Mike Wyrzykowski on disruption, finding talent to solve a puzzle and launching overseas

mitchellake on October 13, 2016

Interview by Kevin Griffiths
Words by Madeleine Gasparinatos

On a balmy May evening in Sydney, we meet with Mike Wyrzykowski. He has flown in from Texas that morning, had a handful of meetings and has now just returned from a quick ferry ride to Manly Beach. Mike is the CEO of DealerVu, a company he founded in 2002, and he’s just about to launch BlackPurl in partnership with Salesforce.com. BlackPurl aims to deliver a suite of simple to use, yet staggeringly powerful applications aimed to reinvent software available in the vehicle retail industry.

So how did he get there?

In 1997, Mike went into a Harley dealership in Ontario, Canada. Back then the brand had a very rigid customer fit, and Mike didn’t fit the bill according to the retail assistant. He was denied a Harley. “They didn’t have one to sell me,” Mike recalls. Surprisingly he wasn’t wholly discouraged from the experience. Mike saw holes in the business model and thought “wouldn’t it be neat if they [the motorcycle industry] looked at things a bit differently? Wouldn’t it be neat to buy this business and turn it into something a little larger scale, and a bit more customer-centric?”

In 1999, that very opportunity came up. Mike and a close business associate bought the dealership.

With a background in the video game industry, Mike had moved to Vancouver to manage online video game distribution. He was working with people who knew a lot more about tech than he did. With the Harley business a new venture, he yearned to create stability, but then news broke that his software provider was going under. Mike took stock. He had a constant interest in different businesses and industries, and with one foot in the tech industry and the other in the motorcycle industry, he realised that something could be done.

Enter, DealerVu

From an operations perspective, Mike’s startup DealerVu ticks all the boxes. It allows dealerships to have access to up-to-the-minute reports and insights on their business and allows dealers to make intelligent business decisions based on current information.

More than 10 years on and DealerVu, a premium-price, niche market provider in the Dealer Management Software (DMS) industry, are “a quite successful small business” as Mike puts it. Tailored to meet the needs of both the small independent dealers to a very complex 80 location motorcycle and accessories distributor, DealerVu boasts a dealership network that spans from Newfoundland, Canada to Melbourne, Australia with everything in between. The company is unique in the DMS world with a laser-focus on solid data that is, in turn, anonymized and sold up the supply chain to manufacturers and distributors.

Fast-forward to present-day Sydney and Mike’s in town for business. He first came to Australia when one of Canada’s largest Harley dealers were opening in Brisbane and demanded to use DealerVu. As DealerVu progressed, Mike had grown a loyal team, with many employees wanting to play a broader role in the industry. There was a desire to scale DealerVu globally, but the DMS model has serious limitations.

Focusing on online

With DealerVu still ticking on successfully, Mike’s focus shifted to something online-based. In 2014 the ideas started forming for BlackPurl. BlackPurl will soon launch from Australia.

“Australia is an interesting thing for us”, he replies when MLG Executive Search Partner Kevin Griffiths asks how the Australian connection happened. There was a formative meeting for BlackPurl held at Jack Cowin’s office (fast-food billionaire, owner of Hungry Jack’s) that was well attended by people from the automotive industry: a luxury car purveyor, an auto dealer from WA, and the SVP of Salesforce.com’s AsiaPac sales team. Out of this discussion came the realisation that there was a desire for a new software in the Australia market, “but they didn’t want DMS, they wanted something new yet not one person could articulate what that was”, Mike recalls. Very gradually over the next year, a concept and a partnership with Salesforce emerged, aiming to develop a series of sophisticated enterprise software and phone-based apps.

BlackPurl offers a true market successor to the DMS business model. The idea proved highly scalable and allowed Mike to focus on the 1,000,000+ customers across the world that could employ this new business concept. A series of bundled applications will serve the entire vehicle retail ecosystem from vehicle and equipment rental, service and repair, to tyre and undercar. The partnership with Salesforce gives BlackPurl unprecedented cloud computing power, and a tool set that is unique in the space. With momentum building, BlackPurl has real potential to become the application of choice in the industry.

