Without Borders

As the only PR and communications agency built to scale high-growth technology companies faster across Europe, we understand the unique challenges of growing a business across the region, particularly when it comes to communications. Our new podcast series, Scaling Without Borders, is designed to help ambitious entrepreneurs overcome common challenges and successfully expand into new markets across Europe. Each episode explores the high and lows of growing a tech business internationally, offering valuable insights from some of Europe's most inspiring tech leaders who have been there and done it. In this first series, we take a close look at the journeys of scale-ups founded by Dutch entrepreneurs with Tyto’s local experts, Chantal Schepers and Erik van de Nadort. We uncover what it takes to thrive in today’s ultra-competitive international markets and share invaluable insights to take your business to the next level from inspiring tech leaders. The final episode features Rob van den Heuvel, co-founder and CEO of Sendcloud, a leading European shipping software company that helps e-commerce organisations streamline and simplify their logistics processes. Since founding Sendcloud in 2012 with his co-founders Bas and Sabi, Rob has helped build a highly successful company that now serves more than 23,000 e-commerce businesses across Europe. From being bored at business school to becoming frustrated with outdated shipping systems, Rob shares how his entrepreneurial journey began and the lessons he’s learned along the way. His experience scaling Sendcloud provides valuable insights into the challenges of entering a new market for the first time - navigating the classic chicken-and-egg dilemma of needing volume to secure partnerships while requiring partnerships to drive volume - and the complexities of raising funds to accelerate growth and expand capabilities through strategic acquisitions. For more episodes of Scaling Without Borders featuring inspiring stories from Europe’s scale-up ecosystem, check out ourYouTube channel. And don’t forget to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform to stay updated.

As the only PR and communications agency built to scale high-growth technology companies faster across Europe, we understand the unique challenges of growing a business across the region, particularly when it comes to communications. Our new podcast series, Scaling Without Borders, is designed to help ambitious entrepreneurs overcome common challenges and successfully expand into new markets across Europe. Each episode explores the high and lows of growing a tech business internationally, offering valuable insights from some of Europe's most inspiring tech leaders who have been there and done it. In this first series, we take a close look at the journeys of scale-ups founded by Dutch entrepreneurs with Tyto’s local experts, Chantal Schepers and Erik van de Nadort. We uncover what it takes to thrive in today’s ultra-competitive international markets and share invaluable insights to take your business to the next level from inspiring tech leaders. In this episode, we hear from Haran Sold, Partner and Head of Technology Investments at Mentha Capital, a leading European private equity firm headquartered in Amsterdam. Haran began his career at PeopleSoft (acquired by Oracle in 2005), and has since held various international roles at companies like Nokia, Alcatel Lucent, and SmartShift Technologies, working in both France and the US. With extensive experience in scaling businesses internationally, Haran supports ambitious management teams at Mentha’s portfolio companies daily. Drawing on his years of expertise, he shares invaluable insights into the common challenges scale-ups face when expanding across borders, key considerations for raising funds domestically or abroad, and why a deep understanding of your target market is crucial for success. New episodes of Scaling Without Borders featuring inspiring stories from Europe’s scale-up ecosystem will be released soon. Don’t forget to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform or YouTube channel to stay updated.

As the only PR and communications agency built to scale high-growth technology companies faster across Europe, we understand the unique challenges of growing a business across the region, particularly when it comes to communications. Our new podcast series, Scaling Without Borders, is designed to help ambitious entrepreneurs overcome common challenges and successfully expand into new markets across Europe. Each episode explores the high and lows of growing a tech business internationally, offering valuable insights from some of Europe's most inspiring tech leaders who have been there and done it. In this first series, we take a close look at the journeys of scale-ups founded by Dutch entrepreneurs with Tyto’s local experts, Chantal Schepers and Erik van de Nadort. We uncover what it takes to thrive in today’s ultra-competitive international markets and share invaluable insights to take your business to the next level from inspiring tech leaders. The fourth episode features Wibe Wagemans, a serial entrepreneur known for building the globally recognised Angry Birds and Big Fish brands. Since moving to Silicon Valley two decades ago, Wibe has made a significant impact, leading startups to exits exceeding $500 million and IPOs surpassing $1 billion as a CEO, chairman, and advisor. As the best-selling co-author of The Secret of Silicon Valley, Wibe spills the beans on successfully expanding into the US, the critical importance of speed when scaling, and key lessons European founders can learn from entrepreneurs in the valley. New episodes of Scaling Without Borders featuring inspiring stories from Europe’s scale-up ecosystem will be released soon. Don’t forget to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform or YouTube channel to stay updated.

