Scaling up: A podcast to inspire entrepreneurs

My guest today is Silvija Martincevic, the Croatian born, San Francisco based CEO of Australian founded Unicorn Deputy.Silvija's executive career has been immense in the world of fast-growing technology, as the COO of Group On, and then the chief commercial officer of Affirm, that scaled annual revenue through the billion-dollar ceiling and beyond IPO. Silvija grew up in Croatia and while she didn't learn English until she was 18, she's an incredibly lucid storyteller. We traversed some key scaling challenges from moving Deputy from a point solution to a full workforce management platform trying to move from the fickle SMB market towards solving larger and more complex problems for mid-market customers. All of this is wrapped up in a big global push to continue the growth trajectory that now has reported revenue well over a hundred million dollars a year. While Sylvia is known in the industry as an incredible executor, as an operator, it's her leadership skills that have been front and center in Deputy's post Covid transformation, despite not being the founder, her ownership mentality is the cornerstone of her values-based leadership principles, which come clearly through as accountability, trust, and empathy. Her insights into scaling culture as a non-founding CEO were a real highlight of the conversation. As always, please reach out if you have any feedback or comments, and for more insights on a whole range of topics the new TDM website is a great resource for investors and operators alike.

Very rarely do you get to tell the story of a wildly successful entrepreneur that is largely unknown beyond the immediate circle of influence. Today on Scaling Up, Greg Boorer, the CEO and Founder of CDC, formally Canberra Data Centres, which is in some rarefied air among companies globally, having compounded earnings at over 30% for the last 15 years. It's now valued well in excess of $10 billion and is at the centre of the beating heart of Australia's critical infrastructure. All this, and it still has a massive growth runway ahead of it. Greg's story in many ways is the CDC story from an aspiring cyclist and reluctant it graduate. Greg has become the face and often lead salesperson of a business that has rewritten industry standards as it relates to innovation and security. In what is seen from the outside as a commoditised industry, CDC has thrived by listening to customer needs and adapting accordingly. This is a story of initial hustle and belief in an opportunity, but ultimately it's about resiliency and delivering on promises. Greg has undoubtedly built one of Australia's best businesses from the ground up, and to hear him speak about this scaling journey with the knowledge and passion that he does will undoubtedly be inspiring to all our listeners. Transcript: CHAPTERS:   (00:55) – Greg's beginnings   (05:50) – A foreign start   (11:32) – Moving back to Australia    (18:40) – Building Canberra Data Centres , now CDC (22:40) –Tactics, tips and techniques (24:12) – Technological and competitive ddvantage    (30:54) – Solidifying CDC's Future   (36:58) – CDC's scaling journey  (44:08) – Why you need to partner with the right people   (47:33) – CDC's sustainability commitment 

Bill Beament grew up in a working class family out of Esperance in Western Australia. He dreamed of being a general manager of a mine one day. Instilled at a young age with a deep work ethic and an acute commercial sense, he achieved much, much more than this as CEO and Executive Chair of Northern Star. Bill reshaped the underground gold mining industry and built from scratch a $16b, ASX 50 behemoth. Not resting on his laurels though, Bill has more recently turned his attention to wrapping up all his learnings about mining, about people and about leadership to his own venture Develop Global (ASX:DVP), which is on the precipice of replicating Northern Star's success in critical minerals with its unique business model of both mining services and mine ownership. This is one of Australia's great stories, largely unknown and untold outside the resource community so heavily centred in Perth, but the scaling lessons, as you'll hear, are applicable to all sectors and leaders of businesses, of all shapes and sizes. This episode takes you underground into a world unfamiliar to most, but applicable to all. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Scaling Up with Bill Beament, CEO and founder of Develop Global.  Show Notes: CHAPTERS:   (00:55): Bill's upbringing in country WA (04:09):  Starting in the underground industry   (06:19): Lessons from Barminco  (09:11): Building Northern Star    (14:03): What makes a world-class underground mine operator (18:48): Operational excellence at Northern Star and starting Develop Global    (24:23): Unearthing critical minerals   (29:14): DVP's business model (32:34): Buying Woodlawn mine (35:59): Best in class hiring and retaining talent (41:47): Remuneration philosophy

Hiroki Takeuchi, the co-founder and CEO of GoCardless started in 2011. GoCardless is a star of the blossoming UK FinTech scene- last valued at $2.1b, the business is on a mission to take the pain out of payments for businesses of all shapes and sizes – from your local gym collecting monthly membership right through to the Uk's biggest utility companies. Payment collection is a problem as old as time, and in creating a global bank debit network to rival the card networks like Visa and Mastercard , it is also an incredibly complex ecosystem to navigate and operate in. But Go Cardless has seen tremendous success – it currently processes over $35b in payments annually from close to 100,000 customers. Aside from regulatory complexity that is only heightened when you throw cross border payments into the mix, the challenge of scaling a business that form day one  has had such a variety of customer shapes and sizes gives rise to some wonderful lessons for operators. Hiroki's personal story is incredibly inspiring. The founder's journey always involves a level of grit and determination to overcome adversity, but Hiroki takes it to a new level; five years into the Go Cardless journey, a bike accident resulted in a spinal cord injury. If anything, it gave him a him a perspective on life and leadership that has enabled Go Cardless to flourish like it has. Show Notes: (02:12): Founding Story (06:45): Why direct debit? (10:03): Unraveling the complexity around cloud-based payments (12:31): Navigating the rules and regulations on collecting payments (14:02): GoCardless' competitive advantage (19:00): Scaling challenges when expanding internationally (21:52): G2M success via partnerships (24:21): GoCardless' culture journey (26:55): Embedding and living company values (28:26): Leading the business post bicycle accident (31:10): Evolution of leadership when scaling a business --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tdm-growth-partners/message

What is a high-performing culture? It's a question some think as straightforward as it is philosophical. In these special episodes, we explore high performing cultures;  what they are, how to create them, and most importantly how to not just maintain them, but scale them. By drawing upon the wisdom of the previous CEOs, founders, leaders who I have had the pleasure of interviewing over the last six years between them have created some $150b in market capitalisation. After 42 episodes of Scaling Up and 300,000 words of transcripts we now have a database of knowledge to dive into to pull some common threads together. This second episode of the Culture Scaling Playbook is wholly dedicated to the integral culture scaling topic of hiring and retaining great talent. The crux of every scaling success is great people, and this episode aims to give operators meaningful and tangible best practise ideas for them to execute upon when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent - be it from onboarding, feedback or remuneration (and everything in between). Culture Scaling Workbook: Includes show notes, links to sources and other interesting thought starters - ⁠DOWNLOAD Chapters: (02:00) The importance of belonging in high performing teams (06:56) What makes for great hiring and why is it the centre of successfully scaling culture? (13:56) The role of the Chief People Officer and the right time to hire one (16:29) The importance of onboarding when it comes to building a cohesive culture (20:12) Let's talk remuneration (23:43) Building trust through feedback (30:34) Diversity of thought and why it produces better outcomes (33:23) The wrap up For more content and insights: ⁠www.tdmgrowthpartners.com⁠ ⁠https://twitter.com/TDM_Growth --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tdm-growth-partners/message

