Promotion @ Premonition: From intern to handling big business clients

Matt Doyle was a final year USyd IT and software engineering student when he signed up for the ribit speed dating event in early 2016 at Fishburners. He didn’t know what to expect but went along and listened to the companies pitch for students. Premonition’s vision really stood out.

Premonition is a software technology firm based at Pyrmont’s WeWork community that uses artificial intelligence to build autonomous distribution systems to enable parcel logistics delivery, improving the customer experience in the process.

It was founded by 24 year old Brad Lorge, a former UNSW Imagine Cup champion and Hills Young Australian Innovator of the year.

Judging by Brad’s track record, we’ll all be hearing a lot more from him. But let’s focus on the current stats for the time being. The brand is only four years old, has a youthful team of 15 people brimming with ambition, and is growing at more than 30 per cent per annum.

The team is already working with the majority of the top 10 companies in parcel logistics and is eyeing off a potential overseas expansion.

“We’re a young company, and we’re lucky to have very talented individuals in the team as well as excellent engagement from the market. As with any growing business, we had gaps in our structure and needed the skills to secure deals,” said Brad.

Matt dived in with a three month business development and sales internship which quickly ramped up when it emerged that Matt was especially skilled with customers and adept at understanding their service needs.

Brad created a new role for Matt which suited his skills perfectly – Solution Delivery Manager. Matt combines customer service and engineering know-how to sit down with clients, determine their needs and design new logistics platforms.

Matt says the opportunity aligns with his career ambitions.

“Ribit helped me bridge the gap between university and finding the opportunity I was seeking in the software and logistics space.

“I appreciate being surrounded by a team of talented, motivated and hardworking people who also have such direct and positive impact on their clients’ businesses and operations,” he said.

Brad agrees that Matt is a great fit.

“Matt has certainly grown but he has also helped us grow. He has exceptional customer service delivery skills. Every customer – many of them executives at Fortune 500 companies  – call for him by name.

“Premonition is a small business but our clients are big businesses who need to make the right call with technology – because every call will immediately hit scale.

“To convince them to innovate with a young company like ours takes a lot of momentum.  Without Matt on the team, we wouldn’t have been anywhere near as successful – he bridges the gap between where our customers are today and where they can be tomorrow as a partner to our business”.

Brad believes Ribit is the “game changer” for helping him meet and recruit Matt.

“There was no chance we would have met Matt through traditional recruitment processes.  We were introduced to Matt via Ribit. He took the opportunity and he changed the business.

“He could work anywhere – with large corporates and multinationals, but he chose us.

“Our business is now ‘home’ for Matt”.