Connecting People to Nature: Insights from a Job Interview Experience

This week’s episode of The Breakout Growth Podcast is sponsored by Rise with SAP and features Ron Schneidermann, the CEO of AllTrails. Conventional wisdom says that you need product/market fit before you can grow, but sometimes conventional wisdom gets it wrong. For AllTrails Product/Channel Fit came first. 

Today, outdoor enthusiasts love the AllTrails mobile app and website and use them to navigate and enhance their adventures with hand-curated trail maps, and other useful tools like crowdsourced photos and reviews. But, when Ron started, he found that the product was actually quite a mess. Fortunately, he looked beyond that when he saw the acquisition data and realized a big opportunity lay ahead.

If he and his team could overcome their product challenges and leverage existing SEO and other organic channels that were already working surprisingly well to attract the right type of users, then he believed they could deliver on their mission to kindle the spirit of adventure and help millions of people enjoy and connect outdoors.  

Today, AllTrails is on a tear. The profitable company has over 1 million paying users, recently raised $150 million in new funding, and has big plans to continue growing around the world. For anyone analyzing potential opportunities or developing a growth strategy, this is a conversation sure to get you saying, “wow, I never thought about it that way.” 

Before you jump in, check out this week’s sponsor, RISE with SAP S/4Hana Cloud. If you have ambitious goals, SAP is the technology partner you need to scale and drive innovation. Instead of relying on stitched together solutions to manage business finances, operations, and customer relations, leverage the flexibility of SAP’s cloud-based ERP solution to gain the insights that will help drive your breakout growth success. 

RISE with SAP Link: bit.ly/3u27Ay6

Please take a moment to subscribe as we talk growth with Ron Schneidermann, AllTrails CEO.

We discussed:

* “I am not a Zero to one Guy,” taking on the AllTrails leadership challenge (05:00)

* Why Ron is a big believer in Product/Channel fit (08:01)

* “Pouring too much water on a seed causes it to rot;” avoiding traps with paid channels (00:00)

* “My job is to get out of the way” - How Ron views the CEO Role (09:40)

* Raising money and sticking to your values (10:20)

* “Humility is our culture” (58:40)

And much, much, more . . .