Getswift cofounder Joel Macdonald is back offering advice on dealing with setbacks

Joel Macdonald’s been busy resetting his thinking in the last few years after the cofounder of Getswift was banned by the Federal Court from running  companies in Australia for 12 years.

He’s been in therapy, busy journaling, writing affirmations on glass walls in an apartment, taking psychedelics, including ayahuasca and mushrooms, and the former CEO of an ASX-listed company, which an Australian Federal Court judge described as “representing the unacceptable face of startup capitalism”, no longer cares what you think about him.

And he recommends you read Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, a novel-cum-self-help book about a poor shepherd boy who dreams of finding buried treasure under the Egyptian pyramids.

Macdonald, a former AFL player before turning his hand to entrepreneurship, has taken to YouTube to tell his side of the story about the rise and fall of the logistics software platform he launched in 2015 as the alcohol delivery startup Liquorun.

Wearing a denim shirt and baseball cap, his short dark hair now more salt and pepper, sitting on a high-rise balcony, apartment blocks in the background, he’s promising more motivational insights on founder life, revealing he’s recently been working with mates on unnamed startups overseas after rebuilding his life following $1 million fine for his role in Getswift’s collapse.

“If you’re someone who’s been beaten down, in a dark spot, rebuilding or just wants to have a massive crack on a global scale, then this channel is for you,” Macdonald says in the 23-minute monologue, which appears to have been edited by AI, since the visuals constantly jump, out of sync with the audio.

His eponymous new channel launched last month with a tale that goes full Chumbawamba on getting knocked down, and getting up again, although there’s not a lot of reflection on his role in Getswift’s downfall, which burnt through more than $100 million raised from investors while publicly listed on the ASX.

“I LOST $200M…and it almost KILLED me,” it’s titled.

“I was 30, I was on top of the world, I was one of Australia’s youngest public company CEO’s, first class (flights), best restaurants, young rich list and then BOOM! everything vanished,” Macdonald says, adding the business was worth nearly $1 billion (albeit briefly).

He loses his girlfriend, first class lifestyle, and money, and slides into drinking, anger, depression and suicidal thoughts.

“The rage I felt inside of me that it was all over was insane,” he recounts.

“There were dark moments when I just wanted to end it all. That was the only way I could see that the pain could go away.”

A breakthrough came when he went on a “testosterone protocol… and literally my energy changed overnight”.

Amid more generic advice about exercise, ending substance abuse and seeking support for your mental health, his key message for men – sorry lady founders – is get your testosterone levels checked once you’re over 35.

Remorse and contrition

Now before we continue with advice on the Macca Way™ to startup founder success, it’s worth recounting the conspiracy and calumny visited upon this humble entrepreneur by the courts, investors, hedge fund short sellers, regulators and the media around 2020.

Getswift listed on the ASX in 2017 at 20 cents a share, raising $5 million. Within two years the company’s actions would lead to the ASX to tighten its market disclosure requirements, although as Macdonald explains it, the markets and investors just didn’t understand a SaaS business like his – he was ahead of them all.

GetSwift cofounders Bane Hunter and Joel MacDonald .

Having raised $24 million in June 2017, GetSwift shares popped by 800% to $4.30 within six months amid a vigorous PR-driven series of supposed customers wins, and the company then raised $75 million from investors at $4 a share.

The corporate regulator, ASIC, took the business and its directors to court for deceptive and misleading conduct in 2019, and had a rare win.

A damning 868-page Federal Court judgment in late 2021 outlined how the company broke the ASX’s continuous disclosure laws 22 times.

Justice Michael Lee found “what might be described as a public-relations-driven approach to corporate disclosure on behalf of those wielding power within the company, motivated by a desire to make regular announcements of successful entry into agreements with a number of national and multinational enterprise clients.”

Lee outlined a culture of bullying within GetSwift, as well as a lack of remorse and contrition by its leaders.

Macdonald’s redemption story explains that he was caught between a rock and a hard place of customers who didn’t want to say anything and the ASX demanding more details.