What is a high-performing culture? It's a question some think as straightforward as it is philosophical. In these special episodes, we explore high performing cultures;  what they are, how to create them, and most importantly how to not just maintain them, but scale them. By drawing upon the wisdom of the previous CEOs, founders, leaders who I have had the pleasure of interviewing over the last six years between them have created some $150b in market capitalisation. After 42 episodes of Scaling Up and 300,000 words of transcripts we now have a database of knowledge to dive into to pull some common threads together. This first episode of the Culture Scaling Playbook is wholly dedicated to the role values play in successfully scaling people and culture; why they are important, how they have to be at the centre of every decision made and every behaviour exhibited in a business and importantly how best to do this. Chapters: (02:00) High performance in teams (04:18) What is culture - the triangle framework (07:18) Link between effective cultures and exceptional business results (13:02) Values and when they get formalised (21:35) Living the valuies and codifying them (26:13) Values and hiring - from interviews to onboarding (34:25) Can you refresh or change your values? (37:07) The wrap up Culture Scaling Handbook: Includes show notes, links to sources and other interesting thought starters: Download For more content and insights: www.tdmgrowthpartners.com https://twitter.com/TDM_Growth --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tdm-growth-partners/message

Adam Schwab is our guest on Scaling Up, the CEO and co-founder of Luxury Escapes – a travel marketplace with almost $1b in bookings annually. Adam's story is that of a quintessential and accomplished entrepreneur – one of trial and error, learning from mistakes and applying it to the next chapter as is always required. Luxury escapes and its coming to being is exactly this – the twist and turns of a variety of businesses, over almost a decade, that eventually spun out something that was scalable and incredibly capital efficient. While the scaling story is largely unknown but none the less incredible – it is a story born out of customer obsession, and providing consistent value to both sides of the market place What comes next for Luxury Escapes is been exciting enough to get Adam back from 18 month sabbatical, and we not only discuss the many iterations of the business and its future, but also how Adam has thought about his own journey as a leader. Buckle up, this is a fast paced and frenetic end to another great season of Scaling Up. We will be back in 2023 with another series, a new format and hopefully many more lessons for business builders, executives and investors alike. Show notes: Adam with a longer versioon of the start up years and founding story - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4cXyal7vsWQqskWSwfymov Adam on work from home - https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/careers/love-working-from-home-maybe-you-re-a-task-filler-20220606-p5ardi Adam's podcast "From Zero" --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Reggie Aggarwal is the co-founder of Cvent, a $600m revenue Software company, that is listed on the Nasdaq (ticker CVT). Cvent is allows organizations to more efficiently run, manage and host all formats of events from virtual to in-person and hybrid. If you have been to a large conference recently, chances are it hasa been powered by Cvent. Reggie is in a very unique position, having founded the company in 1999, he has seen 3 recessions, an IPO, A SPAC, a merger, competitors come and go and everything in between, and so it was a privilege to try and piece all the important moments in history together, and distill into lessons for current operators. To have been at the helm of a business that has scaled from 12 people to almost 5000 people has also required Reggie to be on his on scaling journey and to dig into the how he has thought about this, from someone who is consistently voted one of the best CEOS in the US, makes for a fascinating conversation. This is probably a great conversation to pair with a previous TDM blog, what makes a great CEO, as no doubt going through the conversation, you will be able to identify many of those traits shining through. As previously mentioned, all our podcasts now have transcripts available, and you can find them at our website tdmgrowthpartners.com. This is a great podcast to pair with our previous TDM blog - What makes a great CEO Show notes: Cvent Founding Story (3:13) Cvent's product evolution from a point solution to an integrated and highly scalable platform (8:40) How pivoting out of necessity created Cvent's Triple Threat; in-person, virtual and hybrid virtual events (14:35) Cvent's balanced and ‘frugally profitable' approach enabling sustainable growth and longevity (18:10) Maintaining confidence and market share against rapidly scaling competitors (22:55) The differences and unique challenges of IPO and SPAC processes (25:50) Lessons and growth opportunities from being taken private by Vista (31:54) Managing an executive team with a long-term tenure (36:15) Continuous involvement and hiring tips to effectively scale across countries and cultures (40:03) Strategic and tactical advantage of the New Delhi office (43:13) What makes a great CEO and fostering an intrapreneurial culture (45:09) The three Proverbs Reggie lives by that enabled his and Cvent's longevity (47:25) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Ruslan Kogan, the CEO and co-founder of Kogan.com (ASX:KGN) is the guest on this episode of 'Scaling Up'. Kogan.com is Australia's largest pure play online retailer with over $1b in sales. Many listeners over the years would have no doubt been introduced to Kogan.com via their incredibly successful own brand electronics business that catapulted the business to a size and scale that has allowed them to enact a phenomenal e-commerce playbook. Aside from expanding their direct to consumer product offering, Kogan.com has also been able to drive greater efficiencies and value to customers across a range of service verticals. Ruslan's story in many respects mirrors Kogan.com's story – bootstrapped and always thinking entrepreneurially as to what is required to succeed in any given moment. This episode also dives into all the big ticket decisions that any e-tailer has to face - from how to acquire customers cheaply, as well as the importance of best in class logistics and what that looks like, be it warehousing, fulfillment or freight. Ruslan is character, a true entrepreneur in every sense, and someone who has changed the retailing landscape in Australia for the better. We are also now releasing transcripts of each episode, to find them, you can click through the show notes, or find all episodes on our website. https://www.tdmgrowthpartners.com/insight/ Show Notes: Ruslan's upbringing in Belarus and the formative nature of immigration guiding his entrepreneurial spirit (3:10) Kogan founding story (7:08) The early years of Kogan with a bootstrapped and presale funded business model (8:43) Ruslan's unique strategy to create customer attention by engaging with the enemy (12:32) Kogan's diversification across new verticals through partnership with service adjacencies (18:11) Success of the Marketplace and Kogan First program, transforming Kogan into a platform business (22:10) Maintaining best in class in bound logistics in the e-commerce industry (26:51) Proliferation and efficiency of robotics and automation in warehousing (30:21) Launching a last mile logistic service in the pandemic and the transition back to external courier services (33:14) Understanding and optimising for your unique core position and competitive advantage (36:16) Initial hiring tactics e.g., only accepting CVs from Gmail accounts to filter for logical and analytical competencies (38:30) Expectation to ‘reply all' in work email chains, building a culture of transparency and accountability (44:11) How Kogan's cultural values have scaled from the company's inception (45:48) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

