From School Project to Successful Exit With Joe Mathewson

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Behind Startup Lines

Phil Guest

26 episodes

1 week ago

Welcome to Life Behind Startup Lines. In this podcast, we talk to entrepreneurs about building sales in early-stage businesses. Building and running a business is a daily battle. You operate behind enemy lines disrupting incumbents with improved products and services. You live with the reality that plans rarely survive first contact with the market. So join me as we explore the experiences of successful startup founders.

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Entrepreneurship

Business

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From School Project to Successful Exit With Joe Mathewson

Behind Startup Lines

45 minutes 4 seconds

2 years ago

From School Project to Successful Exit With Joe Mathewson

Joe Mathewson is a founding partner and co-CEO of Firefly. A school management information system that he built with his co-founder Simon while they were still at school taking their GCSE exams.

After school, he joined UBS as a trader before going all in on Firefly to pioneer these school systems that, today, are very common. Back when he started, SaaS wasn't the dominant business model it is today, and Joe shares he hard learnt lessons on pricing and GTM.

Joe's story is fascinating, not least that his story is one from idea origination through fundraising to a successful exit when Veracross acquired Firefly. There is a lot to learn from this successful entrepreneur that I am sure you'll find interesting.

I hope you enjoy the show.

Phil

Here are some of the show highlights:

(2:24) Where it began

(6:34) Good products don't sell themselves

(10:11) Working with an external supplier for early lead generation

(13:34) First-hire failures

(17:04) Controlling the sales process

(18:41) Incentivising the team

(20:54) Sales team structuring

(23:38) Building the customer success function

(25:27) Introducing a Chief Revenue Officer to manage managers

(27:26) Navigating a successful exit

(33:38) What would you do differently next time - the value of advisors

(35:17) Making tough decisions

(37:48) Ensuring the team stay focused

(42:00) Where to learn more about Firefly and Veracross

Joe can be reached via his Linked~In profile

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-mathewson-2867162/

For more information:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipguest/

Website: https://www.revcelerate.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilGuesty