Felicia Thelin

If you need to make redundancies as a Startup, why not consider offering voluntary redundancies first? Here's why I now think this is a much much better strategy, having been through it a number of times... 1) Talented people will probably leave anyway I get it..: "we wan't to select and keep the best people". I've seen it time and time again. Here is the reality: - The best people will have the most options to move - Those options come thicker and faster after layoffs - Highly ambitious people will often jolt at a perceived loss in momentum of growth The talent drain that can follow layoffs is a painful, protracted period where the question becomes "who's going to leave next...". This can build momentum and start to snowball, as people fear being left holding the bag. 2) Trust is unavoidably broken No matter how much you try to communicate the potential for layoffs, it will still come as a sudden and jarring shock to the team. Even the most empathetic process is still unavoidably a sudden, top-down mandate where there is no consultation. 3) People will start to hide their true feelings Where there is a perceived risk of future layoffs (no matter the promises made), people are less likely to lift their head above the parapet to express dissatisfaction etc. You may have created a state of fear and thus reduced communication between team and leadership. ------------- A voluntary period means: 1) No sudden shock 2) A sense of empowerment as people are given some choice 3) That you are left with people who WANT to be there 4) That you get an honest, open understanding of sentiment in the team In the period right after layoffs, you need a lot of truly invested people at every level to get the team going again. This isn't going to come from the more career-oriented (vs mission-oriented) people who are just passing through, no matter how talented. This way, trust is BUILT through the process, not broken. You end up with a more cohesive group who are more likely to believe in the mission. You will have more open and honest conversations that may uncover broad dissatisfaction. If there are people you really want to keep, invest in talking to them through the process, re-sell them on the mission. It becomes an opportunity to tell people how much you value them, rather than a form of top down control where you've decided they get to stay. If they can't be sold, they will leave anyway. Top talent has equal potential to be a superpowered detractor. If there are people you don't want to keep, this isn't the right way to handle it. Fair, accountable performance management is the right answer over time afterwards (...preferably before). Layoffs aren't a free fix to bad management, they incur a cost to the teams' long term faith and trust in your leadership.

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49 founders and senior startup leaders respond to a survey from Sifted on the relationship between founders and VCs. Are expectations off from the start as VCs try too hard to pander to their founders with over promises of "value-add" and extensive platform teams? Do founders need to be reminded of their primary role - execution?

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Only a handful of fintechs are on track to beat their 2023 app download records. Moneybox, Raisin, and Revolut may be leading the charge, but others are facing challenges. So, what's the secret sauce for 2024 success? As our Head of Performance Marketing, Ross Smith, puts it: "Keep your finger on the pulse and react fast to changes." From rival competition to shifting consumer habits, we put together everything you need to know to level up your user acquisition strategy and scale your fintech game...

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So Toast is an absolute fricking monster and the best in class vertical SaaS company of our time. 💵 $1.2BN in ARR with 48.4% from payments 💸 Toast Capital has reached $1BN in annualised loans originated 🧑‍🍳 875K restaurants in the US (Toast has 112K: 13% market share) 🚀 75% of locations are coming from inbound channels The first investor invested $500K at a $3M price 😮 The full story and all the lessons 👇 1. Why This $14BN Company Would Not Exist Without Speed - Too many people worry about getting the product right. - One of the most important things you can do is get something out & learn from the user. - We wouldn’t have existed today if we didn’t move fast & iterate. 2. The Man Who Bought 12% of a $14BN Company for $500K - We were trying to raise in 2012-2013. - We were confident but almost everyone said no. - Steve Papa @ Endeca wrote us a $500K check at $3M. 3. The $14BN Company That Did Not Have a Good Business Model to Start - We realized within the first 10 customers that the financial model wasn’t working. - We were making $200 - $300 a month but there were too many customer service calls. - It wasn’t scalable at all. 4. Biggest Mistake: Not Hiring Managers Faster - There is also leverage in hiring managers vs. salespeople or engineers. - You need to move fast once you see signs of PMF. - Building out a team around us would have helped us move faster. 5. The Importance of Market Timing 3 Things: 1. Android 2. Cloud 3. Embedded payments - Without those 3 Toast wouldn’t have existed. 6. You Have to Sequence Strategy - We see many ways to expand the Toast platform across other geos & segments. - We need to be thoughtful about how to sequence this. - This is a long game: You underestimate what you can do in a decade and overestimate what you can do in a year. 7. This Public Company Creates Smaller Companies Within It - We have a New Ventures program for entrepreneurs. - We let them build companies as part of Toast but operate independently. - We want them to have the benefits of being part of Toast without the challenges of being part of a larger org. (links in comments) #founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup #seed #funding

