Podcasts about pixc

iTHINK is hosted by Melissa Brown and Crispin Blackall, series two is asking the question "Do You Have a Start-Up In You?"  interviewing founders of startups small and large, leaders who have taken their business offshore and those that have stayed in Australia.  Beyond the founders we talk to advisors, accelerators, educators, marketers and funders.In this episode we meet Holly Cardew the founder of two start-ups PixC and Vop.    Holly who is based in San Francisco was recently back in Australia and talked to us about the gig economy, building and leading highly distributed virtual teams.  As well as the challenges and opportunities associated with building a start-up.

My guest for Episode 128 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Founder of Pixc and Co-founder of Vop, Holly Cardew. In 2014, Holly launched Pixc, a product that provides a quick, efficient and easy way for store owners to have retail-ready photos.  Pixc was selected to join the first batch of Telstra's MuruD accelerator and batch 13 of the 500 Startups accelerator programs. She launched, grew and has continued to scale the business as a solo, non-technical founder. Through her background in building ecommerce brands and success with Pixc, in 2016, Holly was listed as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia emerging entrepreneur to watch in the eCommerce and retail space. If that wasn't enough, Earlier this year she co-founded and launched her latest business Vop, which creates shoppable experiences from your TikTok videos. In this interview we discussed: Launching, growing and scaling tech startups a solo non-tech founderA deep dive on utilising channel partners as a growth strategyThe viral opportunities with TikTok and working with content content creators& much more! Full interview below! Show notes: Appliances OnlineOrangeUpworkPixcIntercomBrett FoxMuruD500 StartupsShopifyLachlan Donald podcast (Startup Playbook Ep127)DHH podcast (Startup Playbook Ep119)MagentoBigcommerceWoocommerceJames Clear “Atomic Habits”Mike Angell - Co-founder at VopCulture KingsFastSandy Lin (Tiktok - @smallbusinesstips_)TikTok creator marketplaceAngelist Special Thanks: Special thanks to Brett Fox and Mike Angell who helped with research for this interview. Next interview: Join our next live podcast interview with James Chin Moody, the Co-founder & CEO of SendleDate: 22nd September 2020Time: 8-9am (AEDT)Registration link: https://tinyurl.com/Ep129Sendle Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Joakim Karud – Dreams Other channels: Don't have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Spotify, Soundcloud & Stitcher Audio Player. https://youtu.be/2xziTIXijXE The post Ep128 – Holly Cardew (Founder – Pixc & Vop) on TikTok, vision and channel partnerships appeared first on Startup Playbook.

My guest for Episode 127 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder & CEO of Buildkite, Lachlan Donald. Lachlan has been a technologist for over 20 years. In addition to building companies, he is drawn to building products that change how people think and work. Before Buildkite, he was the founding CTO of 99designs, the world's largest online graphic design marketplace. 99Designs connects businesses looking for design work with more than 220,000 graphic designers from 192 countries around the world. Lachlan is now the Co-founder and CEO of Buildkite, the fastest way to reliably test and build software at any scale. Buildkite is one of Australia's best keep secrets. They raised AUD$200,000 in seed funding when the company was first founded in 2013 and over the last 7 years have turned away investor interest to focus on profitability of the business. However, Buildkite recently announced an AUD$28M Series A funding round led by Openview, providing a 42x return to it's early investors. In this interview we discussed: Being intentional with focusThe craftsmanship behind enduring productsBuildkite's unique approach to sharing CEO roles between the foundersThe importance of equity over egoBuildkite's fundraising process for it's $28M Series A funding round after 7 years of bootstrapping& much more! Full interview below! Show notes: Buildkite99DesignsTim Lucas (Co-founder at Buildkite)Keith Pitt (Co-founder at Buildkite)Patrick Llewellyn (Startup Playbook Podcast - Ep085) Paul Annesley (99Designs)Mark Harbottle (Co-founder of Sitepoint, 99Designs and Flippa)Matt Mickiewicz (Co-founder of 99Designs and Hired)SitepointAccelJohn Barton (CTO of Amber Electric)GitHubHerokuREAEnvatoMYOBDHH (Founder & CTO of Basecamp and HEY)BasecampDHH (Startup Playbook Podcast - Ep119)Doug English (Co-founder & CTO of Culture Amp)Culture AmpDidier Elzinga (Co-founder & CEO of Culture Amp)Didier Elzinga (Startup Playbook Podcast - Ep101)Matt Allen (Co-founder & GP of Pick and Shovel)Matt Allen (Startup Playbook Podcast - Ep028)Openview PartnersGeneral CatalystESOPsThe deal Jeff Bezos got on Basecamp (blog)Ashley Smith (Openview)Trevor Oelschig (General Catalyst)Foreign Investment Review Board Special Thanks: Special thanks to John Barton, Doug English and Matt Allen who helped with research for this interview. Next interview: Join our next live podcast interview with Holly Cardew, the Founder of Pixc and Co-founder of Vop.Date: 8th September 2020Time: 8-9am (AEDT)Registration link: https://tinyurl.com/Ep128Holly Feedback/connect/say hello: Rohit@startupplaybook.co@RohitBhargava7 (Twitter)/rohbhargava (LinkedIn)@rohit_bhargava (Instagram)My Youtube Channel Credits: Music: Joakim Karud – Dreams Other channels: Don't have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Spotify, Soundcloud & Stitcher Audio Player. https://youtu.be/4_QEE3UHS1U The post Ep127 – Lachlan Donald (Co-founder & CEO – Buildkite) on equity over ego appeared first on Startup Playbook.

Have you ever had an idea but parked it because you feel like you don't have the right skills or knowledge?  This conversation with Holly Cardew is a fantastic example of a non-technical founder building a multi-million dollar tech business. That business is Pixc - a platform for online retailers to edit their product shots. And...she's managed to build this with an entirely virtual team.  Holly is the product of accelerator programs both in Australia and in the US, and she now splits her time between Silicon Valley and Melbourne.  We covered a lot in this chat, including: How to build a completely remote workforce What to think about if you're considering to be part of an accelerator program  The dos and don'ts of operating in Silicon Valley How she managed to find out how Mailchimp's founder built his list from 10k to 1 million The future of software, and how Pixc is building an AI capability  How to get traction on your landing page 101

In our first episode of Winning with Shopify for 2020, I sit down with Holly Cardew for the second year in a row at our Social Media Influencers Online Summit! If you missed her last year, be sure to listen this time and you won’t be disappointed. Holly is the founder of Pixc, a company that helps eCommerce stores optimize their product content, increase their online sales ad automate the repetitive tasks within their business. Since starting Pixc, Holly has hired over 400 freelancers, built a distributed team and is excited about the evolution of HR with the rise of Artificial Intelligence. Holly has an extensive background in building eCommerce stores and marketplaces. She has worked with various international companies to help build their online brand presence. And her success and dedication even landed her on the Forbes 30 Under Asia list for an emerging entrepreneur to watch in the eCommerce and retail space. I am so excited to share my interview with Holly where we focus on images. Images are the main element that tell a brand story to your customers. They are key for Shopify success and Holly will take us through all we need to know. Be sure to go and listen to the full podcast with Holly over at www.winningwithshopify.com/summit. You can sign up today for free and you’ll get three complimentary days full access where you can listen to tons more interviews from the top minds in marketing!Questions I covered:What are the image trends right now that we should know about?Why are images essential for Shopify stores? What are some best practices for using images for your Store?What can Shopify merchants do right now to improve their product images? What can Shopify merchants be doing to save time on the right things? How does Pixc help Shopify stores automate the mundane processes of their business? What are the key differentiating features? Topics:The importance of contextual lifestyle shots for product imagesConsistency is key when it comes to product imagesOverview of strategic image placement on a webpage New image trends for consumer-facing brands featuring modelsProduct title descriptions should include as information as possible in the beginningUnderstanding the right tasks to delegate to others and what tasks you need to be more involved with when it comes to brandingResources: Download the Pixc App - pixc.comFind Holly at:instagram.com/hollyaccclinkedin.com/in/hollycardewtwitter.com/hollycccinstagram.com/pixcphotosfacebook.com/pixccomtwitter.com/pixcphotosMake sure you are giving your customers the best service possible. Gorgias is a customer support helpdesk specially designed for online stores. Get flawless customer service for eCommerce stores today! https://gorgias.grsm.io/askparkerofferGet free and VIP lifetime access to the Social Media Influencer Marketing Online Summit here: winningwithshopify.com/summitSupport the show (https://www.facebook.com/groups/WinningWithShopify/)

In this episode we hear from Holly Cardew. Holly is the founder of Pixc. Pixc helps eCommerce store owners turn standard product images into awesome ones by touching them up and removing the background.Holly, shares some great insights into building Pixc and share her journey to Silicon Valley including going through 500startups, Muru-d, and partnering with Spotify.Founders on Air:Founders on Air is podcast for founders by founders. Steve Orenstein (Founder & CEO at Zoom2u https://www.zoom2u.com.au/) and Mike Rosenbaum (Founder & CEO https://www.spacer.com.au) interview founders about their story as an entrepreneur. Our aim is to provide you with real & actionable takeaways from each episode to experiment with in your own startup or business. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Simon chats with Holly Cardew, Founder and CEO of Pixc and listed in Forbes 30 under 30. Pixc is an Image Editing company helping e-commerce stores produce high quality images using their software and without needing additional resources.  You can contact Holly Cardew here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollycardew/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonclarke77/) Please remember to give us a rating and review on iTunes! Our Instagram page is here: http://www.instagram.com/flypaperplanes.co/ Contact the team at www.flypaperplanes.co (http://www.flypaperplanes.co/) or Simon here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/iamsimondell/ or here: http://twitter.com/IAmSimonDell If you think you have a great story for the podcast, contact our producer Sarah here: sarah@simondell.com (mailto:mailto:sarah@simondell.com) And find out more about our sound engineer Gilberto here: www.thepodcastboss.com (http://www.thepodcastboss.com/)

In episode 7 of our Milk Bottle Labs podcast, Keith chats with Holly Cardew, Founder of Pixc. In 2016, Holly was named as one to watch in Retail and Ecommerce Forbes 30 under 30 list. An entrepreneur and startup founder, Holly started out as a teenager selling on eBay and it wasn't long before she was creating her own online marketplace Having seen a gap in the market for businesses to optimise their product photography by turning average photos into high-quality professional images; Pixc was born. Product photography is essential to the success of any ecommerce business. Combining her love of travel, Holly's efficient workforce is scattered around the world. With a core focus to help the merchants, Holly also shares some helpful photography tips if you're on a budget. Special Guest: Holly Cardew.Sponsored By:Rare.ioLinks:Shopify — The ecommerce platform made for youPixc — Pixc helps ecommerce stores increase their sales by editing and optimising their product photos. Milk Bottle Labs — Ireland's No.1 Shopify experts

Today’s episode we sit down with digital entrepreneur and owner of Pixc Holly Cardew. We discuss topics of entrepreneurship, women in business and self confidence. Holly was also one of the speakers at Shecommerce World Asia Affiliate Marketing Conference.

