The $18.5 Million Question: How Three Mates Convinced Australia to Care About Soap
Daniel Flynn had been pitching to Coles and Woolworths for five years. Five years of rejection from the retailers who control 70% of Australia's grocery market.
"We've got a pretty interesting, probably left of centre way that we ended up getting in the major retailers," Daniel told me on The Bottom Line podcast.
What happened next would become one of the most audacious product launches in Australian retail history—and a masterclass in turning rejection into revolution.
Today, Thankyou has channelled over $18.55 million to help end extreme poverty. But here's the kicker—they're not a charity. They're a commercial operation that happens to give away 100% of their profits.
The Campaign That Broke the Internet
After five years of "no," Daniel and his co-founders Justine and Jarryd decided to go nuclear.
"We needed to create a lot of energy and attention around, would these two retailers stock us or not?" Daniel explained. "So we launched this campaign called 'Thankyou Coles and Woolworths for changing the world… if you say yes.'"
They hired two helicopters. Not for executives. For massive signs, they flew over both headquarters while releasing a video asking Australians to flood the retailers' social media.
"Within, honestly, it was like three to five hours, I had two phone calls. One was from Coles and one was from Woolworths saying 'We need to meet.'"
The campaign generated 120+ media features. Crashed both retailers' Facebook pages. And forced a decision that traditional pitching couldn't achieve in half a decade.
"They knew that we'd created something that was either going to look good for them because they were the ones that said yes, or look bad for them because they were the ones that said no."
The Brutal Truth About "Purpose-Driven" Business
But here's where most social enterprises fall over: they think having a good cause means they can sell average products.
“You can never ever, ever use a good cause to prop up an average product. Rule number one is make a great product.”
This philosophy was tested early when they expanded beyond water.
"We launched rolled oats, and they failed straight away. Like just no one wanted our rolled oats... When you nail a great product, it will work. And if you don't, then the consumer is the ultimate judge."
Don’t hide behind the cause, just compete like your life depends on it. Because someone else's actually does.
The result? "We ended up being the number one premium hand wash range that launched in Coles and Woolworths."
Not the #1 "charity" hand wash. The #1 hand wash.
Why They Killed Their Award-Winning Feature
But the story doesn’t stop there. Thankyou had this brilliant system called Track Your Impact, where they could track exactly where each donation went.
"Every single product we ever sold had its own unique tracker code," Daniel explained. "You put that code into the website... and it would show you the GPS coordinates of the well, or the filter or the maternal health program that you funded."
It won them marketing awards. Customers loved it. Then they killed it.
"There's a really interesting report that came out... they bubbled up some shocking research that 46% of issues that charities and nonprofits face come from the donor. 4% come from theft and corruption."
Daniel used a perfect analogy: "Let's say you buy some Tesla stock. You can't call up anyone there or Elon and say, 'Hey, it's my money that I'm putting in. I don't want my money to go into marketing or exec salaries.'"
So they switched to unrestricted funding. "Over probably 10, 11, maybe nearly $12 million of unrestricted giving. It's some of the most valuable money in philanthropy."
Some donors hated it. But Daniel was adamant: "Welcome to Purpose LED versus Marketing Award led."
The Question That Changes Everything
After dissecting dozens of "purpose-driven" failures through Alexander Spencer, I've noticed successful social enterprises share one trait: they solve the structure before the story.
Daniel summed it up perfectly: "There's a difference between being a hundred percent to impact from a comms perspective, and actually being a hundred percent to impact."
The constant tension between growth and giving defines every decision. Reinvest for tomorrow's impact or fund today's water projects? There's no easy answer.
"A defining experience for boards in social enterprise," Daniel noted, "is the tension between putting more money to work towards solving a problem versus, what we internally call keeping oxygen in the tank."
The question is: What would your business look like if profit wasn't the goal?
And more importantly: What's stopping you from finding out?
Ready to build a business that scales? Most founders get the structure wrong from day one. Book a business masterclass with our team to discover which of the 3 critical setup mistakes you're making. We'll show you exactly how to fix it before it's too late.