
Traction
On the Traction Podcast, we bring you discussions with founders and CXOs of the fastest-growing companies in technology, covering everything from product, marketing, innovation, fundraising and more through proven strategies for rapid growth.
Presented by:
Boast.AI R&D Tax Credit Software - https://boast.ai
Launch - https://www.launchacademy.ca
Traction Community - https://tractionconf.io
Latest episodes

Nov 30, 2021 • 59min
The People Playbook Behind Multi-Billion Dollar Companies with Mandy Sebel, Radian Capital
On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Mandy Sebel, operating partner, people and talent at Radian Capital and former chief people officer at UiPath. Mandy has spent many years in the people and culture space, so we talked about everything from recruiting to onboarding to building a culture that fosters high retention. Mandy believes that early-stage companies should bring in a leader of people and culture as soon as they can afford it. It is a critical role because attracting and retaining top talent in any organization is the number one key to success. It is important to have a strong sense of your company’s values and mission, and it is equally important to clearly communicate with future and current employees what those values are. This gets everyone in the organization pulling the rope in the same direction, which leads to success for both the individuals and the company as a whole. Having people understand this comes through clarity, and clarity comes from repetition. If you want a successful organization, no matter your stage or size, culture and communication are vital. Mandy Sebel Radian Capital Lloyed Lobo Boast.AI Learn more at https://tractionconf.io This episode is brought to you by: Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com

Nov 29, 2021 • 1h
The Marketing Playbook for Multi Billion Dollar IPOs with Vidya Peters, Marqeta
On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Vidya Peters, chief marketing officer and interim chief product officer at Marqeta, a card issuing and payment processing company that broke many records with an IPO valuation of $16 billion. Following her love of math and science, Vidya studied engineering as an undergraduate student. She says her career path was like skiing down moguls, you know where you are starting but you don’t know exactly where you’re going. In her case, she ended up in tech marketing. When she joined Marqeta, it had $100 million in revenue, but the marketing team was a mere five people. There was no product marketing, and demand generation and PR functions were outsourced. This presented an opportunity for Vidya to build from the ground up. She gives valuable insights on building a marketing plan, and the short, medium, and long-term strategies that need to be tackled to lead to a successful IPO. She also talks about the importance of PR and how to handle the relationship between the company and the PR firm. Vidya Peters Marqeta Lloyed Lobo Boast.AI Learn more at https://tractionconf.io This episode is brought to you by: Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com

Oct 27, 2021 • 55min
How To Build High Performing Software Teams, with Jeff Lawson, Twilio
On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Jeff Lawson, CEO and Co-Founder of Twilio, for a lively discussion about how to build high performing software teams. Jeff goes over his career journey, which included stops at Stub Hub and Amazon before starting Twilio. Along the way, he discovered that it is difficult to put in the time and energy needed to build a product or service if you aren’t passionate about it. The way to get developers passionate about what they’re doing is to give them ownership of the project. Writing code is a creative problem-solving process. Developers don’t want to work on assignments — they want to solve problems using their knowledge and experience. Developers work best in small teams. No matter how much the organization grows, keep teams at around 10 people, and give them a single threaded leader. Then that team can own one specific problem, and they will be passionate about solving that problem. As the team grows, divide it into new, smaller teams. This will keep the passion flowing. You can tell by listening to Jeff that he has an infectious passion for building strong software teams. Resources: Jeff Lawson Twilio Lloyed Lobo Boast.AI Learn more at https://tractionconf.io This episode is brought to you by: Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com