First stop, Australia

While BlackPurl is global in nature, the decision to launch in Australia was a well-thought-out decision, “it’s a trickier market, but at the same time it has a lot faster uptake by virtue of the culture. Lead-times to get proficient in the software is 50% quicker [in Australia] than Canada or USA”. For BlackPurl, Australia provides a market to get it right and set their processes in place, and then they’ll push out globally. “Many people say North America is good [to launch], but we’re not sure if we’re even going to go straight to the US first – APAC might be better”. For Mike, Australia is the ideal global launching pad: develop it here and take it out to the rest of the world.

For Kevin Griffiths, Growth Partner at MitchelLake Executive, BlackPurl is a compelling but fairly rare example of an international venture using Australia as a test market for initiating a global launch. Many international companies have used Australia to trial products and features, but it is typically less often that they launch in Australia as their first step market towards Global expansion. Pandora Radio and ASOS are other relevant examples in that context.

Mike backs his decision, “I live in North America and am very familiar with the market. It’s also available to us anytime. I think it’s easy to think that America is at the centre of the world, but when you look at the world map Australia is on the doorstep to 40% of the population. They are sophisticated markets that are growing dramatically”. BlackPurl is being brave, launching outside of their comfort zone, “if we do it well, it’ll be a smart move. The question is, how well can we execute it?” Mike muses.

Launching remotely

Logistically, how do you launch when you live on the other side of the world?

In a roundabout way, Mike was introduced to Kevin through NSW Trade & Investment. At the time he was chatting to another talent recruitment firm and were committed to working with them. “I made myself unavailable for Kevin when the opportunity first arrived to meet him”, Mike admits. Once the introduction was made between Mike and Kevin, MitchelLake kept popping up everywhere on Mike’s radar. By this stage a familiarity had developed around MLG and Mike began to see them as “the go-to people for what we were looking for”.

Mike didn’t really know what he was looking for at the time, but by his own admission, Kevin did. Through a series of discussions, it was initially decided that a country manager who had established roots in Australia was required. This pivoted over time and BlackPurl evolved towards profiles that had a more data-driven approach, with a strong product commercialisation background with a particular focus on scalable self-service platforms. Within about 30 minutes of Mike and Kevin chatting, BlackPurl’s entire profile was amended. When candidates were engaged, “the conversations were incredible.” Mike continues, “people came from a world we didn’t know – we’d just read about. The calibre of talent that showed up…” With each conversation, BlackPurl’s perspective changed, and Mike admits, “That’s big in our world”. Through a strategic relationship, a more intelligent approach to talent revealed itself.

Experienced advisors have always been on Mike’s side, “we’ve had the good fortune that in multiple areas we’ve had good advice. A great relationship is worth their weight in gold”. While, initially, the talent process was ‘like navigating in milk’, it worked, “It was a learning experience, that allowed us to better understand, and we will now go into things with a wider angle of consideration,” Mike offers.

Looking forward: growth, talent and removing boundaries

So, what’s the next 12 months got in store?

“Ultimately it’s to get the product right in a very minimal sense. It’s largely there right now,” Mike explains. “North America is actually on the pilot list, as it is important for it to work in a variety of locations. ”They’re also focusing on the delivery systems and experience of local users, to make it as good as it can be.

Then, Mike outlines, it’s a matter of “how do we become the most efficient in the world at distribution?”

BlackPurl’s measures of success are attainable and they’re consciously setting small goals, “I want to go to bed one night and wake up with 100 new locations on board through subscriptions in the app store. That’d be a pretty good sign”. Mike notes that to a certain degree, they’re still navigating in milk; “we’ll have unconventional measuring sticks – nothing like the DMS world – an entirely different set of guideposts” to count success.