As the only PR and communications agency built to scale high-growth technology companies faster across Europe, we understand the unique challenges of growing a business across the region, particularly when it comes to communications. Our new podcast series, Scaling Without Borders, is designed to help ambitious entrepreneurs overcome common challenges and successfully expand into new markets across Europe. Each episode explores the high and lows of growing a tech business internationally, offering valuable insights from some of Europe's most inspiring tech leaders who have been there and done it. In this first series, we take a close look at the journeys of scale-ups founded by Dutch entrepreneurs with Tyto’s local experts Chantal Schepers and Erik van de Nadort. We uncover what it takes to thrive in today’s ultra-competitive international markets and share invaluable insights to take your business to the next level from inspiring tech leaders. The third episode sees Lieke Conijn, Startup Liaison for the Dutch Embassy in London, share advice for scale-ups aiming to grow in post-Brexit Britain and offer her thoughts on the UK’s Autumn Budget, which was yet to be announced at the time of recording. Plus, find out why Lieke urges founders to take inspiration from Dutch footballer, Virgil van Dijk, and work their way up to competing in the Premier League of business. New episodes of Scaling Without Borders featuring inspiring stories from Europe’s scale-up ecosystem will be released soon. Don’t forget to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform or YouTube channel to stay updated.

As the only PR and communications agency built to scale high-growth technology companies faster across Europe, we understand the unique challenges of growing a business across the region, particularly when it comes to communications. Our new podcast series, Scaling Without Borders, is designed to help ambitious entrepreneurs overcome common challenges and successfully expand into new markets across Europe. Each episode explores the high and lows of growing a tech business internationally, offering valuable insights from some of Europe's most inspiring tech leaders who have been there and done it. In this first series, we take a close look at the journeys of scale-ups founded by Dutch entrepreneurs with Tyto’s local experts Chantal Schepers and Erik van de Nadort. We uncover what it takes to thrive in today’s ultra-competitive international markets and share invaluable insights to take your business to the next level from inspiring tech leaders. In this episode, Martijn Hamann, Co-Owner and Partner at Endeit Capital, shares what he learnt from guiding 50+ tech companies as they scaled internationally. From leading Endemol to its IPO to unlocking opportunities in AI and tech, Martijn discusses the do’s, don’ts, and secrets to success for scale-ups growing across borders. New episodes of Scaling Without Borders featuring inspiring stories from Europe’s scale-up ecosystem will be released soon. Don’t forget to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform or YouTube channel to stay updated.

As the only PR and communications agency built to scale high-growth technology companies faster across Europe, we understand the unique challenges of growing a business across the region, particularly when it comes to communications. Our new podcast series, Scaling Without Borders, is designed to help ambitious entrepreneurs overcome common challenges and successfully expand into new markets across Europe. Each episode explores the high and lows of growing a tech business internationally, offering valuable insights from some of Europe's most inspiring tech leaders who have been there and done it. In this first series, we take a close look at the journeys of scale-ups founded by Dutch entrepreneurs with Tyto’s local experts Chantal Schepers and Erik van de Nadort. We uncover what it takes to thrive in today’s ultra-competitive international markets and share invaluable insights to take your business to the next level from inspiring tech leaders. In this episode, Matthijs Welle, CEO of Mews, reveals how the cloud business was founded and overcame a rather challenging start in France. With Mews now on its way to becoming the global leader in hospitality management tech, Matthijs shares his experience of leading the scale-up through nine acquisitions, seven funding rounds, and the inevitable challenges sparked by rapid international growth. New episodes of Scaling Without Borders featuring inspiring stories from Europe’s scale-up ecosystem will be released soon. Don’t forget to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform or YouTube channel to stay updated!

This is the sixth episode of our Following Up podcast series. In these conversations, we sit down with some of the leading journalists in the B2B technology industry and take a deep dive into their careers, unique ways of working and their attitudes towards the changing media landscape. We aim to uncover some of the biggest challenges journalists face in their day-to-day, their key priorities when it comes to delivering the most relevant news, ideas and features to their readers, best practices when pitching and how companies, PR professionals and journalists can work better together in partnership to achieve excellent media results. Our guest for today’s episode is Eva Schram, Editor Financial markets, the Financieele Dagblad (FD), the leading Dutch Financial newspaper. The FD has grown into a multimedia brand and reaches its audience using print, online and events published seven days a week. Before joining the FD, Eva was based in California, where she was Silicon Valley correspondent covering the tech sector from the very heart of it, for over seven years. Now, Eva is based in Amsterdam with a keen eye on the Dutch stock exchange. In this episode hosted by Tyto’s Erik van de Nadort and Bastian Meger, Eva shares her own experience and opinion about how journalism differs between Europe and the US. Eva talks us through her process for identifying which stories are most interesting to her audience, and why it is so important to find a fresh take on a big hitting news story, to provide readers with a different insight than other media outlets. Being a digital first publication means it is crucial to find that angle as quickly as possible to keep readers informed in real-time. We asked Eva to share her criteria for what makes a great spokesperson, to which she told us “I want to talk to people who know a lot more about a topic than I do, who can tell me everything I would like to know.” She also highlights the importance of availability, being able to ask someone a series of questions over the phone or video chat to find out what she needs to know is much more valuable. Finally, Eva shares her frustration with jargon, and explains why she looks to interview individuals who can explain their views in a simplified, low-key manner. In Eva’s words, “as you would explain it to your neighbors or your parents. That’s the best way.” Are you interested in hearing more fascinating insights from other leading technology journalists? You can listen and subscribe to ‘Following Up’ on your preferred podcast platform and on our YouTube channel.

