Perfect Venue’s Post

For my new connections, let me take a moment to (re)introduce myself 👋 Hey! I’m Richard Washington, Founder of Tick Talent, based in Bournemouth, UK. And I love Intrapreneurs. You'll see I spent most of my career as one 👇 👤 My Journey: - 17 years in tech sales & marketing, working my way from SDR to Business Unit Director. - 12 years in a tech GTM agency, scaling from a small UK team to 450 people across the Barcelona, Auckland, and Miami. - Spent 2017 in the US after acquiring a business in Fort Lauderdale. - Joined an incredible entrepreneur in his group of companies that had a huge reputation in DTC ecomm, and developed in to a tech impact Angel Investment fund. - Helped incubate a talent business within the group before spinning it out and launching Tick Talent in April 2023. - My step in to becoming an Entrepreneur 👣 ❤️ What Makes Me Tick, - Helping people find roles that play to their true strengths. - Finding innovative and simple answers to important challenges in the market, e.g Why do people make hiring so unnecessarily painful? - Meeting and building relationships with those magical people we call Intrapreneurs. ✍️ What I’m Building: - Tick Talent, focused on finding Intrapreneurial Execs, Leaders and Sellers for early stage tech startups across the EMEA and North America. - The “What Makes You Tick 🎙” podcast, celebrating Intrapreneurs sharing their stories, lessons and best advice. - My Growth Magnet 🧲 newsletter, packed with the best things I learn through meeting amazing humans in tech. 🙏 Here to Give: - All the lessons I’ve learned in people, hiring, and scaling Business Units around the world. - A platform for leaders and founders to tell their story and attract top talent and opportunities. - Help for execs who want to avoid the broken game of applying for jobs and instead attract their ICP roles. 🏈🐬🏎💙👟 Fun Facts: - Related to George Washington (yes, the George). - Miami Dolphins fan #FinsUp, F1 fanboy and Chelsea sufferer. - Running addict (caught the bug late but I’m all in). - Married to an Italian who runs a 5⭐️ Dog Hotel — learning the language before I can get citizenship! 😁 Why I love this platform, - Building a business can be lonely, but LinkedIn is where I find support, advice, friendship and connection. - My dad always said, “Sow seeds and open doors - relationships are everything.” I’m doing just that, and it’s been the best investment I’ve ever made. If we haven’t connected yet, say hello, And if I can help in any way, just let me know! Thanks all, RichWash

Realising a senior executive is in over their head and needs to be let go is most certainly one of the biggest challenges startup CEOs have to face. And this is 10 times tougher when this executive is a co-founder! Building the right founding team is hard enough, but even when you have the right people in the right roles at the start, your job is not done yet! The challenge is that the executive team you gathered at the beginning is not necessarily the right one as you grow. And it’s not about them: it’s about the pace of growth! Many very talented people end up out of their depth in a fast-growing startup context. There is only so much we can grow and learn on the job. At series B and beyond, the scale at which the organisation is growing does not give you the luxury to wait for your C-levels to figure it out through trial and error. There are dozens of people who rely on them now. The people you need at your side when you are just getting started are generally not the people you need when you have 500 or 1,000 employees. Your technical co-founder who built your first product is not likely to be your VP Engineering when you have a couple of hundred engineers. The salesperson who brought in your first customer is not likely to be your future VP Sales. And your first social media person is not likely to be your VP Marketing. Unfortunately, a lot of CEOs try to delay the decision and find a compromise. Some, for instance, try to support weak co-founders by hiring a competent manager to partner with them. Typically, these moves only delay the inevitable, and rarely resolve the issue. Plus, you now have two people doing one job, with all the consequences that go with that: confusion for the staff and greater cost, etc. Let's be clear: if you see that one of your co-founders or executives does not really fit with the new organisation, culture or business needs, the chances are high that everyone else in the organisation sees it too. And there is nothing worse than your people wondering: what on earth is this person actually doing? Usually, you don’t really know either. And the worst is that they probably feel quite awkward about this too. They end up in some obscure function or deployed for ‘special projects’. The truth is that there are only two options: either you fire them or you hire above. Knowing that, prepare for this as early as possible. Start off on the right foot and have this conversation with all your co-founders and direct reports: “We both want the business to succeed and grow big. Inevitably, one day, the business will require more than what you can grow into. That day, I will have to either let you go or hire above you. We need to prepare for that. I make the commitment to have an open discussion with you about this when the time comes so we can do that well for everyone.” What has been your experience dealing with this? Any tips to share? #PeopleStrategy #Leadership #EntrepreneurTips #Startup #FromZeroTo1000

interesting post!

Attention All Startups trying to sell to large enterprises and corporates: DO YOU KNOW Exactly WHO you need to talk to??? Sam Marchant shares this critical secret AND how to contact them!!!

Are you navigating the start-up world? Your team is your biggest asset. We explore crucial strategies for assembling and nurturing a team aligned with your company's goals and values. Our article covers: * How to structure your start-up for team success. * Effective hiring and retention strategies. * The importance of onboarding and ongoing development. * Exclusive access to Upplft for Kashcade customers, revolutionising your hiring process. Learn how to build a team that propels your start-up forward. Check out our article for insights and reach out to discover how Kashcade can support your journey. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gBsmQMxw #StartUp #TeamBuilding #Entrepreneurship #Kashcade

I always love reading Garrett's thoughts at the practical interaction of philosophy and marketing. Here's his concepts about storytelling with your pitch deck.

