The founders of top-tier tendering company BidWrite have a clear focus — help organisations win and retain business.
From the outset, BidWrite’s purpose was clear.
“Our point was to essentially make tendering better through the lens of either buying or selling,” says co-founder David Lunn.
“There was so much room for improvement; how organisations pitch to win work wasn’t particularly good … and how organisations buy could have been a lot better as well.”
The idea for the business emerged during a barbecue in December 2007 when Lunn and co-founder Nigel Dennis pondered a new business model that looked at tendering from the perspective of buyer and seller.
Fast-forward to May 2022 and the two former Curtin University engineering alums have built the company into four offices comprising 26 staff across Australia and New Zealand.
Now solely focusing on “helping organisations win and retain business”, the company helps with persuasive proposals, tenders, quotes and grant submissions.
Growth amid challenges
Lunn says the business has continued to grow despite economic challenges such as the global financial crisis, which hit soon after BidWrite was launched.
“We’re not immune to the challenges that everyone’s faced around the economic cycle, around COVID of course, challenges of finding people and retaining people,” he says.
"Our main achievement, though, is to actually be able to employ a bunch of great people and have this sort of community of individuals around us either working in our organisation or those we influence and we help."
Asked about notable industry trends, Lunn says there is a drive by larger procurement companies towards risk mitigation, as well as a mood for innovation and local capability building. Technology has also resulted in more sophisticated tender processes.
Connecting with the business community
BidWrite joined CCIWA in 2018 for the connection with other businesses and the “palette of opportunity” offered through its services, particularly Member Connect events and the Industry Capability Network WA.
“The ICN framework is really important for our business because of its connection to business-creating opportunity in the sectors that we support,” Lunn says.
“I’ve also really valued Member Connect events where I can just go up and say hello to someone, and it doesn’t take long to find out we have something in common or there’s an issue that we’re both experiencing.”
He adds: “You just can’t do what we do in isolation and CCI’s community is very specific and useful. It’s the only and best member connect environment and community for a business like ours in Western Australia.”
Strategy to scale and refine
Looking ahead, Lunn says the company plans to double in revenue and staff in the next three years as he, Dennis and two more recent owners pursue a strategy to scale and refine the business.
“We're squarely in succession planning at the moment and making sure that our business is sustainable. We've moved into subscription-type structures with how we sell our services now, too, recognising the better value these longer-term relationships deliver.
“We’re always changing, there's always stuff to do. But that's why you're a business owner, isn't it? That's why we do this.”
To be part of WA’s peak business organisation, get in touch via 1300 422 492 or [email protected].
