The Team Choices That Turned $5,000 Into a $47 Million Exit with the Founder of Di Bella Coffee, Phil Di Bella

Building a business is one thing, but scaling it and then selling it for $47 million is another.

Phil Di Bella started Di Bella Coffee with $5,000, built it into a national business with 11% market share, led a team of more than 130 people, and sold it to a publicly listed company for $47 million.

Phil built Di Bella Coffee into the kind of business most founders say they want, so I wanted to understand what exactly what goes on behind the scenes. We’re covering exactly how he did it, what kind of team was required to reach this level of success, as well as what happens to a business when a founder exits.

Show Notes:

0:00 -Starting with limited capital: how Phil thought about risk, worst case scenarios, and what not to spend money on early

3:00 - The decision that shifted Di Bella Coffee from “just another product” to a business that could actually scale

5:15 - At what point did Phil bring on his first team member?

9:08 - Has leadership always come easily to Phil? Does he still work on his mindset?

11:37 - What a leadership team really needs to look like as your business moves past 20-30 people

14:27 - The part of selling to a public company no one prepares founders for

23:52 - Why Phil started Coffee Commune and the problems he wanted to fix after his exit

32:09 - How Phil gets leaders to treat the business like it’s theirs (without micromanaging)

37:15 -The systems and reporting Phil uses so he can step back without losing control

41:01 - How often founders with small teams should actually be meeting and when meetings become a waste of time

44:06 - The leadership lesson Phil had to learn the hard way

48:11 - The three hiring questions Phil asks that expose people fast (and why Richard Branson stole them)

50:15 - If Phil were starting again today, the first three hires he’d make

51:14 - What genuinely keeps Phil up at night about the future of business in Australia

Want to keep up with Phil? Head over to his Linkedin here.

If you want help building your offshore team, send me a message over at @jesswhatman_agentsync - ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jesswhatman_agentsync/⁠

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And see behind the scenes content over at https://www.instagram.com/built.to.lead.podcast/

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