The structure I’ve used both to help my clients raise millions as well to get an offer on my fifth pitch for my startup Gravity: Slide 0: technically not a slide, this is the narrative you start with while sitting on the title slide, it’s the lead-in to the deck and it may start before you pull the deck up. You want to start with a story that gives the listener a human anchor to relate to. This can be a representation of a specific user/customer or yourself, but don’t talk about yourself until you introduce the overarching problem. We relate to individuals and stories, not numbers and features. Do not activate the logical brain if you want to close. Slide 1: Name the Big Change™️ For startups, you should be naming a Big Change™️ that is comprised of the intersection of a technological, economic, and social change in the world. Literally put a name on it and own this concept. For Gravity, my creator-centric social platform startup, we called it The Creator Revolution. For the LeadersAtlas (a remote leadership consultancy) sales deck, we called it The Remote Work Revolution. (It doesn’t have to be a revolution. For GenRAIT we called it The Genomic Age and drew parallels to the Industrial, Atomic, and Information ages. Surf the wave between history and the inevitable.) The intersection of tech, economic, and social change creates time-bounded opportunity and the impulse to act NOW. You must make this something that the person being pitched will mentally say yes to. If you’re arguing for a Big Change™️ and they disagree with your premises, you have already lost the pitch. Slide 2: Meet the Guide The Big Change™️ is neutral- change creates both risk and opportunity. Tie yourself into the narrative and explain why your particular set of skills, wins, and life experiences give you the ability to understand and capitalize on this change so that it’s an opportunity for you and an existential threat to everyone else. IMPORTANT: Your existence in the pitch only matters to the extent that you serve the story and the fantasy of the person you are pitching. It is not about you, you are a projection device for the VC to attach their hopes of success to. Don’t say anything to ruin their fantasy. Be egoless and know that you are the prize simultaneously: -If you want validation from VCs, you should not be a founder. Get a dog instead. The only validation you should care about is the kind where the market pays you, everything else is air -You are the prize. The VCs literally cannot make money themselves. Their money is sitting in an account doing jack shit and if they could do anything with it, they would be. They are more likely to lose it because they make bad bets and 50% of all VCs are so bad their funds don’t return a multiple high enough to warrant the industry risk. I cannot emphasize this enough. You, the founder, are the person who chose to take the risk with your own time and sanity. (Continued in comments…)

Should be part of every 101 class on entrepreneurship 😀

🌟 How Sales Executives Can Help Startup Founders Scale Their GTM — and Learn About VC Along the Way 🌟 Many founders I speak with are eager to connect with experienced sales executives who have already scaled what they hope to build. 🚀 For sales executives, this is more than just an opportunity to help—it’s a chance to become part of a startup’s journey, often as an advisor or even an angel investor. Several of my friends in sales have taken this path, using their expertise to guide early-stage companies while gaining valuable insights into venture capital. Here’s why this can be a win-win: 1️⃣ Knowledge Transfer: Startups often need guidance on go-to-market (GTM) strategies. Sales executives who have “been there, done that” can provide invaluable advice on customer acquisition, pipeline building, and scaling sales teams. 2️⃣ Expand Your Network: Building relationships with founders and other investors can open doors to new opportunities—whether it’s investing in the next big thing or expanding your professional circle. 3️⃣ Learn the VC Landscape: By advising startups, you’ll get a firsthand look at how venture capital works, from seed rounds to Series C+. This is an excellent way for sales executives interested in investing to start learning the ropes. If you’re a sales executive looking to dive into the startup ecosystem or explore angel investing, consider reaching out to founders who need your expertise. You might find it’s not just about helping them scale—but also about scaling your own career. 🌱 #Startups #SalesLeadership #AngelInvesting #VentureCapital #GoToMarket #GrowthMindset #Networking #CareerGrowth #Leadership #GTM #SalesExecutives

If you're a startup founder selling to large enterprises or corporates, you must build relationships with the 'secret entrepreneurs' otherwise known as ... 'Head of Innovation'. For those not familiar with the responsibilities of this role, the non-negotiable duties include: 👉🏼 Developing, strategising, and planning new interventions that will drive innovation. 👉🏼 Creating and overseeing a comprehensive long-term innovation strategy for the company. 👉🏼 Engaging with internal and external stakeholders to enhance innovative thinking around the company. For a startup founder, the Heads of Innovation can provide: 1️⃣ A uniquely deep understanding of the pain points and challenges facing an enterprise or corporate. 2️⃣ An overview of the existing tools or products used by the enterprise or corporate. 3️⃣ Insight on competitor products or propositions that have been pitched or sourced for a specific problem or opportunity. If you're a startup founder and you've not connected with Heads of Innovation in your sector or vertical, I've dropped a list of over 150 Heads of Innovation so you can connect with them over LinkedIn. Hit the link below, duplicate the list, and off you go. #startup #founders #ideas #business