2023 Annual Review

‘ The experience will feel new, exciting, uncertain. And here’s the plot twist—there’s a lot in that newness that you can rely on, that’s familiar.’

It was in LA that I first had the idea for Urban List, the digital media company I founded and run today. I was 24 when I moved to LA, and this was the second time that I found myself in a big city without family or friends. Both were cities where it was easy to get lost, both literally and figuratively. I had no one to rely on to find my way around, and so I turned to the internet to do research, searching for good coffee, a friendly bar— places I might belong. All I found were directories of user-generated reviews. No one was curating the city with tips they’d stand behind. I wanted a source that I could trust, to help me find a sense of place. And I thought if there was a gap for that in Los Angeles, there might be a gap everywhere. Around the same time, social media had really started to gain pace. Facebook hadn’t launched their business product yet, but across the city there were small business owners setting up personal profiles, using social to attract and retain a customer base. I’ve always been passionate about small business and the impact they have on our cities’ cultural scape. I was comparing and contrasting what was happening in the US vs Australia and was worried about what might happen if small businesses couldn’t keep pace. I didn’t want to hand-hold mums and dads through setting up Facebook pages. I wanted to make a difference, and I wanted to do it at scale. And so, I came up with a concept that would connect like minds through the internet, channelling them out in support of small businesses I loved. I pitched this idea to a few people I trusted, and no-one thought it had legs. I didn’t have the courage to swing for it, I didn’t trust myself, and I put it in the drawer. Three years later, I still couldn’t get the idea out of my head. I finally hit a point where the risk of saying ‘what if’ was worse than the risk of failing. And I backed myself. I moved home to Australia to give it a go, and launched Urban List from my bedroom one year later. It was a very DIY affair. No backers. No experience. Just a vision, a laptop and a willingness to put in the work.

I worked my guts out, my heart set on realising the dream. I was putting in 20-hour days until one morning, I woke up to a team member putting me in an ambulance. I’d collapsed from exhaustion and wound up with stitches in my forehead, a broken nose and smashed front teeth. I kept plugging away. Most people I talked to didn’t believe it could scale. But I kept going, pushed through the doubt, and trusted myself. In 2014, three years after launch, Urban List became the largest lifestyle guide in the country. Not bad for something most said was a terrible idea. We expanded internationally, moving into four markets in four months. Our revenue and audience doubled. And so did our team. I was awarded Australian Media Woman of The Year. And I was pregnant with my son. Everyone said things were flying. For me, it was all crashing down.

BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL ANNUAL REVIEW 2023

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