Holly Cardrew from Pixc is here today to explain how just by editing and taking better images you can increase conversions by 20% and lower your return rates. Holly is the founder of the app Pixc and she created this app after realising just how important images are for an ecommerce store. **Get the full transcript and show notes at: https://justaskparker.com/podcast ** Holly answers all the questions you have about product images. Find out about sizes, shapes, photo backgrounds and the number of images you need per product. Support the show (https://www.facebook.com/groups/WinningWithShopify/)

All this month we’ve been talking about remote working as it relates to recruiting, training, and retaining remote works. We started out by tackling how to recruit remote workers for people who may be new to it. Then we discussed how to train, hold accountable, and retain remote workers.   In the final episode for this month, we’re going to address a BIG concern that often holds people back from recruiting and managing a remote team: the nature of the work that needs to be done.   Most hiring managers we talk to are OK with hiring a virtual assistant to handle day-to-day tasks. But when it comes to a mission critical project like launching a startup or handling very important client or customers, going remote seems too risky, and people opt for hiring a team on-site.   In today’s episode, we’ll talk about why it boils down changing your process depending on the nature of work your remote workers are doing.   Holly Cardew the Founder of Pixc is back to help us out. Holly has grown and scaled her team across Australia and Asia. And has done so in a number of job functions spanning both the business side with roles such as virtual assistants and marketers, to the technical side hiring software developers and designers to build the product.   As you listen to today’s episode you’ll learn:   How to manage a remote team that is working on a mission critical project How customers and clients benefit from a team of remote workers Why facetime is still important for remote teams—especially when kicking off a project How to facilitate facetime amongst remote workers A simple first step for people who are on the fence about hiring remote workers -- Build is produced as a partnership between Femgineer and Pivotal Tracker. San Francisco video production by StartMotionMEDIA. -- ## What A Remote Team Needs To Be Successful When Working On A Mission Critical Project Transcript   Poornima Vijayashanker:        In the last two episodes of *Build*, we shared a lot of the benefits of remote working. We also shared some best practices when it comes to recruiting and retaining employees and the processes you want to put in place to keep everybody productive.                     In today's episode we're going to share how these processes will change depending on the nature of work so stay tuned.   Welcome to *Build*, brought to you by Pivotal Tracker. I'm your host Poornima Vijayashanker. In each episode of *Build*, innovators and I debunk a number of myths and misconceptions related to building products, companies, and your career in tech.                   We're continuing our conversation with Holly Cardew who is the CEO and founder of Pixc on remote working. Thanks for joining us Holly.   Holly Cardew:       Good to see you again.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah. Every episode of *Build* is inspired by amazing audience members like you, sharing your experiences and asking insightful questions. Today's episode is also inspired by an audience member, Kai. I want to start by reading an email that Kai sent me because I think it could help many of you who are out there.   How to manage a remote team that is working on a mission critical project                     Kai wrote, "Hi Poornima, I've been following your show since the pilot episode with Ben Congleton on building a remote team and recently caught the one you did with your team mate Megan as well. Thanks for revisiting this topic of remote working over the years. One thing I've been curious about is how processes change when you're managing a critical project versus a normal day to day? I know for things like startups, or mission critical projects, coordination appears easier when everybody's in the same location. I say "appears" because it can also be a huge distraction. What do you see are the trade offs and how does a remote team dynamic change between a critical project versus normal day to day tasks? Sincerely Kai."                     This is a great question Kai, and Holly and I are going to tackle it. So, if you're watching this episode, thank you for writing in. OK Holly, let's start with Kai's first question, which is, what are the trade offs when it comes to these mission critical tasks versus sort of the day to day?   Have remote workers be within a few time zones for mission critical projects   Holly Cardew:       I think mission critical tasks, you really need to understand what needs to be done and stick to that goal and that time zone. Also, understand that other people, aren't maybe in different time zones and you may need to stay up a bit late or go to bed, you know, I mean may not go to bed till 5 am. Whereas day to day tasks, it doesn't really matter when they happen in the week.                     For us, what we've really done is we've kept all our tech and product in Europe. So they're not in the same location, but they are in a similar time zone, so the time difference is really 4-5 hours, five hours max. Which allows everybody to communicate, but I think it can be beneficial, again to have somebody in another location in case there is a customer issue with the technology side.   Categorize tasks as asynchronous versus synchronous tasks to help remote workers collaborate   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah. So what we did early on was actually break this up into asynchronism, what we like to call sort of those day to day tasks that people can do whenever they have availability, and then synchronism, where it's like you said, something that's customer facing, something that's critical, or something that requires a lot of coordination and figuring out that 3-5 hour time difference where everyone's kind of, be in the same day versus you have a problem, someone's asleep, you don't necessarily want to wake them up, right?                     If it's a customer facing issue than it can be a challenge, but I also like what you said about having people in different time zones in case it's a customer issue and then you've got more hands to kind of help out over the various time zones.   Holly Cardew:       Definitely.   How customers and clients benefit from a team of remote workers   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Do you have any, do you have a specific example you'd like to share with us?   Holly Cardew:       So as I mentioned, we definitely have taken product in Europe. We do have a project manager in the Philippines but that's OK because she understands that the rest of them are in that time zone, so she will work with that time zone. For our content and marketing, it's kind of, Europe but Western Europe and then flows over into America. That works absolutely fine.                     There's about, maximum there's eight hours difference, with social media included but they don't mind that because they've just set a time, each week to get the tasks done, but as you said, it's tasks that sort of come and flow. You don't need to do it at a certain time, it's not critical that you know, our social media post went up one hour difference, doesn't make that much difference to us as a B to B software company, but I think for customers, so customer service is really important because customers can not wait 12 hours. They can't wait eight, they need a response within 20 minutes.   Facetime is still important for remote teams—especially when kicking off a project   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah. Now I will say that even aside from the time zones, another thing that I've found helpful is when you're kicking off a project, or you do feel like it's something really mission critical, it can be helpful to have people at the start of the project, all working together. Early on I will do either a retreat or maybe coordinate with some subset of the team, do you do anything like that at Pixc?   Holly Cardew:       We haven't yet. We've actually, we're talking at the moment about having our first meet up. Somewhere in Asia, so sent out a Google form with potential dates of what would work, but I think it would be really valuable for people. If you are located closely together, what we will do is try to meet up at conferences.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Oh perfect.   Holly Cardew:       Or, you know other events, or you know if I'm traveling to Indonesia I'll try and meet up with a team member, but for us we haven't yet done the in person thing yet.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah. I think it's also good that you said you meet up with your employees, right. So, even if it's just a one on one or kind of a smaller group getting together that can be really valuable.   Holly Cardew:       Yeah, I've also said to them, like give them a budget to travel too. So if there's a lot of them in Asia, it's quite cheap to travel within Asia, so they could meet up for a dinner or lunch.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Oh, great.   Holly Cardew:       So it doesn't necessarily mean it's just for the project, it's again, links back to the culture, because if you create a good culture and they have a social gathering together, then when they do go away they sort of understand each other a bit more.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Right and it stills helps to kind of elongate that process and they feel like they're part of team and not just somebody working somewhere in some part of the world.   Holly Cardew:       Yeah. Definitely.   A simple first step for people who are on the fence about hiring remote workers   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Wonderful. Any final words of wisdom for our audience out there when it comes to recruiting remote talent and retaining them?   Holly Cardew:       I think when I speak to people and they're like I've never hired someone remote, what should I do? I think the first step is having a virtual assistant for yourself. So those tasks that you do every single day, that you could pass to someone else, just try it. Have someone 10 hours a week, or even five hours a week so it's one day a week, doing some of those tasks and you'll soon build a culture that works for them.                     The other thing is I would really think about them as not outsourcing or part of someone else's company. I stick with hiring individuals and not agency's or outsourcing companies. Then I send them birthday cakes and cards just because it makes them feel included in the bigger vision and bigger company and picture rather than just doing a task at hand.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Oh yeah, they're definitely contributing to the overall company so that's good. That's good that you recognize them. Well these are all great tips Holly. Thank you so much for joining us.   Holly Cardew:       Thank you.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        That's it for this week's episode of *Build*. Be sure to share this with your friends, your teammates and your boss, if you are thinking about putting in place a remote working culture. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive the next episode. Ciao for now!                     This episode of *Build* is brought to you by our sponsor PivotalTracker.  