The way BlackPurl has been assembled isn’t conventional. “Someone today said it’s really about working on fun projects with great people”, Mike says. His advice is to finding people that you click with, “Whether this is culture or whatever you choose to call it. [Make sure that you] truly click with them. Don’t settle for 80% and then get them on board, because you’ll end up asking them to leave, or worse”. Being flexible and having awareness is also key, “even if you think you know a lot of people, and have a great network, [dealing with MitchelLake and our other advisors] has opened our eyes to what’s possible. It’s about finding the great people and being open to getting out of your comfort zone”.

Finding the right people may indicate a lot of face-to-face time, but Mike is proof that this isn’t necessary, “we’re not under one roof and we’ve been lucky that we can establish relationships over the phone. Some of our best people we’ve met in person 2 years later [after hiring them]. There’s something to that, I can’t put words around, but it works for us”.

BlackPurl is exploiting their ability to be boundary-less, “If we were all in the one office, it wouldn’t work. Locate talent where they are and get them to make it work”.

Crunching numbers

BlackPurl passed Salesforce’s security review in early in early August and is being “quietly” piloted in Australia and North America. Salesforce has a significant vision for their role in this space and BlackPurl is a very complimentary component of that strategy.

BlackPurl has been funded by DealerVu to the tune of $3M over the last couple of years and just putting together the next round of $5M with no venture capital at this early stage. The target market is $12-$15bn annually, with the immediate addressable market around $7bn. BlackPurl’s focus on the underserved or totally ignored segments of the market with the intention of staying out of Franchise Automotive.

Parting advice

As a serial entrepreneur, what advice would Mike give to organisations at their early stage?

“Find the right people to help solve the puzzle. In our case, we had to reach way out into the mobile device and wireless industry for a mix of engineering and business. This skillset is foreign to the DMS industry today and we’d be nowhere on this without MLG and specifically, Kevin.

His last piece of advice is so beautifully simple but infrequently articulated: “Stay in business”. Simple, right? “Others might overcomplicate it, but cash conservation is really important to leave enough room for the 3, 4 or 5 attempts to get your offering right.”

If you’re thinking of launching or scaling your business in Australia and want to connect with Kevin Griffiths at MitchelLake to explore further, he and the team will be happy to share their insights from the launches and scale ups that MitchelLake have completed with; Dropbox, SurveyMonkey, TeamViewer, ImpactRadius, Facebook, eBay, Square, Stripe, Etsy, Pandora and Yammer to name a few…

Image thanks to Mike Wyrzykowski

MitchelLake Executive focuses on supporting high growth tech clients to launch and scale, locally, regionally and globally. We’re proud to provide an APAC launch platform solution that involves assisting international companies launch in Australia. We recently sat down with Canadian-born, Texas-based, Mike Wyrzykowski, founder of DealerVu and BlackPurl, to discuss their decision to launch a new business, BlackPurl, in Australia for which MitchelLake Executive placed Keith O’Brien in the COO role.

Author

Kevin Griffiths leads MitchelLake Executive for the ANZ Practice. Based in Sydney, he is focused on supporting startups, NewCo’s, scale-ups, and established tech companies with C-suite and board requirements, in addition to working with Australian SME’s and enterprises undergoing digital/technology transformations.

Since joining MLE in 2012, Kevin has led over 100 searches. His time has been divided into three key areas – CEO searches for scale-ups or tech companies going through transformation; CTO/CPO searches for tech companies with a global requirement to bring talent to Australia with technology and/or product leadership at scale; and consulting to and leading searches with clients looking to innovate, who are seeking advice from the MLE practice on the question of build, buy, or partner.

Prior to joining MLE, Kevin was a Partner at BMS where he built and led the Midlands commercial practice in the UK, before moving to Australia to help scale the business in Sydney and Melbourne.

