Sharon Melamed is a multi-award-winning Australian entrepreneur who founded business matchmaking platform, Matchboard. Fascinated by other cultures, she studied four foreign languages and lived and worked in five countries — the US, Israel, Japan, Germany and Australia — each of which provided inspiration for her startup. Media have dubbed Sharon “The Matchmaker” as her platform has helped more 4,800 organizations find their perfect match service provider.  

Sharon holds a double honors degree from the University of Sydney, and to top it off, is a former tournament Scrabble champion.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

After majoring in Japanese at university, I scored a job at a Japanese company which changed my life. They transferred me from Sydney to San Francisco, then New York, with more than 40 trips to Tokyo in between. And along the way, I rose from bilingual call center agent to Senior Vice President, International at the time of the company’s highly successful IPO. My 15 years with this Japanese company taught me so much – for example, the importance of building long-term relationships of trust with clients, and an obsession with customer satisfaction. This informed my business model with Matchboard, which I founded in 2012.

Before returning to my roots in Australia, I spent nine months living in Israel, also known as The Startup Nation, and that truly gave me the entrepreneurial bug. Everyone in Israel has a business idea and people are not afraid of giving it a go, even if it means failure. This gave me the courage to give it a go with Matchboard.

Matchboard is like the business version of a dating site – we match buyers and suppliers of business services (things like call centers, offshore staffing, consulting and digital services), and I get a kick every day out of making matches.

What inspired you to start your business?

I’ve always loved connecting people. Over the years, I’ve matchmade friends, teachers, even close family members. Not to mention the hundreds of times I’ve introduced contacts who I thought might hit it off. When you want to start a business, but need an idea, I always think it makes sense to focus on things you are passionate about – and in my case, that was – and still is! - matchmaking.

The other thing entrepreneurs look for is solutions to problems people experience on a daily basis. And the problem I perceived was that people found search engines time-consuming to comb through when looking for a new service provider. Most people lose patience and just go with a provider they find on page 1 of search results, but that can sometimes be a bad move – after all, even a dodgy business with deep SEO pockets can get into that golden top 3 position on page 1 of a search. My vision was to create a website where it would take someone 60 seconds to enter all their needs for a service provider, and presto, our platform would provide a highly rated and curated match (or matches). We closely vet all service providers we recommend, so that helps businesses minimise the risk of a poor experience.

Where is your business based?

I’m in Sydney, Australia, but as an online business, we have a global customer-base.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I launched the business from my living room after quitting a senior corporate role. My first task was to find a developer for the matchmaking platform, and I had a fairly frustrating experience using search engines to find my perfect match – which just underscored the gap in the market for Matchboard to fill! With no suitable options locally, I luckily found a boutique software development company in Israel, on a holiday I’d planned before resigning. They offered to develop the platform at cost, in exchange for the rights to use the source code in the domestic Israeli market (which I had no desire to enter). This was such an entrepreneurial approach, and of course I snapped up the offer! While the developers were busy developing, I spent those first few months signing up 100 suppliers in anticipation for launch. On day 1, I posted on LinkedIn asking connections for a small favour – to share matchboard.com.au with their networks. Around 50 of them did, and I immediately scored my first 3 customers. From that day on, it was clear that the business was going to be viable!

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

The most effective strategy I’ve used is brand-building – building my personal brand and my company’s brand as a trusted advisor and subject matter expert. This plays out in high domain authority for your website, tens of thousands of social media followers, 5-star Google reviews, lots of customer testimonials, and invitations to speak at industry conferences as the expert. The strength of your brand will draw customers and help you grow your business.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

A year after I started the business, I was struck down with a painful RSI which made it impossible to even type, and I had to use speech recognition software to write emails and draft proposals. This was really frustrating but my body was telling me I had to slow down to recover. It took a few months, but with perseverance and by adopting strict ergonomic measures, I made it through. 

COVID-19 presented a challenge as well, as by that stage, Matchboard had expanded beyond the matchmaking website into matchmaking executive events – all in person. We were overwhelmed with demand for boardroom roundtable lunches matching service providers with a room full of potential clients. But with harsh lockdowns in Australia, these events became impossible to deliver. It took a few months to pivot to what now seems so obvious – an online Zoom meeting format. I came up with a formula of sending a gourmet lunch to executives’ home offices, to enjoy during the presentations, and it was an immediate hit. Almost everyone showed up (who wouldn’t if they received a beautiful lunch to their door!) Not only was the attendance rate high, registrations doubled in number as we could attract a geographically dispersed audience. And suppliers loved features like poll analytics (we run 1-2 polls during online events), simply not available in person. So there was a silver lining to the pandemic as our online events business is now one of our fastest growing offerings.