In last week’s episode of Build, we dove into the benefits and best practices around recruiting remote workers. But as you’ve learned from last month’s Build episodes, it’s not enough to hire talent, you also need to onboard new hires by training them!   Training someone to be on a remote team might seem like a challenge since they aren’t sitting next to you. Those who are new to setting up a remote team think that training face-to-face is just easier because you can answer questions as they come up. And it may seem easier when it training multiple hires. But rest assured you can train remote workers, and in a way that scales as you hire multiple people at once.   In today’s episode, we’re going to share a number of proven strategies that have worked across job roles.   Once you’ve trained your remote workers, you might be wondering how to hold them accountable and retain them long term. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered ;)   We’ll be share fool-proof techniques for holding remote workers accountable and how to retain them long-term.   One last thing to keep in mind—there is a difference between a remote-first versus a remote-friendly company. If you’re not familiar with the difference, we’re going to dive into it and talk about how it can impact long-term retention of your remote workers.   Holly Cardew the Founder of Pixc is back to help us out. Holly has grown and scaled her team across Australia and Asia. And has done so in a number of job functions spanning both the business side with roles such as virtual assistants and marketers, to the technical side hiring software developers and designers to build the product.   As you listen to today’s episode you’ll learn: Why remote working doesn’t work for some companies and cultures—impacting long-term productivity and retention of remote workers Best practices for training and onboarding remote workers How to hold remote workers accountable Why you need a communication escalation framework to keep your remote workers productive How to coach remote workers to be more resourceful Check out these additional resources on remote working: How To Build A Happy And Productive Remote Team How to Succeed In Your First Remote Working Position If you have a remote team, how do you train, retain, and hold your employees accountable? Let us know in the comments below. -- Build is produced as a partnership between Femgineer and Pivotal Tracker. San Francisco video production by StartMotionMEDIA.   ## Proven Strategies For Training And Retaining Remote Workers Transcript Poornima Vijayashanker:        In the previous *Build* episode, we shared a number of strategies for recruiting remote workers. If you missed the episode, I've included the link to it below. Now, it's not enough to just recruit employees. You've also got to train them, hold them accountable, and retain them. In today's episode, we'll dive into how to do this, so stay tuned.                     Welcome to *Build*, brought to you by Pivotal Tracker. I'm your host, Poornima Vijayashanker. In each episode, innovators and I debunk a number of myths and misconceptions related to building products, companies, and your career in tech. As an employer, once you've recruited remote workers, you need to train them, you need to hold them accountable, and of course figure out ways to retain them. If you're wondering how, Holly Cardew, who's the CEO and Founder of Pixc, is back. Today we're going to be sharing a number of strategies on how to do this. Thanks for coming back, Holly.   Holly Cardew:       Thanks for having me again.   Remote-first versus remote-friendly   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah. OK, Holly, one of the biggest misconceptions around retaining remote workers is this idea of remote-first versus remote-friendly. Maybe you can explain what each of these are and how they impact retention.   Holly Cardew:       Sure, so the difference...Well, what remote-first is means that everybody is remote. There is no head office. There is no main office. Everybody can work from home. They could work in a coworking space or a café.   Remote-friendly is that there is essentially an office, and then the office allows you to be at home or at the office when you would like. We've never had remote-friendly. We've always been remote-first.   Why remote working doesn’t work: communication and collaboration breaks down with remote-friendly   But the issue I see with remote-friendly is that there is a lot of miscommunication, because everybody is...You can either choose to be involved in the culture and be at the office, or you can be at home. It's kind of a little bit warped, whereas remote-first, because we were remote-first, we had to build a really strong culture from the beginning. There's no thing that I was at the office, or I was at wherever, a space, with three employees and not the other 20. That's where I think in terms of retaining, it's just really important to build a strong culture either way, but there is a little bit of miscommunication in the remote-friendly one.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah. Do you think people feel left out maybe?   Holly Cardew:       Yes, definitely. Well, they may or they may just not want to get involved, which therefore impacts the team because the team feel like...The team who are in the office feel like they're doing more, and the person at home may not be.   What you need in place before you train remote workers   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Got it. OK. We also know that in any company, in order to retain employees, you have to train them, but it can be a challenge to train people when they're not right in front of you. What are some best practices when it comes to training remote workers?   Holly Cardew:       It's so important to document. At the beginning, I didn't document. I would get on Skype or Google Hangouts, and I would tell the same person the same thing. I realized that I was repeating myself.   Our best practice is really to document, but also make everybody responsible for documenting. It's not my job to write everybody's roles. I always tell the next person I hire that they're going to be responsible for the next team member that joins. They need to keep their own documentation.   We've also started Google Sites, so we have Google Sites which also connects to Google Drive and Google Documents, but that place is like...Google Sites is really the place for us where we can talk about the culture, the values, and the missions of the company, but then have all the documentation in there. It's a one, sort of essential portal.   Best practices for training remote workers   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Nice. Then what about when it comes to actually training people?   Holly Cardew:       It depends on what team they're in. We usually have an onboarding process with their team lead, whether it's marketing or customer service or engineering. Then we have a weekly team meeting. They'll have an onboarding session, but we have check-ins, more check-ins I would say at the beginning than further on down the track.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Mm-hmm. A couple things that we do at Femgineer are I record all the videos, because like yourself, I got tired of saying the same thing over and over again. The other is I have screencasts, and I also have an employee handbook, and much like yourself, have people update that once a quarter. As we scale my training efforts, do you have any that you recommend?   Record training sessions   Holly Cardew:       We actually do a lot of what you do. I think that you made a really good point. We do a lot of screencasts as well. I think we try and implement the philosophy that even if you're just doing a quick call...They may have been in the job for six months, but if you're doing a call with somebody via Google Hangouts, record it. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just put it in the folder with that question or showing that person how it's done, so the next person who comes along doesn't have to ask the same question.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah. I also do it for our meetings, because sometimes people get sick.   Holly Cardew:       Yeah, definitely.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Instead of having one person type up all the notes or play phone tag, it's easier to just say, "Hey, watch the recording. If you want, watch it, double the speed." It's a great way to stay efficient and keep everybody in sync.   Holly Cardew:       Do you record every week or every meeting?   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yes, we do record all of our all-hands. Then if it's a particularly training meeting, if I'm walking somebody through it, then I'll also do the recording. Zoom has been great for us to do the recordings. It just automatically records it. Then I'll upload it to Google Drive and label it whatever the training was about.   Holly Cardew:       Cool. Where do you put all your documentation?   Poornima Vijayashanker:        In Google Drive.   Holly Cardew:       OK.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah.   Holly Cardew:       Sorry.   How to hold remote workers accountable   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Similar. Yeah. On the flip side, there's also accountability. I know a lot of times managers feel like if somebody's just sitting right next to them or in the cubicle farm somewhere, they're a lot more present and they're getting work done. But I've been in environments where people spent that eight hours in their cube surfing the internet. How do you hold people accountable in a remote team when they're not even near you, you can't see them?   Holly Cardew:       For us, it's really about the goal and the work that they achieve. We could be counting hours and minutes and what they're doing. Some days, I do get a little slightly frustrated, because I want the person to be...I expect them to be there and they're not, but at the same time, we're flexible with time. It's about getting the work done. If people have never hired online before, I actually suggest for them to use a time tracker. I know that platforms like Upwork have...What they do is they take a screenshot of the screen every 10 minutes, and you can check a work diary of what the person's doing.                     How to divvy up tasks and set goals with remote workers   For us, it's really about trusting the person at the end of the day. I don't want to sit there and look over their shoulder every single minute on what they're doing online. I just want them to deliver high-quality output of their work and their goals for the month or for the quarter. What we've done is we've set up team goals. Instead of me setting goals for the team, we agree on them. They can say, "Holly, that's not achievable," or, "Yes, that is achievable," or, "That's a push goal," but we both agree before moving forward. Then they can't come back and say, "That was too much work," because they also agreed to it.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah, but what about some of those nitty-gritty tasks like, "Oh, I thought so-and-so was going to write this blog post, but then they didn't, so it didn't get it done"?   Holly Cardew:       No, we have everything documented in spreadsheets.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Good.   Holly Cardew:       Like the task at hand and the person responsible and the due date.   Remote working and collaboration   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yup. Yeah, we actually do that as well at the beginning of the week when we do our all-hands. People are supposed to come in with their Trello already filled out—   Holly Cardew:       Oh, that's interesting.   Poornima Vijayashanker:      —on what the tasks are going to be. It's also a great way to then, if somebody can't do a task, to hand it off. The checklists and all the documentation is in there, and that way, if for whatever reason it doesn't get done, someone else can pick it up and run with it. We're still flexible within that. If it's really like, "Oh, this person had five tasks, and it was unreasonable that week," then it's OK, but if you look and see that none of the five tasks were done, then clearly something is up. I feel like the tools have evolved to a point now where it becomes very transparent on who's getting stuff done and who isn't.   Holly Cardew:       Definitely. We have all the tasks listed out. We have used Trello depending on what the role is, again, so we're doing some new feature builds. It involves having the UX and the front-end engineer and the back-end, so we want to keep it all on track. We do use JIRA, too. We probably use one too many tools, but I think everything's well-documented, so we know who's doing what and if it's being achieved.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah, and then just going back and kind of grooming that periodically to see if things are no longer a priority or aligned to your goals.   Holly Cardew:       Yeah, definitely.   Why you need a communication escalation framework to keep your remote workers productive   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yes. As your team scales, communication obviously becomes a bottleneck. What would you recommend to keeping people in sync?   Holly Cardew:       What we do is we've actually broken up in the teams into mini-teams, so tech and product, and then marketing and customer service, and then internal operations. The reason for that is we don't...The tech don't really need to know some of the details, and I don't want to confuse everybody. We have weekly meetings but in those sort of mini-meetings. Then it means that there's no miscommunication. It's quite easy for a small team of four to get together rather than a team of 23.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Sure, that makes sense. Another best practice that I have kind of discovered over time is communication escalation, because it's very easy for people to think that texting has to happen no matter what. I actually over time came up with a framework where, for example, email was for reference. Using a tool like Slack is great for daily communication, archiving messages, kind of going back and taking a look. You could even have a water cooler. Do you have anything like this in terms of communication escalation?   Holly Cardew:       We do. I haven't put in a proper framework, but I think over time it's evolved that people do understand that, yeah, Slack is for daily chat. Email, we still quite like email, because it is a bit like to-do. For me personally, it's like a to-do list. Then if it's an ultimate emergency, WhatsApp. WhatsApp's the place.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.   Holly Cardew:       No matter where you are, it's handy. We actually have our groups on WhatsApp, so we have our tech and product, our marketing and customer service broken down, so when there is an issue, they can go to a different group. It's a little bit like Slack in that way.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah, but it's good to have that breakdown. Otherwise, people feel like, "Why are you texting me all the time?"   Holly Cardew:       Exactly.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Or, "why are you emailing me all the time?" Having that, I think, is important and figuring out what works for your team versus another team.   How to coach remote workers to be more resourceful   Holly Cardew:       I think also as the leader, it's important that if somebody does email you something, and there is information out there, rather than giving them the answer, in a nice and polite way point them in the direction to say, "You didn't need to email me this for this question. You could have figured it out."   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Right. Exactly. This is great advice, Holly. I know our audience out there is going to benefit from all this.   Holly Cardew:       Thanks for having me again here.   Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah. Holly and I want to know. If you have a remote team, how do you train, retain, and hold your employees accountable? Let us know in the comments below this video. That's it for this week's episode. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive the next episode where we're going to talk about how a number of these processes will change depending on the nature of work, whether you've got a high-stakes project or just daily tasks. Ciao for now. This episode of *Build* is brought to you by our sponsor, Pivotal Tracker.  

Remember our fun live pilot episode back in January 2015? In case you forgot about it or missed it, it was on How To Build A Happy And Productive Remote Team with Ben Congleton the CEO and Co-Founder of Olark. In it, we debunked a number of remote working myths such as:   Remote employees won’t be as productive and progress will stagnate Communication between remote employees and remote teams will break down A remote team will be devoid of culture   It was great for teams, but then we got questions from individuals who wanted to know how they could get started. So last December, we revisited remote working and focused the conversation around How to Succeed In Your First Remote Working Position with Femgineer’s very own Community Manager: Meghan Burgain.   And it seems like we have only scratched the surface because we still get a lot of questions and concerns on the topic from startup founders and hiring managers.   Most recently, we’ve received questions and concerns are around the hiring process like:   How do you know someone is a culture fit without a face-to-face meeting? Can you hire a remote worker for any role or only specific ones? How do you test a remote worker’s capabilities and competence? What is the best way to onboard and train a remote worker?   So this month we decided to revisit the theme and created three more episodes on the topic, focused on recruiting, training, retaining, and managing remote workers.   To help us out, I’ve invited a pro on the topic: Holly Cardew the CEO and Founder of Pixc. Holly has grown and scaled her team across Australia and Asia. And has done so in a number of job functions spanning both the business side with roles such as virtual assistants and marketers, to the technical side hiring software developers and designers to build the product.   As you listen to today’s episode you’ll learn:   The benefits of remote working for employers and employees The criteria you need to set to source candidates Roles that are well-suited to remote work How to suss out culture fit without a face-to-face meeting What to watch out for—red flags to spot early on when hiring remote workers Why it’s good to give people a test or trial project and how to structure it Build is produced as a partnership between Femgineer and Pivotal Tracker. San Francisco video production by StartMotionMEDIA.   ## How To Recruit Remote Workers Transcript   Poornima Vijayashanker:        We've covered a number of benefits when it comes to remote working in previous episodes. If you've missed any of them, I've included links below. In today's episode, we're going to talk about how to actually go about recruiting for your remote team, so stay tuned.                     Welcome to *Build*, brought to you by Pivotal Tracker. I'm your host, Poornima Vijayashanker. In each episode, innovators and I debunk a number of myths and misconceptions related to building products, companies, and your career in tech.                     Remote working is becoming the way of the future, and employers who have started embracing it are starting to see the competitive advantages. It's very attractive for employees. In today's episode, we're going to dive into the numerous benefits that employers and employees face when it comes to remote working, and we're going to talk about some of the best practices when it comes to recruiting and retaining employees. And to help us out, I've invited Holly Cardew, who is the CEO and founder of Pixc. Thanks for joining us.Holly Cardew:       Thanks for having me.   Remote working benefits for employersPoornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah, thanks for joining us. You and I have experienced a number of benefits when it comes to running a remote team. For our audience out there, maybe you can share some of the benefits as an employer.Holly Cardew:       Running a company, a remote company, has been beneficial for us, or beneficial for any employer, because what you can do is, you can scale up and scale down depending on what task you need done. You can also hire from a remote pool...Sorry, global pool of talent, rather than a local one. We can also provide customer support 24/7, and in other languages, which is amazing. It's also great because as a company, we're flexible. If something goes down or something happens on the weekend, the employees or the team members can also jump online. They're not so constricted to a specific time.   Remote working benefits for employeesPoornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah, and I'm sure there's a number of benefits for the employees, so let's jump into those.Holly Cardew:       I think, for the employees, they love it because it is flexible. At the end of the day, they can live and travel and be wherever they want to. They can work the hours that they want to work. I don't expect someone to be there 9-5. I didn't want to build a company and be in an office 9-5. The employees don't have to necessarily spend an hour and a half in traffic each way every day. So, they can spend that time really focusing on their task at hand.Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah. Another thing I learned recently was that people who are disabled, or an elderly population, can stay in the workforce longer because of having the ability to work remotely. So, I think that's another great thing, if we can keep maintaining the size of the workforce.Holly Cardew:       Definitely, fantastic. I've also seen that with mothers. We've hired content writers, proofreaders. They're mothers in middle America, or the Philippines. It doesn't matter where they are, they're now able to be with their children before and after school, be really flexible at home.Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah, we've got one, Meghan, who's been on an episode before. So, yeah, I think it's great for motherhood as well. These are great benefits. Let's talk about the types of roles that are conducive to remote work.   Types of roles for remote workers Holly Cardew:       I actually think anything can be remote. I mean, there are definitely times when you need to be on the ground with the customer, or you need to build a physical product, if you're in hardware or other industries. But really, we have, I don't like to use the word "outsourced," but we have people doing legal, accounting, bookkeeping, engineering tasks, design tasks, customer service, marketing. You name it, it's been done with us. So, I think you can actually use a remote or distributed team for any job.Poornima Vijayashanker:        But I'm sure there's some employees who are better suited for remote work versus others, so tell us what somebody should be looking for in an employee.Holly Cardew:       Yeah, definitely. I find that the people who are most proactive and take initiative are the ones who are better off when they're remote, because they don't need the guidance or the team around them to keep them motivated. I also find that someone who is slightly entrepreneurial, like they may...I had someone who was in the Philippines, and I said, "What do you do in your free time?" And she said, "I import things from America and I sell them at the market on the weekend." And doing that, it makes them think outside the box, as well. You don't have to train them as much.   What to watch out for when recruiting remote workersPoornima Vijayashanker:        That makes sense. And are there signs that you want to watch out for?Holly Cardew:       The signs I would watch out for are people who do need to be around others, and they do need that guidance and training, and they're waiting for you to tell them the next thing to do.Poornima Vijayashanker:        So, people who maybe aren't as self-directed, or possess some of the self-leadership qualities.Holly Cardew:       Definitely.Poornima Vijayashanker:        Which I think is necessary for any employee, but...Holly Cardew:       Definitely, but there are people who are starting out, and they're not used to taking the initiative to go find something. They're used to turning to the person next to them at the office, or university, or wherever they're starting out, and finding the answer.Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah, that's a good point. So, being proactive about being resourceful, and getting the answers that you need on your own.Holly Cardew:       Especially if they're remote, and I'm sleeping, and another team member's not awake, so they can't get help that way.   Criteria for sourcing and filtering remote working candidates Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah, that's a good point. So, do you have a set of criteria for sourcing candidates that fit?Holly Cardew:       We have quite a, I wouldn't say strict, but a process that we follow every single time. Essentially, we always hire contractors straight away. The reason for that is that we don't have to onboard them for every single task.   So, what we do is, we put out simple things when we put out the job. People, nowadays, they're applying for absolutely everything. They just click the apply button. So, we'll put some sneaky question inside the job, even it's "start your cover letter with a smiley emoji."   And then you can clearly filter out the people who have read the job description. Because when you're remote, there's a lot of reading, rather than face-to-face conversation. So, that filters down some people.   Interview process for remote workers                    And then we make a short list, and we interview, and just have a Skype call, about 10-15 minutes. In 10-15 minutes, you can figure out if you're going to...if they culturally fit with the company. I think that's really important. They may be the most amazing person on paper, but if they don't fit with your remote culture, it won't work. And then we give them a trial task, and then after that, if they're successful, we hire them for approximately two weeks to a month to figure out how it works with the company, and then we scale up from there.   How to setup a trial project to test candidatesPoornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah. The trial task is one that I do, too. I call it a "task project," and I time box it to about 5-10 hours. I limit it to maybe the two people that I feel have gone through the interview and done a good job, and I actually end up paying them for that trial time.Holly Cardew:       Yeah, that's exactly what we do. Exactly the same. We also do a trial task, about 5-10, depending on the role. If it's a social media thing, it might be, give me 20 posts that you would post up, or some advice on what you would change on our current social media. But if it's an engineering project, yeah, it would be 5-10 hours, maybe a page, and pay for that task, and then decide from there.Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah. And how do you communicate that to them? Because I know some people are immediately like, "I'm not doing this," and then some people actually take the effort, and I can tell just based on that, who's going to be a good employee versus, OK, clearly you're not interested. So, do you start to see signals like that?Holly Cardew:       We've definitely had the same thing.Poornima Vijayashanker:        Yeah? OK. Why a trial project helps filter candidates   Holly Cardew:       It's sort of like a self-filtering mechanism for us. I think most people who have already...If they're local and they haven't had a remote job yet, they're probably a bit standoffish. But most people who are freelance, or have worked remote, they are used to that.Poornima Vijayashanker:        And then there are some people that think remote working is for them, even though they've never done it before. Like you said, someone who is new to remote working, and they might not know the criteria. Do you have any filters, or ways in which you recruit them?   How you can spot signs that a remote worker can be self-directed and resourcefulHolly Cardew:       I think, what we have looked at is that if people are entrepreneurial, they usually have done some small task by themselves. The other one is, I've asked if they've done any side projects, and I ask them to show me their side projects. Like, what do they do in their free time on the weekend? If they don't do something that is slightly work-related...engineers may build something. Marketing people might start their own website to self-promote. So, I look for those things before hiring someone who hasn't had a remote job.                     If they have started, it's really about trial and error, and talking to them, talking through. I have friends who are definitely, they say straight up, "I need to be around people." The other option is, you can actually provide them with co-working space.   How to provide remote workers opportunities to be around other people                     In some situations, I've either provided them with co-working space, or there was another situation where I had someone in Manila, and I knew the people at the Uber office in Manila, so I made a connection for her to go meet with the community manager at Manila, so she could learn from them. And then, it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to have the people in your company around them, they just need inspiration from other people.Poornima Vijayashanker:        Nice. Yeah. And that's a good point, because it does get lonesome, and coffee shops don't always have the best internet. The co-working could be great. Hiring sight unseen can be challenging. I know, when I initially did it, I wasn't as good, but over the years, I've gotten better. How have you managed to get the best candidates out of the pool?   What to watch out for—red flags to spot early on when hiring remote workersHolly Cardew:       I think, going back to my previous answer, is that really it's about the cultural fit of the person. If your values and the culture doesn't fit, it won't work. I had someone who I was interviewing, and they were so good. I really wanted them. They were an early employee at a huge company that's IPOed. They would have been...It would have been really beneficial to the company, but we didn't see eye-to-eye on hiring, growing the team. We discussed how we would grow the team, and how we would go about it, and it did not fit. Even though it wasn't an issue then and there, I could foresee, going forward, that it would be a huge issue when we wanted to expand the team. So, it was really about the values.                     The other thing is that you really need to trust your gut. At the beginning, you're early on, you're starry-eyed. You think everything is amazing, and you just want to get these people on board, but deep down, if you know that it's not going to work, don't do it.   Crucial conversations to have with candidatesPoornima Vijayashanker:        One nugget in there was having these crucial conversations, right? You said that you had the conversation about how they were going to approach hiring, and you didn't start to see eye-to-eye. So, maybe when it comes to the tasks, or whatever the next milestone is, have those conversations, and that way, you start to uncover what their philosophy is, to see if there's alignment and a good fit.Holly Cardew:       Yeah, definitely. I think, it's like any relationship. You need to be able to have a hard conversation. And sometimes, you don't...As a CEO, what's really challenging is, you don't actually get along with everyone perfectly. But as long as you can have a hard conversation, and come to a conclusion, then it's OK. But if something really doesn't fit in your values...Poornima Vijayashanker:        Better to expose that early on.Holly Cardew:       Yeah, exactly. Move on, rather than try and make it fit at the beginning.Poornima Vijayashanker:        Well, these are great practices, Holly. Thanks for sharing them with us.Holly Cardew:       Thanks for having me.Poornima Vijayashanker:        So, now, Holly and I want to know, if you have put a remote team in place, what was your process for recruiting? Let us know in the comments below. And that's it for this week's episode of *Build*. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive the next episode, where we'll talk about how to hold employees accountable and retain them. Ciao for now.                   This episode of *Build* is brought to you by our sponsor, Pivotal Tracker.

