If I’ve learned anything on this journey, it’s that funding isn’t the same as success. You don’t need outside capital or to launch from a capital city to build business.
What’s happening: Fiona Campbell built Virtual Assistant Lead Network from Katherine, NT, into a thriving platform with 430+ vetted jobs, 360+ paying subscribers, and $20k+ in shared resources, all without venture capital in an industry that typically relies heavily on investor funding.
Why this matters: While Australian startups raised a record $4 billion in 2024, Campbell’s bootstrap success challenges the assumption that jobs platforms and marketplaces need VC funding to survive, proving lean operations and genuine value can beat cash-heavy competitors.
From her home in Katherine, a remote Northern Territory town three hours from Darwin, Fiona Campbell has built what users call “the Seek for virtual assistants”, without a single dollar of venture capital in an industry where competitors routinely raise millions just to get started.
Since launching Virtual Assistant Lead Network in January 2021, Campbell has connected over 430 vetted job opportunities, built a paid membership base exceeding 360 subscribers, and delivered more than $20,000 worth of training and resources to her network, all while raising a family and running her original VA business, Thought Penny.
Campbell’s approach flies in the face of conventional startup wisdom. Australian startups raised a record $4 billion across 414 deals in 2024, the third-highest annual total ever. Double-sided marketplaces and jobs platforms typically rely heavily on VC funding for aggressive marketing, tech development, and subsidised pricing.
“Going the non-funded route was risky,” Campbell acknowledged. “Many don’t make it without them. We broke that mould, using a lean, deliberate model with no splashy seed rounds or staff-heavy burns.”
Instead of chasing investors, Campbell stuck to what she calls her core ethos: “putting value, values and relationship over hype.” This philosophy, she argues, eliminated the need for external funding entirely. “For us, the ethos we’ve stuck to from day dot, putting value, values and relationship over hype, is why we’ve not needed it,” she said.
Born from real demand
Campbell’s journey began in 2013 when she left a corporate executive assistant role seeking work that could accommodate family life. Starting with inbox management, diary coordination, and process automation, she quickly hit capacity.
“Obviously, this sort of Australian-based support wasn’t common,” she noted, recognizing early that local VA talent was scarce relative to demand.
By 2019, Campbell was collaborating with other Australian VAs to handle overflow work, becoming what she describes as “borderline obsessive about only syncing up those who were the perfect match.” This obsession with fit quality revealed a bigger opportunity: an entire jobs platform built on trust and compatibility rather than volume.
The early iteration launched in 2020 as a simple, hidden jobs board and email list. “It was free and low-tech. We kept to our values: to be generous, to teach, to share and to only encourage connection if it was the right fit.”
COVID-19 accelerated everything. “Then COVID hit, and demand exploded. We knew it was time to launch publicly, with a paid subscription.”
Scaling without capital burnout
Campbell’s bootstrap approach forced disciplined growth. “No VC means every hire, every tool, every campaign has to earn its keep,” she explained, describing how she piggy-backed off Thought Penny’s resources while avoiding full-time staff in favor of a flexible network of VAs and online business managers.
Her model flips typical job board economics: businesses list projects for free while VA members pay modest subscription fees for vetted, detailed job reports. “In this model, both sides of our marketplace spend less time finding the right match for their needs and services, reducing wasted labour costs and decision fatigue.”
Automation became critical infrastructure, handling everything from job posting to member onboarding to status follow-ups and Google review requests. This technical backbone enabled expansion from job leads into training, tools, and business directory services without proportional cost increases.
Three growth pillars
Campbell identifies three principles that sustained growth without investor pressure:
- Perfect fit obsession: “A star VA isn’t always the right match to a small business with a very particular problem,” she explained. The platform vets both sides, guiding businesses to articulate needs clearly while giving VAs permission to decline poor fits. “This mentality gives us something way more valuable than funding: a priceless reputation.”
- Trust through generosity: Rather than aggressive marketing spend, Campbell built trust by giving first. “We launched with a full year of free access, still run monthly membership giveaways, and give away templates, checklists, and training content that many charge hundreds for.” This approach generated word-of-mouth referrals, strong SEO, and community champions.
- Remote-first community building: Despite physical distance, Campbell prioritized real connections. “One of my favourite memories is meeting my business partner in person after two years of remote collaboration. We’d built culture and friendship entirely online.” Today the platform hosts online meetups, publishes annual benchmark reports, and offers training designed to support both VAs and businesses.
Redefining startup success
Campbell’s experience challenges fundamental assumptions about startup scaling. “If I’ve learned anything on this journey, it’s that funding isn’t the same as success,” she reflected. “You don’t need outside capital or to launch from a capital city to build a meaningful, sustainable business.”
Her prescription for sustainable growth emphasizes fundamentals over funding: “For us, what worked was grit, systems, discipline, and a genuine care for helping people.”
While VC-funded competitors chase growth metrics and burn rates, Campbell’s lean model delivers consistent value to both sides of her marketplace. The approach has created what she describes as something “way more valuable than funding”: a reputation for quality connections that keeps both businesses and VAs coming back.
“Because in the end, it’s not where you build from, or how much you raise: it’s how well you serve,” Campbell concluded.
For founders considering the venture capital path, Campbell’s Katherine-to-success story suggests there might be another way, one that prioritises sustainable growth over splashy funding rounds, and genuine value over investor expectations.
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