This is the fifth episode of our new podcast series, Following Up. In these conversations, we sit down with some of the leading journalists in the B2B technology industry and take a deep dive into their careers, unique ways of working and their attitudes towards the changing media landscape. We aim to uncover some of the biggest challenges journalists face in their day-to-day, their key priorities when it comes to delivering the most relevant news, ideas and features to their readers, best practices when pitching and how companies, PR professionals and journalists can work better together in partnership to achieve excellent media results. Our guest for this episode is Nadine Schimroszik, Technology Correspondent at Handelsblatt, one of Germany’s leading newspapers covering business and finance. Based in Berlin, Nadine covered the business sector for more than 10 years until 2017, when she switched her focus to the tech industry. In this episode hosted by Tyto’s Zoë Clark and Bastian Meger, Nadine shares what it was like making the move from fast-paced global news agency, Reuters, to Handelsblatt where her focus turned to the German startup scene. Nadine’s passion for technology and startups began when she wrote a book during her maternity leave, which kick-started her switch towards business and technology as a focus topic. Naturally, Nadine loves to keep on top of the news agenda, and the tech sector specifically, but she also loves to write about topics such as sustainability, climate change and deep tech, all of which appeal to Handelsblatt’s audience of investors. Nadine talks us through what makes a great spokesperson, and why the best interviews don’t necessarily come from those big names or those who are the most rehearsed. Rather, it’s all about being authentic and having an interesting story to tell. Nadine also shares her thoughts on how journalists and PRs can work well together. In her view, a mutual understanding of each other’s ways of working and the audience journalists are trying to target will enable PRs to be a valuable asset to the media, enabling more cooperation to find the best stories. Nadine’s parting wisdom – “I don’t mind which paper you read – whether it’s Handelsblatt or another, but keep informed! That couldn’t be more important these days”. Are you interested in hearing more fascinating insights from other leading technology journalists? You can listen and subscribe to ‘Following Up’ on your preferred podcast platform and also on our YouTube channel.

This is the fourth episode of our new podcast series, Following Up. In these conversations, we sit down with some of the leading journalists in the B2B technology industry and take a deep dive into their careers, unique ways of working and their attitudes towards the changing media landscape. We aim to uncover some of the biggest challenges journalists face in their day-to-day, their key priorities when it comes to delivering the most relevant news, ideas and features to their readers, best practices when pitching and how companies, PR professionals and journalists can work better together in partnership to achieve excellent media results. Our guest for this episode is Thomas Seymat, Editorial Project and Development Manager at European news network, Euronews. Thomas has been working in journalism for almost 20 years, and has participated in various roles within Euronews over the past twelve years. In this episode hosted by Tyto’s Sophie Banda and Pauline Delorme, Thomas talks us through the transformation that Euronews has experienced over the past few years, and how his role has changed as a result. We chat about his previous experience as Virtual Reality Editor and how the publication implemented VR into its coverage. Thomas shares his views on what the future of immersive journalism could look like, and why he believes it is both technology and human behaviour that is currently causing a barrier for its development. Thomas’ dream of becoming a journalist began when he started a newspaper with his peers at high school, later going on to write for his local paper in Lyon, Le Progrès. He even spent some time as a skateboard journalist, reviewing skateboard games! Having always been curious, he finds journalism the perfect way to learn new things and tell complete strangers what is going on in the world. Are you interested in hearing more fascinating insights from other leading technology journalists? You can listen and subscribe to ‘Following Up’ on your preferred podcast platform and also on our YouTube channel.

