Izzybots was founded by Joshua Lewthwaite and Zeald in the midst of COVID-19.

The founding of Izzybots began when Josh was introduced to David Kelly, Zeald's co-founder in April 2020. Founded in 2001, Zeald is the largest and most experienced digital transformation agency for SMEs in New Zealand.

In April 2020, Josh and David discussed what they believed was needed to help businesses survive and succeed during and after COVID-19. They each agreed a complete digital revolution was required to keep businesses alive and preserve the livelihood of businesses not only in New Zealand, but all around the world.

Izzybots was then founded with the mission of enabling businesses to succeed and to help people's livelihoods at a difficult time.

Immediate challenges

2017 brought multiple life-changing events for Josh and he decided to focus on his family and himself throughout the year.
Although 2017 was a year of challenges and heartbreak, it prepared Josh for faster growth than he had imagined. Growing chatbots was back as a focus.

Back to business

In early 2018, Josh officially registered his company and the journey kicked back into gear focusing on attracting clients. After a few conversations, he secured his first client campaign.

Quick success

The results with Josh's first client had surpassed all expectations!

The client's messages were successfully being read by 97% of the audience compared to an average of 21% for email, and they immediately achieved over 400 subscribers. The client had increased sales, improved awareness of their event, and helped the event demonstrate policy compliance like never before.

With proof of the success of Izzybots in hand, Josh started looking at offerings outside of events. After creating products for larger markets with the same clear value, he started talking to his wider network to promote the offering.

The lesson of chasing perfection

Although signing a small number of new clients, Josh was struggling to get the volume of clients he was aiming for. He realised that spending most of his time creating and "perfecting" multiple products to revolutionise the way industries conduct business meant none of the products reached the level they needed to be.

Having recognized he was going "too big," Josh turned to his mentors to confirm if his new approach was the right one. He needed a simple, high impact, and proven product and start selling in a scalable way; and collect feedback to continually improve.

After some changes and shifts in his messaging to focus on Izzybots as a holistic digital marketing channel and not just a chatbot solution, his offering was greatly improved, and Josh formed strong partnerships with multiple digital agencies. These partnerships weren't just for financial benefit. Josh was unwavering that he would only form partnerships with companies and people he enjoys working with. This sets the tone for how Josh and Izzybots conduct business today - having fun and enjoying what they do as much as possible.

From the changes, Josh's business achieved several notable achievements.

• Winning the "Best Use of Social / Mobile Media for 2019" in the British Youth Travel Awards
• Helping one of their clients to hire their first employee
• Assisting in the success of the biggest events in New Zealand
• Freeing up business owners to spend more time with their family and on their hobbies
• Helping to grow people's businesses globally

More than money

Growth wasn't the only thing Josh wanted to achieve. The experience Josh had through 2017 helped him learn his true passion and purpose - helping people to be happy and living life by their own definition of success.

This is front of mind with Izzybots. Izzybots provides a personalised Messenger experience, but it also has a mission to empower people's lives.

It's incredibly important to both Josh and Zeald that every interaction with the Izzybots team and this digital marketing channel help to effectively grow businesses.

The culture and mindset of everyone at Izzybots is absolutely vital. We ensure all staff are cared for, enjoy what they are doing, and live by the principle of only working with companies they enjoy working with. The flow on from this helps all of our clients to provide this to their customers as well.