Category Visionaries

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Achuthanand Ravi, CEO of Kula, a global-facing tech-forward recruitment automation platform helping recruiters across a whole range of industries manage their workflows more efficiently. Finding himself in the recruitment space almost by accident, Achuthanand has worked his way through a whole range of tech companies, giving him insights into the challenges of recruiting top talent, and how they could be overcome through automation technology. In little over a year, Kula has transformed from a fresh startup into a global company with interests in India and America, adopting a function-agnostic, region-agnostic and open position promising to revolutionize the rapidly transforming recruitment sector in a post-pandemic, remote working economy. Topics Discussed: Being successful in India without necessarily becoming an Engineer or Doctor, and how Achuthanand found his way into recruitment How Kula engages with its clients' main recruitment channels, and how their solutions set them apart from the competition Building a global brand from the bottom up, getting a foot hold across America and India Why technology came so late to the HR sector compared to sales and marketing How the uptick in HRtech promises a dynamic new global workforce Why Kula is the only platform running a recruiter-specific solution, and why they want to make everyone in every organization a recruiter The challenges of spread and scale for contemporary marketing, and why automation is key   Favorite book:  Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Thibaut Sahagian, CEO of Multis. Thibaut is an entrepreneur active in the crypto world since 2014, and could be called a true pioneer of Web3 native businesses. He’s turned his passion for B2B and SaaS strategies into a dynamic enterprise with Multis, a financial toolkit and banking services platform integrating the best solutions from across the space and helping enterprise partners sort, save, and spend crypto in ways that make sense for them. In a market dominated by greed and growth, Multis focuses on real solutions as a more sustainable, resilient strategy to see them safely through the volatility of a bull-bear business cycle. Topics Discussed: How being a crypto pioneer led to a B2B-focused business mindset, and what Thibaut learned in the early years of the space Why decentralized money markets were the real game changer for crypto, and how compound protocol made all the difference FTX finance, the effect on crypto’s long-term prospects, greed and the debate over the need for governance The future of finance as a hybrid space between centralized and decentralized exchanges Multis’ Web3 pitch - quick, seamless banking solutions to sort, manage and spend funds, token liquidity and more Why a bear market today is the bull market of tomorrow, and a great time to get in on investments Breaking through the crypto noise, and why Multis keeps to a traditional, relationship-oriented approach Why being a market pioneer means spending time on education and constructing your own target markets   Favorite book:  The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Jason Lavender, CEO & Co-Founder of Electives, a corporate learning platform that has raised over $10 Million in funding. Here are the most interesting points from our conversation: Electives' Unique Approach: Electives offers interactive, live classes led by a diverse range of instructors, including FBI agents, athletes, professors, and authors, rather than traditional corporate trainers. Engagement and Interactivity: Addressing the lack of engagement in corporate training, Electives emphasizes live, interactive sessions that allow employees to connect with peers and instructors. Customer Profile and Traction: Initially targeting mid-sized tech companies, Electives now serves a wide range of enterprises, celebrating milestones such as 100 companies hosting classes and over $1 million paid to teachers. Teacher Recruitment and Referrals: The platform sources instructors from varied backgrounds, often through referrals from existing teachers, ensuring a wide array of unique and engaging content. Market Disruption and New Category: Inspired by the book "Play Bigger," Electives aims to create a new category in corporate learning, moving beyond traditional training models to offer comprehensive human development. Future Vision: Electives aims to be a staple in every company, providing diverse learning experiences that enhance personal and professional growth, while continuing to refine their category definition. //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io   The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe. www.GlobalTalent.co  

In today’s episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Vincenz Klemm, CEO of Baobab, about his journey from fintech to political science and back into the startup space, leading the European cyber insurance market with Baobab, a company trying to do digital security more safely. Companies get hacked more than most of us might like to think, and how well we recover depends on getting the right precautions in place. For Baobab, that could mean just a comprehensive insurance package, or going even further with a tailor-made collaboration with customers and symbiotic product learning as we grow together. It's a relatively new science in general, which is why building strong networks across sectors and in different markets is absolutely key to success. Topics Discussed: The problem of hacking for modern companies, and the businesses backing hacker labs all over the world How to differentiate between different attack strategies, and why DDos is getting more sophisticated, and more population Quantifying intangible assets - how does one account for reputation damage when it comes to calculating an insurance premium? The fundamental needs of cyber insurance are everywhere, but not all regulatory frameworks are the same. How to expand across different markets in the short-medium term   Favorite book:  A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy 

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Casey Rosenthal, CEO of Verica, about his career in digital security, making a name for himself with the concept of chaos engineering, and how he eventually took those ideas mainstream with Verica, a continuous verification platform which helps people map the limitations of their existing software solutions and make contingencies for when things go wrong. An increasingly popular concept, ‘chaos engineering’ is essentially a toolkit to experiment with a system’s critical capacity, but a great tool doesn’t always make a perfect product, and Carey explains a little bit about how commercial viability can be an engineering challenge all of its own, why continuous verification is the final piece of the DevOps revolution, and why the biggest challenge for Verica is aligning disparate development cycles. Topics Discussed: Chaos engineering - what does it mean? Why is it so important and what impact can it have on an enterprise tech setup Why more and more companies are seeking to add chaos engineering to their approach, and why it’s already popular in fintech Why diversity is key for modern tech companies, driving better performance and ultimately more success Continuous verification and the DevOps revolution - where does this new category stand in the story? How harmonizing schedules between different departments can be a real challenge for a company looking to expand   Favorite book:  What Works: Gender Equality by Design

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Hersh Tapadia, CEO of Allstacks, about his journey between disciplines to eventually develop a value stream intelligence platform to close the development gap between software companies and their clients in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector. Navigating the very different approaches of RnD-release and constant evolution takes a great deal of highly coordinated communication, and Allstacks integrates seamlessly within an existing workstream, providing insights, indicators, and alerts to make sure you always know what’s going on. More than just helping us predict and respond to problems coming down the pipeline, the Allstacks approach provides employees with the storytelling tools they need to deliver context, advocate key positions and assert impact over a team, department or entire organization. Topics Discussed: An intersectional career between engineering and biomedicine, how Hersh found a career between disciplines Stakeholder expectations, unexpected challenges and what ‘delivering’ really means Solving the surprise issue, and why everyone wants to plan for an anticipated outcome Harmony, building teams, and why individual accomplishment isn’t enough for success Why value stream intelligence gives employees the tools to create a more satisfying, meaningful workplace experience   Favorite book:  The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with James Hawkins,  Co-Founder and CEO of PostHog, about what makes startups so exciting, and how to make a successful business in the digital era. By leveraging a strong commitment to PNG and flexible approach to development through their open source product operating platform, PostHog integrated the needs of their customers with a stellar business proposal, driving opportunities to innovate and grow together as a community. Topics Discussed: How finance became startups - how James fell into the world of start-up enterprises from a career in investment banking Why not everyone is happy about the digital transition, and why some companies prefer to keep their data offline Why 'slow and steady' is still relevant for stable growth in the market, even today PLG as a core business strategy, and why a transition to big enterprise might require a revised sales strategy The power of feedback in building a customer profile before going overboard with staff spending.   Favorite book:  No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Philippe Humeau, CEO of CrowdSec, a cyber security startup building a neighborhood watch for the internet era, leveraging collaboration and mutual benefit to optimize protection against contemporary online threats. By identifying aggressive IP addresses and bad actors in real time, and sharing that information with users, the bulk of your security legwork can be taken care of before the threat ever reaches your servers. It's this powerful security infrastructure which has helped CrowdCec secure 110,000 users in just two years, and be well on the way to their first million. Topics Discussed: How cracking computer games at school led Philippe to a career in cybersecurity How security needs have changed in the ransomware era, and what aggressive security means for your business Why selling signals is a massive market, and how CrowdSec manages to stay free to use PLG as the idea growth strategy for small businesses, but why it might not always be scalable Market innovation and enterprise categories - why detecting trends is different from imposing them Cybersecurity’s high burn rate, and why if you want software maintained well you need to pay a top-level salary Favorite book:  Thinking, Fast and Slow

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Pascal Weinberger, CEO & Founder of Bardeen, a no-code workflow automation platform that has raised over $18 Million in funding. Here are the most interesting points from the conversation: Origin of Bardeen: Pascal and his co-founder Artem were frustrated by the time spent copy-pasting data between tabs and set out to solve this with Bardeen, aiming to automate tedious workflows. Proactive Automation: Unlike traditional trigger-based tools like Zapier, Bardeen operates on user context, enabling more powerful and intuitive automations. PLG Approach: Bardeen employs a product-led growth strategy, focusing on community support and direct user feedback to continuously refine their product. Challenges of PLG: While PLG offers rapid feedback and user-centric development, it also demands high attention to detail and faces competition for user attention. Category Creation: Bardeen aims to establish a new category of proactive automation, bridging the gap between simple trigger-based tools and complex enterprise solutions. Future Vision: Bardeen aspires to bring automation to everyone, aiming for a world where automation tools proactively identify opportunities to save users' time, akin to how Honey finds savings at checkout.

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Jaclyn Chen, CEO of Benepass, about how her journey towards becoming a 'giver' led her to establish an exciting new Employee Benefits Platform, empowering people with the choices they need to make real wellbeing a reality. A simple, intuitive tool with no gimmicks or hidden costs, Benepass helps companies reimagine how they take care of their people, providing a flexible and accountable way for people to get the benefits which make the most difference in their lives. Whether your well-being comes from hitting the gym, joining a meditation class or just having someone to take care of your chores while you work, Benepass offers a one-stop solution with tailor-made choices, without any additional administrative burden on the company. Topics Discussed: The power of 'giving' in the marketplace of ideas, and how prioritizing consumer needs helped drive the birth of Benepass Why wellbeing means different things to different people, and how companies are starting to give them the right to choose How a cheap, simple contribution can make a big difference in people's mindset - show them you care with a tailor-made gesture The pandemic, the at in Ukraine, and a what 'wellness' means is always changing with the times Why Benepass is driving a mindset change in the HR industry, and letting personal choice be the bedrock of how businesses operate Why Benepass targeted the mid-sized business market, and how the next few years look set to be critical for ongoing growth and expansion