Revealed: Why Catch of the Day snapped up a four-week-old website and launched new lifestyle site Mumgo

The Catch of the Day group enters the lucrative mothers’ market with the launch today of Mumgo, a lifestyle site aimed at mums.

The site combines deals with discovery through a socially engaged online community, expert blog posts and product reviews.

Catch of the Day transformed newly launched ecommerce site Ladybub, founded by husband and wife team and former investment bankers Dan and Elise Gold, into Mumgo.

The Golds are heading up the Mumgo site and received a stake in the business.

Gabby Leibovich, co-founder of the Catch of the Day group, told SmartCompany that Mumgo is a strategy shift for the group as it is the first time it has created a lifestyle site, which is as much about the community as it is the deals.

“We are talking to a lot of mummy bloggers who are going to write for us. We have found that mums generally read blogs and do some research on blogs before they make a purchase,” says Leibovich.

“An opinion from a friend is much more important than from a salesperson.

“We have been keeping an eye on that space for quite some time and we found that no one is really doing it properly. It’s a very exciting space with a lot of money in it.”

“Ladybub was launched and four weeks into the business we spotted them and, funnily enough, they were doing what we wanted to do. We got in touch and we fell in love with them; they are a husband and wife team.”

Leibovich would not reveal how much Catch of the Day paid for Ladybub but he describes the deal as an “acquihire”.

“We have acquired, really, the people to come and drive the business. We are not calling it an acquisition,” he says.

“With lots of garage businesses in the market place, they have a very small chance of growing it.

“We have got 200,000 people signed up already, we have been announcing the launch for six to eight weeks on our other four sites and we have a competition running right now to win a Jeep if you sign up.

“Generally, it would take you a year to get to 20,000 members on online.”

Mumgo is the group’s fifth site and joins catchoftheday.com.au, group buying site scoopon.com.au, online supermarket site groceryrun.com.au, and the recent acquisition of wine deals site vinomofo.com.

Leibovich says he is always looking for more sites to partner.

“We are certainly looking to talking to people all the time whether it is acquisition or building. The time is right and the online space is booming,” he says.

Ladybub co-founder Dan Gold told SmartCompany that he and his wife, Elise, took a big risk quitting their jobs at Macquarie Bank and the Commonwealth Bank to launch Ladybub, but the risk has paid off.

Gold says the pair worked on Ladybub for about six months before launching, but within a few weeks of being live they started talking to Catch of the Day.

“Finance is a tough game at the moment and online retail is something we have always been excited about,” says Gold.

Gold says it all happened very quickly for Ladybub but that was always their plan.

“It was always our focus and strategy from day dot. We were talking to lots of friends who were toying with their own start-up ideas and they still are,” he says.

“We thought, let’s get this to market fast even if it’s not perfect and move on that first-mover advantage.

“The barriers to entry to this kind of business are quite low, but the barriers to success are a lot higher.”

Leibovich and the Golds hope Mumgo will be able to tap into the highly lucrative and growing mum segment in the retailing sector, which has an estimated market value of $20 billion.

The business will be positioned as a trusted source of advice and will include branded shopping events running for one to three days before being replaced by other events with savings generally between 30-70% off recommended retail prices.

“Sharing is really the key here whether through social media or conversation in the school yard. On Catch of the Day, we don’t like advertising, our growth has been through word of mouth,” says Leibovich.