After a mini hiatus, 'Scaling Up' is back, and we have some incredible guests lined up in the coming months, none more so than this episode. Alex Vynokur came to Australia as a 16 year old from Soviet Ukraine, not speaking a work of English, but with a steely determination to make something of himself. And that is an understatement as to what he has achieved since – in the midst of the GFC, he co-founded BetaShares, a passive Exchange Traded Fund (or ETF) fund manager, with roughly $23b under management, making them the second largest in Australia and New Zealand. An ETF mimics an index but allows it to be investible and bought and sold on an exchange. The industry has moved swiftly from fairly vanilla – think tracking the ASX 200 or S&P 500, to more thematic or exotic type indexes - be it ESG based, or even more niche such as tracking a basket of companies involved in the creation of the metaverse. BetaShares has been at the forefront of this innovation – continually pushing the boundaries in its mission to democratise the ability for anyone to invest, given the ease, diversified and low cost nature of investing ETFs. BetaShares, despite having over 800k retail customer, will no doubt be an an under the radar success story to many listeners, but one I have been wanting to tell for a while now. You are about to hear why – it is a story of grit, and passion – and a little peek into what has driven the success of a massive business, with a huge opportunity still ahead of it. To learn more or donate to the United Ukraine Appeal visit theukraineappeal.org You can stay across all of TDM news and views via our socials, be it LinkedIn or Twitter, our handle is - @tdm_growth Show notes Alex's background immigrating to Australia and lessons from growing up in the Soviet Union (3:14) Influence of the Soviet Union on BetaShare's mission to democratise investing and encourage equal access (6:42) BetaShares Founding Story and the opportunity in the ETF industry (9:20) Turning a great idea into a great business and disrupting incumbents in the ETF industry (12:13) Nuances in the Australian retail ETF market that allowed for BetaShares growth (14:06) The movement of the ETF industry to thematic and ESG investing (17:44) Diversification and innovation in the index industry led by new index providers such as Solactive (21:41) The future of BetaShares (Horizon Two) – leveraging technology to improve financial literacy in Australia (23:24) People as BetaShare's competitive advantage and secret sauce (26:06) Fostering innovation by fostering a culture that breaks down the stigma around failure as detrimental to performance (28:56) Lessons on empowering leaders, managers, and the team at large to see the benefit of failure and mistakes (30:39) Hiring and testing for innovation and curiosity (31:36) Diagnostic tools to measure innovation within BetaShares culture (32:45) How to balance giving customers what they want and innovating to provide something they haven't even thought of (34:03) The United Ukraine Appeal –delivering non-military aid to the victims of war in Ukraine (37:30) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Joel Montaniel is the Co-founder, and CEO of SevenRooms, a private software company devoted to improving the way hospitality operators leverage their data to enhance business operations, build better direct relationships with customers and deliver an unforgettable customer experience. In their own words, SevenRooms allows ‘the big to feel small and the small to feel big' when it comes to customer relationships. The conversation traverses a wide range of topics; from scaling a global business from day one, leading with empathy and its power on customers and employees, and the great frameworks for how SevenRooms prioritises product innovation, given the breadth of their customer base. Named among the ‘Best Places to Work' in New York, it's clear that SevenRooms culture-first mentality is deeply embedded in the company's DNA. With this in mind, Joel talks to how SevenRooms is investing in its employees and the programs they have put in place to enable them to do their best work. Show Notes; Founding story and inspiration behind SevenRooms (3:15) Empathising with customers to better understand the problem and re-think the solution (5:27) SevenRooms Value Proposition for restaurant operators (7:04) Transitioning the hospitality industry from systems of record to systems of intelligence that drives outcomes for businesses (11:31) SevenRooms competitive advantage to streamline operations, personalize service and maximise revenue profitability for customers (13:41) Pain points when scaling a global business – how your greatest weakness can become your greatest strength (16:50) Implementing a prioritization framework to inspire product innovation and identify where SevenRooms can uniquely serve their customers (18:57) Fostering innovation to drive the hospitality industry forward as the company scales (23:00) Supporting customers and managing interactions during the pandemic (27:27) Inspiration to build a culture first company (30:00) SevenRooms core values (33:54) Career planning with employees to resolve cultural tensions and find an intersection between company and employee needs (37:46) The importance of investing in employees and providing recharge periods – Fresh Start Program and 7 R&R (41:13) How the leadership team catches cultural bugs and detractors in the company (45:35) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Hugh Williams probably isn't a name that pops to the front of mind when talking Australia's greatest technology exports - but it should. His career leading huge teams on cutting edge projects at global tech giants Google, Microsoft, eBay have fundamentally changed the way we live our lives. Globally, few possess the depth of domain expertise as Hugh. This episode dives into 'what great looks like' when it comes to individual engineers, small product teams and larger organisations, and his insights into hiring and fostering high performance teams and innovation, and describing how the best tech companies are built and scaled, are articulated simply and actionable for leaders of all teams. We also discuss Hugh's most recent passion project as the co-founder of CS in Schools, which is empowering the next generation of DigiTech professionals. Growing up at the frontier of technology and working alongside some of the greatest minds of the era, Hugh's experiences transcend his industry and will provide key lessons for all listeners, of all interests. Show Notes; 4:00 – Hugh's upbringing and introduction to computer science 6:20 – Initial career steps manoeuvring through a technology boom and the rise of search technology 11:28 – Lessons from working in Silicon Valley 14:10 – Current labour climate shifting the power back to the employer 18:05 – What makes a great engineer? 21:45 – How to foster the best performance and innovation within teams of all sizes? 27:34 – The two-pizza team (the optimal structure of a technology team) 31:09 – How do the engineers integrate with the wider organisation? 34:09 – Minimizing the number of company goals to unify and improve business functionality 38:40 – Key lessons as a leader to build a sustainable and scalable company culture 41:20 – CS in Schools mission and the key steps for Australia to be a driving force of technology progression --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Our guest today on scaling up is Jenn Hyman, co-founder and CEO of Rent the Runway (Nasdaq:RENT). From a thought bubble to ringing the bell on the Nasdaq and being the first business to do so with a female CEO, CFO and COO, Jenn has been at the helm of a business that is a classic two-sided network case study. We dive into this, and the scaling challenges of growing both sides of the network in creating a closet in the cloud for over 2.5 million American women. The network playbook has been rolled out perfectly by Jenn and her team, and the lessons on the power of the network effects that come at scale and how hard it is to compete against are clear as Jenn adeptly walks us through how Rent the runway has layered in platform utility over time. We also discuss the leadership growth she has had to undergo to scale with the business and the importance of a feedback culture in doing so. There are so many lessons that hopefully will get the juices flowing for business builders of all sizes. If you want to learn more about how we think about Networks, and how to assess them at TDM, we have some useful videos linked below. Also below are other links to deeper discussions on the founding story of Rent the runway, as we do move through this fairly quickly in the episode. Show notes; TDM Network Effects Youtube video: https://youtu.be/ed292C36CvA TDM Network Effects Blog post: https://medium.com/tdm-tidbits/network-effects-tdm-style-ff0828165a5 How I Built this episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ufSODSepCl5PPVuNAjUw6?si=6d286431430546f7 2:47 – Founding story 6:50 – Business model evolution – leveraging the power of a 2-sided network (Inventory/designers and consumer facing) 8:23 – Scaling the supply network from a minimum viable supply to the present-day aggregation of designers 13:28 – Integrating and innovating with designers – share by RTR (consignment business) and exclusive design collections manufactured by RTR 15:56 – Scaling the demand network – diversifying the inventory to increase customer engagement 20:15 – Challenges in scaling logistics and technology to create a vertically integrated end-to-end logistics experience 23:47 – Utilising data at scale to improve the customer lifetime value and inventory ROI 27:59 – The impact of covid on RTR and avenues used to overcome these challenges/leverage opportunities post pandemic 30:09 – Jenn's growth and evolution as a leader and advice for scaling leadership 33:12 – Operationalizing a feedback culture into Rent the Runway --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Mike Serbinis is the CEO and co-founder of League – a healthcare platform on a mission to empower people to live the lives that they want to lead; happier, healthier and longer League started on the premise that the future of healthcare and its delivery was going to be less bureaucratic, less institutional, and consumer first. This simple insight came about both from personal interactions with the health ecosystem in the United States, but also more importantly from Mike's previous experiences of solving problems through a consumer lens – first at Zip 2, working alongside the Musk brothers, and later as the founder and CEO of Kobo, the largest Amazon Kindle competitor. Being at the forefront of the consumerization of healthcare and driving outcomes by making the convoluted simple, League is currently the infrastructure platform that allows large US insurers, providers and employers a consumer-centric one stop shop, digital front door in a world currently employing multiple single point solutions This conversation traverses a variety of topics including an interesting discussion on the emergence of cloud marketplaces and their impact on enterprise technology deals, as well as the deliberate and thoughtful nature that League has scaled multiple aspects to it culture, particularly on its journey in become a best in class diverse workplace. You can't buy experience, and Mike has had that in spades – the lessons for business builders of all sizes are weaved right throughout this episode. Show Notes; 3:40 – League founding story 7:44 – US health ecosystem snapshot 11:26 – How League fits into the ecosystem and the problem being solved today by League 14:30 – League customer proposition 16:33 – Customer engagement in the consumerisation of the health space 18:39 – Lessons about shaping the strategy of League throughout its scaling evolution (consistent mission, relentless adaptability) 23:10 – Effectively allocating resources to grow a business aligned with its core 26:24 – Emergence of cloud marketplaces and Leagues interactions with them (Go-to-market models) 29:15 – Enterprise growth phase at League 31:46 – Reinforcing culture and values in scaling a business 35:53 – Journey of hiring generalists to specialists 39:49 – Advice for building a diverse workforce 43:20 – Leagues ‘Work Your Way' policy --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Series 6 of Scaling Up kicks off with Tim Brown & Joey Zwillinger, the co-founders and co-CEOs of AllBirds. From a Kickstarter campaign, to listing on the NASDAQ (NASDAQ:BIRD) in a little over six years, this is an insane scaling story of one of the fastest growing brands in history. Originally born out of hustle and grit and then of thoughtful growth and innovation, Allbirds' brand has always centered on a promise that great products have to be sustainable. Allbirds is the leading brand when it comes to sustainability in amongst a global industry that emits 2.1billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year – more than the total contributions of cars in the USA! Show notes; “How I built this” podcast episode – Allbirds for a deeper dive on the founding story Tech Crunch, Ed Cowan – As Allbirds goes public, sustainability is the mantra of the future: --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Phil McKenzie, the CEO of Pacific Smiles Group, the ASX listed (PSQ:ASX) dental services business is our final guest of Season 5. Phil joined Pacific Smiles in 2018, taking over the previously founder led business and completely reshaping the corporate culture. Many listeners may be familiar with Pacific Smiles given its listed nature, or as a customer of one of its 115 dental clinics around Australia. Phil is a wonderful leader – someone who intertwines himself deeply within the business, understanding his own strengths and weaknesses and ensuring he is playing to the former and allowing other great leaders cover the latter. His previous experience running a 200 audiology clinics in the US, as well as leading Apple's retail rollout in Australia, have given him wonderful lessons to apply to Pacific Smile. It has not been all smooth sailing though, a global pandemic tested his leadership, as it did to every leader around the world, and he gives great insights into how he and his team approached the various challenges as they were thrown up. Phil's real strength is around galvanising teams, and this theme plays out over and over again through the episode. Here at TDM we are trying to create content relevant for both founders, leadership team and investor. Since our last series, you may have missed some of this, including Jess Bell Allens superb deep dive into what makes a great medical device business. This is sadly the last episode in this series, but we will be back in 2022. In the meantime, the best place to find all of TDM content is on our website or across our social channels - you can follow TDM (linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) via the links --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Episode 2 of our People and Culture mini series features the phenomenal Anna Binder, the CPO of Asana, the $15b NYSE and LTSE listed technology business that is changing the way businesses work, collaborate and thrive. The genesis of Asana is important to frame this conversation; When co- founders of Asana Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein were both working at Facebook, of which Dustin also co-founded, they discovered amongst the hyper scale journey that that business was on, everyone was spending over half the day sitting in meetings, responding to email, and searching for infomation. Doing skilled work was taking a backseat to the 'work about work', the ultimate inefficiency for any high performing employee and business. So Dustin and Justin built a tool to make it easier for teams to coordinate and collaborate on their work flow. It was such a game changer, they left to go fulltime and all in on this idea, and started Asana, building solutions to help more teams do the great work. From day one, the company has been about letting employees around the world be empowered to do their best work by providing the software to enable this. Of course this is also self fulfilling to the Asana mission and this virtuous cycle has enabled Asana to be the exemplar of what scaling a great culture looks like – it is without fail voted one of the best places to work by every award and measure, and at the centre of this is Anna – who is considered in the industry to be the best. This conversation covers some ground and importantly gives wonderful insights into what has enabled Asana to scale so effectively – from the mental model of “culture as a product”; that is one to be constantly designed, tested and iterated upon, to what Anna describes as corporate mindfulness, this was a treat to listen to one of the great business leaders in America talk passionately about the topics that are relevant to every fast growing business. TDM is always publishing insights into how we think about scaling culture, including an investor lens on how to diagnose it. All our content is on our website and social channels, the links are in the show notes, and you can always get in touch with me on twitter - @ eddiecowan --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