This is the third episode of our new podcast series, Following Up. In these conversations, we sit down with some of the leading journalists in the B2B technology industry and take a deep dive into their careers, unique ways of working and their attitudes towards the changing media landscape. We aim to uncover some of the biggest challenges journalists face in their day-to-day, their key priorities when it comes to delivering the most relevant news, ideas and features to their readers, best practices when pitching and how companies, PR professionals and journalists can work better together in partnership to achieve excellent media results. Our guest for this episode is Roland Lindner, US Business Correspondent at Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), one of Germany’s leading national newspapers. Roland has been a journalist for almost 30 years and has spent most of his career in New York covering the US business sector. In this episode hosted by Tyto’s Bastian Meger and Pauline Delorme, Roland takes us through a typical day in his life starting at 5am every morning, and the types of stories and companies he usually covers. Roland reveals how he decides whether a story is interesting, and that he doesn’t always know exactly how the storyline will evolve when he is speaking to people; the best stories are not planned and develop over time. He finds interviews go well when everyone feels at ease, so avoids unnecessary questioning that might make a spokesperson feel uncomfortable. Over his years in the industry, Roland has interviewed many high-profile names such as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Sheryl Sandberg. During his time as a journalist, he has experienced first-hand how the news agenda has changed to become faster paced and has had to learn to adapt to the changing media landscape. More than half of what he covers is technology, which is the area he finds most interesting, particularly the rise of AI, but the stories that stick with him are those with a strong human element. Are you interested in hearing more fascinating insights from other leading technology journalists? You can listen and subscribe to ‘Following Up’ on your preferred podcast platform and also on our YouTube channel.

This is the second episode of our new podcast series, Following Up. In these conversations, we sit down with some of the leading journalists in the B2B technology industry and take a deep dive into their careers, unique ways of working and their attitudes towards the changing media landscape. We aim to uncover some of the biggest challenges journalists face in their day-to-day, their key priorities when it comes to delivering the most relevant news, ideas and features to their readers, best practices when pitching and how companies, PR professionals and journalists can work better together in partnership to achieve excellent media results. Our guest for this episode is Thomas Macaulay, Senior Reporter at The Next Web, a publication that covers technology and startup businesses in Europe. Thomas has been working in journalism for over a decade, and in his current role focuses on Europe’s tech ecosystem, particularly deep tech, startups and government policy. In this episode hosted by Tyto’s Sophie Banda and Bastian Meger, Thomas talks us through a typical day in his life as a reporter for one of Europe’s largest online technology news outlets; from the European startup scene to paranormal grannies in Bosnia. We chat about his career journey, starting out as a postal clerk to teaching journalism, and how he eventually bit the bullet and decided to pursue his dream of being a journalist in his late 20’s. Thomas is also a big fan of the European tech scene and shares his thoughts on why he believes the EU has become a world leader, especially when it comes to regulation. When asked what he would like PRs to know about the role of the journalist, relevance is key, and he appreciates when PRs have taken the time to research his interests before sending him a story – and notices when they haven’t! Are you interested in hearing more fascinating insights from other leading technology journalists? You can listen and subscribe to ‘Following Up’ on your preferred podcast platform and also on our YouTube channel.

This is the first episode of our new podcast series, Following Up. In these conversations, we sit down with some of the leading journalists in the B2B technology industry and take a deep dive into their careers, unique ways of working and their attitudes towards the changing media landscape. We aim to uncover some of the biggest challenges journalists face in their day-to-day, their key priorities when it comes to delivering the most relevant news, ideas and features to their readers, best practices when pitching and how companies, PR professionals and journalists can work better together in partnership to achieve excellent media results. Our guest for our first episode is Mike Moore, Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro, the business technology publication targeted specifically at B2B decision-makers. Mike has worked as a technology journalist for over a decade, covering everything from cybersecurity to VR at the Winter Olympics. In this episode hosted by Tyto’s Sophie Banda and Pauline Delorme, Mike talks us through his career journey and the changes he has seen, from starting out as a journalist to deputy editor. When every day looks different, Mike outlines what he looks out for in a good pitch, shares top tips for PR consultants and chats to us about his dream interviewee. Are you interested in hearing more fascinating insights from other leading technology journalists? You can listen and subscribe to ‘Following Up’ on your preferred podcast platform and also on our YouTube channel.

Our guest in this 35th podcast episode with a unicorn start-up leader is the founder and CEO of FullStory, Scott Voigt. FullStory is a technology company that focuses on creating the perfect digital experience. Their tech records the customer journey in a privacy friendly way, whether it's on a browser or a native device. The data is then reported back to the owners of those properties so they can understand exactly when, where and why their customers are receiving a lower level of digital experience, and how to rectify it. Scott has been In the SaaS game for over 25 years. He worked at a number of companies over that time – but the FullStory story picked up in the early 2000’s when he was working on a startup (where he met his two co-founders) which was later acquired by Google. “The whole time we wanted to get the band back together, and so we finally got the courage, say, in 6 or 7 years after we had sold that company to Google to quit our day jobs, really to pursue this idea of perfecting digital experience by developing a very innovative piece of technology that didn't exist before”, says Voigt. In 2021, the company achieved Unicorn status after securing an impressive $171 million in funding. Since then, it has continued to flourish, establishing a prominent foothold in Europe and Australia while also expanding its operations into Germany and Singapore. When talking about his strengths as a leader, Scott said he is always sceptical of people who claim to know what their own strengths are, which is why it is important for people to communicate this to each other. Scott has always had the “gift of the gab” when it comes to talking in front of people, but revealed he has a weakness when it comes to writing: “For a long time I was very hesitant to put words on paper. And so, I think I probably would lean into to verbal communication. At some point I decided I wanted to go back to business school, university here in the States. And it turns out in order to get in, you had to learn how to write”, he jokes. We asked Scott whether the culture at FullStory had changed since becoming a Unicorn. He made a conscious effort to ensure that it did not, and one way of doing this, he encouraged everyone to be proud and hungry to succeed, but not pay attention to the numbers. He says “nobody gives you a high five in the world when you refinance your house. That's just a financing event. And so, it is with FullStory.” Scott trusts that while it's gratifying to have some sort of recognition for their accomplishments, such as this big milestone, it's important not to become too fixated on that number since it is bound to fluctuate over time. The FullStory founder and CEO believes that in order to be a successful leader, you must be genuine. He emulates this in every talk he gives to the company, by showing empathy and always encourages employees to “honour your inner sceptic”. In other words, questioning and testing that what he says is true so that the team can build real trust and be more aligned. Being genuine builds trust. The interview, as usual, was co-hosted with Russell Goldsmith of the csuite podcast. Alongside Holly Justice, Senior Partner at Tyto PR. We have distilled the most valuable, actionable insights from our first 15 interviews with leaders of unicorn companies and bottled them in our book ‘Growing without borders: The unicorn CEO guide to communication and culture’. You can download it here.

Our guest in this 34th podcast episode with a unicorn start-up leader is the CEO of 6Sense, Jason Zintak. The B2B sales and marketing platform 6sense was founded in 2013, but Jason joined the company four years later. The company then achieved unicorn status in March 2021 and last year, after a Series E funding of $200 million, reached a valuation of $5.2 billion with over 1300 employees. Jason shares what it was like joining a company as CEO, having previously been led by the founder, with the challenge of achieving unicorn status. “It’s been quite a journey", Jason admits. “I joined the company and the founders at roughly $5 million in ARR [Annual Recurring Revenue] and today we're $200 million plus or minus, and that's just five and a half years later. So, we have quite a lot of experience together”, he adds. He goes on to talk about what it takes to build a successful management team, such as getting to know your team and how they work and complement your own skill set. “One of our values at the company is just a growth mindset, balanced with accountability, integrity, having fun, being one team, so to speak. And we've practiced that for the last six years.” These values have been a part of the company's DNA and play a significant role in their success formula. We then got onto the topic of ChatGPT, and Jason revealed that 6Sense has had this technology within the product for the past two years, but they feel fortunate to be “riding the tailwind”. The whole company is built upon the ability for AI to drive modern applications. “I think AI is embedded in increasingly more and more things and part of our [reason for] founding the company is that there's just too much data for any human to really process.” Jason has always loved communicating with people, it’s what got him into sales and marketing in his early career, but will also often sit back and observe, and even feels nervous sometimes. He finds it harder to connect with employees, especially new recruits, due to a remote structure and rapid growth, but will always make a conscious effort to get small groups together on “workerversaries” to reconnect and stay in touch. In addition, he maintains an "open door policy" to encourage internal communication, inviting anyone who wishes to discuss anything at any time, regardless of location. Jason’s organization operates as a flat structure without any mandatory hierarchy, which he believes fosters this closeness and “helps keep it human.” Talking about his leadership style and who has had the biggest influence throughout his career, interestingly, Jason believes that we shouldn’t be trying to emulate a leader that inspires us. Instead, he urges people to adopt small parts of what those leaders do well, but to focus primarily on being your own authentic self. The interview, as usual, was co-hosted with Russell Goldsmith of the csuite podcast. Alongside Holly Justice, Senior Partner at Tyto PR. We have distilled the most valuable, actionable insights from our first 15 interviews with leaders of unicorn companies and bottled them in our book ‘Growing without borders: The unicorn CEO guide to communication and culture’. You can download it here.

