Adam Sarfati is the founder at HeapsGood Packaging, the leading Australian one-stop shop for sustainable packaging and e-commerce essentials.
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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
I cut my teeth in the early days of the Ecom boom at a company called Zazz. Zazz was the first one day seller in Australia, a business modelled on American company woot.com and was in direct competition with Catch of the Day. It was ultimately purchased by Kogan in 2016.
I started HeapsGood in 2020 with my brother Ace from my living room. Timing is everything and although we had a winning product and were building a unique brand, launching during the start of COVID was a massive catalyst for our early success. We went from strength to strength growing revenue to 1.5m in our second year of business.
We just completed our Series A round of funding with CSF platform Birchal and raised just shy of 1m which puts us in a great place to grow the business and become a true profits for purpose business in the coming years.
2) What does a day in your life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
7am – Wake up, reply to any urgent emails and grab a coffee on the way to work.
8am – Aim to be at the office before everyone else which ideally gives me an hour to get through some work without distractions and schedule any of our pressing tasks in ClickUp.
9am- 5:30pm – Meetings, coordinating campaigns with the team, chatting to suppliers, day to day ops, planning, strategy.
5:30pm – Gym/Tennis/Soccer/some form of exercise or at the very least go for a walk and listen to a podcast to unwind. I try to get some sunshine which becomes very difficult during daylight savings in Melbourne.
6-7pm – Head home, another coffee or tea, smash out some emails and anything else that needs attention.
7pm – Dinner and some down time.
8:30-9:30pm – Check emails, chat to overseas suppliers, look over days sales/stats, customer service replies, social etc, double checking we are on top of all our goals and providing the best service and support in the business and on top of our key objectives and tasks for the following day/weeks.
11ish pm – Sleep
3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
Yes, which was handy when I broke my leg playing soccer mid-way through last year. Now that we are building a team and have lots of new staff, I’m spending more time in the office to coordinate and help them settle in, but will shift to a more hybrid role again in the future.
4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
Not as much as I should have over the last 2 years if I’m being honest. The combination of long lockdowns in Melbourne and a new business meant my focus has well and truly been on the business side of things. Which was probably lucky as we all needed a healthy distraction.
I’ve started to work on a better work life balance this year. Ideally it should include some form of exercise daily, going for a walk, spending time with family and friends.
5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
I had stopped playing soccer and working out due to injury last year and that’s now become a big part of my day to day routine again. Being sedentary and using a computer for such long hours has a huge affect on physical but also mental well being and I find exercise a good way to break that up.
6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
I’m just finishing Measure What Matters which has been helping us set our company OKRs as we use our recent funding to scale the company.
Podcasts:
- The Ecommerce Opportunity
- The Green MBA
- The Unofficial Shopify Podcast
- Victory the Podcast (for when I don’t want to think about business)
7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?
Just my phone and my computer.
From a business sense we wouldn’t be able to function without Clickup as a way to manage all our projects and tasks.
8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
I’d love to hear what Elon Musk has to say on the subject considering his insane schedule.
9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
Life’s too short to not enjoy it. Try to take time to stop and smell the roses, Celebrate your achievements and revel in the company of good friends, family and food as often as possible.
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