Full Name: Adam Jacobs
Current Role: Co-Founder of THE ICONIC and CEO & Co-Founder of Hatch
Last Role at PwC: Consultant
Time at PwC: 2008 - 2010
What’s your fondest memory from your time at PwC?
All my fondest memories come from being in the trenches with kind, driven, and fun colleagues.
I remember a telco growth project with Adam Lai, Trent Lund, Teresa Clauson, Di Rutter and Eugene Macey which just felt like a dream team. I learned so much from Adam and Trent, andequally as much from my fellow grads Di and Eugene. I thought I’d struck gold at work every day.
I also loved working with Emma Grogan, Dan Geard, and Sarah Stoney in the rem space. One afternoon whilst reviewing a large data file Dan made me a cup of tea. He asked how I liked it, and I responded innocently “with a dash of milk”. To this day he calls me Dash and I love it.
It’s a silly nickname, but it reminds me of that collegiate feeling when there are no egos and you’re just trying to solve a meaty problem together with someone you really enjoy working with. I think that was my overall experience at PwC.
How did your experience at PwC support or shape your career path? Are there any skills or lessons from your time at PwC that you still find valuable in the work you do today?
Many! I was fortunate to work with some very strong analysts, which quickly helped me build skills on how to think about breaking down a problem, what data I need, and the tangible skills of how to work with that data. Those are skills I still use today in solving the hundreds of problems per month that come with building a disruptive startup.
I was also fortunate to work with some very savvy commercial operators. From them, I learned that beyond the problem you need to think about the people. To understand what’s driving or motivating somebody and how to help them to achieve their unsaid goals, as well as the stated ones. This is something that I still use every day in commercial strategy, but mostly in product strategy when it comes to understanding technology users and helping them achieve their underlying emotional needs.
Can you share the story behind co-founding THE ICONIC? What inspired you to enter the online fashion retail space?
After PwC I went to BCG, and transferred to the Copenhagen office. Some of my colleagues knew a German investor in ecommerce. Together we started talking about the success they were seeing in Europe, and how that was a crystal ball for the Australian market.
It was not my plan at all, but after only 6 months in Copenhagen I returned to Australia to start a new ecommerce venture with that investor’s backing. At first it was awkward coming back having had a large farewell party!
We first envisaged a multi-category online retailer, similar to Amazon. But we quickly focused on fashion and footwear. Whilst I’m not from a fashion background, I studied Philosophy, and I’m fascinated by how people explore and build their sense of identity. Fashion goes to the heart of how we present ourselves to the world around us, and I was so excited to help Australians feel more empowered in exploring and sharing their identity with ease.
THE ICONIC is known for its innovation in customer experience and logistics. How did you prioritise these aspects in the company’s growth strategy?
This was a matter of learn-by-doing and crisp customer feedback loops. It only took a few months after launching the online retailer to learn that customer experience - and in particular delivery time and returns ease - was driving the lion’s share of the customer adoption and growth. We saw it in the numbers, and we heard it from customers every day.
We started experimenting with step-change improvements. For example, three hour delivery in Sydney (in 2012, when the standard for online shopping was 1-2 weeks), free overnight delivery to capital cities, and free returns around the country. Those improvements only propelled our growth and market share further, and grew the size of the overall Australian online shopping Market.
From there, we just kept leaning in further, finding more and more innovations each year.
After your success with THE ICONIC, what motivated you to co-found Hatch, and how does Hatch's vision differ from or complement your previous ventures?
I’m a problem solver at heart, and I’m interested in several aspects of how technology impacts society. I felt so lucky for what I’d learnt in co-founding and building THE ICONIC, and after about eight years felt ready to deploy those learnings to a new space.
Fashion is about identity, but so is work. We spend over 40% of our lives at work, and it plays a large role in where we discover our values and interests, and how we put them into action. Whether they be big or small.
Between two ventures, I hope to help people lead authentic lives. Where they can discover who they really are, and show up in the world with the contribution they want to make.
How do you see the future of hiring evolving, and what role do you hope Hatch will play within that landscape?
AI is already changing the hiring space dramatically, it’s the biggest shift in over twenty years. The risk is that AI-led automation leads to a very noisy hiring space, where AI agents are flooding the market with CVs and then other agents are assessing them for keywords.
The real opportunity is to use AI to better understand an individual at a deeper level. Beyond the CV, who are they? What are their underlying skills, their interests, their values. And then use that information to accelerate a genuine match and human connection faster.
Just think about the individual, economic, and societal impacts if everyone had access to work they really loved, and were a great fit for.
Hatch as a platform is building AI to achieve just that, and we’ve already seen success with over half a million young Australians. My hope is Hatch becomes the market leader that helps people from all backgrounds find meaningful work.
What advice would you give aspiring entrepreneurs looking to disrupt traditional industries through technology and innovation?
I would give two pieces of advice:
- Firstly, and most importantly, you need to really understand your user. Talk to them, ask a lot of questions, truly listen and get to ground truth, find the pain they experience that leads to the opportunity for change and disruption. And do that for lots, and lots, of people, until you find an undeniable pattern that leads to an idea you cannot shake.
- The second is buckle up! It’s a very hard and long ride, and by no means romantic. It requires grit and persistence, and this is why you have to be solving a problem you truly care about; otherwise the road is just too long.
If you could invite three people to a dinner party, dead or alive, who would they be and why?
A great grandparent, one of their parents, and then one of their parents. Because I want to understand who my ancestors were, and how their experiences and beliefs led to the person I am today.
Are you a member of our PwC Australia Alumni LinkedIn group? Join here and connect with PwC and your fellow alumni, get real-time updates, participate in meaningful discussions, and expand your professional network.