KevinGriffiths

kevin@mitchellake.com

How do you know that this job is THE one?

mitchellake on October 6, 2016

Finding a new job can be a nerve-wracking and lengthy process. There is dating and swooning happening from both sides of the table. Candidates do their best to make a great impression and showcase their skills and expertise. Companies want candidates to believe that their company is the best place on earth to work (maybe it is), and that they have created a happy and humble environment. There is an underlying fear of rejection exhibited from candidates and companies alike. We all know how it feels to build your hopes up so high, only to have them come crashing down right in front of you. The decision to leave your old job, enter into the dating world, and hopefully settle down, doesn’t have to be a scary one.

Entering into a happy marriage

It’s difficult to determine just from the interview process whether you’ll want to be at the company long-term. Just like when you landed your first job, you’re super excited when you start and the honeymoon phase lasts for at least a few months. Then reality hits and the nuances of a new job fade away. You’re no longer the new person in the office, you don’t need any help figuring out what you’re supposed to be doing, things are falling into place. Now it’s time to start evaluating longevity, but how?

Trust

The first and most important is trust. Do your trust your boss? Do you trust your co-workers? Do they trust you, and do you feel valued? Like any relationship, trust is earned and developed over time. It is a mutual respect and understanding, and the most rewarding aspect of a relationship. Don’t get scared and jump ship early, a genuine sense of trust will probably not happen within your first year with a company. However, if you’re still uncertain after 2 years, then it might be time to start looking outside your current situation.

Work Life Balance

Are you able to take the time off that you want to? Do you go home at a decent hour? Do you work weekends? Are you ok with working weekends? Is there anyone in your life who is affected by your work life balance (husband/wife/partner/kids)? These factors contribute directly to your overall happiness and should be addressed throughout the interview process. If the expectations are set straight from the beginning, it will save both you and the company lots of stress and pain later down the line.

Challenge and Growth

Do you find yourself being challenged often? Is there upward mobility that you strive for? Are there alternative career paths to explore? It’s ok if you don’t know your exact career path when you’re making the decision to join a company, but knowing that there are options for growth is important. There needs to be a challenge, something willing you to continue trying. Internal support and the opportunity for upward mobility is paramount for your longevity at a company.

If you ask yourself these questions continually throughout your tenure at a company, you’ll be more comfortable with your decision to stay or to go. Embrace these core aspects of happiness, and you’re setting yourself up for a successful employer marriage.

We wish you many happy returns!

If you’re looking for a role that is your perfect match, get in touch with our team. We’re located in Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore and San Francisco, with satellite offices in London and Gold Coast.

We’re looking for a CEO to drive Australia’s education future // EduGrowth

mitchellake on September 20, 2016

Launching earlier this year, EduGrowth caught our attention with this decisive and ambitious mission: 100 million students educated globally per annum, through Australian education by 2025. EduGrowth realises Australia has the expertise, drive and collective vision to be a top-five country globally in borderless education, and they’re working with more than 200 Australian Education companies to revolutionise education as we know it, in order to ready us for a rapidly changing world.

But they need someone to guide them.

MitchelLake were immediately inspired by their vision, and now have the opportunity and great pleasure to help them reach it. We’re excited to be partnering with EduGrowth in a pro bono capacity to locate their new CEO to be responsible for and guide the success of the company.

We’re on the look out for someone with entrepreneurial energy, demonstrated experience and the right gravitas to lead this inspired organisation.

EduGrowth, a not-for-profit organisation, believes strongly in the community, and realises that through a supportive & collaborative network, Australia will be able to create a productive and successful startup ecosystem. By connecting entrepreneurs with mentors, established organisations and government departments, they can fast-track tests and trials of products and services.

AusTrade has been a key supporter, and the launch of EduGrowth has coincided with the activation of the AIE2025 Roadmap. This Roadmap has come out of over a year of consultation between the education sector, AusTrade and other arms of government to complement Australia’s National Strategy for International Education.
With 30 mentors engaged, EduGrowth’s Board is made up of Beverley Oliver, Patrick Brothers, Tony Brennan and Martin Beeche.

