Track Record | Previously Unavailable

Our Track Record

2023: Ideally

Ideally is the insights platform that helps grow great ideas. We’ve loved co-creating this second joint venture from PU & TRA Labs, following on from Tracksuit. PU led brand identity, strategic positioning  and the first website for the brand, leading to  a successful $2m raise just months after launch, and more than $2.5m ARR in its first year.

Ideally offers on-demand customer insights that are rapid, robust and built on the idea of helping people find the opportunity and potential in their ideas.

We worked with our partners at TRA Labs, and the founder CEO James Donald to define the product direction, positioning, capital strategy and to create a brand identity and digital presence that carried the brand idea.

Ideally’s goal is to make customer testing easier, faster, more accessible and more impactful for the development of ideas. Until now most testing has been too expensive, slow and defensive. We believe going to customers often and in ways that can look for possibility and growth will lead to better ideas, products and results, and it is so cool to see that Ideally’s users are proving and experiencing this every day.

2022: Master of Advertising Effectiveness

Feeling a little itchy during New Zealand's final lockdown, Previously's founding partner James Hurman developed an online learning programme based around his 15 years of researching, practicing, publishing and teaching advertising effectiveness principles. After a successful first year, global marketing effectiveness platform WARC were brought on as a partner, taking the programme to a much larger international audience. Since, over 500 professionals from 30 countries have taken the six-week programme, with alumni including executives from Google, Amazon, Airbnb, Disney, McDonalds, New York Times, Salesforce and all major advertising agency networks.

“A fantastic experience - from content, design, delivery and overall engagement on the most topical subject of today - effectiveness.”

Creative Excellence Lead, Google

2023: Brand Fund 1

A $4m+ fund in partnership with Icehouse Ventures. We are investing in seed companies and companies showing signs of product market fit where brand will be a defining element in their success. Investments so far include Tracksuit, Ideally, AF Drinks, compostic, aglow, MenuAid, Calocurb and ANDFOODS. If you have a company that believes in and is built through brand, please do get in touch.

“Partnering with a company like Previously Unavailable on a fund of this kind is unique in the New Zealand market. After following their success with their current portfolio, we approached them with the opportunity, and look forward to working with them to grow and manage Brand Fund 1.”‍

Robbie Paul
Icehouse Ventures CEO

2021: Tracksuit

Alongside our joint venture partner TRA Labs, we conceived and developed a brand health tracking solution that allows companies to assess the health of their brand and the return they’re getting on their brand building investment. Tracksuit is around 10 times cheaper than traditional brand tracking, the UX and features are far superior, and the dashboard is ‘always on’, allowing brands to track their health in real-time. The business has been wildly successful, opening offices in New York, London, Sydney and Auckland, scaling to $10M in annual recurring revenue in its first three years, and being named NZ Hi-Tech Emerging Company of the Year in 2024.

“Previously Unavailable have been an amazing JV partner in the development of Tracksuit. Getting to ARR of $1.5M within 12 months is an incredible achievement and the PU team have played a key role in supercharging this growth. Their input reflects the excellence and breadth of their business – helping shape the strategy, developing a very fresh brand platform, beautiful design and UX and most especially, rolling up their sleeves to get the plane off the ground!”

Connon Bray
Partner and Executive Director, TRA

2020: AF Drinks

In the first Covid lockdown of 2020, we partnered with Eat My Lunch’s Lisa King on her sophomore venture. We took an equity stake in the business and worked with Lisa through the product and business creation, launch and early stages. We gave the company it’s irreverent name and branded AF’s secret booze-like ingredient Afterglow™. AF fast became New Zealand’s market leader before launching in the US, where it’s now stocked in thousands of Walmart, Target and Sprouts stores.

2020: Odd Company

When DB Breweries sought to broaden from their core of beers and ciders and play in the burgeoning RTD space, we led the strategy to discover where and how to play in new-wave RTDs and seltzers, and created a new product range and brand - OddCompany. We designed the brand and distinctive packaging around the lovable oddballs we all have in our social groups. Within 2 years the brand grew to $10M of sales as it took a valuable share of the growing RTD category.

“The Previously Unavailable team were instrumental in the creation of the Odd Company brand, providing not only great inspiration, but also a continual challenge to stay true to the essence of the brand, which ultimately helped drive cut through in the market.”

Dave Norman, DB Breweries

2019: Helius Theraputics

In 2019 we led the business, innovation and brand strategies for leading medicinal cannabis manufacturer Helius Therapeutics. The strategy was core to the company’s funding round that same year – and was so well received that Helius achieved their $20M raise in a single (and first) investor presentation.

“Previously Unavailable played a pivotal role in defining our brand and innovation strategies at Helius. A startup business in a startup industry, this work helped us write the playbook in New Zealand; defining our purpose, crystallising our brand story, prioritising innovation and unifying our team. This work directly contributed to our ability to attract $48m in capital over the company’s first three years."

