By Andy Slawetsky – On November 14, I spent the day at PaperCut’s headquarters outside of Melbourne. I was there to take a tour and give my What’s Happenin’ presentation to one of the most popular print management software companies in the industry. But mostly, I was there for the coffee.
Australia is well known for their coffee and from what I’m told, Melbourne prides itself on having the best. PaperCut actually has a serious coffee set-up and all employees are required to go through barista training. Seriously!
This should be no surprise to those who have worked with US PaperCut partners ACDI and ecoprintQ, both of whom received beautiful barista machines as gifts from PaperCut when they moved into their new buildings in 2017.
Global Marketing Director Rebecca Ballantyne welcomed me upon my arrival and took me straight to the coffee area for refreshments before heading upstairs to the presentation room where I was wired and mic-ed up.
There was a decent amount of space upstairs, which is a good thing as PaperCut is apparently expanding (again). They will soon need to find a new home for the drum set, ping pong table and other fun stuff now occupying the large room as it will eventually become home a new work area.
My presentation went smoothly and was broadcasted to other markets such as the US and possibly others. The audience had plenty of questions as we ran through What’s Happenin’ with the major hardware OEMs. I even stayed on time due to the fact that following my session, the PaperCutters were scheduled for birthday cake. They were very strict about keeping to the cake schedule!
With so many employees now, PaperCut has group birthday celebrations and we were all brought to the coffee room where the whole company sang to the 3 people whose birthdays were being celebrated that morning. This seems like a simple formula for success; sugar them up, pump them full of coffee and send them off to work!
After my 3rd cup of coffee (and some amazing cake), I sat with a group of people in a smaller less formal Q&A, chatting and giving my perspective and thoughts on the many questions they had for me. I even sat for a video interview with marketing specialist Matt Wilby where we chatted about the market, dealers and more.
After lunch, I had the opportunity to sit down with CEO Chris Dance, who literally just stepped off a plane from the US. I’m amazed he was even at the office, let alone taking meetings after that flight. The jet lag I experienced on this trip was as bad as I’ve ever known and I appreciate Chris taking the time with me.
We met in the LEGO conference room and chatted about PaperCut’s incredible growth over the last few years. With over 50,000 users worldwide, Chris talked about areas PaperCut is actively moving into, such as cloud services, production print and more. Chris also discussed future possibilities and areas of focus for PaperCut that you will probably see going forward.
The growth has also meant a massive expansion of staff. Just a few years ago, there were a dozen or so employees. Now they’re closing in on 200. Every employee has a number (I think Chris is Employee #1) and they refer to that number with great pride, especially around people with higher numbers.
After our chat, Chris showed me around a bit more and we made our way to the coffee room for yet another frothy hot drink.
At that point, Chris handed me off to Dan Quest and we headed around the corner to get out of the building for a bit. Where did we go? A coffee shop, of course!
Dan and I spent quite a bit of time discussing the channel, where PaperCut is having a great deal of success and areas Dan sees as offering a considerable amount of opportunity in the future. It was a great conversation.
I spent the end of the day with several more PaperCutters at a lovely dinner not far from their HQ. I enjoyed the conversations and an evening with a great group of people, it was perfect way to end my trip to Australia.
PaperCut has carved out a space in a very competitive market and established themselves as one of the elite organizations in print management. Based on what I saw, they seem like they’re just getting started.
It was a fantastic day and I greatly appreciate Rebecca taking the time to coordinate this visit and set up so many meetings and discussions. Despite the 6+ cups of coffee I had during my visit, I was exhausted by the end of the day!
