Christian Owens - 7 years of scale: what we focused on (Turing Fest 2019)

A company needs to be able to regularly shift its focus in order to grow and provide the most value to its customers.

Noticing the hassle that billing, taxes and compliance were causing software sellers was the catalyst that started Paddle 7 years go. Because of this, we initially honed in closely on our customers’ needs and pains and believe this to be the most important place to start when setting up a business.

Christian will talk you through the important phases of focus in a growing business, from product market fit to focusing on scalable customer segments to nurturing the right company culture. He’ll then delve into what comes after these growing pains, asking the question, “what does a mature business need to iterate on?

Transcript

1. 7 Years of Scale What We Focused On
2. Selling software is hard…
3. Make selling software easy. digital products
4. Build Product for Everyone Everyone uses Product
5. NOPE.
6. Back to the drawing board…
7. Who are we actually building for?
8. Make selling software easy. digital products software
9. SOFTWARE $300 Billion INDIE DEVS MAC Aha!
12. Focus on a segment Focus on a real customer need Focus on product market fit
13. Everything was great!
14. Until it wasn’t.
15. Focus on a segment Focus on a real customer need Focus on product market fit
16. Focus on a segment Focus on a real customer need Focus on product market fit
17. SOFTWARE $300 Billion INDIE DEVS SAAS BUSINESSES
18. Focus on a segment Focus on a real customer need Focus on product market fit
19. Focus on a segment Focus on a real customer need Focus on product market fit Focus on a segment Focus on a real customer need Focus on product market fit Focus on a segment Focus on a real customer need Focus on product market fit s Focus on product market fit
22. Focus.
23. Don’t half heart it.
24. Focus on a segment Focus on a real customer need Focus on product market fit
25. But what happens if you stop looping?
26. We messed this up.
27. We maxed out a segment, and didn’t realise until too late.
28. Nailing it: Winning lots of deals. Pushing yourself. If you’re more surprised to lose a deal than win it, you’re too comfortable.
30. Focus on the right team.
31. Startup Scaleup
32. Experimentation Comfort with Ambiguity Honesty
33. Focus on maturity.
34. Focus on a segment Focus on a real customer need Focus on product market fit Focus on a segment Focus on a real customer need Focus on product market fit Focus on a segment Focus on a real customer need Focus on product market fit s Focus on product market fit
35. You’re never done.
36. Thank you! christian@paddle.com