Scaling Up: Lessons From The World's Best CEOs and Founders

Howard Lerman is the CEO and co-founder of Yext (NYSE:YEXT) a US$360m revenue business that is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.  Maybe listeners have had interactions with Yext and never known it. Every time you google a business, or ask Siri a question, the up to date information is being powered by the Yext platform. We all know of that terrible customer experience of getting misinformation – like googling opening times for example, only to turn up and the shop or your favourite restaurant is closed. Digital knowledge management across platforms is what has built Yext into the business it is today. But this is only the first act - letting brands take control of their information via search and ensuring they are the ultimate source of truth is where Yext’s next act lies.  Howard  is peerless in his entrepreneurial spirit, an entertainer with an infectious optimism. But this does not hide his deep strategy ability to see an opportunity and run at it with all of his energy. Above all else, this episode will shed some light on all the scaling challenges that get thrown along the journey from start up hustle to the life of a NYSE listed company.  This podcast sets out to share  the secret sauce of great business leaders – if you enjoy this episode, why not share it with someone who you think might gain benefit – whether as a source of inspiration or to pass through a nugget of advice. TDM Growth Partners also share a great deal of content on their own website and blog pages, and they too can be a wonderful resource for executives and leaders of all businesses sizes.  You can follow TDM (linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across social channels.   Link to Steve Cakebread's book - "The IPO Playbook" Show notes: Howard’s upbringing and entrepreneurial background (00:03:23)  Pivoting from SME to enterprise (00:11:49) How Answers was developed (00:15:01)  How to drive change in consumer behaviour for search (21:34) The operating changes required to cater for greater technology needs in search (24:00) Howard’s transition as a CEO from founder to running a listed business (00:26:36) When is the right time to bring in the “pros” to build the systems at scale (00:29:03) Howard’s relationship with Yext CFO, Steve Cakebread (00:32:23) - link to Steve's book above Response to Covid (00:37:20) How to balance being a visionary founder with quarterly reporting (00:39:01) Raising money at fair valuations (00:39:33) Interacting with investors (00:41:17) Brand impact of being a public company (00:42:44) This podcast is created and published for informational and entertainment only. It is not financial advice. Transcripts may contain occasional errors in fact. 

Therese Tucker is the founder, former CEO and current Executive Chair of the NASDAQ Listed, $6b market cap business Blackline Inc. (NASDAQ:BL) Therese is a pioneer in every sense - an inspiring woman who has written her own script at every point in her career. As a 40 year old single mum of 2, she decided to bootstrap an enterprise software company - building Blackline over the next 20 years into what is is today – the market leader in automation solutions for finance and accounting teams that is trusted by 60% of the Fortune 50, and a third of the Fortune 500.   The complexity that these huge businesses face closing their books is mindboggling. By solving these needs, Blackline’s customer love has driven growth to nearly $400m in revenue, and it has its eyes firmly on the billion dollar mark. As one of the very few female founders to have ever rung the bell at the Nasdaq, Therese has a unique perspective on a range of scaling issues – from the deep pains of bootstrapping to preparing for an IPO, this conversation is wide ranging as it is important, also covering themes as building diversity in the workplace. From Illinois farm girl, to listed CEO, this is a story to be enjoyed by all.  You can follow TDM ( linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across social channels.  Show notes:  Therese’s upbringing: (00:02:54)  Therese’s first experience with computers: (00:04:06)  How Blackline got started: (00:08:00)  Funding your own business: (00:11:08)  What Therese loves about SaaS: (00:14:41)  Blackline’s transition from on-premise to the cloud: (00:15:25)  The curveball of a a former employee becoming a competitor and pitching to their customers (00:17:50)  The importance of having more than one player to validate the market: (00:18:46)  Value of having enterprise sales lead to scale the business: (00:19:45)  The challenge and complexity of shifting from on-premise to the cloud: (00:21:11)  Blackline’s lead up to IPO: (00:23:35)  The importance of an experienced and strategic CFO: (00:30:20)  Blackline’s culture as it has evolved over time: (00:32:24)  Being based in LA: (00:34:53)  Creating a diverse workplace: (00:36:04)  The changing nature of the role of the CEO: (00:39:02)  How Therese let go of the CEO position: (00:40:59)  How Blackline reacted to COVID: (00:43:18)  Therese’s advice to her younger self: (00:46:31) *Disclaimer: This podcast is created and published for informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice. Transcripts may contain occasional errors in fact.