This episode is the start of a Scaling Up mini series hoping to illuminate some amazing growth stories in regards to people and culture. We go deep on the scaling challenges that all companies face when it comes to people and culture and highlight what best in class can look like - from the role of a great, strategic CPO, to operationalising the values of the business, we are hoping this mini series really illuminates some amazing growth stories in regards to scaling a business' most important asset and competitive advantage, its people. To kick things off Elias Torres, the co-founder of Drift with his CPO, Dena Upton. This was a bit of a treat. Drift, aside from being one of the fastest growing B2B SaaS companies in America, is the beacon of what corporate America could look like - the new American dream if you will, focused on diversity and equal opportunity. This has been deeply baked into the Drift mission from day one – Elias immigrated to the USA as a 17 year old from Nicarangua. From the humblest of beginnings, he has had an immense career, initially at IBM and Hubspot to now as the co-founder of Drift, where he has become a voice for latin and immigrant founders. Dena has seen what scale looks like, having been on the LogMeIn journey for over 6 years and gives wonderful insight into her role and how it supports the visionary founders of drift. We are committed here at TDM to helping founders, management teams and investors understand why people and culture is so critical to the enduring success of businesses. We have a few things in the works in this space, so keep across our website and social channels for more people and culture related content. You can follow TDM (linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across social channels. Show notes: 3:17 – Drift's vision for a people-&-culture-first company 6:05 – role of founders in driving the cultural vision 7:55 – role of the CPO in enacting the cultural vision 12:35 – what makes a great CPO 14:36 – hiring a great CPO 16:17 – maintaining culture in a hyper-growth company 18:42 – tools to measure engagement, performance and culture and acting on insights from these tools 20:18 – hiring at scale and recognizing when you've made hiring mistakes 24:38 – managing the tension between diversity and cultural fit 26:02 – creating a positive exit process 27:33 – enacting and scaling diversity and inclusion 32:33 – measuring progress on DEI goals 33:37 – how being a digital first business advances DEI and equity goals 35:12 – role of the board in achieving DEI goals 38:30 – what does cultural success look like for Drift --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Cameron McIntyre is one of Australia's most respected executives, having played a major part in the Carsales.com (CAR:ASX) journey over the last 15 years, initially as the CFO in the late 2000s where he was charged with seeing the business' transition to the ASX boards, and most recently as the CEO, where he has been guided the business tremendously well through their next stage of growth. Carsales is now a beast of the business, with a market capitalisation of over $7b and a top line revenue of c$450m, making it one of Australia's greatest ever technology companies. Carsales.com was started in a garage in the late 1990s by Greg Roebuck, and this episode explores the growth journey from these humble beginnings, but more importantly zooms in on the strategic pillars that has enabled the business to flourish. This episode is a great exploration into the variety of skills required to succeed as a modern day executive, and serves as a great case study on what it takes to build and lead great teams over long periods of time. To hear Cam speak on how he thinks about fostering innovation, retaining great talent and what is on the next horizon for Carsales as it strengthens it global footprint was both enlightening and inspiring. You can follow TDM (linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across social channels. Show notes; 2:36 – Carsales' origin story 3:49 – Cam's first impression of the CarSales business 5:31 – disrupting the secondhand car market 7:05 – key strategic pillars in growing the business and winning the consumer 8:44 – managing important investors 10:38 – finding the right investment partner in the early stages of a business 11:54 – key learnings from the public listing process 14:45 – skill development from a CFO to a CEO role 16:06 – the growth quotient and its importance at an organisational level 17:33 – an entrepreneurial board as growth partners 19:01 – transitioning away from a founder-led business 21:24 – expanding margins in a high growth business 24:22 – growing the business into new, emerging markets 26:19 – fostering a culture of innovation 28:55 – the next big horizon for CarSales 31:34 – attracting and retaining talent throughout the growth journey 34:59 – prioritising diversity and inclusion in a large tech company 36:53 – obtaining board support for diversity and inclusion initiatives 38:45 – growing from mistakes as a leader --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Pro Medicus may well be one of the most under the radar growth stories of the world. Many listeners would not have heard of Pro Medicus (ASX:PME), nor its low profile and humble CEO and founder, Dr Sam Hupert. Which is funny, given that the business started in 1983 and has a current market capitalisation c$6.5 billion. This is a story of patience, persistence, and perseverance. An inspirational story that needs to be told. There is some ground to cover for sure - in 1983, the IBM personal computer had not even made its way to Australia, there was no venture capital community and yet, here we are almost 40 years later lauding what many assume is an overnight success story. We walk through the timeline to pull out the themes that emerge over such a long and succcessful career. Pro Medicus has become a leading software solution for radiologists to help manage their practice - from scheduling patients or billing patients to ensuring great clinicals outcomes, be it viewing scans on location or on mobile. Think of it almost as the clinician's operating system – a cross between a CRM, practice management software and data visualisation bespoke for the needs of radiologists and surgeons. Sam is a gentleman, full of sage advice and views, all the while delivering them with an egoless charm that is just so genuine. Settle in, this is a story not to be missed. You can follow TDM (linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across social channels. Show notes to come; --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Katherine McConnell, the founder and CEO of Brigte is revolutionising how Australians are financing and decentralising sustainable energy solutions in their homes. A former Macquarie banker, and mother of two, Katherine initially mortgaged the family home to go after the opportunity of becoming the leading consumer finance business in the space. And that she has – Brighte has financed ten percent of the solar installations in Australia and processed over a billion dollar of applications across 90k homes. Recently having secured a $100m funding round, Brighte have driven deeper into the value chain becoming an energy retailer. This is a far reaching conversation, from the business itself being at the forefront of sustainable investing in Australia, to the scaling challenges of remote onboarding at scale, Brighte is a beacon as to what is possible as one of Australia's fastest private companies. You can follow TDM (linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across social channels. Show notes 2:56 – Brighte founding journey and Katherine's background 8:27 – evolution of the Brighte business model over time 11:45 – building a revolutionary consumer brand and a consumer value proposition 13:25 – energy marketplace network effects and the impacts for Brighte 15:43 – understanding Brighte's financing 18:44 – the impact of green investing and financing tailwinds on Brighte 20:55 – scaling challenges in automation and digital capabilities 23:05 – the origin of Brighte's values 25:25 – evolution of Katherine's role as a founder, CEO and leader 28:16 – challenges of hiring in a purpose-driven company 30:00 – hiring in a remote / hybrid work environment 31:28 – maintaining culture and enabling productivity in a hybrid environment 33:45 – juggling fast growth and business sustainability at Brighte 35:45 – female founders in the start-up world and how we can empower more as a society 39:38 – maintaining work life balance when scaling a high growth business --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Welcome to the fifth season of "Scaling Up"! Expect an ecclectic mix of incredible Australian growth stories, told by their founders and CEOs. Some of the episodes are with businesses at the earlier stages of their scaling up journey, as well as a few of Australia's largest listed businesses. Regardless of scale, or business model, there are some common scaling pain points, and we try again to uncover how these leaders have overcome them. Like our last series, we also have a little mini series, this time lasering in on the role of Chief People Officer and what scaling great cultures looks like. To kick off though, we have two episodes featuring two of Australis's brightest venture backed consumer finance companies. By releasing them side by side, it should be easier for listeners to compare and contrast the lessons in similar business models. The first, is Athena Home loans, and our interview with the founders Nathan Walsh and Michael Starkey. Founded in 2017 and launched two years later, Athena has already funded over $3.5b of home loans in Australia on the simple premise of allowing for fast, simple, transparent and cost effective digital loans. The home loan market in Australia is massive as you can imagine, and crucially controlled by the four legacy banks. The banks though are having some of their lunch eaten by the non-bank lenders, of which Athena is at the top of the list. To enable Athena to scale rapidly in a highly regulated environment, Nathan and Michael from day one realised that talent was the most important element to their, and built a crack team of leaders who could scale from start up, right through the scale up journey. The conversation covers a heap of ground – from scaling a consumer brand, to finding competitive advantages in their cost of capital on the lending side of the business, as well as some hot topics around remote versus in-office work as we come out of covid-19 restrictions. These two are high functioning and thoughtful in everything they do, and this translates into some wonderful insights for founders, management teams and casual listeners alike. You can follow TDM (linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across social channels. SHOW NOTES 4:00 - founding story 4:30 - the original vision for Athena 8:45 - why the 'talent first' strategy 10:40 - overview of the Australian homeloans market 14:00 - building bands and scaling acquisition costs 16:33 - biggest difficulty on consumer side of the bussiness in terms of scaling business 19:12 - processing power and scaling a range of products for consumers - what is Act 2? 23:25 - funding model and value proposition for funders 26:30 - trying to scale the funding side of the business 28:10 - being a culture first business 32:50 - concept of a cultural balance sheet 36:13 - heading back into the office and working remotely 40:10 - The importance of the role of the Chief People Officer 43:05 - biggest scaling challenge when it comes to culture 45:10 - what does success look like over the next 5 years and what are the hurdles to overcome to achieve this --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Abhishek Gupta is the co-Founder of Circles Life, Asia's first fully digital telco. Everything a Circles customer experiences is completely online, bringing the same level of sophistication to the telco world that consumers enjoy in many other walks of life, such as their food delivery or ride sharing. Circles is currently kicking off its second act. Having penetrated Asia initially with it direct to consumer telco offering, they soon realised that their in house technology stack could be rolled out for other telcos to use, and have now started to offer a B2B SaaS platform to enable this. This is an interesting vertical playbook to be running, and we dig into Abhi's vision of where this may lead. This is a wonderful deep dive into the challenges and advantages of scaling a company in Southeast Asia, as well as giving insight into the technology eco system more generally. Raised in India, Abhi is a true high performer, a wonderful leader and someone who is trying to disrupt one of the largest markets in the world. You would not want to bet against his success. You can follow TDM (linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across social channels. SHOW NOTES · Growing up in India (00:03:11) · Skills Abhishek learned from his years in consulting (00:05:01) · Circles Life founding story (00:07:14) · The tailwinds of the telecommunications sector in South-East Asia (00:09:49) · The insights that had developed as to how Circles Life was going to disrupt the legacy telcos and why the customer-centricity was so important (00:10:48) · What led Circles Life to make the transition to B2B from B2C (00:15:52) · What the telco industry could look like in 10 years (00:17:58) · Insight into the technology scene in South-East Asia (00:21:56) · Circles Life culture and how it has evolved (28:09) · Circles Life's culture as a competitive advantage (31:13) · The value of an employee ownership plan (33:12) · How Abhishek's job has evolved over time (34:45) · Having a personal board of directors (36:59) · The power of story-telling (39:59) · How Abhishek thinks about adversity (42:32) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