If you, or someone you know, can drive partnerships with corporates, face the government and work to oversee both the growing ecosystem and accelerator, then we’d love to talk!

Please spread the word far and wide, and get in touch with Kevin Griffiths to chat further on kevin@mitchellake.com or +61 412 343 041.

Image from EduGrowth

Author

Kevin Griffiths leads MitchelLake Executive for the ANZ Practice. Based in Sydney, he is focused on supporting startups, NewCo’s, scale-ups, and established tech companies with C-suite and board requirements, in addition to working with Australian SME’s and enterprises undergoing digital/technology transformations.

Since joining MLE in 2012, Kevin has led over 100 searches. His time has been divided into three key areas – CEO searches for scale-ups or tech companies going through transformation; CTO/CPO searches for tech companies with a global requirement to bring talent to Australia with technology and/or product leadership at scale; and consulting to and leading searches with clients looking to innovate, who are seeking advice from the MLE practice on the question of build, buy, or partner.

Prior to joining MLE, Kevin was a Partner at BMS where he built and led the Midlands commercial practice in the UK, before moving to Australia to help scale the business in Sydney and Melbourne.

KevinGriffiths

kevin@mitchellake.com

Applying Product Management to Executive Search

mitchellake on September 20, 2016

I recently graduated from a Product Management program here in San Francisco. For those who are unfamiliar with what a product manager does, the short answer is that they do many things. PMs wear multiple hats at once: they are a liaison between internal and external stakeholders to bring a product vision to life, they constantly collect feedback from customers to ensure that the product reflects market demand, as well as conduct research their competition to become an expert in their industry. But perhaps most importantly, a product manager must take full ownership of the success of a product. They must own whether consumers love or hate a product, and are in charge of making any necessary changes to guarantee that buyers have a good enough experience to become repeat customers. In short, product management is a strategic, process-oriented and user-centered way of working.

Enrolling in this program was quite a leap of faith for someone with no technical background and a liberal arts degree, but it turned out to be one of the best investments I could have made in myself. I was excited about the work I was doing during the program and knew that I had found a meaningful career path in product management. So, if my new dream was to become a successful product manager, how did I end up where I am now – working as a Project Management Associate on MitchelLake’s Executive Search team?

While using Agile methodologies within the service-based executive search industry may not be the most obvious application for my product management training, it has actually proven to be an effective way to help manage executive search projects. I recently met with Agile/Lean Product Development Practitioner, Joëlle Gernez, a well-respected manager in the tech community who confirmed with me that not only was it possible to use my PM skills at MitchelLake, but it was actually a great idea. Here are some of Joëlle’s tips as well as a few basic principles I learned during the program that I felt were applicable to the Mitchellake Executive Search team.

Keep it Simple

This is a fundamental rule for product managers in more than one way. When bringing a product concept to life, we must create simple but powerful MVPs that get the vision across. When conducting team meetings, PMs use brief, structured stand ups to simplify checking in with their team members and keeping everyone accountable for their goals. On the Mitchellake SF Executive Search team, we have replaced the daily 30 minute team check in with ten minute stand ups. This allows us to reallocate the other 20 minutes of time to one on one meetings between teammates to discuss specific roadblocks while the remainder of the team can use the extra 20 minutes to accomplish their goals.

Work in Sprints

Part of being a product manager in today’s tech scene is using some form of agile methodologies, or working in short, one to two week sprints, so that your team can easily adjust to unpredictability. For my team, this unpredictability can come in the form of digital disruptive client expectations. Evaluating our current process allowed us to gauge that working in one week sprints would be the most effective way for us to respond to changes during a search.

Conduct Retrospectives

Having a retrospective meeting with your team at the end of the week is extremely valuable if you want to continuously improve your internal processes. The retro should be used to identify pain points from the previous week, and then the team can vote on which pain point to focus on fixing during the following week. This discussion also allows people to empathise with one another and communicate openly about road blocks they may be experiencing. The average work day is often filled with numerous meetings, but it is helpful to schedule a separate meeting for retrospectives instead of trying to tack it on to the end of an a meeting scheduled for a different purpose so that there is adequate time to reflect on the week.

