How Aussie tech company Rosterfy went from spare room start-up to Super Bowl success.

How Rosterfy took the global stage by staying purpose driven.

When Bennett Merriman and his cousin Shannan Gove first set out together in 2011, they weren’t planning to build a global tech company. They set out to solve a problem.

They’d just finished university, and like many new graduates, they were finding it tricky to get a foot in the door. Instead of getting disheartened, they sprung into action and launched Event Workforce Group (now Spark Event Group).

EWG helped connect motivated university students with casual work opportunities in major sports and events. And, it quickly grew into one of Australia’s largest staffing businesses, with around 30,000 staff working across more than 1,000 events each year.

Operating at such a large scale presented equally large challenges – namely, how to effectively recruit, train, engage and schedule a workforce of that size.

Enter: Rosterfy.

Built for Events. Backed by Ambition.

Like many successful ventures, Rosterfy didn’t start with a polished pitch deck or 10-year plan. The EWG team just needed a better system to manage their own growing workforce. And when they couldn’t find the right tech, they built it.

“We never thought the software would become its own business,” Bennett shares. “It was just about solving an internal problem at first.”

But it quickly became clear that many other event businesses — including EWG’s own clients — had similar needs, and this new system might just offer a broader solution.

It was at this pivotal moment that Chris Grant joined the team as the third Rosterfy co-founder, bringing the technical expertise needed to take the platform from idea to reality.

Strong relationships create opportunities.

Rosterfy quickly began attracting outside interest.

In 2014, while volunteering with Tough Mudder — one of the world’s largest obstacle race events — Bennett connected with Andy Newman, Tough Mudder’s global head of volunteers. Bennett seized the moment and told Andy about their system.

“We said: ‘Hey, we’ve really got a system here. Would you be open to at least trialing it?’” Bennett explains. “And he gave us a chance which was very brave of him.”

Six weeks later, Andy and his team flew from New York to workshop their needs as Rosterfy’s first major international client. Another six weeks on, Rosterfy launched in the USA and UK.

“We had 120,000 volunteers, 50 events a year and not much time. But we had that little opening of an opportunity to make an impact on a global stage. So we really went for it and ultimately pulled it off,” says Bennett.

Their next crucial opportunity came just a year later when Andy left Tough Mudder and joined the NFL Super Bowl team as Head of Volunteering. The rest, as they say, is history.

Nine Super Bowls later, Rosterfy now powers some of the world’s most iconic events — from the UEFA Champions League and the Australian Open to the Commonwealth Games, Formula 1 and World Expos.

“Having a good relationship with an early customer really helped set the stage globally to transform the product and keep scaling,” says Bennett.

As Rosterfy evolved and grew, it became clear its impact could extend well beyond sport and events. Today, Rosterfy also supports not-for-profits, universities, cities and healthcare charities — with clients including the British Heart Foundation, OzHarvest, Brisbane City Council, Deakin University and many more.

Staying close to people and grounded in purpose.

For all its growth, Rosterfy has remained people-first and purpose-driven. From how they engage clients to how they hire and grow their team, all three founders are still deeply involved in the day-to-day.

“We do all final interviews at the executive level. So we’re still really close to hiring,” Bennett explains. “We also travel internationally and meet with our teams around the world. That stuff’s really important to us.”

And while Rosterfy was built off the back of sports and events, Bennett says volunteers are actually the heart of the company.

Through partnerships with private businesses like SEEK Volunteer, and more than 200 not-for-profits, universities and local governments across Europe, North America and APAC, Rosterfy is connecting people to the causes they care about.

“Our goal is to power 500 million hours of volunteering by 2027. We’re currently at about 130 million hours,” says Bennett. “That’s the North Star we work toward.”

Raising capital to run faster.

With that North Star in mind, the team knew they’d need to revisit their product roadmap and funding model to move faster.

“When we opened up to NFPs, cities and higher education, we realised that this is a billion-dollar-and-above market. At any point in time there’s 400 million volunteers across the planet involved in organised volunteering — and that’s a very big blue sky opportunity,” said Bennett.

To seize it, Rosterfy needed to move away from custom software and one-off events, shifting to a repeatable SaaS model that could truly scale.

To help fund that shift, they turned to venture capital.

A timely initial angel seed round in 2019 helped see them through the trying COVID years. Then, in 2023, Bailador came to the table with nearly $10 million — followed by a top-up funding round 18 months later — giving Rosterfy the fuel it needed to really stretch its legs.

Sharing the wins.

During their three successful rounds of capital raising, Rosterfy also rolled out an Employee Share Scheme (ESS), giving staff a direct stake in the company’s future. Designed in partnership with Kearney Group, the scheme was built to be both commercially sound and culturally aligned.

“We did it to promote a sense of loyalty but also shared success for those individuals that are with us over a period of time,” Bennett says.

Department heads and executives are offered equity through the scheme, which has become a powerful tool for attracting and retaining top talent. Bennett says it also proved attractive during capital raises.

“When you bring in outside investment, it’s often encouraged that you have an ESS in place — not only because it’s fairly typical, but funders want to make sure that you can keep your current staff and also attract even better staff in the future.”

Integrated advice that grows with you.

For Rosterfy’s first seven years, they flew without an internal CFO. And that’s where Kearney Group’s Business Advisory team came in.

From complex financial modelling, tax strategy and compliance to the design and implementation of their ESS, Kearney Group’s expertise — and genuine care — has been invaluable.

“Working with Kearney Group in the early days was very, very valuable. We just didn’t have the expertise internally,” says Bennett. “But we also found that our advisers and Kearney Group are very interested and passionate about what we’re actually doing as well.”

Bennett says expert business advice helped Rosterfy grow, scale and focus on the things that mattered most.

“When you’re in a startup phase, one hour doing some tax planning or trying to build your financial model could have been an hour that you could be out there selling and finding that next customer.”

And beyond our technical advice? Well, Bennett says Kearney Group is simply part of Rosterfy’s “extended team” working with us “just fast-tracked a lot of the learning and a lot of the decisions Rosterfy needed to make as well.”

Lessons from startup life.

Rosterfy’s story is full of defining moments and hard-won wisdom. Bennett has generously shared some of the key lessons that helped them scale.

Find your customer early (even if they don’t pay right away).

“Advocacy and building case studies is almost as valuable as revenue at the start.”

Work with mentors to share the load and help redirect if needed.

“In the early days we had a number of mentors who really supported us. The routine of having mentors really helped us to stay accountable because there’d always be actions that came out of it.”

Hire experts and focus on what matters most.

“For a startup, one hour doing your own tax planning or trying to build your financial model is an hour that you could be out there selling and finding your next customer.”

Don’t wait too long to raise capital.

“We bootstrapped for five years. In hindsight, earlier funding would have allowed us to hire key talent sooner and reduce pressure on the founding team.”

Stay close to your mission and your customers.

“No matter how big you get, your customers are your best source of insight and opportunity.”

Most importantly, enjoy the ride.

“Making sure that you enjoy the journey along the way is really key — even from that startup phase. Really celebrate the wins.”

Next up: 500 million hours of impact.

So, what’s next for Rosterfy? In short: more volunteer hours, more impact.

With global expansion underway and new partnerships forming every day, Rosterfy is focused on scaling sustainably — without losing sight of the values that got them here.

“We’ve built something that’s solving real problems, at scale,” says Bennett. “It has been a fun journey. Ten years has gone very quickly. But we still feel like we’re just getting started.”