David Obstler is the CFO of Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG), a $30b hyper growth monitoring and security platform for cloud applications. Few current active CFOs have been at the forefront of fast growing technology companies like David has - he is the seasoned pro that founders and CEOs have turned to to help them scale effectively for the last 25 years. You may remember from a previous episode the anecdote that Ethan Berman told of the CFO doing investor calls in his ski boots, as the financial world collapsed around RiskMetrics in 2008. That was David. The emergence of software and the nature of the business model has created an opportunity for the CFO to move from what once was more of a financial controlling role to that of the most important strategic partner to the CEO. No one epitomises this elevation of the CFO role more than David He has been through it all, and his sage wisdom on scaling transpires in a wonderful and far reaching conversation not just on his role and what has made him successful, but also the key ingredients that have intertwined him and his teams throughout. Sometimes half an hour with the best in the business can elicit a lifetime of golden nuggets. This mini series was inspired by a blog post that TDM produced last year - “What makes a great CFO” - and I hope this podcast episode brings this blog to life. The best place to find this, as well as other TDM frameworks is on our website or across our social channels (linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan can be found at linktr.ee/eddiecowan Show notes: · David's Core skills as a CFO that has made him so successful (00:03:50) · Catalyst for the role of CFO as a strategist, people-leader and culture-carrier (00:06:44) · How the CFO keeps the chaos intact in high-growth companies: (00:08:38) · How does the executive team manage the rigour and processes involved in scaling rapidly (00:10:20) · David's relationships with the various founders over time and what makes a great CEO (00:14:22) · David's approach to culture (00:18:15) · The process in creating great IR (00:21:20) · What David appreciates from investors and his “pet peeves” (00:25:08) · Key steps CFO needs to take control of in order to make sure the transition from private to public is manageable (00:27:29) · What makes a great director: 00:30:42 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

