0:00 Hi there, my name's Matt Holland from the Orbeez dealroom. We've recently listed an opportunity in the telco industry that I think you'll find interesting.
0:09 I've been looking over their information memorandum and I've got a couple of key questions to ask the owner. So sit back and let's get to know this business.
0:17 Today I'm joined by Jake Berry, the founder of fiberco, an innovative company that provides ultra fast, affordable and reliable fiber optic networks.
0:26 Jake, could you share with us the story behind Faberco, including when it was founded and what motivated you to launch the business.
0:34 Yeah, so look, I found that Faberco back in 2017. It's been a bit of a journey since then getting to where it's happening out, but we're running on SP businesses, reselling in, being product and services and it just wasn't working.
0:50 The margins were far too slim. We had rather large scalable bases of around 20,000 customers. Just could not get the margin.
0:58 We wanted a long side that we just could not get the quality of service that we wanted. Not to mention everyone else in between.
1:05 That wanted a piece of the pie. So we decided to jump into the space of building our own network. Hence, we kind of ended up building five-ropic networks for, I guess, Australia.
1:16 So you launched fiber code back in 2017. How did you first get involved in the industry? Yeah, look, my background is in building infrastructure and fiber infrastructure and fiber infrastructure and fiber networks.
1:27 So I've done it for MBN for about 10 years, run my own business for coming on 14 years now since 2011, building networks and doing IT technology infrastructure.
1:40 I jumped into MBN when I ran about 2015 after seeing them put fiber into front of my house and got all excited.
1:46 And since then it's been a whirlwind of learning, but generally, I generally love the fiber optic infrastructure and I love net works, I love connecting people and watching data flow.
1:58 And I've jumped into that building for MBN built to a rather small amount of their premises around about 30,000 premises we've built in my business as a career.
2:08 And ultimately, yeah, it's been a vision of mine just to build my own net works ever fantastic. Can you tell me more about the project in Sydney with 3,000 dwellings and your plans to grow that to over 50,000?
2:24 Yeah so we've got these these metropolitan areas where there's high density and they're kind of what we focus on because they're the easy picking at the moment not to say that I want to just go after easy picking but they're the fastest the fastest go to market places we can attack.
2:42 So we go in and we build networks over the the existing infrastructure, whether it be ambient or an alternative carrier, and we essentially put a cable in parallel from the street up inside the building to the rise or on each floor, where a couple of months of order of service we simply just patched 
3:00 them inside of the the rise or it's a 30 minute appointment, or if the customer likes to upgrade to a full fibre to their premise in areas where there is no fibre currently between all the conjured is congested, then we'll work on trying to do that with them as a service, or in the newer buildings, we
3:19 can get fiber in between because the conduits are empty. So essentially, we're building a network, very similar to the existing network, we usually a lot more updated and faster and easier to manage.
3:33 And yeah, that's been rest of all of it. Thanks, Jake. I'm really curious about how fiber code works with builders and developers.
3:39 Can you help me understand the opportunity here? Well, ultimately, that's where every carrier wants to be, that's the sweet zone.
3:49 So I mean, there's thousands, hundreds and thousands of buildings or units in the pipeline of Australia's construction pipeline. We want to be the carrier of choice, so you don't actually have to choose and be in or what the developers usually would think of as Telstra.
4:04 You can choose any carrier you want to need last in Australia in Australia, and there's hundred and five of us.
4:11 So we want to be the choice for these developers inside the building at the moment. It's a scarce market. Some developers take incentives, you know, rather large incentives, which is what we're trying to compete with makes it hard.
4:27 But then there's also other developers that don't even understand that you can use another carrier. And that's where we want to try and come in.
4:34 I guess to start with and work with these developers to educate them to understand that they can use an alternative carrier and where our features and benefits lie and what to choose by the covers as a carry-free choice for their development.
4:47 So when it comes to finding the right partner, it seems like you're open to either a hands-on or more laid-back investor.
4:54 It also seems like someone with a background in sales or even construction or maybe a professional sales person could be a good fit.
5:02 Who do you think would make the ideal partner or investor to help fibre co-grow. Look, look, right this moment, I'm experienced and I'm completely congested with building the network.
5:15 It could be great to not only have someone coming and help us financially move faster and get sharper, but also have someone who could help us convert these customers in these buildings.
5:26 You might have experienced not just in sales, but you know, general experience and helping to build campaigns on a mass scale and help convert, I guess culturally diverse as well, because we've got a lot of culture in these areas, convert these people into our network.
5:44 And then if the person or the group would have experience or contact within the building or development industry, it would actually help us get in touch with these larger what we call Greenfield or new builds to start to sell our network into that more premium market.
6:04 Thanks Jake. So what's the other opportunity you mentioned in relation to old or failing infrastructure? Yeah, look I mean they're everywhere and I think what we're seeing now is a lot of other carriers are also saying to get their eyes on these opportunities because it's a lot of old in the infrastructure
6:22 and they're called brand-field opportunities. It's old failing infrastructure. The services that my own, these people can't work from home, they can't do anything because it's so slow and so cumbersome.
6:33 And no one wants to maintain it because it's all internal in the buildings that the carry doesn't own the infrastructure.
6:38 The unit owners own it. So no one wants to work on it or fix it. So by coming in and putting these in, we solve lots of problems.
6:45 And there's a lot of these areas that need to be done. You know, like we're looking at the area we're in now and roads and in meadow bank roads Link park and went with point there's as almost 35,000 dwellings And then you look you can jump to other areas like the Gold Coast where there's you know 200,000
7:01 200,000 dwellings which we potentially saw that's that's a rather large project There's other areas like mascot with you know 15 to 20,000 dwellings mascot Well, I creek area in Sydney and then you can go to Melbourne and the Docklands and you can just go on and on There's all these infrastructure projects
7:18 that need to be tended to, and we can help do that on a Brownfield project scale, alongside our greenfields opportunities where we're going to these new builds and generating some rather lucrative projects that are kind of come hand in hand.
7:36 There's even further we can go out into, we could look at our regional and remote responsibilities as a carrier and look at going to some of these regional locations and develop relationships with poll-assid owners and deploying network out there where people really need internet, they don't even have
7:50 anything other than idea so. Like they are the kind of opportunities that are available. It's a meant, it's out there and everyone's trying to have a go at it, but everyone's coming to the same thing.
8:04 It's experience, it's a combination of experience and money. And a lot of people have the money, a lot of people have experience, but not many people have the barf, so that's where we're at.
8:13 Hey, Jake, it was great chatting with you today, and I've learned a lot about fiberco. So what's the next move for potential investors?
8:21 Who should they get in touch with? Look, I mean, they can get in touch with me directly. I'm the one who's running to show at the moment.
8:28 I definitely like to speak to them in person. Thanks again, Jake, for the opportunity to learn more about fiberco. I've tried to cover the key points, but I seriously suggest checking out their information memorandum and having a chat with Jake.
8:41 If you want to learn more about fiber code, just head to bizdilroom.com, log in and search for fiber code. I'm Matt Holland and thanks for tuning in.