Welcome back for another series of Scaling Up. Season 4 will again explore some of the great growth stories from around the world. To kick off Series 4 is the the CEO and co-founder of Braze, Bill Magnuson – one of the world’s hottest technology companies. Based in New York, Braze is a customer engagement platform that works with some some huge brands and businesses like Gap, Deliveroo, The NBA and Canva to deliver real time and personalised messaging across platforms From a serendipitous meeting on a NYC street crossing, Bill and his co-founders set out to build an enduring company based on the premise that mobile technology was going to fundamentally change the world. With vision and purpose, Braze has grown into the gold standard, tool of choice for innovative marketers. While customer love has driven success, building great product requires building and supporting great teams, and this is where Braze has excelled. Bill is a rare type of software CEO – deeply humble, highly technically proficient and possesses  the softer people skills required to execute on the visionary strategy and inspire the rapidly growing team. If this is the first time you have heard of Braze, rest assured it won’t be the last. This business is a next generational category leader in the making. I hope you enjoy this episode with Bill Magnuson. You can follow TDM ( linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across social channels. Show notes -  Bill’s background (0:02:27); Braze’s founding story (0:04:26); The rise of mobile (0:08:05); How Braze has been used by brands to drive engagement (0:10:23) What the future of customer engagement is going to look like (0:18:52) The technology behind Braze (0:22:21) Including the difference between batch processing and string processing (22:29) The transition from CTO to CEO (0:27:58) How Braze has scaled its culture (0:32:03) The advantages of having headquarters in New York (0:35:42) The value of having operators on the board (0:37:47) Bill’s experience of sitting on a board (0:40:32) The role that venture has played in Braze (0:43:41) The importance of balance in Bill’s life (0:48:08)

A very special guest rounds out Season 3, with many listeners very familiar with Hamish, Magellan, their investment philosophy and sustained success.  People's minds will always drift to how good an investor Hamish is having compounded capital at high rates of return for 15 years, it is perhaps easy to ignore what an incredible business Magellan itself is, having scaled from humble beginnings to now being a ASX 100 listed company with a market cap of over $10b. This was not by accident but rather design, with he business set up from day one with scale in mind. This is an episode intertwines Hamish’s reflections as an investor with how that has shaped his views as a business operator – from strategic insight and building competitive advantages, to scaling people and cultures.  We hope you enjoy one of the most successful Australian scaling stories of this century – the story of Magellan Financial

Robbie Cooke is one of Australia’s most experienced CEOs – having seen 'big' in his time as CEO of Tatts as well as entrepreneurial and fast growing in his previous role at Wotif.com. Robbie of is now the CEO of the $2b Tyro Payments, which listed on the ASX last year as the second biggest technology listing ever in the history of the exchange. We cover a range of topics in this conversation – from how he thinks about innovation as a professional CEO, to brilliant insight into how to best prepare for an IPO. Robbie also gives great colour to how best a board and the management team should interact and the importance of a culturally aligned board. This is a wonderful deep dive into the thoughts of a CEO reflecting on all his experiences and at the top of his game, all delivered with the laid back humbleness that those who have followed Robbie’s career know all to well. This podcast is created and published for informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not financial advice. Transcripts may contain occasional errors in fact.

Myles Glashier is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Phocas Software. Most listeners would not have heard of, nor read about Phocas, as this is a story that is largely unknown, but certainly needs to be told.  20 years ago an Aussie backpacker in London, falls into starting a bootstrapped business selling on premises business intelligence software. Fast forward 20 years, and Phocas has carved out a niche to serve manufacturing and retail customers around the globe. Having grown consistently year on year, and now with revenues north of $40m and 180 employees across 3 continents without any significant external capital, this is a scaling up story of boundless hustle, and drive to make every dollar count.  Loved by all customers and employees alike, Phocas is now at an inflection point, with the business on the cusp of securing significant funding that hopefully you will indeed read about, when you do, you can understand and appreciate all the hard work and effort that has been poured in over nearly two decades, and marvel at the lessons leant along the way. 