The first episode in this mini series is Jill Woodworth, the CFO of Peloton (NASDAQ:PTON). Since 2018, when Jill joined, Peleton has been on a hyper scale journey – she took the reins of the finance function when the business was a private, $200m revenue company. In under 4 years since then, it is now a $4b revenue business listed on the NASDAQ. The next two episodes are moving the spotlight away from the CEO and Founder to their most important partner in the business, the CFO. You can liken the role of the CFO to that of a navigator on a ship – charged with the responsibility of charting the course, tracking the journey and ensuring hazards are avoided along the way. CFO is often the most underestimated piece of the scaling puzzle, and why we felt the need to finally shine a spotlight on them. Jill gives some fascinating views into her transition out of investment banking, scaling her team from 12 to 200, working with a passionate founder, as well as what in her opinion makes for good investor relations. We also traverse the work that goes into preparing a company for an IPO. All these give deeply valuable insights into what it takes to scale quickly and effectively. This mini series was inspired by a blog post that TDM produced last year - “What makes a great CFO” and I hope this podcast episode brings this blog to life. You can follow TDM (linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across social channels. Show notes// · Jill's background in banking and then transition into her role as CFO at Peloton (00:03:32) - Including the skills that were transferrable to the CFO role from her banking experience and the skills she felt she needed to develop (00:7:22) · How Jill's leadership style has evolved as the company has undergone hypergrowth (00:11:01) · The elevation of the role of the CFO within an organisation (00:13:47) · Skills that make for great CFOs (00:15:40) · Jill's relationship with Peloton Founder & CEO, John Foley: (00:18:06) · How has John's leadership style changed over time (00:21:31) · The role of the CFO in creating wonderful IR (23:35) · TDM blog 'What makes great IR' (00:26:15) · Insight into transitioning Peloton from private to public (00:27:02) - Including how this changed Jill's job (00:30:37) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Ethan Berman, was the CEO and founder of the NYSE listed Risk Metrics, until it was bought by MSCI in 2010 for US$1.55b. RiskMetrics, which was spun off from JP Morgan Chase in 1998 and became the market leader in risk management software systems. We need to transport ourselves back to the late 90s – a time of floppy disk distribution and only a handful of pioneer SaaS companies. From writing plays in Paris, Ethan ran of the fastest companies, software or otherwise, anywhere in the world during one of the most interesting modern decades, spanning both the dotcom crash at the turn of the decade and the GFC just 8 years later. Few have had Harvard Business School case study written about them, nor received a letter from Warren Buffet commending him in his remuneration philosophy. Ethan is a private person, and so the opportunity to interview him was a tremendous honour. TDM was an investor in RiskMetrics back in the day, and Ethan's view of the world – from remuneration to fundraising - has shaped our own views more than any other singular force. After this, we hope you will see why. You can follow TDM (linktr.ee/tdmgrowth) and host Ed Cowan (linktr.ee/eddiecowan) across social channels. Show Notes// Articles and documents mentioned in this episode HBS Case Study on RMG Ethan's Letter to the Board to pay him less - full version NYT article relating to Ethan's leaked letter to the board Sadly the letter from Warren Buffett is not publicly available Time stamps on topics// · Ethan's journey from playwriting in Paris to being the founder and CEO of RiskMetrics: 00:03:38 · The difficulty of spinning a software company out of a huge global investment bank: 00:07:53 · Creativity in starting a business: 00:11:15 · The changing role of the CEO in fast growing company: 00:14:36 · How Ethan's leadership style changed over time: 00:19:40 · The hiring process at RiskMetrics and assessing culture fit: 00:22:30 · Transition from private-market CEO to public market CEO: 00:26:28 · How Ethan view and dealt with crises at Riskmetrics: 00:30:05 · The appropriate level of transparency: 00:34:30 · Becoming a bad news organisation: 00:35:11 · How Ethan viewed remuneration: 00:38:10 · RiskMetrics' approach to options: 00: 43:27 · The philosophy behind RiskMetrics only raising ordinary equity: 00:45:55 · Ethan's view on M&A: 00:49:22 · What led Ethan to sell the business: 00:53:45 · Does Ethan regret that RiskMetrics did not change the way risk was measured in the world after the GFC 00:59:18 · Ethan's new project, i2learning: 1:01:05 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

