"Get out there as much as you can to start building those connections and credibility, guest on podcasts, host conferences, establish contacts. You never know who you’ll chat to."
Frank Iannelli Tweet
WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET FEATURED?
All interviews are 100% FREE OF CHARGE
Table of Contents
How did your upbringing influence who you are today?
Frank Iannelli: I come from a family where entrepreneurship and being business-minded are supported and encouraged. My brother has founded several successful companies and it was while working with him as product manager that I identified a couple of pain points in relation to staff paperwork that I could help him out with.
I have a background in software engineering, so of course I realised pretty quickly that building a tech solution was what the business needed. After checking out what was out there, I saw that there were various platforms that could provide parts of the solution, but there was nothing flexible, affordable and tailored to the Australian market.
I’d contacted a couple of skilled friends I’d met previously at a coding bootcamp, shared what I was working on, and we realised that the challenges my brother’s company was facing were common to many businesses. After confirming that there was a genuine gap in the market, we founded Canyou.
What problem did you want to solve by starting your company?
Frank Iannelli: Regardless of whether you run a construction company or a childcare centre, you’re going to have staff, and that means paperwork: onboarding, qualifications, managing licences, that kind of thing. It’s time-intensive and labour-intensive.
But on top of that, there are compliance requirements of securely storing and transmitting staff data. And each business also has unique processes and needs.
People need a way to automate repetitive administrative tasks and create workflows, and easily manage paperwork like employee licences. So Canyou provides flexible workflows, where you can set up a workflow for a process like employee onboarding, and use it for all relevant staff. Plus it offers custom form building for those unique needs, and, crucially for our customers, simple management of Australian government forms and data requirements.
What makes Canyou different?
Frank Iannelli: Canyou provides our customers with several key functions that usually stand alone.
For example, for bookkeepers who manage multiple clients, Canyou is the first affordable Australian software where they’re able to pay one low monthly fee and create unlimited positions and workflows. Plus enjoy features like e-signatures and secure document storage.
Using Canyou cuts the risk of chasing sensitive personal information by email or text and running the risk of data leaks, only to then waste time and energy dealing with incomplete or illegible forms and fixing manual data entry errors.
It’s all about making it seamless. Secure tokens and QR codes mean employees can complete tasks like inductions and onboarding on-site on any device, without needing to remember a password. And of course, we have integrations with platforms like Xero and Deputy.
We’ve found that construction and transport companies especially have responded really well to the on-site use of Canyou’s workflows.
Finally, a big one for our customers: Canyou’s support is 100 percent local, in Australia.
Who does Canyou help?
Frank Iannelli: Our customers tend to be business owners, administrators within a business, or bookkeepers with multiple clients. We support companies across a wide range of industries. We’ve had strong uptake in industries where maintaining licences or accreditations is crucial for compliance: transport, childcare, construction and even volunteering.
What are some lessons you’ve learned in this journey?
Frank Iannelli: The value of local support is one. We’ve found that’s something really important to our customers. We’re based in Australia and they want to know they can have that immediate point of contact.
Staying true to your strategy is another. Canyou provides secure storage of employee vaccination records, which is now a critical compliance issue for many businesses. I’d posted about that at some point on TikTok and it got a fair bit of noise, but the actual data showed increased customer acquisition.
Finally, keeping on top of industry developments, including those of your customers. Super stapling is an additional requirement for Australian businesses when onboarding staff since we founded Canyou. Our workflows can handle it no problem, but of course we needed to know that change was coming in the employment sector.
What advice would you give young Australian tech entrepreneurs?
Frank Iannelli: I’d say make sure you stay open and network, and not only at what you’d consider networking ‘events’ – the Canyou team are largely people I met through the tech community.
Get out there as much as you can to start building those connections and credibility, guest on podcasts, host conferences, establish contacts. You never know who you’ll chat to.
And explore unexpected avenues of support. Early on we managed to win a NSW Government MVP grant for startups and it made a big difference. There are a lot of opportunities out there – go see what you can do.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Frank Iannelli for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Frank Iannelli or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.