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Our 3 RULES for building an AWESOME Financial Planning Brand 🔥 With the help of our amazing Brand Designer Farren Askew, we've helped financial planners build some fresh new brands in the past couple of years. But what needs to be done to make sure they are world class? 1. It HAS to stand out ⚡️ If your brand looks the same as every other financial planning business out there, there is no way for your clients to differentiate you. Do you want to be the same as everyone else? Don't be afraid to be different with colours, fonts, vibes and feelings. This gives you something to separate you from everyone else. 2. You HAVE to love it ❤️ If you don't love your brand, no one else is going to love it for you. You need to be the person sharing it every day, talking about it every day and seeing it almost all the time. It's very difficult to shout about and be proud of something you don't love. So make sure it passes the you test before anyone else. 3. It HAS to be YOU 🫵 Too many people care what others think about their branding, and create committees to make sure everyone else likes it. But often, they forget to check that it feels like them. If it doesn't feel like you, your brand will be fighting against you whenever you see it. Be brave, show your authentic self and make sure your brand is on the same page as you. ------ We've showcased some amazing brands in this post, including Zoë Dagless and Sue Back. Check them out! ------ What else would you add to this list? 👇 #financialplanning #financialadvice #nextgen #community #finance #design #branding #marketing #websites #financialmarketing

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The low-hanging fruit optimizations graze needs to pluck for a better online presence If I was running the show at Graze, here are the first few site optimizations I'd make for an instant conversion boost: 1️⃣ Revamp homepage header with: · A visible core offer · Social proof · Lifestyle images · Clear CTA · Highlighted value proposition 2️⃣ Enhance the cart drawer with: · Smart cross-sells · Payment options · Free gifts 3️⃣ Revitalize the product page with: · Customer ratings · Clear CTAs · Lifestyle imagery · Free delivery Drop a 🔥 if you'd make these changes too!

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Next Monday's Rebel Meetups by Rebellious Co is going to feature Claire Simpson Chart.PR. We're going to be asking Claire how tech founders can build their profiles in the media. Media relations can be a huge unlock for founders who are trying to build their brand on a shoestring. If you want to promote your startup in national media, you need one of two things: a stonking great ad budget, or some canny media know-how. Personal branding is one of the topics we get asked about regularly at Rebel Meetups, so I'm really excited to have her there. Claire is: 📈 Hard Numbers' head of growth, with nearly a decade of experience in helping founders build their profile and their companies. 🖋️ The author of Coverage to Capital, a newsletter focused on communications, funding, and growth. 🧠 One of the smartest people I know when it comes to the intersection of earned media and sales. I'm going to be asking Claire: 📰 How can founders use the media to build their personal brand as well as the profile of their company? 💰 How can you leverage that coverage to turn it into sales and growth for your company? 💼 What role does media play in communicating with an investor audience? What is Rebel Meetups? It's a monthly get-together of founders, freelancers, entrepreneurs, and wantrepreneurs. It's a brilliant, supportive community that Ash, Richard, Shadee, and too many others to tag have been building for years. The event is free. Sign-up link in the comments. See you there! #growth #networking #rebelmeetups

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I’ve written about Klarna before—how they’ve consistently pushed the bounds in fintech. But this? This is something that EVERYONE should be paying attention to. Klarna has just replaced Salesforce and Workday with an AI-driven tech stack and slashed its workforce by nearly 50%. If that doesn’t make you sit up and ask some serious questions about the future of work, I don’t know what will. This global fintech giant, are proving that you can run the majority of your operations, from customer service to enterprise systems, using AI tools. The fact that they’re getting rid of systems like Salesforce once considered untouchable in enterprise software and replacing them with cheaper, AI-powered alternatives is a huge shift. And if Klarna is doing this now, how long will it be before the company you work for follows suit? This is where things get serious. If AI can perform the majority of tasks we currently rely on people for—and thats what we’re seeing this happen in real-time—where does that leave us? What happens when it’s not just customer service, but marketing, operations, finance, and other departments too? I'm genuinely interested in hearing from people who are thinking deeply about this. What does the future of work look like when AI is doing *most* of the jobs? How do we adapt? What are the opportunities? What are the risks? We can’t ignore this or pretend that it’s a far-off future—it’s happening now, and the pace of change is only accelerating. So, where are we going with this? Please, share your thoughts. #ai #future #fintech

