#91 Matt Jones - Co-Founder of Four Pillars

In this episode, I interview Matt Jones, co-founder of Four Pillars - one of Australia’s most popular gin companies. Since founding in 2013, Matt and his co-founders have seen Four Pillars be named the worlds best gin producer three times, expand overseas and be acquired by drinks giant Lion for a reported $100 million.

Throughout the episode, Matt emphasises the importance of brand, storytelling and how a strong narrative empowers customers to fall in love with a company’s product. Matt goes against the usual lean startup trend and why it could be a mistake to launch an early lower quality product especially when you’re positioning your company as a premium brand.

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Matt has just released a new book going deeper into his insights from Four Pillars titled Lessons from Gin. Get 10% off by using the code LESSONSFROMGIN here!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Highlight Clip
• 0:56 Introduction
• 5:29 The Rolls Royce of Gin Making Machines and How Matt Brought the First to Australia
• 11:37 Four Pillars Counter-Intuitive Approach of Perfecting the Product before Launch and without Customer Feedback
• 16:23 How to Find the Balance of MVP Approach vs Quality First Approach
• 24:15 Times The Co-Founders of Four Pillars Fought over a Final Decision
• 27:26 What was More Impactful the Product or the Brand
• 37:13 How Much Was Starting the Opportunity vs Passion and What the Founding Team Wanted to Do
• 44:05 Four Pillars History of Investment
• 56:08 How Difficult Was the Transition from Running to Selling the Business
• 1:01:22 Matt Jones' New Book: Lessons from Gin
• 1:02:49 Outtro