25. ShopGrok

Revenue: $1.98 million
Growth: 29.52%
Founders: Aaron Cowper
Head office: Sydney, NSW
Year founded: 2018
Employees: 12
Industry: Software and internet
Website: shopgrok.com

How ShopGrok started

Aaron Cowper was the head of price strategy at Woolworths when he realised the data and tools available to help retailers with pricing were far from ideal; they were effort prone and needed significant manual effort.

His answer was ShopGrok, a retail pricing and data collection platform that helps companies ensure they are getting the maximum value for their stock overall, while competitively pricing their most visible items.

Growth

Small teams have the advantage of being innovative and nimble against their larger competitors, but they’re also much more vulnerable when things go wrong.

After adding two more employees within a year of operating, a road accident saw Cowper taken to the hospital with more than 10 fractures.

Necessity is the mother of invention though, and after navigating through the period, the company has grown, now with 12 employees, five of whom were brought on in the 2023 financial year. 

Where to next

Having bootstrapped from a startup to a profitable business, ShopGrok has attracted a great group of customers. 

The team has gone from strength to strength and is focussed on growth both at home and abroad over the coming 12-24 months. 

Back to The Smart50 Awards 2023.