Our guest in this 33rd podcast episode with a unicorn start-up leader is the CEO and founder of Envoy, Larry Gadea. Envoy is changing modern workplaces by making office life and work more meaningful, by redefining how people, places, and technology work together. Founded in 2013, the company reached unicorn status in January 2022 with a valuation of $1.4 billion. Larry has been a keen engineer from a very young age, writing scripts and learning about reverse engineering whilst his friends were in school. This early skill came in use when he was headhunted by Google to build software for them at the age of 17. Four years later, Larry moved to Twitter, which is where he gained the inspiration to create the original version of Envoy’s visitor management product. This same software is now used in over 20,000 offices across the world. Amongst the high points of Envoy’s journey, Larry also shares some of the challenges faced over the years, namely the COVID-19 pandemic which was a pivotal time for the company. “Visitor management products and COVID. Let me just tell you, not a great mix”, Larry reflects. Despite the hurdles put in its way, the company still continued to accelerate during this time by becoming even more thoughtful about the future needs of the workplace, adapting their offering and putting the spotlight on the humans behind the technology. Larry trusts it’s essential to surround yourself with experienced and tenacious people who are excited about scaling the business and changing the world. He acknowledges “it’s very easy to give up on something, especially in Silicon Valley” as opportunities – or recruiters – can come up unexpectedly. He claims he has been “given the gift of resilience”, and he believes this, as a founder or an entrepreneur, is one of the most important qualities he can have. Larry is a passionate leader, who believes the key elements of successful leadership are clearly communicating your expectations, being able and willing to admit when you have made a mistake, and consistently repeating yourself until you are told to stop. The interview, as usual, was co-hosted with Russell Goldsmith of the csuite podcast. Alongside Holly Justice, Senior Partner at Tyto PR. We have distilled the most valuable, actionable insights from our first 15 interviews with leaders of unicorn companies and bottled them in our book ‘Growing without borders: The unicorn CEO guide to communication and culture’. You can download it here.

Our guest in this 32nd interview episode with a unicorn start-up leader is the CEO and Co-founder of Coalition, Joshua Motta. Coalition is the world’s first Active Insurance company, designed to prevent digital risk before it strikes. The company combines the power of technology and insurance to help organisations identify, mitigate and respond to digital risks. Coalition was co-founded in 2017 by Joshua Motta and John Hering and has since raised over $700M from leading global technology investors. Coalition reached unicorn status in 2021 with a current valuation of $5 billion, trusted by over 104,000 customers worldwide. Joshua started his cybersecurity journey in two of the world's most prolific companies and organisations, Microsoft and the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Insurance, he jokes, is a very dangerous field and known for being ‘technologically adept’. But in some ways, this was the perfect preparation. Coalition is "what would happen if you combined a financial service - insurance - with a technology company and an intelligence community mindset." His previous experiences, including positions at companies like Cloudflare and Goldman Sachs, helped him bring disciplines together to tackle a problem in a novel way. Coalition has reached unicorn status thanks to its focus on its customers. Joshua states “we’re really partnering with them to improve their cybersecurity to mitigate the risks that they face before the event happens,” he also mentions that they are not “just paying out a claim” but rather, they are “on the ground helping them to recover.” The commitment to client protection further extends to Coalition’s communication, where Joshua believes that effective communication comes from ‘putting yourself in the shoes of the customer’ and simplifying the message to make it as accessible to the customer as possible. Joshua also explores leadership and hiring at Coalition, with their recruitment process being that of a “stars attract stars” philosophy – hiring talented, ambitious people who want to work with other talented and ambitious people. The second stage of this approach is embracing a ‘tribal’ philosophy, which means getting these top performers and talented individuals to work together in harmony. Loyalty, a sense of shared purpose and an egalitarian ethos are embedded into Coalition’s tribal culture and have helped them succeed. Being deliberate about culture is incredibly important, states Coalition’s CEO. At the end of the day, “culture is not what you write down, it is what you practice.” The interview, as usual, was co-hosted with Russell Goldsmith of the csuite podcast. Alongside Holly Justice, Senior Partner at Tyto PR. We have distilled the most valuable, actionable insights from our first 15 interviews with leaders of unicorn companies and bottled them in our book ‘Growing without borders: The unicorn CEO guide to communication and culture’. You can download it here.

Our guest in this 31st interview episode with a unicorn start-up leader is the CEO of Tealium, Jeff Lunsford. Tealium is a leading customer data platform (CDP), connecting you with your customers, through your data. For companies to better connect with their customers, Tealium combines customer data across web, mobile, offline, and IoT. With more than 1,300 built-in connections supported by Tealium's turnkey integration ecosystem, brands can build a complete and up-to-date consumer data framework. The company was founded in 2008 by Mike Anderson and Ali Behnam, with Jeff Lunsford taking the position of CEO in 2013. The company reached unicorn status in February 2021, with a valuation of $1.2 billion. Today, more than a thousand top companies around the globe rely on Tealium to power their consumer data strategy. Tealium have reached unicorn status thanks to their focus and care for their customers- with a company culture that is “one of winning”, Jeff states that they “win together as a team, holding each other accountable for performance,” acknowledging that although every deal can’t be won, you can still learn from these instances and keep improving. Thanks to this commitment to improvement, Tealium have built a culture of trust and an extensive portfolio of repeat customers. Jeff Lunsford has more than two decades of experience as a technology and internet executive and leader. Jeff says “success in business is never a straight line. It is always ups and downs”, and highlights how important it is as leaders, to always have a “positive bounce” in your step. He also believes that the most important thing in business is not IPOs or unicorn statuses, but rather “building great solutions and taking great care of customers so they can deliver true business value.” The interview, as usual, was co-hosted with Russell Goldsmith of the csuite podcast. Alongside Holly Justice, Senior Partner at Tyto PR . We have distilled the most valuable, actionable insights from our first 15 interviews with leaders of unicorn companies and bottled them in our book ‘Growing without borders: The unicorn CEO guide to communication and culture’. You can download it here.