Paul Bassat makes for a unique 'Scaling Up' episode. As most listeners will know, Paul and his brother Andrew, along with Matt Rockman founded Seek in 1997 and in doing so carved the path in Australia for great technology businesses. This was a time when the internet itself was in its early days, and it is hard to fathom the foresight required to build what is now a $8b company. Paul left Seek in 2011 and has since founded Square Peg, one of South East Asia’s leading venture capital companies, with investments including Canva, Deputy, Airwallex and Bruce Buchanan’s ROKT, who was featured in episode 2 of this podcast. Because of the duration and success of Paul’s career, we traverse time periods in this conversation to extract the key lessons he has learned through the lens of Seek and how he has applied them in years since. There is no one in my mind who has seen the full spectrum of the ecosystems as a founder, a board member and investor, and so being able to compare and contrast all these experiences makes for a fascinating conversation. Paul is a an Australian treasure for so many reasons, and I am hoping after this conversation you can see why. Show notes to come.

Simon Griffiths is the Co-Founder and CEO of Who Gives a Crap. People listening might not, until now, appreciate both the scale of the business and also the deep community impact it has had in the developing world, where Who Gives a Crap donates half of its profits to charity each year. From the humble idea that they could sell toilet paper online and deliver a great customer experience, all the while being at the forefront on consumer driven philanthropy, this is a Australian success story we should all be wonderfully proud of. This crowd funded, bootstrapped business has donated almost $9m to organisations focused on sanitisation and hygiene in the developing world, and it is this mission and purpose that shines right through out this conversation as well as every single decision that Simon and his team make. These are the stories that need to be told, these are stories that inspire me personally the most, and a story I hope I do justice. Beyond the social impact headlines, Simon and his team really have built a wonderful business -  best in class direct-to-consumer metrics, cash flow positive on every new customer from their very first order. To be able to donate half your profit, you need to be  profitable, and at its core, this is a story about the successful scaling of a global online business. WGAC is a largely unknown national treasure we should all be proud of.  Show notes and links WGAC's original crowd funding video https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/who-gives-a-crap-toilet-paper-that-builds-toilets#/ Simon giving the team a week off and why - https://blog.whogivesacrap.org/home/goodnews/wellness-week-update (38.08)

Sankar Narayan, the CEO of SiteMinder is my guest today and the tapestry of his career is equal parts fascinating and inspiring. Born into the India middle class, Sankar has swung from the branches of a variety of roles across the US and Australiatech scene that have enabled him to bring a unique perspective to his current role. Sankar has become one of Australia’s scale up experts, cutting his teeth at Xero as both he CFO and COO, and now as CEO of SiteMinder, a billion dollar, truly global, fast growing Australian technology success story. From managing founder transition and other stakeholders as a business grows, Sankar gives wonderful insight into not only what it takes to scale the soft skills required as a CEO, but also how he thinks about the vertical Saas playbook and how that is currently playing out at SiteMinder. SiteMinder has a massive opportunity ahead of it – already the dominant player worldwide and yet hardly penetrated into its market, Sankar’s expertise in scaling both system and processes and cultures will hold the business in great stead on this next stage of its growth journey. Show notes to come.

Mike Frizell and James Edwards, Co-Founders of Pet Circle, are the quiet achievers of the Australian consumer business scene. Their story is largely untold and unknown. Whenever newspapers publish lists of Australia’s largest e-commerce players, Pet Circle is always a surprise omission to those in the know. Having grown at an astronomical rate over the last decade to now over $300m in revenue, Mike and James have built a business second only in size and scale to Kogan – the undisputed pure play online retail king in the country. This has been done without press releases, and public acknowledgement, but certainly with the deliberate decision making that  enables durable long term growth. Many start a business and then adapt to patch the holes as they go. This is far from the Pet Circle scaling story – from day one both ensured the boat was water tight – from back end technology processes, to the front end consumer experience. I loved uncovering their magic to what is certainly one of Australia’s finest examples of growing an online business. This series is set against the backdrop of Covid 19 and both Australia and the rest of the world on the precipice of the biggest economic slowdown since the great Depression. Millions of people are now working from home, and never has there been larger catalyst for structural changes to how we all live our lives. But it is also a time that has seen a huge divergence in outcomes for many businesses – some have exponentially grown due to these structural shifts, some have sadly put up the shutters, never to return. Pet Circle certainly falls into the category of the former, but super growth set against this backdrop has its own challenges as well, and it was great to get some perspectives of how Mike and James have thought about this real time. This scaling up story  really is a masterclass in how to grow a online business in the digital age. For those interested in further insights and commentary, TDM Growth Partners has been posting to their new medium publication – TDM tidbits – which can be found at medium.com/tdmtidbits, or it might be easier to follow @tdm_growth on twitter and get all the news and views there. You can always find me on twitter @eddiecowan.