Grow North Podcast Grow North

In this, our 7th growth story, we speak with Michael Litt, Founder and CEO of Vidyard.

A veteran of Ycombinator and with over $60m of investment raised, Vidyard is one of the North-American SaaS companies you should be be taking note of. They’re helping their customers use video to tell the narratives behind their business - across the full funnel.

We speak with Michael about the power of video and why it’s so powerful - and how that’s being fuelled by the changing demographic of the B2B buyer.

We talk Gen Z, their reliance on mobile and how businesses need to start seeing them as the B2B ‘buyers’ now. As they enter the B2B landscape, how they want to communicate now comes into the equations too. A generation that grew up with video at its core (Insta & Snapchat) - we need to take this into account.

Video can tell passionate stories and they can help you connect with people as a human - humans love story telling. Selling is two people interacting and many, many businesses forget that.

In our sixth episode of the Grow North podcast, we chat with Bassel El Koussa, the co-founder and CEO of the tech platform (and logistic provider), Quiqup.

Born in London, Quiqup enables consumers to order from any retailer and have items delivered straight to them. It's empowering consumers and retailers - as well as taking on giants like Amazon prime.

One of the first themes to come out of the conversation is Bassel's idea of facing his fears by taking control and using complete focus - he's talking about a fear of flying, but it rings through in some of his 'why' around co-founding Quiqup.

Being the master of his own destiny, authenticity and freedom (symbolised by dogs and Nerf guns in the office)are all part of the drivers in co-founding a business that has grown through multiple rounds of large scale funding.

What is interesting about the early days of Quiqup is that as well as being the people who built and serviced the products, Bassel and his co-founders also used the app. Placing an order and then collecting/delivering them themselves, to themselves. Being both customer and provider gave them incredible insight into how the end user perceives the service but also how it could be developed to better meets the needs of retailers.

Bassel's tips on growth? Listen to the market. Listen to the customer and understand what they need. Be as close to your customers as possible. It’s easy to listen to your customers, the trick is understanding them. There’s always a why and there are always multiple layers of what's driving a need. Understanding your customers allows you to understand the market trends and pivot where needed.

And remember, even when you’re creating s market, you are still addressing a need or fixing a problem.

We hope you enjoy the podcast and as ever, we'd love to hear your thoughts.

Brought to you by https://www.sixandflow.com

Show notes:
Quiqup: https://www.quiqup.com/

In the fifth of our Growth stories, we have Charlotte Pearce, CEO & founder of Inkpact.
A company with the strap line of “be unforgettable”, Inkpact is on a mission to help businesses to be more human in their approach. We explore why that is and where the driver for that comes from.

Charlotte is passionately curious about how people work and the psychology of why they do what they do and how that now feeds into her business. Her energy and passion are palpable.
Charlotte explains why we should have a thirst to learn from others, but still allow ourselves space to cut our own thoughts as we lead our businesses. She also explains why we should be dropping the corporate BS and treating each other as humans in B2B and B2C.

This is a captivating interview with one of Forbes magazines 30 under 30’s giving real insight into her growth as a business leader and inspirational tech entrepreneur.