Today's guest is Pixc's CEO and Founder Holly Cardew Holly has a really interesting story and has basically been a lifelong entrepreneur. It's always great to speak to the pure breeds, but it will come as no surprise that she has had her fair share of challenges along the way like most entrepreneurs. We discuss how her first 2 tech businesses didn't work, what she learned about market validation from these experiences, and what she learned about working with development agencies. We also talk about working with distributed teams, Pixc utilises a team of all remote workers, and we discuss the pros and cons of this set up during the episode. But don't call it outsourcing, Holly doesn't like the term outsourcing and you will hear why in this episode. We also talk about Holly's time in San Francisco, Holly still goes back there regularly, but for those who haven't been there and are interested in what it is like, Holly provides great insight. Enjoy the episode!

In this episode of Founder To Founder Phil connects with Pixc founder, Holly Cardew.Holly founded Pixc.com to help eCommerce store owners to optimise their product images in 24 hours so they focus on running their business. Pixc was part of Batch 13 of 500 Startups was called out as one of the top 10 companies to look out for in 2016. Holly and Phil talk about the importance of focus, how to optimise for time and the three habits that founders need to develop to be successful. This episode is brought to you by inklpay, a micropayment service that lets creators of amazing content on WordPress collect 10c when a post, e-book or video is viewed. Get paid for the content you create. Visit inklpay.com to get started.

