One of Clear Blue Water’s greatest challenges so far has been developing a product which is “market ready”.
“We started with the idea for the software a few years before demand came in, so we built it without it being market tested. Demonstrating the value of our software has taken us longer than we’d have liked,” Flores says.
“We initially wanted to build something so big, but we had to come to grips with reality and shrink it down. About a year ago we went to a presentation on the lean start-up and 20 minutes in Mark and I turned to each other and said ‘oh no’, everything they said not to, we’d done.”
Another challenge for the company came when the pair involved the wrong investor for their business.
“We found an angel investor who had started an IT consulting company himself, grew it to 200 consultants and in 12 years sold it for millions. He had a massive house and was living the dream.
“In nine months he invested in three start-ups, but we found he was so used to dealing in large amounts of cash and as a start-up this didn’t apply. He bled the other two businesses dry.”
Flores’ proudest moments to date in the business have been completing a major project.
“When we got the Foxtel project we were in the tender against two listed IT consulting companies, we were the smallest by far and the most expensive, but we won the contract,” he says.
“Foxtel had a history of delivering projects late, that weren’t what people wanted and which were a lot more expensive than what was budgeted for. Six months later we delivered exactly what they wanted, it was on time and on budget and it went live to 650 people on the first day with no errors,” he says.
To ensure projects are delivered efficiently and are of the best quality, Flores gets his team to work together.
“Usually software developers are quite introverted. They like their own space and will work in their own littler corners. We usually let them, but in times of trouble everyone has to get together,” he says.
“I get a big meeting room, put some computers in there and everyone works, snacks and throws questions around.”
When a projected is completed, the team celebrates by having “big parties” at their local pub, people take some time off and, in some cases, there are bonuses.
After work Flores typically attends networking functions, goes dancing or spends time with his family.
“Because I’m South American I love dancing, so my girlfriend and I go dancing at night,” he says.
“There are a lot of Latin nights around and there’s a particularly good one at Trak on Toorak Road [Melbourne] which has awesome Latin music. They have a big dance floor, they play music which is quite recent from over there and everyone speaks Spanish. It’s one of those places that feels like home.”
Over summer Flores competes in triathlons and throughout the year he trains regularly. He’s also a regular participant in webinars.
For Flores, he intends to spend another few years in Australia, before living in Europe for 10 years and the US for 10 years.
“I want to go back to Chile when I’m in my 50s and apply everything I’ve learnt about how these countries work to Chile.”
When asked what this travelling will mean for the future of Clear Blue Water, he says it doesn’t necessarily spell the end.
“At that point there are a few things which can happen. It means I might be able to take Clear Blue Water to the US or to Europe, or Mark and I would move onto our next venture either together or separately,” he says.
“For example, if I wasn’t doing this I’d be in solar panels.”
Ultimately, Flores says Clear Blue Water’s vision is to help decision makers worldwide make better decisions.
“The way we’re going to reach these people is by opening up our software,” he says.
“In the next 12 to 15 months we want to open up the software to web developers so they can have these analytical smarts embedded all throughout their software, then people worldwide can use it and our reach will grow.”