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: 00:03:23 Howard’s entrepreneurial background: 00:06:14 The scaling challenges of 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 Insight into the operating change 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 Howard’s relationship with Chairperson Mike Walrath: 00:34:15 How Yext organised its business in 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 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

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% 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 in mindboggling. By solving these needs, and 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 run 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 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

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) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

A very special guest rounds out series 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 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

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. Show notes to come/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

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. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

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. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

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) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

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. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

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. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Luke Anear, CEO and Founder of SafetyCulture, is undoubtedly one of Australia's finest modern entrepreneurs. A boy from Townsville in Northern Queensland starts a software company from his garage with no technical expertise. SafetyCulture is now a pin up of the Australian technology scene – a billion dollar valuation, revenue growth at break neck speed, tens of thousands of customers across 85 countries, and some of the world's largest companies relying on SafetyCulture software to provide their safety and inspection. It is a story that is boundless in Luke’s ambition and desire to do something significant. It is a story engrained in a mission to build an enduring company that shapes the world. The lessons Luke has gained from this journey is both inspiring but also deeply important for any entrepreneur to hear first hand. Luke has a wonderful disposition, a knock about fella, who is just warming up when it comes to fulfilling what he set out to do. Brief show notes/ links mentioned in the episode The New Hustle - an anthem to entrepreneurship - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN0NlchcUS8 Steve Jobs story of the 'rock tumbler' as a metaphor for great teams https://vimeo.com/195796089 SafetyCulture customer conference -https://safetyculture.com/summit-2020/ "From thriving to surviving" --- For those interested in further insights and commentary, TDM Growth Partners has been posting to their new medium publication – TDM Tidbits – including a written series on what frameworks we use to assess great CEOs, CFO and non executive directors. Easiest to it follow @tdm_growth on Twitter and get all the news and views there. You can always find me on Twitter @eddiecowan. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Rick Stollmeyer co-founded Mindbody in 2001 and is still the CEO 20 years later. This is his story as much it is Mindbody’s story; from his learnings as a nuclear submarine engineer, to selling CD ROM software from his garage with his co-founder Blake Beltram, to now scaling a multinational software company. Rick is one of the most passionate and deeply mission-driven CEOs you could ever have the pleasure of meeting. A high performer in every sense, motivated by solving complex problems through the power of collaboration - I think this could be my favourite interview of the entire podcast project. We talk about the Mindbody journey and its bootstrapped founding story, its growth to a venture capital-backed start-up and then a public company, right through to being taken private in 2018 by Vista Partners for Us$1.9 billion. This journey has had its ups and downs, triumphs, and challenges, all met with the same hunger he possesses today. Sit back and enjoy the reflections of one of the world's finest entrepreneurs This episode was recorded in the first week of March, well before the full impacts of Covid-19 in the US could have been imagined. The messages though are timeless. For those interested in further insights and commentary, follow @tdm_growth on twitter and get all the news and views there. You can always find me on twitter @eddiecowan. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

I am thrilled that Anneka Gupta has joined as the guest of this episode. Anneka is one of the rising stars in the US technology scene. She is currently the co-president of LiveRamp, a New York Stock Exchange Listed $2b business with offices around the world. Her own corporate journey is as fascinating as the company itself – a journey that highlights the potential of ‘generalists’ with ambition and passion, who when a new door opens, have the courage to explore it with their full attention and heart. She started as an engineer at Liveramp straight out of college when the business had just 20 employees, and while it was a division of Axiom, she worked her way up to become the Co-CEO and lead over 1,200 people. She gives some great insights as to why, when LiveRamp was acquired by Axiom, she insisted the business ring-fence its highly agile and mission driven culture, and operate as a stand alone business, rather than be subsumed by its owner. As a young leader, she gives invaluable views on the challenges of leading a hyper-growth business in an ever changing world - how she has managed both cultural transformation and innovation, and the lessons she has learned along the way. As a ‘culture carrier’, she is the epitome of a modern-day leader, whose voice will only become more well known around the world in the coming years. 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. If easier, we always post all our content to twitter, so if interested, follow @tdm_growth to and get all the news and views there. You can always find me on twitter @eddiecowan. If you are enjoying what you hear, there are more episodes of 'Scaling Up' coming down the pipe, so make sure you subscribe on your podcast platform of choice and don’t forget reviews and shares always help other find the podcast as well, so please share the love on your own social channels. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Jonathan Corr is my guest on this episode of Scaling Up. Jonathan is the current CEO of Ellie Mae. This episode is a wonderful deep dive into the world of a highly experienced CEO who has had the benefit of seeing the full spectrum of the growth curve. Ellie listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011, relatively early in its journey. Jonathan oversaw and came through all the common scaling challenges – re-platforming of their technology stack, changes in their business model, and by far the biggest challenge, scaling the people and culture of the business. All the while being a listed public company and facing the volatility that that brings. Jonathan gives great insight into all these challenges and was incredibly transparent in relation to the take over of Ellie by Thoma Bravo, a leading Private Equity technology company, for US$3.7b. Ellie Mae sells software to the mortgage industry, streamlining and automating the process of originating and funding new mortgage loans as well as facilitating regulatory compliance. As you can imagine, mortgage brokers and banks love this software, and this is reflected in Ellie’s 35% market share This is an episode for the business purists – a phenomenal growth story, unsurprisingly wrapped up in the importance of great people, all working under a common mission. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Welcome to Season 2 of Scaling Up! My guest on this episode is Spencer Rascoff. Spencer looms as a large figure in the US tech scene – twice he has co-founded billion dollar businesses. His first, the travel website HotWire was sold to Expedia, and it was there, he met Rich Barton – the Expedia and Glassdoor founder. Together, with several others, they then set off and co-founded Zillow. Zillow is now all things real estate in the US – for anyone looking to buy, rent, value a house, or obtain a mortgage, you have significant interaction with Zillow. It is now a US$2.7 b revenue, US$11b market capitalisation business (at the time of recording). Spencer was CEO for 9 years, and is now on the board. I often find guests who are no longer in the day to day grind makes for a great interviewees, as they have had time to reflect without bias. There was a temptation to go wide in our conversation, but I felt it could have spread Spencer’s wisdom too thinly. Instead I decided to really focus in on a topic that I know is close to his heart as well as mine – the importance and power of people and culture when scaling businesses. Spencer is a culture evangelist – he has seen first hand how and why culture is a leading indicator of business performance. Importantly to note, this was not always his belief and it was great to hear how his views have evolved. I also loved his views on managing cultural merges – Zillow did 16 acquisitions in his time - as well as why employees who he describes as ‘culture carriers’ can adapt to any job inside an organisation. If you love what you hear – Spencer hosts his own podcasts, among them Office Hours is in my opinion just a mandatory listen. Plenty of people have got in contact with regards to previous episodes, and the TDM team loves getting feedback. It makes this project worthwhile You can always find me on twitter - @eddiecowan, and TDM is constantly keeping the world up to date with great insights and views as well - @tdm_growth --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Welcome to a bonus episode of Scaling Up season one – I recorded this while on the road recording season 2, but it feels like it has a natural home, with the other amazing Australian growth stories told in the previous season. Nick Stone is the CEO and founder of BlueStone Lane. This story starts in an underground coffee shop in New York City, where an ex AFL player, turned investment banker decides he was missing the authentic Australian coffee experience and sets up a side hustle to his main banking gig. Fast forward just 8 years, and Blue Stone lane is at the pointy end of the American premium coffee scene, with over 50 stores in 8 markets across the country. What is evident is Nick’s passion for the mission, his intelligence in how he thinks about the world and applying it to how he is trying to overcoming major scaling challenges in the US. Interestingly, Nick beautifully articulately what he learned from his time as an elite athlete, his vision for building Starbucks of the next generation, and how he thinks about building teams and culture in the tough American hospitality industry. I felt so connected to Nick and his journey, and I think this shines throughout the podcast. This is a story that is ever changing, and at the moment, changing by the day. There is a fuller footnote and timestamp at the end of the episode that you must listen to to give context to Nick's comments, but even in the two week turn around time between recording and releasing this episode, the world has changed. Even the best laid plans can come undone by the extraordinary. Everyday of strict government protocols around containing the spread of Covid-19 in the US, is another page in the Blue Stone book. That though is not going to stop me telling you the inspirational story of Nick Stone and Bluestone Lane. Season two is only weeks away, so stay posted....! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Unlike the other interviews in this series, this is a retrospective tale, recounting one of Australia’s greatest turnaround stories Guy Russo is one of Australia’s business masterminds. As CEO of McDonald's Australia and China for over a decade, both businesses excelled. His toughest assignment though was to salvage Kmart from the scrapheap. Under his guidance, he guided Kmart to retail supremacy in Australia. The inclusion of a story like this in this podcast is an important one, as businesses never move in a straight line. This is a powerful and inspirational story of simplicity and optimism. A story of the power of long term thinking, honesty and how to get the best out of people. Guy was incredibly generous with his time and the resulting nuggets of gold that are littered throughout this podcast, will no doubt help clarify the thinking of all business owners, not just those going through a little rough patch. This is the last episode of Series 1 of Scaling Up. We will be back in early 2020 with Series 2. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