Don’t Fall in Love

The first time I heard this I laughed because it seemed a little ridiculous. Who falls in love with a product? It turns out to be a very practical piece of advice for product managers: you can’t fall in love with a product that you are building, because it will always need to change to keep up with the evolving needs of consumers. The same goes for candidates in executive search – you can’t fall in love with a carefully curated candidate regardless of their caliber or ideal background because at the end of the day, it is the client that makes the hiring decision and their needs evolve as well. During my short time in my new role, I’ve learned that it is easy to get excited about some of the really incredible people that our associates get to connect with – especially in some of the lengthier, more difficult searches – but remembering not to get our hopes up too high is what motivates the MLE team to keep delivering new quality candidates all the way up until contracts are signed and a search is officially closed.

Applying product management to the executive search process has been an enjoyable experience so far and I am looking forward to seeing how else we can improve the experience going forward. If you’re on the hunt for a great Product Manager who has your best interests in mind, get in touch now for a chat.

 

The Roller Coaster Ride of Recruiting

mitchellake on September 16, 2016

Roller coasters for “fun”? No, thank you. For those of you who know me, I am not one to rush into line for a roller coaster. Don’t get me wrong, rides (think Indiana Jones at Disneyland) are a blast, roller coasters (think Tower of Terror at California Adventure), not so much. The feeling of having your life in the hands of some 16-year-old kid on summer vacation and having complete faith in some metal and bolts holding the entire structure together is unsettling. Roller coaster rides are similar to the ups and downs that we recruiters are all too familiar with in many ways. We have all dealt with the anticipation of finding the perfect candidate and working with them throughout the entire process, and dealing with the anticipation to help them over the finish line.

The anticipation waiting in the line
…is very similar to waiting for a rockstar candidate to get back to you. Constantly checking your email to see if they have responded gives you butterflies, much like watching the ride take on new participants. Waiting your turn or waiting for that response feels like time has stopped.

Getting on the roller coaster
…is like when you’re finally get the response from the candidate you have been trying to tracking down. It is your time to sit in the hot seat and get ready to shine. You want to make sure that the candidate is as excited as you are to speak with them.

Buckling up for safety
…is like making sure all the questions are covered and you know everything about the candidate, inside and out. You don’t want to skip any part of this step as it is your life in the little metal clasp. Covering all the details about the company, role and team is like the buckle; making sure that it is secure before the ride attendant comes around to make sure that the ride can begin.

The Final Countdown to “GO”
…is when you send the candidate to the hiring manager to speak with. This is the time you want everything to fall into place and the ride to finally begin. You have been mentally preparing yourself for the adrenaline of the ride and now is the time.

The Climb or the Drop
…when the ride begins is very similar to getting the blessing from the interviewer to move forward or the unfortunate no and having cut the candidate. The interview goes positively and the climb of next steps begin, or the interview bombs and the drop is staring you right in the face.

The Flips
…of a roller coaster are unexpected much as is dealing with the unexpectedness of working with people. People do what is best for them and sometimes, it is not what you are expecting. One thing recruiting has taught me, always be prepared for the unexpected. When you are amping yourself up for the ride, you know the flips are part of it, but once on the roller coaster, it is hard to gauge when you are going to hit them.

The End of the ride
…is feeling calmness of knowing that the ride wasn’t as bad as you were anticipating, people are looking for the right opportunity for themselves and their families and you are there to help guide them through that journey. There is usually a surprise picture that is taken to see the utter terror on your face as the big drop is happening. This terror is similar to the realisation that sometimes things are out of your hands and the candidate is not 100% on-board. You try your hardest to look as happy as possible, but sometimes you just can’t help it.

Feeling the ground beneath your feet
…is the best feeling, know knowing that things were out of your hands but now you have your feet back on the ground and you are back in control and ready to move onto the next ride to go through the whole process once again.