One day when working on an online marketplace entrepreneur Holly Cardew was trying to get some imagery clear-cut onto a white background. Unless you’re a bit of a photoshop whizz, that is a real mission. Holly thought that if this was a problem for her it probably was for others looking to make a professional site, and that insight has led to her successful online enterprise pixc. The demand was out there, and the business has led Holly to startup incubators, being named on the Forbes 30 under 30, and to New Zealand, where she is part of techweek and the sales and marketing jams that the Kiwi Landing Pad makes happen. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week Mike chats with Holly Cardew the founder of PixC https://pixc.com and all round great young lady. We chat about creating momentum in life and setting your goals to help you win. Check it out and stay awesome. To find out more about Holly and PixC: https://pixc.com Email: hello@pixc.com Connect with Mike and Tynan @ theridinghighpodcast@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/ridinghighpodcast/

Holly Cardew, a member of the Forbes 30 under 30 list and the founder of Pixc - an online image optimization service. Holly dropped out of college to grow an image editing empire that’s making just short of $1 million in revenue each year. Listen as Holly and Nathan talk about Pixc’s bootstrapping ethic, the importance of revenue over investment, and how to get the most from an affiliate program. Famous 5 Favorite Book? – The Lean Startup What CEO do you follow? — Ben Chestnut, though he’s kind of hard to track What is your favorite online tool? — Intercom Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— No If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? — I wish my parents had told me to go to Silicon Valley. I should have learnt how to code. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:15 – Nathan’s introduction 01:56 – Welcoming Holly to the show 02:03 – Holly took a corporate job in London after university 02:20 – Tried multiple online businesses before Pixc 02:40 – Pixc is an online image optimization service 02:50 – Sells credit image packages 03:05 – Launched a landing page in 2013; started properly in 2014 03:20 – Largely self-funded; raised $150k in capital 03:55 – ‘At the end of the day, you need to have a business - not just capital’ 04:15 – 16 team members 04:30 – Revenue in the range of $200k - $1 million per year 05:10 – What are the running costs? 05:20 – Semi-automated process with some human input 05:35 – Currently breaking even and re-investing in the business 05:50 – Holly is 28; she dropped out of college to start her business 06:20 – Working with over 7,000 clients 06:40 – Acquisitions through referrals, integration, content marketing and affiliates 07:10 – Affiliate program is very effective. One article brought in 70+ customers in 3 weeks 09:20 – Affiliates make 20% commission on referrals 10:40 – What’s the competition? Largely freelancers. 11:03 – What’s Pixc’s growth strategy? 11:40 – Planning to expand the affiliate program and build partnerships 11:50 – Thinking about what other services they can offer in this niche 12:20 – Connect with Holly on Linkedin, Twitter and at her blog 14:58 – Famous Five 3 Key Points: Focus on revenue, not on investment. You have to know that your idea can make money. Learn how to code - it’s a basic skill that will pay you back a hundred times over. If you’re looking at expanding, consider what other services fit in your niche. What else do your customers need that you can provide? Resources Mentioned: Freshbooks - The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives