Lessons about scaling up from a master storyteller

I recently had the privilege to be invited to attend a masterclass with Girish "G" Mathrubootham, the Chennai entrepreneur who built a "hot" $10 billion company over 10 years - Freshworks, in the arguably "supersaturated" and "unsexy" space of CRM, Customer Management, and Marketing Automation.

G is an inspirational person, a master storyteller, who can simplify concepts and deliver them with crisp clarity. The session had a deep impact on me and I felt that I must share some of my learnings for the benefit of all those who may be interested.

A. Hiring:

#1 “Playbook - Muscle Memory”: Beyond the usual factors under consideration when selecting senior management, focus on figuring out where a potential team member's playbook "muscle memory" was solidified. Habits shape people and while they play a key role in day-to-day execution, they ultimately determine outcomes in unfamiliar, uncertain, or crisis situations. As per G, most people have crucial phases early in their careers where they develop such muscle memories, which become embedded. While positive muscle memories are hugely desirable, negative muscle memories are challenging to unlearn without awareness and will. Tackling interviews is a skill competent candidates can master, candidates can have the right profiles, say all the right things, however, it is incumbent on the founder to figure out what the kernel of the default OS for each senior hire looks like. These muscle memories should be well aligned with the company's corporate culture and can be gleaned from problem-based interviewing and deep-diving into backgrounds - G says that he spends his time with senior potential team members trying to understand this aspect, amongst other key factors.

I can relate to this, my own playbook which was formed earlier in my career when working with/for culture-driven organizations like American Express, HP, Schlumberger, Canadian Business Systems, Kerzner, and US DOD. I absorbed and adopted what I learned from these organizations even though in the majority of cases I may have been an entrepreneur delivering on their requirements, those learnings have settled into my own playbook. An insight I could share as an entrepreneur who has deep experience in four disparate industry verticals over four continents - muscle memories developed delivering software projects for companies like North America served me well in completely unrelated businesses; however, to G's point, the deeply embedded muscle memories of my own characteristics developed such as attention to detail, contract management, rapid scaling, moving with urgency were developed during the era where I was a construction entrepreneur in the MENA region working on multiple iconic mega projects such as Atlantis The Palm and The Palm Jumeirah.

#2 DO NOT HIRE ANYONE WHO DOES NOT LOOK UP TO THE COMPANY: This was a powerful lesson that emerged from the session.

I have witnessed organizations hiring high-profile folks, even though it was evident that those folks looked down upon the company and its incumbent leadership. I witnessed negative spirals from the day those leaders entered the company's doors. G stressed that everyone in the company must respect and love the company and should be there for the right reasons. Hiring people, no matter how accomplished, who look down on the company can be disastrous for the corporate culture and impact others’ belief in the company and its vision.

B. Post hiring:

#3?G is a master storyteller and tells an anecdote/lesson about a village where cows keep falling into ditches, which he entitles - “which cow, which ditch”. My takeaway from this segment was as follows, any new leader being onboarded should be given 60-90 days to learn and figure out which cows (subject areas) are falling into which ditches (problem areas). The new leader should identify 2-3 high-value cows, roll up their sleeves, and go to work on pulling them out of the ditches, only after that should the process of filling in the ditches begin.

This was very intuitive to me, as this is what I learned during my construction entrepreneurial phase, particularly serving Kerzner International and Laing O'Rourke as clients. During this time I had the privilege of working with some of the world's leading construction teams, folks who had built globally renowned projects such as Canary Wharf, Atlantis Paradise Island, One and Only Maldives, Dubai Terminal 3 Concourse A & B, and Heathrow Terminal 5. Rapidly and urgently searching for cows stuck in ditches was a muscle memory I developed thanks to the experience, dealing with construction all-stars. Another valuable lesson I learned was to lead by example, from the front, as "talk is cheap but action is priceless" - this lesson comes in handy when working with knowledge-based businesses as often the challenge lies in too much talk, especially a LOT of talk about taking action, but finally too little action by too few people.

These muscle memories kicked in when I led the development of a $100 million oil terminal in Salalah, Oman on a fast and furious delivery schedule with one of the world's most demanding end-users the US Department of Defense. The critical path of oil and gas projects is brutally unforgiving, especially due to high standards, long lead items, and the sequentiality of activities. One slip-up could delay the project by months and the slip-ups could be a range of items from a permit approval to ordering made-to-order pumps with a 12 month lead time. Each slip-up irrecoverably shaves basis points off the project IRR. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I focused my energy on having my Project Management team develop an L3 schedule which was later detailed to L6. That Primavera document served as the map to help me find critical path "cows" stuck inside the “ditches”. I'm thankful for having a great team at each phase of the project which helped save a lot of cows - David Pilling for the procurement and contracts phase, the project management team from Salfo including Kostas Dimitros, Sofia Tyligada, amongst several others, Serkan from INCO and Doshi from GPS, and most importantly my superstar operational leadership Doug Saab, Captain Ihtisham, and Sugumar plus the unfettered shareholder support along the way. There were many many hairy moments and unsurmountable challenges, BUT all cows were rescued, and ditches were filled!

A friend who read this article commented "that Omani project sounded hard" - a picture is worth 1000 words, and so I edited this article to share the enormity of the challenge we dealt with on a rocky hill in the Port of Salalah, Oman. The scene during the pre-construction phase of the site was reminiscent of a teeming anthill with over 70 excavation equipment working around the clock, chewing through rock, clay, and stone to literally plateau out the top of a hill where the oil terminal would eventually reside. Beyond geological challenges of underground rocks, the site was located in a globally unique microclimate area, where each year a phenomenon known as the "Khareef - The popup jungle of Arabia" would permanently deluge the entire region in a thick fog for up to 1.5 months, while the transformation of the desert into a rainforest was a near-miraculous sight which enthralled tourists, we learned the hard way about steel+moisture = a lot of rust and lot of fog = lot of work stoppages. You can learn more about the interesting location, about an hour from the Yemeni border here

The project was executed on schedule and on spec, in a sharp timeline. The "small wow" of watching the first "oil-in" event - thick, black, gooey, viscous FND 76 (Fuel Naval Distillate) pouring out of a US Navy tanker vessel and into the storage tanks located ~1.5 KM away from the liquid jetty is one of the most cherished memories of that project for many involved.

#4?Focus on employee happiness: He says that the CEO should focus on aligning people to their strengths, tapping people’s potential, creating learning opportunities, and ensuring that people work for managers who are role models. This can create a level of happiness that material incentives alone, will not be able to create. While we all know this and sounds like common sense, G seems to have systemized this. In discussions, I also learned about his strategy of focusing on delivering small wows to customers, rather than big successes – this approach has a feedback loop to employee happiness - constant validation of efforts and accomplishments.

C. Fundraising:

#5 Storytelling: This was a big lesson purveyed by G. Storytelling is one of the most important skills in a founder's arsenal. This aspect applies to all facets of the founder's role when dealing with counterparts – team, customers, and especially investors.

G gave an example, for fundraising “Data is your enemy; the story is your friend” Data is always open to interpretation; however, a good storyteller can ensure that the interpretation follows his/her story arc and leads to intended conclusions. A compelling story is much more important than data, even if the data speaks for itself. Everyone in the venture world knows this, however, I think back to the over 200+ founders with whom I have interacted over the last 5 years and wonder how many have really mastered this skill or work on it actively. I do feel that engineers, technologists, and quantitatively driven folks take this loosey-goosey-sounding skill very lightly. Think of the examples of people whose powerful storytelling skills enabled their ventures. Of course, there are negative outcomes like WeWork, but then there are is a long list of positive outcomes like Apple who pioneered storytelling to its current and future customers, Palantir who gained investment from some of the world's toughest investors for a complex business model, and most recently one I came across Toast - who build a $30 billion dollar venture during the Pandemic - the stories they tell are simple, crisp and totally believable and leave you feeling "why the in the hell did anyone not think of that earlier?"

#6 Do things that get you noticed by investors rather than chasing investors to notice you: The friend who invited me to this event told me the story of a pivotal Microsoft award that Freshworks won, putting them on investor radar screens.

From my experience, I have witnessed that fundraising is time-consuming and can take up 30-50% of a founder’s bandwidth, over a period of months, on average. Focusing on delivering key accomplishments that are valued by investors and showcasing them could change the tenor of fundraising for startups. Multiple valuable accomplishments can tilt the balance to a degree where investors value a founder's time as they know accomplished founders have a business to build, and their time is valuable.

D. Other points:

#7 Customer Centricity: Even though G is softspoken, this theme comes across as if G is shouting from the rooftops, softly. A maniacal and single-minded focus on the customer is crucial. Become the customer’s friend, understand their problems, understand why they chose you, what are the challenges with your competitor’s solutions that created the opportunity for you in the first place, etc. Channel that that information into the product management process and wrap enhancements around the customer journey. Do this in a way where one delivers small wow moments rather than waiting for big bangs, build trust at each step. Take small calculated risks in solving the customer’s challenges.

I can see how these small wow moments tie in with team happiness, allowing team accomplishments to flourish.

#8??Monetizing Freemium: This was a very incisive point and brings a perspective that should be considered by all SaaS founders. G talks about an equation that says that any customer must deliver on at least one side of brand equity = revenue. If they are freemium customers, then they should be encouraged to deliver on the brand equity side, which the company must find ways to monetize. G gave the example of freemium customer emails with branding such as “Powered by Freshworks” which led to organic lead generation. Freshworks spent a relatively frugal sum on inorganic lead generation as they mastered organic conversions. OR customers can deliver on the revenue side of the equation by paying for premium services. G understands the methodology to systemize such qualitative strategies. Freshworks was also very systemized in engaging with customers and enabling testimonials.