Our guest in this 30th interview episode with a unicorn start-up leader is the CEO and co-founder of Chainalysis, Michael Gronager. Founded in 2014, Chainalysis is a blockchain data platform. It provides data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 70 countries. Their Chainalysis’s data powers investigation, compliance, and its market intelligence software has been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile criminal cases and grow consumer access to cryptocurrency safely. The company reached unicorn status in 2021 and is now valued at $8.6 billion. Ever since Michel Gronager was a kid, he saw himself as an innovator. He started his entrepreneurial journey, before co-founding Chainalysis, as the co-founder of Kraken, a digital asset platform and prior to this, he had a decade of experience in working on big data projects. He points out that the first thing he looked at when finishing university was virtual reality, and distributed computing platforms to do virtual reality. That led him to data, which ended up being his passion, because at the end of the day “data is growing way faster than anything else, and the opportunity of analysing that is huge.” Gronager analysed data for high-energy physics and big science projects such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. When he stopped working in the public sector, he was bitten by this innovation bug to build something himself and have a private company. At the same time, he stumbled upon crypto, and at a moment when the industry was transforming and growing rapidly, Kraken’s Jesse Powell asked him to join the team. It became clear to him that there was a path forward with his expertise in big data, so he created a company that didn’t exist at the time, with a fresh idea: indexing and understanding all the data that is in the crypto space as it is growing, and this is where Chainalysis began. The cryptocurrency sector is a peculiar one, where everything changes constantly, says Chainalysis’s CEO. There is a vast amount of innovation happening around crypto, so it means that his company must be deep in the product side and be constantly innovating and spending their efforts in building the right tools and products around the DeFi space. At the same time, another peculiarity of the crypto space is that it’s global. As Michael states, “crypto is everywhere and was born being global”. This also means, for a company like his, that they need to focus not on one market or one jurisdiction but work and think globally. One of the things that changed when the company reached unicorn status back in 2021 is that it allowed him to make certain high-profile hires that would have been hard to make otherwise. Unicorn status “opened the door for talent”, he says, and this is important in a quite crowded space as technology. But Chainalysis has a couple of unique aspects that have helped them differentiate over the years. First, what they’re building is unique, so they’re not one of many. They’re building the market for themselves and growing the TAM every day and working with new customers. Secondly, their business is very mission driven. What joins their public sector clients, more than 150 in 35 countries around the world, is that they’re trying to keep society safe, keep nations-state safe, and protect these from terrorists and other negative actors. They need to ensure they’re gaining the trust of these institutions, and a huge part of their culture is believing in their work and delivering high-quality data while maintaining humility and building trustworthy relationships with all stakeholders and customers. Staff at Chainalysis have a purpose because they see that getting better at understanding crypto and indexing it, could make the world a better place. Michael highlights that there are many individuals who have...

