TRADE TALK
BRAINSTORMING FOR SUCCESS A young entrepreneur is helping automotive businesses to innovate their processes and save thousands Ty Osborne established BrainStorm in 2013 and has grown the company to now have staff working across the eastern seaboard of Australia alongside a development team in India and contractors in South East Asia. The company currently services around 30 customers on a regular basis, mostly in Australia but also in the USA and New Zealand – with about half of those being in the automotive space – and Ty is showing no signs of slowing down. While he was born in Victoria, Ty grew up on the remote Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory and while his career is now firmly cemented in the land of IT, it didn’t get off to the easiest start. “In year 9 I failed IT, it was the only subject I ever failed,” Ty explained. “I was very interested in design and animation (which is hard when you are colour blind) and eventually that led me to looking at Flash animation to build websites. “I always admired my older brothers (I have four brothers and one younger sister) and one of my brothers Reece owned a Diesel Truck repair business, while the other was the IT Manager at one of Australia’s largest Newspaper Publishers, the Star News Group. “In the year 11 Summer holidays I did work experience with them both, one as a Mechanic, one as a Junior IT tech – only one of them was hiring though! So, after the holidays I had my
ticket out of school as an IT Trainee with Star News Group. Before being offered a role with Star, my career could have gone either way.” While IT might not have come naturally to a teenage Ty to begin with, an entrepreneurial spirit and a love for automotive has always been at the forefront. “Before landing my job at the Star News Group, I had my own small business cutting, splitting and selling firewood as a teenager,” he said. “And I have always been into cars, but for me it has always been more about 4x4s and going bush. We had a Landcruiser growing up and that took us to every corner of Groote Eylandt. Now I love getting out and exploring with my kids and doing the same, I have also been riding Dirt/Enduro Motorbikes since I could walk. These have always been a big part of my life and are a real passion of mine.” The Star News Group was an important launching pad for Ty, ultimately providing him with the varied background necessary to be able to one day become the successful Founder of his own company. “I am so grateful for my time at Star News Group, without it I could never have been exposed to such a variety of technologies or had the opportunity to explore each of them so deeply,” he reflects. “I started as a trainee, and eventually I filled the role of networking specialist, developer,
server administrator, team leader and finally IT Manager. In total I was at Star for seven years before starting with Baxters Automotive, another fantastic company that taught me so much. I was with Baxters for two years, and then I decided to start Brainstorm.” Ty is supported in his vision by a loving family who have played a large part in pushing him forwards. “I have a beautiful selfless wife Claire and four wild and fun little kids who keep us very busy. We had four under four as our last two are twins. When Claire told me she was pregnant with Sophie, my perspective on the world shifted. It was only a few days later I decided I needed to create a change to build a better life for my future family. Within weeks I had decided to resign and start BrainStorm – it was a scary gamble at the time,” he said. In the early days, Ty went door to door as he looked to develop his fledgling enterprise, which has grown since not only in size, but also focus. “When I started Brainstorm, it was with the intention to grow an IT company. I went door to door and eventually got a few opportunities, however, they were all development related – not what I originally had in mind. After a couple of months, I landed a large ERP customisation project where I had the opportunity to leverage both the programming and ERP skills I had,” Ty explains. “BrainStorm is now bigger than I ever originally
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Australian Automotive Aftermarket Magazine July 2022
