We discuss building the Lizz Truss of Shopify apps, the advantages of being non-developer founders, approaching the agency business from a fist principles perspective, the keys to hiring great people, why the best partnerships are based on client needs not the best technical solution, the advantages of having a wide partner network including VCs and branding agencies, why adding quality to the conversations is the key to good personal branding, the advantages of a fully remote team and why working with your best mates is a good foundation for a successful business.
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We discuss getting approached by an agency group in 2019 sparked the idea of an exit, how COVID derailed the exit plans, the key milestones of the Born deal; the initial conversation, due diligence and SPA negotiations, the advantages of having one person focusing on the deal, the importance of the business being able to run in parallel to the exit plan, the challenges of due diligence, specifically the difference in process between the target and acquirer, the lessons learned of not taking corporate finance advice, the inherent risk of a deal falling through and what he’d do differently if he did it all again.
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I sit down with Gavin Ballard, founder of Disco Labs and Submarine. We discuss how a love of Shopify led to the creation of Disco Labs, why they decided to pivot from an agency to a product, the challenges of process transition when pivoting, why being at the coal face of client issues helps with product development, Submarine’s GMT through their existing agency partner network, the importance of the developer experience and a revolutionary new paradigm in online retail; ‘flexible commerce’
I sit down Lauren Kleinman, founder of Dreamday and co-founder of The Quality Edit and we discuss why being brand side helped shape the agency model, the impact key hires can have on a business, how a passion project turned into a separate business in The Quality Edit, why gut and intuition are so important for decision making, why hiring for culture and vetting clients reduces the chances of working with assholes and what Lauren’s dreamday looks like. A quick word on my sponsor... Klaviyo is the world’s leading owned marketing platform known for accelerating revenue for online businesses using the channels they own like email, web and mobile. Enabling companies to leverage these owned marketing channels, Klaviyo makes it...
We go deep on the recent Blueprint and Klaviyo deal, the power of a consultative product approach, James White’s infamous and trad marked follow the energy principle, the importance of giving in a partner relationship, why the time to value in a partnership requires patience, the pros and cons of being a remote partner manager and his take on personal branding and the power of repurposing content A quick word on my sponsor... Klaviyo is the world’s leading owned marketing platform known for accelerating revenue for online businesses using the channels they own like email, web and mobile. Enabling companies to leverage these owned marketing channels, Klaviyo makes it easy to store, access, analyze and use transactional and behavioural data...
I sit down with Dan Partridge, CEO at Swanky. We go deep on transitioning from an entrepreneurial corporate lawyer to the agency world, Shopify’s Commerce Components rollout and it’s impact on the wider market (especially on Commerce Tools), what it’s like working with £100 GMV brands, being cautiously optimistic about the eComm landscape in 2023, the advantages of being vertically agnostic and focussing on subscription brands, the process of coming into a new company and industry as a CEO and the pros and cons of being a lawyer in an agency A quick word on my sponsor... Klaviyo is the world’s leading owned marketing platform known for accelerating revenue for online businesses using the channels they own like email, web...
