezi on Gabby: If I can connect the dots, I have to say that Gabby’s special characteristic
is connecting people. As we mentioned earlier, it’s all about the people, and we have truly managed to build the best e-commerce team in the country during our days at Catch. We have created a real family.
If I gave you $10,000 to invest for, just say a niece or nephew, where would you put it (other than one of your businesses)?
Rather than investing the money into a company or a yielding bank account, we advise investing it in yourself. Go travelling and see the world, learn a new skill or go back to university and change your profession. I am currently in Qatar watching some amazing World Cup games, which makes me very happy. Life is too short to spend working on something that doesn’t make you happy, or go back to university and change your profession.
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