Is this one of the shortest trips from start-up to trade sale ever?

It’s the stuff that start-up dreams are made of. Two investment bankers, a couple, leave their jobs to start an online business. They operate it successfully for six weeks, secure a loyal following then, snap! They are approached by the largest group buying site in Australia with a deal they cannot refuse.

This is the story of Elise and Dan Gold, the founders of online mum’s retailer Ladybub. The former investment bankers had been running their business for just weeks when they received a call from Catch of the Day co-founder Gabby Leibovich.

His company – which has five online retail sites and had turnover of $250 million in 2011-12 – had been interested in entering the lucrative $16.7 billion mum’s and bubs market so it went about researching its potential competitors. How did he go about it? Search engine, Google, of course. Although he didn’t find much in terms of online group buying sites for mum’s, he did find newly-formed Ladybub.

It’s the kind of transaction that could only happen with the help of online.

After speaking with the Gold’s, Leibovich was sure he had found the right people. That’s more than half the battle for business owners, he says. It’s a cliche but it’s true. The fact that they had extensive corporate experience, as well as small business experience, was a winning formula, Leibovich says. As a fellow entrepreneur, he also liked the fact that they had taken a big risk, leaving their highly paid jobs to start out in a new online venture.

Online businesses certainly offer entrepreneurs low barriers to entry and the potential for huge exposure to new markets. The fact that Leibovich found Ladybub and the Golds on Google – not through a business broker or an exiting contact is remarkable in itself.

While the Golds declined to outline the terms of the deal, they say they own a stake of Catch of the Day’s Mumgo and will have the responsibility for growing the business in the future. While Ladybub was essentially a two-person operation – Mumgo now has eight staff and access to its sizable IT department and logistics and factory staff. Its growth plans are now on steroids and it hopes to become the biggest player in the online mum’s and bubs market.

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