We promise to make building out your team or landing your next role as un-roller-coaster-like as possible. Contact us now if you’d like to chat about where your career is heading.

Now that I’ve been a founder…Sydney FinTech Startup Weekend Review

mitchellake on September 13, 2016

This weekend I attended Sydney’s first startup weekend hosted by Stone & Chalk and sponsored by H2 and Westpac. This was also the first FinTech specialist startup weekend in Australia.

On Friday night, everyone was given 60 seconds to pitch an idea. Following this, teams are quickly formed and we had until 4pm Sunday to validate our idea, create an MVP/proof of concept, and pitch to a panel of judges.

Much to my surprise, we won (!) with an idea called Tap4Change, a social welfare payments platform. Over the weekend we tested and validated as best as we could then pitched it to the panel which I was fortunate (or unfortunate) to deliver on behalf of my team. You can find the entire thing below if you’re interested (skip forward to 2:48:30).

When we started the weekend, we wanted to make a contactless payment platform for those disadvantaged by homelessness. Where we ended up didn’t feel too far away from that, but the amount of times we pivoted, threw out wireframes and completely reshaped the proposition, I can no longer count. Every time we opened up concepts for discussion, it felt like a horse designed by committee (a camel) as we seemed to move further and further away from our vision.

It was a great experience, one of the biggest takeaways was that as a recruiter in the fintech space, I now have a greater understanding of a founder’s pain! Yes my 48-hours-of-founder experience was on a micro scale, but this weekend our team sunk a lot of emotion, effort and stress into this product and I can see how attachment to the product can grow uncontrollably.

Ultimately, we managed to stay on track by pushing ourselves to continually solve a customer problem, which was the entire point of the weekend. Solving customer problems is what product people do, and solving a customer problem is exactly why a founder would start a business in the first place. So it makes absolute sense that they would be so closely tied to the product as it evolves.

We often have very difficult discussions with founders, especially when hiring product leaders as it requires giving up control around product decisions as the business grows. Founders typically hold the vision for the product and nurse it throughout the infancy of its development. But for 90% of founders, there comes a time when it is no longer appropriate to be both the CPO and CEO, and they have to bring in an expert to drive the delivery, vision and strategy of the product. This is typically where we come into the picture, and for every founder we have this conversation with, we are constantly testing and probing to see whether they are ready to emotionally detach from the product which will set up the incoming product leader for success – something (with my small window into this world) I know would be a lot easier said than done.

So I want to finish with some words of new-found wisdom to all founders who I’ve talked to and all future founders I work with: I think I get it, and sorry for not fully appreciating what you must have been going through. I built a concept over a weekend and I already became precious about what we had created. I couldn’t even imagine how you would feel about building a product for three, four or more years to then have to pass your baby to someone else. So, moving forward, I’m going to handle with care, be more understanding, and help you as much as possible to trust that I’m the right person to find your product’s lead, and that they will be absolutely amazing.

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Looking to take your product to the next level? Perhaps your are looking to scale, launch overseas or build out your team. We should chat.

Leaping on the rocketship: the balancing act of startups

mitchellake on September 8, 2016

The buzzword startup attracts two types of candidates. Those that are fresh from school, and those that are senior employees from corporations who are looking for a mid-career change. Those who have made the switch have spoken about the differences between working in a corporate organisation and a startup. I myself took a leap of faith to move from a multinational search firm to MitchelLake, a company that displays all the positives of a startup, despite its 15-year history. I have advised many candidates to move from corporations to startups too, and for the vast majority it has been a great and rewarding change.

From listening to these candidates and from my own experience, I would like to highlight one key factor for candidates who are trying to get on the rocketship: the act of balancing.

Here are some considerations to review if you’re looking for a change:

Flexibility and Discipline
When moving from a corporation to a startup, one experiences lot more flexibility at work. This is one of the biggest perks. Be conscious and find a balance between abusing the new-found freedom and instilling discipline to complete the tasks at hand. For example, if you’re stopping at 5pm to go to the gym for an hour, have the discipline to re-start at 7pm.

