Lowry Gladwell: The secrets of SaaS revenue growth
Audio Brief
Show transcript
This episode covers the persistent gender investment gap in New Zealand's startup ecosystem, strategic hiring for core traits, the power of empathy in leadership, and leveraging channel partnerships for business growth.
There are four key takeaways from this conversation. First, addressing systemic issues like the gender investment gap requires proactive, tangible initiatives. Second, prioritize hiring for innate traits such as genuine enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity. Third, cultivate empathy as a core leadership skill, recognizing its "superpower" potential. Finally, develop a robust channel partnership strategy where partners are also authentic users of your product.
New Zealand's startup scene demonstrates a significant gender investment gap, with only 7% of investment capital allocated to women-led businesses. This disparity highlights a critical need for proactive initiatives and targeted funding to ensure equitable opportunities and foster a diverse entrepreneurial landscape.
When hiring, especially for sales roles, look beyond the polished resume and interview performance. Innate traits like genuine enthusiasm, passion, and intellectual curiosity are better long-term indicators of success. These qualities drive deeper product understanding and customer connection, proving more valuable than superficial charm.
Empathy emerges as a critical leadership "superpower," valued as highly as intelligence and strategic thinking. Great mentors often exemplify this trait, providing invaluable guidance and fostering strong team dynamics. This emotional intelligence is crucial for effective leadership and team building.
A highly effective growth strategy involves empowering partners to sell your product for you. This approach is particularly potent when partners are also authentic end-users, such as accountants for Xero. This creates a virtuous cycle, building an authentic sales loop and a powerful, scalable sales engine.
In conclusion, bridging investment gaps, refining hiring practices, cultivating empathetic leadership, and optimizing partnership strategies are essential for fostering innovation and sustainable business growth.
Episode Overview
- The episode introduces a new co-host and discusses the challenges of getting female founders on podcasts, touching on imposter syndrome and the "tech bro" culture.
- A significant portion of the conversation is dedicated to the gender investment gap in New Zealand's startup scene and highlights an initiative to fund female-founded businesses.
- The hosts explore key qualities for successful hires, emphasizing the importance of genuine enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity over just a polished resume.
- The discussion covers practical business growth strategies, focusing on the power of strategic channel partnerships to create an authentic and effective sales loop.
Key Concepts
- Gender Gap in Tech: The conversation highlights the significant underfunding of female founders in New Zealand, with data showing only 7% of investment goes to women-led startups, and discusses the need for proactive initiatives to address it.
- Hiring for Core Traits: When hiring, especially for sales, look beyond the interview for genuine enthusiasm, passion, and intellectual curiosity, as these qualities drive a deeper understanding of the product and customer.
- The Power of Mentorship and Empathy: Great mentors provide immense value, and empathy is described as a "superpower" in business leadership, being as critical as intelligence and strategic thinking.
- Strategic Channel Partnerships: A highly effective growth strategy is to empower partners to sell your product for you, particularly when those partners (e.g., accountants for Xero) are also end-users, creating a virtuous cycle.
- Product-Salesperson Fit: Sales effectiveness is dramatically increased when the salesperson can genuinely relate to the customer's problem, making personal experience a significant advantage.
- Startup Culture Evolution: A company's culture is often tested and forced to mature during difficult periods like restructuring, shifting from a passion-driven environment to one that is more pragmatic and performance-focused.
Quotes
- At 4:52 - "We talk about imposter syndrome, we talk about the tech bro stuff that was just happening. It can be quite intimidating." - Adrienne discusses potential reasons why female founders might be hesitant to appear on podcasts, citing imposter syndrome and the male-dominated tech culture.
- At 26:11 - "seven out of every 100 startups that receive investment in New Zealand are founded by women." - Guest Jody highlights a key statistic from "The Gender Investment Gap" report to frame the problem her company's grant aims to address.
- At 59:18 - "'His superpower is empathy... He's just one of the most empathetic people.'" - The guest describes his mentor, Andrew Fraser, highlighting that emotional intelligence is as crucial as business acumen.
- At 1:04:36 - "The best salespeople that interview well are sociopaths, narcissists... you've got to be really careful when you interview salespeople that if it's too good to be true, it's probably too good to be true." - The male host offers a cynical but cautionary take on the hiring process for sales roles.
- At 1:07:44 - "Get people to sell your product for you." - The male host simplifies the core benefit of building a strong channel and partner sales strategy.
Takeaways
- Prioritize hiring for innate traits like enthusiasm and curiosity, which are better long-term indicators of success than a polished interview.
- Acknowledge and actively address systemic issues like the gender investment gap through tangible actions, not just discussion.
- Cultivate empathy as a core leadership skill, as it is a "superpower" for effective mentorship and team building.
- Develop a channel partnership strategy where your partners are also authentic users of your product to build a powerful, scalable sales engine.
