Episodes
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For this season finale, we invited Steve Brown to embark on the journey of what's next.
Via his fathers job as a Physics lecturer, Steve was introduced to science and technology at a very early age - and that sense of magic has never left him. After studying how to make a computer, he went on to have a fascinating career with the one and only Intel, avoiding the well trodden traditional career trajectory, opting instead to move through marketing, events, planning and labs, before finally becoming an Intel Futurist. This inspired Steve to become an independent Futurist, helping companies and organisations think through the digital challenges they were facing, and how new and emerging technologies could influence their own futures. As a well respected speakers and author, it’s fascinating to hear Steve talk through the technologies he sees making an impact, use cases from companies using them and how emerging technologies could be very disruptive. Now, as a Portland native, he talks through the local investing scene, and what he likes to see in a company before he considers investing. A great listen for those thinking about where to go next in their company and personal journeys.
Highlights:
- History shows companies that invest in tech will outperform their peers
- We’re moving from work-life balance to work-life fusion
- Industry 5.0 brings the Humans back to life
- The six technologies driving Digital Transformation
- The role of 5G in enabling IoTNote that this episode was recorded on 27th May 2021.
Steve is the co-founder of: https://www.theprovenancechain.com
His book, The Innovation Ultimatum, is available everywhere: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119615429/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=106d04-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1119615429&linkId=00254beb692dde17c29f417cb60b5056
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It’s fair to say that Parker Crockford quickly became a citizen of the world; travelling and gathering experiences that have helped shape his career. In this podcast, we explore how Fintech is developing and growing in the US and Europe, and what the breakout segments look like. As ever, regulation is always lagging but can’t be ignored in building a startup servicing these new markets. And then there’s crypto - can that ever be regulated? Talking via experience, Parker takes us through his thoughts on how to approach Fintech, the impact of Open Banking and the companies that are doing it well. A fascinating listen in these hyper growth times for Fintech.
Highlights
- Europe has stolen a march on B2C Fintech and created some giants
- Fintech is splintering but each splinter is a billion dollar opportunity
- Regulation is playing catch-up with market innovation
- Stripe found the perfect gap to fill
- Can the crypto explosion be regulated? -
Episodes manquant?
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It’s fair to say that Rav has grown up with Customer Success (CS), starting his career in the Unix admin world at Accenture and IBM, before being catapulted into the startup world at the then young company Salesforce. Since then he’s gone on to hold senior CS positions at Yammer, Zendesk and Slack, seeing first hand how CS has grown and matured as SaaS has exploded. Rav is probably one of the most experienced CS leaders in UK/EU, and kindly shared much of his thinking on the evolution of CS, what metrics matter, how to align the sellings motions and avoiding the ‘do everything’ department. He’s now paying his experience forward as an investor and advisor for numerous young companies, helping them think through their business models and approach. A must listen for all founders and leaders as they build their business in the world of continuous selling.
Highlights:
- The evolution of Customer Support to Customer Success
- The role of CS in the flywheel of continuous selling
- Correlating your distribution model to your CS model
- Avoiding the ‘do everything’ CS department
- The key metrics of TTV and NRR -
It’s fair to say that Chris Bruce has had some interesting twists and turns in his career before he met his co-founder and created Thomson Online Benefits. In this podcast, Chris talks through the early days of the business, how they honed the value proposition and why they had to totally rebuild the tech for the next stage of growth. After some huge scaling, Chris describes how and why the business was acquired, and why he felt he had a duty to protect the amazing team he’d built and the culture they’d created. What’s impressive is just how many of the alumni have gone on to create the next generation of HR Tech, where Chris and his co-founder now spend their time to invest and nurture these new emerging companies. It’s great to hear a founder talk through the entire lifecycle of their company, and then talk about how they pay forward those experiences. A must listen for all Founders!
Highlights:
- The path for a Founder can take many forms
- How to rebuild your tech stack whilst scaling the revenue
- Going from the UK, to Europe, to the US to Global Fortune companies
- The emotions of selling your company and protecting its culture
- The importance of taking a break post company sale
- HR Tech and it’s move to the humanisation of work -
It is a pleasure to talk with David Quantrell about his road to becoming Chair of a number of tech businesses. After starting in the long project world of defence, and a return to school, David has gone on to two IPO’s, four company sales through to running a large division of an IT giant - he’s worked with well known names such as Box, McAfee and HP. All of this experience he now uses in his Board and Chair roles with a number of leading European tech companies, helping shape and solve the problems of growth and scale. It’s fair to say that David is a well respected figure in European tech, hence wanting to hear the story of how he arrived here, and how he sees the future of European tech. It’s a fun and educational listen, especially for founders and leaders trying to evolve and develop their Board as their business grows!
Highlights:
- Europe has CEO’s who want to go the distance
- The role of Practitioners on the Board
- The Board’s evolution with funding rounds and growth
- The right time to appoint a Chair
- Setting up tech founders/leaders for success -
With a non-traditional path into tech, Pat Phelan has been right in the middle of the evolution of the Customer Success function. In this podcast, Pat discusses how Customer Success aligns with the vision of the business, and at the same time, the needs of the customers. How this is reported to the c-suite, and how this contributes to the northstar of growth is a real master class in how to build and lead a Customer Success team. Pat has an obvious passion for leadership, plus growing and developing his people, hence a must listen for the new and growing Customer Success leaders.
Highlights:
- Pivoting within CS as one motion won’t fit all your customers
- In CS play the ball in front of you
- Defining and measuring the key CS KPI’s
- Aligning CS with the Northstar of Growth
- Creating psychological safe spaces and managing imposter syndrome -
Jonathan ‘Jono’ Gill has been a student of personal growth and development ever since he held down 4 simultaneous jobs whilst still at university. It was great to sit down and chat with Jono as he talked about how his early career prepared him for the world of sales, and how this combined with the rise of the cyber industry, set him up for his latest challenge as CEO of Panaseer. The pandemic challenged many leaders on how to manage in the new remote world, and Jono talks about what lessons he used in leading a company where he had not even met many of the leadership team or company! The world of cyber is growing fast, but it’s also crowded and noisy with many conflicting messages and tools vying for attention. Here we unpick why the new category of CCM (Continuous Controls Monitoring) as pioneered by Panaseer, lifts them out of the noise and delivers demonstrable value. It’s fascinating to listen to a CEO plot the course of a rocketship company, delving into not just the sales and product direction, but also how effective leadership has the biggest impact.
Highlights:
- You’re responsible for your personal growth and development - your future is in your hands
- Your three motives and how they lead to a CEO path
- An organisation doesn’t have physical boundaries anymore
- Organisations typically have 100’s of cyber tools - but SaaS means you need to be a promise maker and a promise keeper
- How do you capture and sell the parity wedge
- Security incidents were up 400% during the pandemic - how does Continuous Controls Monitoring (CCM) help manage the threat -
John Kreisa has been a marketing leader at a string of data product companies, including Business Objects, Hortonworks, Docker and now Couchbase. In this episode, John breaks down his thinking on why Product Marketing is so central to a Marketing team at data software companies, and how that translates into effective sales motions. He also talks about the future of Martech in the explosive data world, and how the rule of 1’s and 3’s plays out in revenue growth.
This is the episode to unravel how to build your Marketing team around data products, and how to get the Sales motion humming along. Essential listening for anyone working in Marketing and data - there’s lots to get right - and lots to get wrong!
Highlights:
- Product Marketing is central to building a Marketing function - and underserved in UK/EU
- The rule of 1’s and 3’s in scaling your revenue
- MarTech has evolved fast aided by the Pandemic
- In Product led companies are you Sell-to or Buy-from?
- Data creation rates are accelerating
- The rise of Marketing Ops -
Dan Hyde co-founded Erevena over 20 years ago, with an initial focus on hiring executives for B2B software companies. In that time he’s seen the market change and evolve, with the emergence of EMEA as a startup powerhouse, combined with new fast moving software categories. The war for talent is as strong as ever, with demand at an all time high for scaling and growing startups. In this interview, Dan unpicks how founders should think about who to hire, and in what order, and where things can go wrong.