This is the quintessential heroic founding tale. In 2001, with online retail in its infancy, Kate with just $12,000 of borrowed money in her back pocket, set out with a mission of empowering women to make better beauty decisions. At this point, everything was against her. No experience, no money, no brands wanting to join her platform. Fast forward 20 years and Adore Beauty will this year have over $100 million in revenue, 14,000 products across 200 of the world’s biggest beauty brands and over 160 employees. That is not to say that it was always smooth sailing. As you’ll hear, this story is one of pure resilience, belief, grit and hustle. Its a real founder’s story warts and all. Not much glitz, not much glamour. Until perhaps recently, 19 years after starting, Kate and her business partner finally realised some kind of financial rewards, selling 60% of the business to a private equity fund. Kate is incredibly passionate about empowering more female founders and makes some pertinent points in regard to how and why the investment community needs to lift its game in supporting them. Above all else, this interview reminds us all, that in the world of entrepreneurship, anything is possible. Sound quality disclaimer: This episode was recorded on the road and the sound quality is perhaps not up to the standard that we had hoped for. The good news - there are so many nuggets of gold, it is worth putting up with. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Didier Elzinga is the co-founder and CEO of Culture Amp – a people and culture platform, with a mission of powering culture focused companies right around the world. Culture Amp is a pin-up of the growing Australian technology scene, having recently reached unicorn status – the coveted billion-dollar valuation. While on the periphery, this founding story could be seen to be that of a quintessential fast-growing technology business; venture capital-funded, global focus from day one and the variety of scaling issues that emerge from this. However what separates this story, was the belief required to build a business and go after an opportunity in a category that at the time did not even exist. That is pure entrepreneurship. What is inspiring about Culture Amp, is the fact that while attempting to help every other business in the world, focus their attention on culture, Didier and his co-founders have had the added pressure of building a business that itself has needed to be a beacon of light of what is possible by placing people and culture at the heart of their own workplace. Didier is thoughtful on a whole range of topics and is no doubt one of Australia’s great next-gen founders. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Baby Bunting is Australia’s largest baby goods retailer, and this episode tracks the strategy & execution of what was a small, state-based, family-owned and operated business into the emergence of the leading national retailer in the category. Matt gives amazing insight into the playbook of how this all unfolded over the 10 years (and counting) of his time as CEO, driving revenue from $40m to over $350m. Matt dives into the importance of an incremental strategic approach, understanding how each building block could add to the next, and the prioritisation of these. Above all else though, there is a continual theme that shines right throughout this interview, and its the importance of a great team in supporting a CEO or founder in all aspects of their role. Matt also gives great perspectives on his experiences as a CEO, not only in transitioning Baby Bunting from a private to a public company, but also the life of an executive and the lessons he’s learned along the way. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Unknown to many, Bruce is one of Australia’s great entrepreneurs. As CEO, he scaled Jetstar to Asia’s largest low-cost carrier and then he co-founded ROKT, a global marketing technology business with over $100m in revenue that is growing rapidly. Bruce has seen everything from start-up land to billions in revenue and so he is a great person to give insight into many of the key issues and pain points that all successful entrepreneurs face in their journey; scaling teams, raising money, founder transition and the need for pragmatic leadership are just a sample of the topics covered in this episode. Bruce is so intellectually curious and a true high performer. This is an episode for those who find inspiration from hearing from someone who is currently at the absolute top of their game. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

Steven Marks is the founder and global CEO of Guzman y Gomez – Australia’s fastest-growing quick-service restaurant. Steven’s inspirational story is one of someone who has seen the full spectrum of both success and setback. His passion for his brand is undoubtedly palpable. The lessons Steven has learned on leadership while fighting the challenges of scaling a business of this complexity make for an incredibly interesting discussion. All delivered with the high energy Steven Marks has become known for, this episode is a must-listen for anyone with even just an inkling of entrepreneurial spirit. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message

"Scaling Up" is a new podcast series, hosted by Ed Cowan. Scaling a business is hard. Very few succeed to even navigate their way through startup land, and many that do hit a wall at some stage. Some companies though, find a way to continue to grow year on year, and in doing so become incredibly successful and durable businesses. This podcast is on a mission to discover the secret sauce of these successful Australian founders and CEOs, with the purpose to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. We hope you enjoy listening to some of Australia’s best and brightest give an insight into their success. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tdm-growth-partners/message