Conor Moules

And the whole thesis of Bearspace and why we built a vertical operating system.

And like for anyone listening, like from a vertical operating system, it sounds very grandiose.

What it actually means is that we're taking all the key workflows from within a business, booking, marketing, HR, technology.

inventory management, all of the key components, payment that are in a business, putting them into the one system and allowing them to communicate, work together, be automated.

And essentially, instead of being a system of record or a system of action, because what we understood fundamentally, and this is kind of the core thesis of BearSpace, 90% of the people who come into the industry come in via an apprenticeship, right?

Like us.

What happens somewhere along the line with apprenticeships is, I'll use myself as an example, right?

So you start, you get a colour apprenticeship, takes two years.

After about four months, you're capable of doing the actual colour.

After about six months, Peter Mark, I don't know if it's changed now, this is quite a while ago, but at the time, after about six months, you've qualified to a point where you're able to do the entry-level kind of procedures yourself on the floor.

So naturally, the first thing you do is nixers, right?

So you're doing your mam's hair, your nanny's hair, your sister's hair, blah-de-blah.

Somewhere along the line, and generally we've tried to work out exactly where, but somewhere around 50 nixers is where you get to a point where A, you're making more money than you are in the salons.

B, your heart just breaks.

Like there's only so many times you can rinse out your nanny's hair bent over her sink that you're like, this is not sustainable for my mental health.

So you open a salon and generally smaller salon, generally, let's say four boots in it, four sections and local support.

Your 50 goes to 100.

Somewhere around 100 mark, you're like, oh my God, I can't do this on my own.

I need to hire a second person.

You hire the second person.