Achieving It All
We have heard about burn rate, limited budget or talents or simply the lack of these. With this in mind, one needs to constantly decide on a feasible goal that is achievable with the resources on hand, versus the grand goal.

The allocation of resources for some projects will limit or leave you with no headcount for other projects. You can only stretch your staff so much before they become demotivated and quit on you. However, all startups need to scale and achieve a lot as quickly as possible. So remember to set realistic deadlines and goals that can be accomplished at a humanly possible pace.

This has led many founders or managers rolling up their sleeves, working on too much operations work instead of focusing on the bigger picture.

Speed of Decision and Perfect plan
All startups require quick decision making, often at the lack of information, which means it is rarely a perfect plan. At times, they also need to act on based on trial and error, observing the impact along the way and tweaking the plan as they go along.

Before we part, I will leave you some questions to ponder, and if you have any words of wisdom, please get in touch with us on Twitter @MitchelLake

For Founders: When is the best time to make a business decision such as expanding to other territorial or taking on a new distribution channel? How much information do we gather before pivoting?

For Candidates moving to startups: When is the best time to make a leap, and how much information do we gather before doing so?

Special thanks to founders and candidates who has kindly shared their thoughts for this article.

Based in Singapore, Conny specialises in executive search for innovative, startups, emerging technology sectors and enterprise going through digital transformation. If you’re looking for talent or opportunities in the Lion City or elsewhere, get in touch.

Transformational not Transactional!

mitchellake on September 6, 2016

Whilst the majority of the talent acquisition industry is focused on transactional behaviours, old-school management styles and the numbers game, The MitchelLake Group draws its attention to the market and our customers in order to be transformational!. Continue reading below…

Centred on working with startups, traditional enterprise and digital transformation groups, we provide innovative talent acquisition solutions with two basic premises: adding value and facilitating partnerships.

MitchelLake ultimately exists to help great ideas succeed. We help innovative businesses scale, and businesses of scale innovate! This is our mission. We are building an enduring global brand that is recognised as the global leader of talent for innovation.

MitchelLake provides flexible and transparent talent acquisition solutions from retained executive search, through to embedded, performance-driven project solutions. We’ve built a global network of respected technology leaders by being part of the industry, not merely as recruiters. We are active investors, we run global events, and we are commentators on important trends across the landscape.

Perhaps you work for a talent acquisition consultancy that is more of a transactional player. Perhaps your agency lacks a purpose outside of simply getting a deal done at all costs. Perhaps your employer’s values aren’t the same that you share.

Our core values define in simple terms who we are and how we engage with our customers, clients and colleagues.

• Partnership – To our customers, be they companies or candidates, we promise to be transformational, not transactional.
• Mindfulness – We always assume positive intent, we welcome and respect diversity in our market, our people, opinions and perspectives.
• Curiosity – The relentless pursuit of knowledge builds our capability, expertise and influence.

With a global network of offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, San Francisco and satellite offices on the Gold Coast and in London, we are proud of our growth and success, particularly as the only Australian-owned emerging tech & innovation focused talent acquisition agency with a substantial presence and office in San Francisco. We are honoured to be flying the Aussie flag in Silicon Valley which ultimately drives greater connections and opportunities with the innovative brands that lead the digital marketplace.

We are currently looking to build the team further across APAC and add some more Lakers that have a passion for the Technology / Digital arena and a thirst to make a difference. Whether you are new to the recruitment industry, or an established senior consultant or leader, if you’re interested in an informal chat about your career, our culture and the opportunity that MitchelLake could present, then we would love to have a chat.

For APAC region opportunities with MitchelLake contact sydney@mitchellake.com, Head of Talent APAC on + 61 438 209200. For USA region opportunities contact Greg Russell, VP People US +1 415 728 2544 or greg@mitchellake.com.