Paul Manning
Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder

2018: Compostic

We invested in and worked with founder Jon Reed to create his exciting bioplastics startup. The government’s decision to ban all plastic supermarket bags (even compostable ones) forced us to pivot away from bags and into home compostable clingfilm – a move that led to the company becoming the first of its kind globally. Leading the brand creation and packaging, we set the stage for the company to raise its successful seed round, launch and grow in New Zealand, then export to Australia and the US, where it’s stocked in more than a thousand stores including Target, Wholefoods and Woolworths.

“Previously has comprehensive but simple processes in place to make sure that our start-up was taken seriously as a business from day one, before we had the right to be! To this day, we are constantly complimented on the look, feel and flow of the Compostic brand, giving us the cutting edge we need to grow internationally.”

Jon Reed
Founder & CEO, Compostic

2016: Toothcrush

Our first wholly-owned in-house venture was Toothcrush, a sustainable bamboo toothbrush subscription service. We were one of the pioneers of FMCG subscriptions in New Zealand and Australia – and one of the most successful, becoming Australasia’s #1 oral care subscription business. After growing the company for 3 years we successfully exited the business, which continues to operate in New Zealand, Australia and the UK.

2015: Simplicity Kiwisaver

We worked with founder Sam Stubbs to create the strategy for Simplicity’s brand, customer experience and launch. We pioneered an innovative UI that enables users to see where they’ll be at 65, and the impact of contribution rate and fund changes. Simplicity has gone on to become one of New Zealand’s leading KiwiSaver providers, with 150,000 members and over $6B in funds under management. In 2021, Simplicity was made one of New Zealand’s default KiwiSaver schemes – displacing several of the country’s leading banks.

“Previously Unavailable are our innovation go-to people. To find out what’s hot and what’s not, they’re our first call. But most importantly, they’re a critical input into working out whether an idea will actually work in the marketplace. It’s easy to be seduced by innovation, but it’s getting the idea to actually work in the marketplace that’s their special sauce.”

SAM STUBBS
FOUNDER & Managing director, SIMPLICITY nz ltd

2015: Spark New Zealand

In 2015, Spark asked us to help envision the future of their category and business. We brought together a major interrogation of the entire current customer experience, with a study of the unsolved problems in the daily lives of New Zealanders, and an assessment of significant technology and market advancements predicted by 2025. We reimagined Spark as a ‘life operating system’ that surrounded New Zealanders with life-enhancing technology. The resulting CX strategy was captured in a groundbreaking film depicting a day in the life of Spark customers in 2025 – to date New Zealand’s most ambitious piece of corporate visioneering.

“The impact that Spark Life 2025 had on staff was extraordinary. It made the intangible conversations about innovation and our future seem real to people. For once everybody really got where we’re going and felt excited and special about being part of Spark.”

Jason Paris
Former CEO, Spark NZ Home, Mobile & Business

2014: Stolen Spirits

The genesis of Previously Unavailable was the work Founding Partner James Hurman did with Stolen, investing in the company and leading the strategy for the creation of the brand in 2011, and continuing as part of the core advisory team through the brand’s early years. In 2012, James conceived and helped develop Stolen’s ‘Coffee & Cigarettes’ spiced rum for the US market, a product which facilitated the company’s US growth and eventual $21M exit.

“When we approached Previously we had an urgent but huge brief: help us ideate a concept for an innovative spiced rum for the USA market. If we got it right, we might have a seat at the table with the biggest distributor in the USA, Southern Wine & Spirits, who had asked us to come up with the concept. No pressure: we had two weeks! James is always amazing - one of the very best I have worked with - at finding innovative and strategic angles to services, products, and communications and on this occasion (as always) he certainly delivered. Our Coffee & Cigarettes Spiced Rum (a world’s first and James’ idea) was taken on by Southern Wine and Spirits, a huge achievement and ultimately the catalyst of our USA success at Stolen.”

Jamie Duff
Founding CEO, Stolen Rum

Supergenerous

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“We have had overwhelmingly positive feedback from our users, charitable organisations, people and investors to the name and brand change to Supergenerous and the incredible visual identity and story Previously created for us. We couldn't be happier with the result."

Guillaume Dehan
Founder & CEO, Supergenerous

Cannes Lions

The Creative Effectiveness Ladder – a new framework for measuring advertising revenue. Adopted by megabrands around the world and has created $1M+ advisory revenue since its 2020 launch.

Futurity Bioventures

“A part of Futurity's mission is helping humanity through two very different ventures. We worked closely with Previously to refine a brand story to communicates the unique value of each, ensuring that together they voiced a common purpose which we were able to embody in a logo.”

Jacob Kohn
Founder & CEO, Futurity Bioventures

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"The impact that Spark Life 2025 had on staff was extraordinary. It made the intangible conversations about innovation and our future seem real to people. For once everybody really got where we're going and felt exctied and special about being part of Spark."

“Most importantly, they’re a critical input into working out whether an idea will actually work in the marketplace. It’s easy to be seduced by innovation, but it’s getting the idea to actually work in the marketplace that’s their special sauce.”