When Dave and Ula first began tinkering with booking software more than a decade ago, it wasn’t a business – it was a side project squeezed between commutes, newborn babies and late-night emails.

“It was literally me from 10pm until 1am, tapping away at my computer answering queries and building it whilst raising two kids at that time,” Dave said.

 “Now it’s four,” Ula said.

“Some of those first customers still remember when it was just Dave replying in the middle of the night.”

Today, that side project is Ovatu – a global booking and automation platform used by 8,000 businesses worldwide, supported by a team across Australia and the UK.

The Berry-born software company is now gaining international acclaim, with features in Forbes, Vanity Fair and Business Insider, and a 2025 Global Recognition Award for Customer Service Excellence.

The couple now run the company from their home in Berry, where they’ve lived for the past ten years, even though locals have only recently realised the scale of what they’ve built.

“It actually spread faster around the world than it ever did in our own community,” Ula laughed.

“Only in the last year have people in Berry started saying, ‘Hey, I’m opening a salon – can you set me up with software?’”

The Bugle met Dave and Ula at their home – a quiet oasis tucked down a winding drive in the countryside – where their business has grown from a passion project into a tool used by thousands of small operators around the world.

Their home reflects the philosophy behind their work: calm, practical, uncluttered and centred on what they call “the simple things.”

“We have this joke whenever we hire a new person — they go out and buy a dog,” Ula said.

“They can finally be at home, enjoy home more, and do something they’ve wanted to do for a long time but their work has prevented them from.”

“It’s just kind of a metaphor for better work–life balance.”

That idea of simplicity is key to Ovatu’s design.

“Ovatu is essentially an appointment booking system,” Ula said.

“It’s for anyone who takes appointments, but it’s become more widely used in the hair and beauty aesthetics space. It’s designed to make the business admin and appointment booking process really simple and intuitive.”

Their aim has always been to take the stress out of running a small business for those who may not be as tech-savvy.

Ula and Dave at their home office in Berry

“It’s to take that sort of daunting aspect of running a business away from people who really just want to get on with doing what they’re really good at and practising their craft – not having to stress about the business or technological aspect,” Ula said.

The platform handles invoices, taxes, rostering, reminders – all the things that quietly eat up a workday.

“A lot of our businesses are sole traders, and they don’t really have the time or capacity to set up a really complex operation,” Ula said.

“They just want something that will be simple, work for them, and help them.”

Ovatu first took shape in 2010 after the couple returned to Australia from London.

Dave was looking for work and experimenting with ideas on the side on his daily commute.

“ It started sort of mucking around with it,” Dave said.

Friends kept asking him to help improve their booking systems, which sparked his curiosity.

“I started looking into what sort of products were around for that and thought they were kind of clunky and expensive – so I got to work from that angle,” Dave said.

He was also doing consulting and development work, but being hands-on with ideas had always been part of who he is.

“Dave’s always been really into tech and always tinkering and trying entrepreneurial ideas, always doing things in our own house too to make things more efficient,” Ula said.

The software grew steadily until, by around 2014, it became clear that Ovatu was no longer just a project – it was a business.

“It’s almost like an outlet that I needed – that just happened to work,” Dave said.

Today, the couple works with what they describe as a small but exceptional team of 17 employees. Strong customer service, they say, has been central to Ovatu’s growth – especially at a time when many businesses are turning toward automation.

“We feel really fortunate with the people we have,” Ula said. “Everyone is incredibly talented, but they’re also just genuinely good humans. They care about our customers, and they understand the values behind Ovatu.”

Dave said the team is one of the main reasons the business has been able to stay true to its mission.

“We give our team flexibility to work around their life, and I feel that improves the quality of the work they do,” Dave said.

Ula agreed.

“We always wanted Ovatu to feel personal,” she said. “Our team is the reason we can support thousands of businesses around the world without losing that sense of connection.”

Despite the global reach, the heart of the business remains unchanged.

Their days still start with small routines and, whenever possible, that walk with the dog – the symbol of the simplicity that started it all.

For Dave and Ula, Ovatu has always been about giving people space to live their lives, not fill them with more stress. And after 14 years, that simple idea continues to shape everything they do.