4 Locomote

“Two young guys from the western suburbs”, David and Ross Fastuca, set up their first business together while they were still in high school.

But the cousins saw the service side of their graphic design business deteriorate with the introduction of Freelancer and other similar businesses and so decided to make the move to product.

The result is Locomote a technology company that was developed to change the travel management landscape by empowering organisations to have complete control and visibility of their global travel program and travel supply chain.

Locomote directly integrates with its supplier’s inventory and provides corporates with ownership of their profile data.

The genesis for the business came after the Fastucas met serial entrepreneur and business mentor Philip Weinman through an entrepreneurs network.

“We had a bit of a connection,” David recollects as Weinman was impressed the pair were willing to back themselves and “put their own skin in the game”.

Weinman offered office space to the Fastucas, which they accepted.

“We were a big believer in the people you hang around with are the people you become, so we thought let’s give it a shot,” David says.

After the Fastucas had moved into the office space, Weinman got a late night phone call from a friend in the travel industry and within 24 hours the cousins had “spun out” the site which is Locomote.

Weinman and business partner Clive Sher remain “active” shareholders in Locomote, which now counts ANZ amongst its key clients.

David attributes Locomote’s growth to a strategy of making its clients feel they are part of the building process.

“We ask ‘what would you like to see happen in the platform?’,” David says.

“When we acutally implement it, they feel they have helped build the product and so become advocates of it.”

Locomote signed its biggest deal last month when it brought on Travelport as a partner.

“We wanted someone who could help us grow quickly and have a footprint overseas,” David says.

The partnership announcement coincides with and accelerates Locomote’s global roll-out plan, which is commencing with Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Ireland, Poland, Russia, USA, and Canada for the next 12 months.

“We are in the process of translating into additional languages, the hardest first, of course, and that way we can easily transition into our current clients’ global offices and from there, more global clients based outside of Australia,” David says.

So far the cousins have worked well together to build the company.

“We are hot blooded Italians,” David says.

While he says the cousins “argue and fight all the time”, David argues any disagreements strenghthen the end product.

“We question each other and everything and really get to the nitty gritty of whether it is the best decision for the company.”