About us

We’re here to make a difference.

Our mission

“Our company was founded to solve a problem:

tackling the absence of structure in social contracting, which frequently results in stress and uncertainty for those involved.

At Kontrak Social, we take pride in being the pioneers in recording and tracking Social Contracts. We believe trust is earned and carries intrinsic value that is rarely harnessed.

Our mission is to establish a reliable and widespread system that not only builds trust but also unlocks the immense potential that trust brings, particularly for those who need it most and to preserve relationships while empowering financial stability and accessibility for individuals in all communities.”

Why we started

The idea behind Kontrak Social was born the same way all great ideas come about – through necessity. Our Founder, Blake had given an acquaintance a personal loan to help them start a small business. A considerable amount of time went by and Blake being the nice guy he is, hadn’t been pressuring the acquaintance to pay back for fear that he might harm the relationship. The time came when he needed the money back and he asked for repayment as it had been a couple years. The acquaintance then said something that ignited a flame: they said “but you didn’t set terms!”.

Terms were set and repayments began, which in itself was a bit stressful. Blake said to himself “why isn’t there anything around to help with this!?!”. (There may have been some swearing involved). The lightbulb lit up in his brain and the ideas started to flow from there. He approached the second founder, Mat with the idea and he was hooked right away – it was the best idea he had heard in a very, very long time. From there the concept started to flesh out, new founders with specialised experience came on board and the build commenced in Australia, with the help of the Mullumbimby based company, Deprogram.

Where we’re going

One of the things we discovered as we started to build out the concept was how limitless it is. Everyone, all around the world make social contracts every day. From little things like borrowing a book or helping a friend with chores or lending $20 for some food. We want to be the little helper in everyones’ pockets that can help them navigate simple agreements, help strengthen and save relationships and to give people with limited resources the opportunity to grow without being beholden to large, uncaring corporations.

Our founders

Blake Mckensie

Blake Mckensie
Founder & CEO

Blake McKenzie co-founded the IPN Valuers network and leads the offices for IPN Valuers South Coast, Southval, and the Australian Capital Territory. He saw a gap in the valuation market for regional offices and jumped in to fill it. Blake’s been in the property game since 2012, building up a solid set of skills to help various clients with their unique valuation and consulting needs. Thanks to his leadership, IPN Valuers has become a trusted name in the industry.

But that’s not all—Blake is also the brain behind Kontrak Social, where he’s the CEO. He’s driving the design and development of this app aiming to pioneer the market of Social Contracting with innovative concepts.

Mat Peden

Mat Peden
Founder & COO

Mat’s career started quite humbly, delivering mail in a large publishing house in Sydney. From there his career rapidly blossomed and many high-volume and increasingly senior production roles followed. He (and his partner) decided to leave big city corporate life behind and moved to the NSW South Coast to raise a family and start a small studio that soon became very successful. Mat specialises in taking projects of all shapes and forms from concept through to distribution and market delivery.

The day Blake bounded into his office with a crazy idea was something he leapt at immediately and now as Co-Founder and COO of Kontrak Pty Ltd, Mat is finally stepping out of the shadows and is applying his vast media experience and production capabilities to something he genuinely believes can make a difference.

Rebekah East

Rebekah East
Co-Founder & CCI

Rebekah is a PhD trained market and social researcher. She has over 18 years’ experience working across government, not for profit and commercial sectors, helping clients to uncover the secrets of what makes their customers tick in order to ensure offerings are aligned to customer needs and desires.

She enjoys delving deep into data, conducting surveys, interviews, and focus groups to understand underlying behaviours, preferences, and pain points and acts as a bridge between the customer and Kontrak, translating raw data into actionable insights.

Jay Pring

Jay Pring
Co-Founder & CCO

Jay Pring is a veteran of business management and start-up commercialisation, having worked with some of the world’s leading brands to monetise operations and increase shareholder value. As Chief Commercial Officer, Jay is tasked with commercialising Kontrak and establishing the company’s shareholder and market valuation. He has successfully worked with brands including R.M.Williams, Salesforce, Genting Resorts, Samsung, News Limited and others to restructure operations to achieve greater commercial success, through cost reduction and revenue enhancement, and improved customer outcomes.

Mark Curach

Mark Curach
Co-Founder & CTO

Mark has over 20 years experience delivering and running top-tier data storage and multimedia solutions, with a proven track record with complex Microsoft Azure Cloud migrations.

His leadership has grown a local start-up into a software and services business that boasts an impressive list of customers. By partnering with vendor FotoWare, he has provided Digital Asset Managment systems for some of Australia’s leading Corporates and Cultural Institutions, as well as Government departments at Local, State and Federal levels.

Mark’s unique blend of qualifications in IT, Accounting and Law equips him to devise comprehensive technology strategies, ensuring he can tackle both the overarching vision and the intricate technical challenges to drive consistent success.

Sustainability

One of the driving reasons behind why we’ve created Kontrak Social is sustainability. Every day we hear more and more stories about too much going into landfill or worse being left as litter to wash in to oceans and rivers.

A part of this is people can be reluctant to borrow a perfectly good item from a friend or family member and instead go an purchase something that they may only end up using a couple times. This is a waste of both money, resources and, energy and the embedded carbon emissions that come with it.

Before you go to the shops ask yourself if you really need to buy that new bicycle, sweater or power tool and think if someone in your social circle already has the same thing. Introduce them to the benefits of Kontrak Social and how it helps not just with the circular economy and future sustainability but getting the most out of everyday items.

“I can’t count how many times I’ve lent out things like cookware, books and clothes and haven’t gotten them back. Kontrak Social could be a great help!“

– Dinesh G