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How Would You Use a Cash Injection from Wayflyer to Fuel Growth This Year? Imagine this: Your e-commerce business just received a significant cash boost from Wayflyer. 💰 How would you put it to work? 👉 #Ramp Up Marketing: Scale your ad spend on platforms like Facebook and Google to drive more traffic and sales. What’s your strategy for maximizing ROI? 📦 Bulk Up Inventory: Never miss a sale by stocking up on best-sellers. How much could you grow if you never ran out of stock? 📈 Optimize Your Site: Invest in tech to improve your website’s performance, reduce cart abandonment, and increase conversion rates. What tools would you add to your arsenal? 🌍 Expand to New Markets: Ready to go global? Use the funds to explore new regions and grow your customer base internationally. Which market is your next target? 🔥 Special Promotions: Launch a killer promotion or flash sale to drive revenue and attract new customers. What kind of offer would make waves? What’s your priority? Let's #grow together 📈 💸 Start your application: 👇

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A first meeting, discovery call or whatever you want to call it can make or break a deal. I've analysed more discovery calls than I can count. I've checked the data and it all comes back to this. Having a repeatable framework that encourages good 2-way dialogue. 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁... Something that the AI functionality isn't picking up from our favourite tools is the importance of addressing your Prospect's core belief systems. It's about psychology. Want to increase your chances of converting your meeting into qualified pipeline? Well...if I was you I'd check out the guide using the link in the comments! #symbioticsale #enablement #salesleadership #GoToMarketStrategy #buyersworld ……………………………………. First time seeing my posts? I help B2B tech companies remove blindspots that are slowing down their growth in less than 10 weeks. For 50% less than you’ll normally invest and without requiring hours of your time - DM me to learn more.

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This year is all about survival. I've seen enough data to call it. Multiple reports are showing Flat -> No growth. Wayflyer/Iris Finance report had Q1 overall growth at +4% YoY. Common Thread Collective Index has same store sales flat YoY. What does this mean? This year is about survival. The industry as a whole isn’t growing. We can blame this on whatever we want. But the outcome remains the same. Instead of obsessing about your topline growth. (Which is a steep mountain to climb.) Focusing on growing your bottom line. In a low topline growth year, spend time becoming more profitable. 100% YoY growth doesn’t do you any good if you’re out of biz in 2 years. The goal needs to be surviving to 2025. #shopify

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Product marketer hack: the launch checklist ✅ I recently posted about a handy tiering framework we’ve been using at Tracksuit to shape the scale of our product launches. Well, once you’ve decided your launch tier – what next? A launch checklist is a helpful tool to reduce the load of planning (especially when you’re a small team). It’s easy to see how your resource allocation and GTM plan differs by launch tier: 1️⃣ – A big bang product launch that requires extensive planning to rollout across all available channels 2️⃣ – A compelling new product or feature that needs to be communicated via primary channels, but doesn’t require huge investment 3️⃣ – A more minor feature update that may just need a simple notification for existing users One big caveat: a launch checklist should never be prescriptive, nor is it a launch strategy. Each new product or feature is different and requires a customised GTM approach. 👉 Feel free to use the below checklist as a starting point and customise for your own channels. At Tracksuit we found it helpful to amend our checklist after running a few launches based off what worked and what didn’t.

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Contrarian thinking from Gokul to win big. In my talks to VCs, many still comparing to SaaS era. Why they do so? Let’s compare another contrarian path in Enterprise AI too. Which Vaayu - AI for Finance & Sales is following. Eg Compare trajectories of Enterprise AI based on outcomes vs SaaS. End Target to reach $100m ARR. 1. Annual Contract Value Enterprise AI - $200k per client SaaS - $20 x 12 - $240 2. Upsell possibility Enterprise AI - $1M per annum SaaS - $240 per annum 3. Defensibility Enterprise AI - Strong as u integerate at multiple touchpoints by being expansive SaaS - Many new players will enter Why VCs still endorse SaaS? I dont contradict them - afterall they have to get their investors & LPs onboard . It’s easier for most VCs to sell SaaS to their investors cz 1. Risk Enterprise AI - More upfront technical risk, more capital required initially. SaaS - Less capital in beginning, gives impression of Product Market fit early. 2. Sales Cycle Enterprise AI - 12-18 months SaaS - 1-10 days 3 Past Validation Enterprise AI - Completely new. Very few things to compare with SaaS - VCs say $1m has been inflexion point in past. So they want to invest at this sweet spot. Take away- For low cost SaaS - real test will be after spending $10-$20m. It may give impression of product fit early. Path to $100m ARR will be extremely tough. Flown waters never come back. Referring past is risky when AI is changing everything. For enterprise AI, it’s contrarian, new. It’s steeper in beginning, path to $100m is clear very soon with $3m spend after initial steep is covered. Great returns are always on contrarian paths. Not what everyone follows. Achal Mehra #enterprise #ai #stsrtups

