My guest for Ep145 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder & CEO of Deputy, Ashik Ahmed.

Ashik launched Deputy in 2008, initially as the co-founder and CTO of the business. 

He transitioned to the CEO role after Deputy raised there Series A funding round in 2017.

Deputy has since gone on to being used by 250,000 businesses across more than 100 countries and the company has raised a total of AUD$144M ($101M USD) including Australia’s largest ever Series B funding round of AUD$111M ($81M USD).

However, it hasn’t been all plain sailing with the company suffering significantly through COVID last year having to stand down 30% of it’s staff.

In this interview we covered a wide range of topics including:

• How Deputy and Ashik managed the challenges of COVID
• Why founders need to retain their customer obsession and love customers who complain
• Ashik’s journey from software developer to the CEO role
• Ashik’s approach to fundraising and building relationships with VCs and investors
• Why more companies die from indigestion rather than starvation
• & much more!

Timestamps

• 2.08 – An introduction to Ashik and his company Deputy
• 2.47 – What the early days of Deputy where like and how that formed how the company operates today
• 4.09 – The importance of customers loving your product and using Net Promoter Score (NPS) to inform product changes
• 7.29 – When you should start measuring NPS and why it should continue even as the company grows
• 9.10 – How to incorporate customer feedback and be accessible to customers whilst growing
• 11.24 – Transitioning from Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) during a period of growth and Series A fundraising
• 16.51 – Learning to be a CEO and growing with the company whilst remaining humble
• 19.47 – The tools and approach Ashik used to develop his CEO skills
• 21.44 – Surviving and pivoting during the challenges of 2020
• 28.58 – Managing a team through COVID and letting people go
• 32.42 – The importance of values for culture and always aiming for success
• 36.44 – Ashik’s advice for founders on how to define your companies’ values
• 39.45 – How to build and maintain relationships with investors
• 44.23 – Focusing on the right goals, staying focused and executing quickly
• 48.14 – Where to find Ashik and Deputy

Links Mentioned

Ashik’s Links

• Ashik’s Twitter
• Ashik’s LinkedIn
• Deputy
• Deputy careers

People Mentioned

• Howard Leiberman
• Steve Loughlin
• Lisi Schappi
• Simon Griffiths 
• Dave Zinman
• DHH
• Mat Beeche
• Paul Bassat
• Tobi Lutke
• Melanie Perkins
• Elon Musk
• Jeff Bezos
• Jason Fried

Companies Mentioned

• OpenView
• SquarePeg Capital

Resources Mentioned:

• How OpenView won the Deputy Deal – Article by Howard Leiberman

Past Episodes Mentioned

• Ep120 – Simon Griffiths
• Ep119 – DHH

Special Thanks:

Special thanks to Lisi Schappi,  Paul Bassat and Howard Leibman for their help with research for this interview  .

Feedback/connect/say hello:

Rohit@startupplaybook.co
@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)
/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)
@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)
My Youtube Channel

Credits:

Music: Joakim Karud – Dreams

Other channels:

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