How do you stay focused?

My Japanese experience ingrained in me to always stay laser focused on the customer, and business will flow from there. I don’t find it hard to maintain this focus.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

Speed is our top differentiator. When we get a matchmaking request on our website, we provide a customized human response in minutes. Users frequently compliment us on this! The reality is, if we don’t respond quickly, people will turn to search engines for other options, so speed really is critical.

Another differentiator is our rigorous supplier vetting process. The result is that users trust our recommendations. Other online platforms – whether that’s search engines, directories or LinkedIn – allow virtually any business to list, without screening.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

The single biggest source of customers on our platform is SEO (search engine optimization), which accounts for more than half our website traffic. LinkedIn, PR, and a referral partner program are also very effective - I think it’s important to realize there’s no one silver bullet when it comes to marketing. To keep our brand on the radar, we send a monthly newsletter to several thousand subscribers, and try to meet as many customers as possible either in person or online.

The best business is no doubt repeat business, when customers come through our platform to find suppliers and have a great experience, then come back again for different needs.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

My best advice is to push outside your comfort zone and be willing to acquire new skills and hustle! Never underestimate the power of a strong LinkedIn network as well – even if you don’t think your connections are potential customers, they may be able to refer you or advocate for you, or at the very least, share news of your new company with their networks. I particularly find trusty ex-colleagues valuable to connect with, as they have worked with you and will likely be pleased to endorse you.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

The first book I read when I started Matchboard was The Lean Startup by Eric Ries – it so inspired me, I adopted the blue, white and black colors on the book cover in Matchboard’s logo. I learnt the concept of MVP, or minimum viable product, as a way of validating my business idea and iterating it based on customer feedback.

As an amateur chess player, I follow Garry Kasparov, who famously became the first world chess champion to be beaten by a computer (I was in the audience when this happened in New York in May 1997!) Ever since, Kasparov has written prolifically on the human-technology relationship, and I found his book, “Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins”, inspirational about how we humans can embrace AI for a better, brighter future.

The apps I use regularly are LinkedIn, Canva, Mailchimp, Xero and Google Workspace. That’s in addition to our proprietary matchmaking software.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Calendly! It saves me going back and forth with clients to review meeting time options and schedule something in the calendar. And if it’s not in the calendar, it doesn’t happen!

Who is your business role model? Why?

Without a doubt, my first boss (at the Japanese company) was and is my role model in business. One of the things he taught me was the importance of delivering on promises, whether that’s meeting budget or getting a proposal in on time. The more you deliver on what you promise, the more people will trust you and want to do business with you. He also taught me that the best sales strategy is not charging customers as much as you can get away with – rather, it’s pricing in a fair and sustainable manner which will set the stage for a trusting (that word trust again!) long-term, win-win partnership.

How do you balance work and life?

Ever since I started Matchboard, I felt happier even when I was working longer hours (hard work in the first year or two is inescapable!) When it’s your own baby, it just doesn’t feel like a chore and you don’t resent it eating into your personal time. Still today, I blend work and life and involve family members in different ways in the business. It’s actually important to me to show my daughter that it’s possible to have a great business and be a great Mom at the same time. 

With the business now in steady growth mode, I’m focused on having enough time to look after my health and relationships, and cram as much as possible into the time left over.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Through COVID-19, I developed a love of nature walks and photographing wildlife and trees and sunsets. I also play Scrabble online every day.  I love board games, hence the “board” in Matchboard.

I think it’s vital to have outlets from the stress of work, particularly as an entrepreneur/founder, where you’re accountable for everything and have to always be switched on.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

I’m planning a trip to my old stomping ground of New York to evaluate the potential for our matchmaking platform in the US market. 

We’re also launching bespoke events around themes such as International Women’s Day and International Customer Service Week. 

And as for our online platform, we will surpass 5,000 clients in a few months, and look forward to another record year of matchmaking!

How can our readers connect with you?

Please visit https://www.matchboard.com.au/ or connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/matchboard/