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It's time to launch... I've founded PARTNER-SHIP to enable businesses to grow through partnerships! If you've met me or worked with me as a colleague/partner, you know I genuinely love building partnerships and taking the plunge will enable me to work with multiple to businesses to deliver partnerships for growth! It's been a great 12 months back with the Reinventure Group team of Danny Gilligan and Simon Cant, where I was entrusted with building and executing a pipeline of strategic partnerships across Super, Banking, Retail, Legal and Insurance for Safewill as Head of Partnerships. I've launched partnerships with Mercer and Greenstone Financial Services and there's a raft of partners lined up to be next! It's been great working with the awesome team and I know there's big things to come for this deathtech rocketship lead by Adam Lubofsky, thanks for the opportunity and trust in me! I'll be with the business until the end of October to close out some key deals, before it's time to fully climb aboard the PARTNER-SHIP. I have my first engagements locked in as a Fractional Partnerships Executive and ongoing Partnerships Advisory retainers lined up, look forward to sharing these over the coming weeks! If you've considered Partnerships as a channel or hiring a Partnerships Executive, let's have a chat. If you're at FinTech Australia #intersekt2024, keep an eye for the fresh new merch and make sure you say hi! Special shoutout to the awesome team at Lawpath for guiding me through every step of the business registration and setup process, such a great product and team Tom Willis and Dominic Woolrych P.s every pun intended and there's a prize for the best one liner in the comments!! #partnerships #founder #startup #newbusiness #notsellingsuperyachts

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We're not going to de-prioritize TikTok until consumer engagement on the app dips or it's banned and gone for good. It's just presenting our clients / target market in general with WAY too much upside. Particularly in a year in which CPMs are going to go through the roof with elections in November and the Summer Olympics occupying eyeballs, acquisition strategies that don't entirely break the bank for advertisers are beyond critical. A recent study by Earnest Analytics highlights opportunities on TikTok and, particularly, with TikTok Shop. - Engagement: 11% of U.S. households have shopped on TikTok Shop, indicating strong initial adoption. - Loyalty: High retention with 81% of February 2024 sales from repeat customers, highlighting customer satisfaction. - Dominance: Captures 68% of the social shopping market share, significantly outperforming competitors. 🎩 Hat tip to Abhi Mahule for sharing the study + summarizing key points

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Can ex-founder CEOs join other startups after leaving their businesses? I love Nic Yeeles’s story of reinventing his career to become a VP of Product. Today, he’s on his third VP of Product job at Resi, so we can say the career move was a success, but there’s more to it. As an ex-CEO, in all his C-level roles, he was the right-hand man to the CEO, offering a holistic perspective on the business as a founder himself. The transition to the first VP of Product role wasn’t straightforward. Nic explains how he had to “fake it till you make it,” swallowing books and learning fast to outperform other candidates during interviews who might have had years of experience in the product department. This story is fun — Nic’s great storyteller, but it will also be useful to any founder looking for inspiration and advice on how to switch from being a founder-CEO to a C-level executive at another business. The full episode E08 — A Pivot to a Product Career with Nic Yeeles is available at substack.evgeny.coach (and YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify etc — search for "Startup CEO Succession")

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Happy Teams is back! Our first guest is Paddy Moogan, co-founder of SEO agency Aira. Paddy shares the challenges of balancing workload and capacity, opening up about when Aira nailed it and instances where they stumbled. "We wanted to hire people that could come in and hit the ground running," Paddy explains, a strategic move that allowed Aira's founders to focus on growing the business while maintaining their high standard of work. Here are Paddy's key pieces of advice for agency owners: 1. Ensure every team member has a clear "next step" in their career journey. 2. Never settle when it comes to hiring. If it's not a resounding "yes," it's a no. 3. Understand the self-reinforcing relationship between happy teams and satisfied clients. LINK IN COMMENTS

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