Erevena have helped many of the most recognisable names in Europe Tech hire their leadership teams, and Dan’s learnings are invaluable. A must listen for all those who don’t want to make the mistakes of founders before them, and end up churning their most expensive and valuable people.
Highlights:
- Don’t scale it until you nail it!
- Supply has never been worse and demand has never been higher
- Your first 50 deals need a Sales puzzle solver
- Selling beyond founder led sales needs strong Product Marketing
- Unit economics are wasted without strong Customer Success
- CRO’s roles are demanding and draining, but has the Pandemic changed that? -
Starting out as a software engineer, Ingrid Burton, CMO, Quantcast, quickly moved into Marketing during her long tenure at Sun Microsystems. Her deep experiences of Sun’s early pioneering move to Open Source key software components has fuelled much of her stellar career as CMO of many leading companies such as Hortonworks and H2O.ai. There aren’t many marketers who’ve had the same hands-on experiences as Ingrid, creating whole new categories and communities around key Open Source technologies.
Highlights:
-What are the facets of Marketing and how do they relate to OpenSource?
- There isn’t a one size fits all Open Source GTM model
- How to sell ‘The Squeeze’
- Why not to over complicate Category Creation
- Effective teaming between Sales and Marketing
- When to hire your first Marketing VPAs an accomplished CMO she talks through the relationship between Sales and Marketing, and her thoughts on ‘the squeeze play’. A fascinating listen from one of Silicon Valley’s very best.
In conversation with Andy Leaver, and Paul Papadimitriou. -
Amandine Le Pape describes how Open Source was pivotal in building Matrix, how the business model and GTM evolved and how they manage their rapid scaling.
Highlights:
- Open Source and the power of community can solve big problems
- Business models for Open Source are evolving quickly
- Rapid Scale needs senior people early in the journey
- The missing layer of the web is real-time communications
- Big visions need to talk to tech and business communitiesStarting initially within the Amdocs business, founder Amandine Le Pape (with her Co-founder Matthew Hodgson) formed the vision for the missing layer of the web and created Matrix. As a decentralised and highly secure open standard, Matrix is now over 30 million users strong and is powering communications at many large public bodies and private companies. Element fuels the growth of the ecosystem by being a core contributor to Matrix and providing apps and services for Matrix. Element is on a path to be world changing and a defining standard, hence needs strategic thinking in the GTM challenges ahead.
A discussion with Andy Leaver and Paul Papadimitriou.
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Jason Corsello is a much admired and respected figure in the world of HR Tech, but how did he start as an analyst, become an operator, and then found and manage a dedicated HR Tech fund? In our session we explore how HR Tech has evolved over the years, what trends he sees emerging, and how the pandemic has accelerated changes in the employee experience. The unbundling of HR Tech is upon us, opening up so many opportunities, including the chance to truly promote wellness in the workplace - whether that be the office or home. All this leads to how Jason invests via his fund Acadian, and who the new winners in this fast changing landscape could be.
Highlights:
- Empowering workers without invading their data privacy
- The acceleration of the HR tools through the pandemic
- The rise of the extended workforce and the legal implications
- Working from home can be complex
- Can employee tools measure and promote wellness?
- The unbundling of HR Tech through API’s and Data
With Andy Leaver, and Paul Papadimitriou -
Growing up via a very diverse cultural journey, Kamal Kirpalani, VP Sales & GM Americas at Mirakl, shares some hard learned and honest lessons around mastering the art and science of Sales.
Highlights:
- The e from eCommerce is going away - it’s just Commerce
- Complex deals need executive team involvement including the CEO
- You need to hire a Sales team with diverse superpowers
- Measuring the balance of art and science in a Sales teams performance
- Arriving prepared to solve your customers hard problemsKamal has an amazing record in sales, and shares his thoughts on how to solve big customer problems, how to get the exec team onboard and finding key superpowers to build your team. Now a senior member of the Mirakl team he shares thoughts on why eCommerce is now just Commerce, what makes a great Marketplace and how the pandemic has accelerated change. Hear who and what he admires, but mostly take away valuable lessons that helped him build the fantastic career he has today.
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A very honest conversation about sales with the one and only Jennifer Bers, who lives and breathes sales excellence, and has lost none of her passion and energy around the craft. Her drive and results are incredible.
Highlights:
- There are four key traits to look out for when Sales hiring: intelligence, integrity, hunger and coachability
- In order to structure your team, you need to understand the market you’re going after
- Understanding and implementing MEDDPICC when managing a team in order to forecast accuratelyJennifer has had an incredible career in sales, both as an individual contributor and as a leader, in her positions as National Account Executive at Yahoo, UK Sales Director at Bazaarvoice and VP of Sales at Onfido, now taking a temporary break from staring at Zoom for 12 hours a day.
In this episode we explore how Jennifer has developed her skills, built teams, grown companies and figured out the GTM formula.Hosted by Andy Leaver, Operating Partner at Notion Capital, and Paul Papadimitriou.
Read more about what we talked about: https://notion.vc/resources/the-sales-discipline-and-fintech/ -
“The Art of Exiteering”, or taking the long term view, in order to maximise the value of an M&A or IPO — building long term readiness to have a significant and positive impact on that outcome.
Highlights:
- If you are building a great tech company you must have a thorough understanding of the ecosystem you are disrupting
- Partnerships are very important in long term value creation for distribution, innovation, and ultimately exit
- Creating optionality for stakeholders is critical in the exit processThe companies Notion invest in share much in common: they all want to build businesses that dominate categories, that scale and endure. At some point in their journey, they will want to realise the value of their hard work, allowing themselves as founders, and us as funders, to realise our investments. They may end up listing on the public markets or being acquired – the latter being more likely for European companies.
That exit may well be far in the distance for many founders, even as they achieve significant success. Some people will say, “build a great business and the outcome will take care of itself” and while that is true to an extent, we also believe that long term readiness can have a significant and positive impact on that outcome. We call this “The Art of Exiteering”; taking the long term view, in order to maximise the value of an M&A or IPO
Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou discuss with David Eldridge. David founded Alterian which he led through IPO and subsequent acquisition of four companies; Alterian was then acquired by SDL in 2011. He Chaired Idio, a Notion company for six years which was acquired by Episerver in 2019. David is now the Chair, formerly CEO, and joint founder of 3radical, Chair of Apperio and Non-exec Director at Neighbourly and Precision Point.
Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/knowing-your-ideal-buyer-profile-is-critical-to-planning-a-great-exit/ -
Understanding a VC firm's investment strategy - focus, stage, thesis and so on - is critical as a founder develops their investment proposition, but so is understanding the individual strategy of each partner in a firm. This allows a founder to tailor their pitch but more importantly, get the right investor excited and committed as soon as possible.
Highlights:
- Good PLG businesses have a very short time to value, bringing users to the “aha” moment right from the moment they try the product
- Founders should think of fundraising strategically; it is important to define a strategy and a process to close a funding round successfully
- Lead with the excitement for your vision, backed by the metrics that bring that to lifeFor product-led founders, looking to raise a funding round, Itxaso Del Palacio is probably their best fit. Itxaso is a Partner at Notion Capital, which specialises in B2B SaaS and Enterprise Tech, investing across Europe at Series A. Itxaso was formerly with M12 (Microsoft’s venture arm) where she led investments in Beamery, Onfido and Unbabel. She has more than a decades experience working in the startup ecosystem building and investing in software companies. Additionally, Itxaso is a Senior Teaching Fellow in entrepreneurship at University College London (UCL) and she has taught entrepreneurship to more than 3,000 students in the last ten years.
In this podcast, Itxaso describes herself to Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou as a ‘product-led’ investor and lays out her thinking on what this means and why she thinks this is so important.
Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/investing-in-product-led-founders-building-rocketship-businesses/
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Within the context of the startup, grow up and scale-up life cycle of a venture backed tech company, the topic of internationalisation soon emerges and typically the focus of the discussion is on the US. From our personal experience and from discussions with founders we know that a critical success factor is one of the founders, and often a few hand picked employees, moving to the US. This process can be a minefield and requires dedicated time and effort.
Highlights:
- Doing your research and considering the planning piece is key for combating the global immigration minefield
- Building a strong network is vital for expansion
- There are three primary visas for the UK: E Visa, L Visa, O1 VisaStephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou discuss this topic with Elizabeth Jamae the founding partner at Corporate Immigration Partners. Elizabeth supports European Notion companies address their immigration challenges getting into the US, and is responsible for immigration strategy and implementation.
Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/combating-the-global-immigration-minefield-for-european-startups/ -
The journey from startup to global category leader is a daunting task, for a million or less in revenues, when we might invest 100 million revenues, or more, in less than ten years. This is what VCs hope to find, and it’s what many founders plan to achieve. There are strategic challenges of balancing short term operational excellence, with long term transformation and category dominance. One of the most enduring frameworks for this is the McKinsey three horizons, which describes optimising for current performance while maximising future opportunity.
Highlights:
- Three horizons is a powerful way to combine short term execution with long term vision.
- Feeling comfortable in the grey area between the present and the future.
- There can be such a thing as too much vision!
- Getting the right balance of mindset & resources between the three horizons is critical.Chris Tottman is one of the founders of Notion Capital, but also one of the founding members of MessageLabs, a tech company that went from an idea in 2000 to more than 600 people and $150m in recurring revenue in eight years before its acquisition by Symantec. Amongst many other responsibilities at MessageLabs, Chris oversaw nearly every single senior hire, shaping the leadership team and organisational structure.
Since then, over the last ten years with Notion Capital, he’s been investing in SaaS founders to help shape their vision, nurture their ambition and, critically, help them hire ever more extraordinary people. An original thinker in a traditional industry, he uses the three horizon framework to help the founders that he invests in build big, beautiful and enduring companies.
A conversation with Stephen Millard, and Paul Papadimitriou.
Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/the-three-horizon-mindset-how-visionary-founders-win-big/
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The type of companies that Notion Capital invests in are redefining the rules of an entire industry. They become synonymous with a category which they solve uniquely well.
Highlights:
- Defining a category is about showing the world:
-- What problem you solve
-- How you are uniquely positioned to solve that problem and finally,
-- Building an ecosystem around you to help really launch a new category.
- The best founding teams spend time thinking about the problem they're solving, and then map out the "from tos".
- Category design is much more than marketing, it is fundamental for tech companies to dominate new markets.Naomi Allen is the co-founder and CEO of Brightline, which is the world's first technology-enabled behavioural health home for children and families. She's an entrepreneur with 20 years of hands-on experience, developing high growth, health tech companies, as well as a former advisor to our friends at Play Bigger. She's also the mother of three children and ascribes to the philosophy of “radical flexibility”.
Read more: https://notion.vc/resources/category-design-shows-the-world-the-problem-you-are-uniquely-positioned-to-solve/ -
SaaS businesses are ultimately recurring revenue streams, often with significant upfront costs for customer acquisition. Any profit or contribution from an individual customer is only typically generated in the second or third years. In order to be viable they need to have a deep understanding of their business model and, critically, an understanding of the underlying economic viability that allows them to stay on track, make good decisions, manage their costs, manage their cash, and plan for growth. For venture-backed businesses in particular, they ultimately have to unlock capital efficient growth in order to achieve the goals that they've set for themselves and for their stakeholders.
Highlights:
- In SaaS companies the finance function must be seen as a strategic partner to the business.
- Vertical financials looks at P&L and Balance Sheet, while Horizontal Financials look at lifetime value.
- Even as you are working to accelerate growth, make sure you’re doing so within a framework that allows you to be capital efficient.In conversation with Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou, our guide to this topic is Carrie Dolan, CFO at Tradeshift, a unicorn in the Notion portfolio. Notion led the Series A in 2009. Carrie has more than 20 years experience as a CFO, in fast growth venture-backed technology companies such as Metromile, Lending Club, and prior to that with Charles Schwab.
Read more about this episode: https://notion.vc/resources/saas-cfo-podcast/
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