One involved CBA, another Amazon, and during the case, the court heard that legal representatives from both companies counselled against the planned market announcements. The CBA announcement was said to be worth $9 billion, but that was based on five years when the contract was for two.

The ASX suspended GetSwift shares following the Amazon announcement because it was too vague. Amazon reportedly prohibited any announcement as a condition in the deal.

A level of peace

While Justice Lee views his cofounder, Bane Hunter, the primary driver of the strategy, Macdonald was found to be involved in 20 of the 22 continuous disclosure breaches and 33 instances of misleading and deceptive conduct.

“That Mr Macdonald feels a ‘level of peace’ is not only cold comfort to those that have suffered loss, but also reflects a troubling and defiant lack of insight into the scale and seriousness of the wrongdoing set out in excruciating detail in [2021’s] Liability Judgment,” Lee wrote, calling him Bane’s “lieutenant”.

“Level of peace” is a reference to a tweet from Macdonald in November 2021 where he said he was “Very disappointed with yesterday’s outcome” following Justice Lee’s liability ruling, and would “probably need a beer or two to dust this all off. We will be back.”

GetSwift announced to the ASX in September 2020 that it planned to re-domicile in the US, delisting in January 2021 and listing on Canada’s NEO exchange in the same month. Hunter and Macdonald moved overseas and did not attend the legal proceedings

The placed its Australian subsidiary in the hands of liquidators, and broke an undertaking to another Federal Court judge when relocating.

Getswift’s share price went from CAD$2.05 to $0.07 cents when the shares were suspended 19 months later in July 2022 after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US. The business had a market cap of CAD$2.155 million at that point.

Back in Australia, Federal Court judge Bernard Murphy approved a class action settlement against Getswift, describing it as “an unhappy day” for investors received around 1 cent in the $1, calling it a “scandalous episode in corporate misconduct”.

In a 70-page penalty judgment in early 2023, Justice Lee said: “neither Mr Hunter nor Mr Macdonald have shown the slightest degree of remorse or contrition, nor have they made any acknowledgment they behaved improperly. Additionally, ASIC has been unable to explore where all the money raised from investors went.”

He noted that following that 2021 ruling the “insouciance” of the duo “was reflected in the fact that there were no changes to the composition of the board even at this late stage”.

The pair not only remained in their roles, Hunter pocketed $1,791,328, of which 46% was “performance related” and  Macdonald, $1,616,019, with 51% of his remuneration also “performance related”.

GetSwift produced operating losses in every year it existed.

The ‘rebuild’

In chapter 3 of his video, titled, The Rebuild, Macdonald talks about his “biggest demons” and asks: “What did I do to attract this? What do I need to fix? What do I need to learn from? How do I fix my mistakes or how do I avoid these mistakes?” A

His hindsight realisation is that “this was the ultimate MBA”.

Visualise hope and realise it in your mind – “the body takes signals from the brain,” he says.

“Every morning I picture myself waking up at the beach, raising capital, starting new businesses,doing new deals – and slowly but
life started to change,” Macdonald recounts.

“It’s kind of magic It’s a bit woowoo but it was incredible how it got me out of my current slump.”

Here’s what changed for me: I became ruthless with my time and energy. I built with people that I trust, ecame more patient – still aggressive but patient. I learned how to play the long game And I stopped caring what people think.

“The goal wasn’t to get back to where I was before. The goal was to go further but smarter more sustainable and more powerful than ever. And now I’m playing an entirely different game.”

While Macdonald’s explanation for what happened at Getswift sounds like he was a victim of circumstances, his advice is to break out of a victim mindset.

“If you keep playing victim and not learning the lessons the universe is just going to send you more and more people until
you wake the fuck up and learn the lesson and then you can level up,” he said.

Perhaps that explains the class action from investors.

“The final realisation was I wasn’t actually that happy when I was worth $200 million,” he said.

“What actually got me excited was the lead up to that the building process, the creative process, the building with your friends.”

Around A$80.5 million from Getswift was transferred to related entities. The Federal Court noted at the time that ”these transactions were unexplained”.