Our guest in this 29th interview episode with a unicorn start-up leader is the CEO of Mollie, Shane Happach. Founded in 2004, Mollie makes it easier for small businesses and start-ups across Europe when it comes to connecting payment systems, banks and other providers of payment services. As one of Europe's fastest-growing payment service providers, Mollie reached unicorn status in September 2020 and is now valued at $6.5 billion. Shane Happach started his leadership journey in a quite un-entrepreneurial way, as he likes to point out. He joined as an early employee for Global Collect when the company only had 35 workers. By the time he left, the business had a staff of 500 people. When he arrived at Mollie, the job wasn’t about optimising, but rather building the business from top to bottom. Unlike other successful startups where the CEO is also one of the founders, Shane came to Mollie after the company was already established as a unicorn. He had to find a way to complement with his skills the work that the founder and the rest of the leadership team had done for the company. Now both work efficiently to leverage each other's expectation, having in their best interests the growth of the company. With Mollie being one of the most valuable start-ups in Europe, Shane says that this is a huge validation of their business model, but it is not the top measure of success that they look at. Happach has big plans for Mollie, he wants to expand their financial services and fit their product into the Western Europe market, and finally go pan-European. But ultimately, he says: "We don't see any reason why this couldn't be a global category business as well.” There is not a book that can teach you as much as experience does. Happach mentions that a lot of what he has learned comes from making mistakes and figuring out what you don’t want to become and how you don’t want to lead. For him, most of the achievements feel like team accomplishments, rather than taking and giving individual credit. Living in different countries allowed him to draw on from the American leadership style, Dutch style and even Latin American style: “I would say I'm a mutt, but only the best of breed.” Understanding the complexity of their product as a payment service provider is key to getting it right for their clients, says Happach. There is no merit in pronouncing yourself as an expert and closing your mind to new ideas. “It's finding people that are really good at that and are willing to work at it incessantly in spite of personality differences, cultural differences, geographic and time zone differences that's always, I think, every leader's greatest challenge”, he points out. “Be bold, be loved, be authentic” are Mollie’s values. Shane Happach says that the company wants to make sure people can express themselves in their work environment and feel there are opportunities to progress. The fact that the industry has developed over time does not mean that there will not continue to be disruptive developments, even if they have not yet occurred. “And those are likely to come from companies that allow people that kind of intellectual freedom”, says Mollie's CEO. Shane says that to successfully communicate your views you have to respect that people consume information differently and you also need to make the leadership team more approachable. You will find Happach walking around the hallways at Mollie and having a casual coffee with workers. He explains that he’s not hard to find because “there's one coffee machine that serves at least 150 people”, and he drinks a lot of coffee. The interview, as usual, was co-hosted with Russell Goldsmith of the csuite podcast. We have distilled the most valuable, actionable insights from our first 15 interviews with leaders of unicorn companies and bottled them in our book ‘Growing without borders: The unicorn CEO guide to communication and culture’. You can download it here.

Our guest in this 28th interview episode with a unicorn start-up leader is Exotec CEO and co-founder, Romain Moulin. Thanks to its fleets of robots, capable of moving in three dimensions, Exotec has revolutionized the way its customers organise their warehouses and how their logistics flows. Exotec offers a clear alternative to traditional warehouse automation solutions: elegant collaboration between human and robot workers that delivers sustainable warehouse productivity. Founded in 2015, the company has since secured $477m in funding reaching unicorn status in January 2022 with a valuation of $2bn. Moulin’s business now supports 50+ industry-leading brands spanning e-commerce, grocery, retail, manufacturing, and 3PL sectors, now employing over 300 people globally. Romain’s journey began as an engineer in a heavy goods vehicle company, he then moved to General Electric Healthcare. Romain’s experience in these two areas is extremely relevant to understanding how Exotec was born. That first period helped both him and Renaud Heitz, CTO and co-founder – as they share these career highlights – learn what happens inside the warehouses. On top of this, moving on to GE allowed them both to experience first-hand how a company was developing advanced robotics. They built Exotec based on these two experiences while also using their “willingness to bring something new and disruptive to logistics.” Romain recognises how becoming a unicorn has particularly changed the public perception of Exotec and created a lot of awareness around their brand. The company was the 25th unicorn founded in France, and that achievement was built while sticking to a plan made by the French government to establish 25 unicorns within a certain time period. This brought Exotec, the first industrial unicorn in France, a lot of attention as it made a lot of noise within European markets. Exotec has also managed to successfully establish a reputation for itself within the US market after Goldman-Sachs became an investor. To describe the culture at Exotec, Romain says they work with "two brains." On the one hand, they have that quite typical software start-up mindset which focuses on going fast and delivering to the market on time. But that part, he recognises, will not work for a hardware company. If you deliver hardware, it means you are an install base and you cannot update it. That means you need, on the other side, perfect execution and an industrial grade quality whilst also being able to deploy this robot in the field that will last for at least ten years. Playing with both sides of their job is probably their biggest defining aspect as a company. They cannot only focus on the industrial quality grade, as it would slow them down but also cannot focus solely on innovation either, as it would create a depth on their install base and at some point interfere with their customer success. That balance between the two, for Romain, is key to understanding Exotec. When asked about his approach to internal communications, Romain states that at Exotec transparency is imperative. It can come as an obvious asset when your company is small, but Romain believes that keeping transparency in mind when you're over 400 employees and growing allows you to move much faster in the right direction because everybody at your business understands where you are going. And, as your complexity and departments grow, having everyone on board can really help you. This, Romain explains, also works externally. Having the same stories for his team, investors and customers, makes his life easier. What he loves more than anything is talking to his end customers, and he's more of a "personal communicator than a broadcast communicator" because he likes to be close to the end customer to build a strong relationship. The interview, as usual, was co-hosted with Russell Goldsmith of the csuite podcast. We have distilled the most valuable, actionable insights from our first 15...