How Getting Drunk And Fired From A Job Helped One Guy Create A $100 Million Startup

Invoice2Go founder Chris Strode, 40, is a wealthy, successful entrepreneur. That's thanks in part to his former employer, investment bank Macquarie, which reportedly fired him after he got drunk at a cocktail event.

Strode tells Mashable that getting fired was "the best thing that happened to me."

Strode built the first version of Invoice2Go while commuting to Macquarie as a 28-year-old freelance software developer in 2002. He was frustrated by the company's invoicing system and decided to build a better approach.

"All I found were fully fledged accounting packages," Strode tells The Australian. "Ninety per cent of the functionality didn't make any sense to me. I just needed to be able to send an invoice as quickly as possible."

Then the cocktail party incident happened, and Strode was let go.

The firing gave him more time to focus on his product. Strode says he worked hard on it, working straight through every holiday for a number of years before Invoice2Go took off, particularly when it was turned into a mobile product five years ago.

"I remember holding an iPhone for the first time, about six years ago," Strode tells Sydney Morning Herald. "I realised it was going to change everything, and could help solve the global problem of getting paid quickly."

Now, his Australia-based company has gone on to raise $35 million and 100,000 businesses have invoiced ~ $10 billion on Invoice2Go. His profitable company is worth more than $100 million.