Steve Baxter Quotes
105 Steve Baxter Quotes
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I was born in ’71.
Steve Baxter
My promotional strategy was basically dropping flyers into computer shops… That's social media in 1995.
Steve Baxter
When people sell it cheap, you know that can't last long.
Steve Baxter
[On having to move out of the house where he had setup his ISP (Internet Service Provider)] I had to move out of the house. So, what am I going to do? So, I didn't have the cashflow to be able to move the telephone lines that I've installed and so, believe it or not, the house next door came up for sale so, we actually bought that house next door. The only reason I bought that, if it was on the left hand side, it was at the right hand side, I wouldn't have bought it because I couldn't have actually literally dug up the telephone lines and really like having it next door because it was closer to the exchange. As that's what I did. I actually physically relocated lines… I re-trenched it and put it in.
Steve Baxter
I took a new business partner in October or November, I think of 1995. We moved into the, so Chris had 45%. I had 55% and Chris, and still a really good friend, Chris Wood... We then moved into the city so, we actually relocated the business and really attacked the consumer market and went gangbusters, just went crazy. We sold that to OzEmail in 1999 and 2000. And, end of 2000, we relocated to Brisbane which was always our desire.
Steve Baxter
[On his original ISP business.] We had about 65, I think it was about 58 or something, 68 or 65 all together employees, full time equivalent 58. So, when I left the business, we had 34,000 users. We were about the seventh largest ISP in Australia at the time and we only had a point of presence in Adelaide. So, that was pretty cool.
Steve Baxter
Nothing more frustrates me when you ring up a service organization and you have to tell the person on the other end of the phone what you are buying from them so they can start to help you.
Steve Baxter
[On working too many hours in his business averaging six and a half days a week.] My fitness deteriorated to the point that it was probably dangerous so, everything does come with a price.
Steve Baxter
I was very happy to move back to Queensland and do some fishing which I did, bought a boat and had a good time doing some fishing… you could tell that I got pretty bored with it pretty fast.
Steve Baxter
I… just turned 30, you know so I was still pretty keen.
Steve Baxter
Pipe officially was registered as a company in November 2001 and we really opened the doors in late 2002. Once we'd sort of acquired the premises and built a little bit of infrastructure in order to kick it off.
Steve Baxter
Pipe actually stood for Public IP (Interchange Peering) Exchange. So, it was all about a way to get internet service providers and telcos interconnecting more rationally than they were at the time and probably still are.
Steve Baxter
We did not have an ISP business. We did not compete. This is such an important aspect to it. We did not compete with our customers. That is the single most important thing that any intermediary can do.
Steve Baxter
We're not going to compete with our customers.
Steve Baxter
What we used to do is we used to is we used to go out and convince a customer who wanted high speed capacity between two points. We used to go out to them and actually said, ‘Right, it's going to cost us,’ and we'd get a quite good process, let's say $50,000 or $60,000 to build fiber between point A and point B. We go to the customer and say, ‘Look, here it is. It's going to cost you $50,000 to $60,000 to build this. We'll going to rent it to you after that for $2000 per month.’ Believe it or not, this was fantastic. I can remember the time that Telstra... were trying to charge $16,000 a month for the same service more so for set up. So, we had a market. We'd have a build cost covered. We'd install like 144 core cable of fiber. For $2000 a month, we'd sell the customers two course or rent the customers two course per month. So, we had 142 left over to sell to other people. So, every second customer we got was probably 80% to 90% gross margin.
Steve Baxter
We needed to raise capital… so, we explored listing [On the ASX.].
Steve Baxter
We geared up quite substantially. Once again, huge fan of repeatable quality systems.
Steve Baxter
The biggest thing we did in the fiber space was understand where our fiber was installed which might sound like it's, ‘Well, duh, you do that anyway.’ But, the number of businesses out there who didn't do it and still don't do it.
Steve Baxter
I left Pipe as a full-time executive in early 2008.
Steve Baxter
I did not have the political skills required to maneuver an organization of 35,000 to 40,000 people. I was a little too blunt for that.
Steve Baxter
I don't suffer fools gladly…
Steve Baxter
I've got a couple of planes, well flying planes is one of my hobbies.
Steve Baxter
I've done fair bit of fishing. I ended up buying a lovely place up in the Whitsundays actually on Shute Harbour fields so, we fly up, land in Shute Harbour which is quite, it's just near a beach and then, park the plane under the house which is quite nice, yes.
Steve Baxter
[On River City Labs.] Try your crazy idea. We'll charge $350 ex GST a month for a desk that comes with an Internet, access to all shared resources.
Steve Baxter
[In October 2014.] I’m not the world’s best employee.
Steve Baxter
Bonus
[In March 2005 on co-founding Pipe Networks with Steve Baxter.] We both had run successful technology companies in the late 90s and sold out to other investors. I started working on PIPE Networks in 2002 and contacted Steve [Baxter], an old friend from Rockhampton, to discuss my product development ideas. It was very fortuitous to find that he was in Brisbane having sold his Adelaide-based business to Ozemail. It was then we decided to join forces.
Bevan Slattery (Pipe Networks Co-founder)
[In March 2005 on the key to success of Pipe Networks with Steve Baxter.] We have known each other from school days in Rockhampton. When we realised we had an opportunity to share our experience, knowledge and industry expertise and contacts, we knew we had a strong foundation for a successful business.
Bevan Slattery (Pipe Networks Co-founder)
[In March 2005 on advice to someone starting a new business.] If you've got an idea, do your research, write a business plan, cut your revenues in half and if it still makes sense then execute.
Bevan Slattery (Pipe Networks Co-founder)
[In December 2006 on founding Pipe Networks with Steve Baxter. It was listed on the ASX on May 2005 and at December 2006 had a market capitalisation of $75 million with sales growth of 120% in 2005-2006.] Our bandwidth demands were going to be increasing, so we wanted to buy some dark fiber. [Then finding out the prices being charged.] We said for what you are trying to charge us, it would be cheaper for us to build our own. They said, ‘If you think you can do that, we dare you.’
Bevan Slattery (Pipe Networks Co-founder)
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