Scale-up Confessions

Tyrone Croome-Carroll is a 3-time COO and accomplished people-centric leader, currently with Cadence (the leading language solutions provider to the global investment community).

In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Tyrone shares what he learned leading multiple B2B information services businesses and explains why its important to build systems to support high performance teams in rapidly scaling environments.

Interested viewers can reach Tyrone via https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyronecc/ and Rob (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertliddiard/) at [email protected] (or to book some free time with Rob, visit https://www.eosworldwide.com/rob-liddiard). Alternatively, if you’d prefer Rob to send you a free copy of Traction (the book by Gino Wickman which explains The Entrepreneurial Operating System) just complete the form here: https://www.eosworldwide.com/traction-giveaway?implementer_email=rob.liddiard@eosworldwide.com

Julie Wilkinson is an accountant on a mission to save the world from failed acquisitions. Her firm, Wilkinson Accounting Solutions, works on business acquisitions between £1m and £20m turnover and also actively acquires other accounting firms to scale its own operations.

In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Julie gives Rob an ‘idiots guide’ to what a good small business finance function should look like and discusses the perils for exiting (and acquiring) entrepreneurs who don’t build adequate strength in this area.

Interested viewers can reach Julie via https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliewilkinson-accounting/ or [email protected] (also check out her 'Understanding Accounting Lingo' course here: https://wilkinsonaccountingsolutions.co.uk/masterclass/understanding-accounting-lingo/) and Rob (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertliddiard/) at [email protected] (or to book some free time with Rob, visit https://www.eosworldwide.com/rob-liddiard). Alternatively, if you’d prefer Rob to send you a free copy of Traction (the book by Gino Wickman which explains The Entrepreneurial Operating System) just complete the form here: https://www.eosworldwide.com/traction-giveaway?implementer_email=rob.liddiard@eosworldwide.com

Tom Lavery is Co-founder CEO of Jiminny, a software platform which helps commercial teams maximize their revenue through conversation intelligence. Jiminny enables its customers to record, transcribe and analyze conversations in real-time, giving customer insights and full visibility into performance. Jiminny empowers teams to coach and develop their people at scale.

In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Tom describes how he seized an early-career opportunity with Reward Gateway, scaled that business in various sales leadership roles (through a number of successful Private Equity transactions) and eventually co-founded Jiminny, with Reward Gateway as a cornerstone customer!

Interested viewers can reach Tom via https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomlavery7/ or [email protected] and Rob (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertliddiard/) at [email protected] (or to book some free time with Rob, visit https://www.eosworldwide.com/rob-liddiard). Alternatively, if you’d prefer Rob to send you a free copy of Traction (the book by Gino Wickman which explains The Entrepreneurial Operating System) just complete the form here: https://www.eosworldwide.com/traction-giveaway?implementer_email=rob.liddiard@eosworldwide.com

Jo Harley has co-founded two businesses: Korero, a tech platform which enables leaders to have great career conversations with their teams and gives organisations the data they need to plan for success; and Hendrick and Hyde, a consultancy which helps organisations to build authentic cultures through diagnostics, analysis and strategic advice. Jo, her technology and her colleagues are behind Best Places to Work in Hospitality and Best Workplaces in Travel and work with many amazing clients on their employee surveys. Jo regularly judges The Best Employer Catey, The Hotel Cateys, The Food Service Cateys, The Springboard Awards for Excellence, HR in Hospitality Awards and The Purple Umbrella Awards.

In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Jo shares a wide range of insights relating to her recent implementation of the Entrepreneurial Operating System.

Interested viewers can reach Jo via https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-harley/ or [email protected] and Rob (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertliddiard/) at [email protected] (or to book some free time with Rob, visit https://www.eosworldwide.com/rob-liddiard). Alternatively, if you’d prefer Rob to send you a free copy of Traction (the book by Gino Wickman which explains The Entrepreneurial Operating System) just complete the form here: https://www.eosworldwide.com/traction-giveaway?implementer_email=rob.liddiard@eosworldwide.com

Rob Gibson trained as an accountant and rose to become a divisional Chief Operating Officer for Real Estate giant JLL. Today he’s a consultant, coach and Chair for Vistage (the world’s leading executive learning and coaching organisation).

In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Rob explains the ‘classic’ COO role (how it should help formulate and then implement strategy, create culture, drive collaboration and ensure daily operations are effective, efficient & coordinated) but also how in reality every COO role is different. We also explore why the COO seat must be crafted to reflect each unique company, its breadth of operations, the strengths/weaknesses of the business and particularly the CEO!

Interested viewers can reach Rob G via https://www.linkedin.com/in/robgibson68/ or [email protected] and Rob L (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertliddiard/) at [email protected] (or to book some free time with Rob L, visit https://www.eosworldwide.com/rob-liddiard). Alternatively, if you’d prefer Rob L to send you a free copy of Traction (the book by Gino Wickman which explains The Entrepreneurial Operating System) just complete the form here: https://www.eosworldwide.com/traction-giveaway?implementer_email=rob.liddiard@eosworldwide.com

In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, host Rob Liddiard recites 'The Struggle', an iconic chapter from Ben Horowitz's startup leadership classic, The Hard Thing About Hard Things. Rob follows the passage by describing how he escaped The Struggle as founding CEO of Yapster (a UK software company which scaled to 100,000 business users) by leaning on the 6 Key Components of The Entrepreneurial Operating System.

Interested listeners can reach Rob (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertliddiard/) via [email protected] (or to book some free time to learn about EOS, visit https://www.eosworldwide.com/rob-liddiard).

Steve Peralta is Co-founder and Chief Wellbeing Officer of Unmind, a leading workplace mental health SaaS platform that helps organisations create better workplace cultures, so that employees and businesses can flourish. They support over 2 million employees in hundreds of organisations globally.

Steve came to entrepreneurship in an unconventional way, from jazz singer and songwriter, to actor, to coach, to startup co-founder. In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Steve talks about how his unusual background has helped him inspire leaders to bring more heart and soul into workplaces, the ‘four pillars of self care’ and much more.

Interested listeners can reach Steve via https://www.linkedin.com/in/peraltasteve/ and Rob (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertliddiard/) at [email protected] (or to book some free time with Rob, visit https://www.eosworldwide.com/rob-liddiard).

Matthew Phelan is Co-CEO of The Happiness Index, a SaaS platform that helps organisations measure their key employee engagement and happiness drivers. Matt is also a speaker and business adviser. Prior to the Happiness Index, he founded, scaled and sold a digital marketing agency called 4Ps Marketing (which serviced over 100 brands such as Selfridges, M&S, Nissan and L'Oréal).

In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Matt shares some of his key learnings from a decade helping organisations measure their key employee engagement and happiness drivers. He also talks about the Go To Market challenges he experienced selling the concept of ‘happiness’ to different types of employers (not all of whom ‘get it’)!

Interested viewers can reach Matt (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewphelan/) at [email protected] and Rob (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertliddiard/) at [email protected] (or to book some free time with Rob, visit https://www.eosworldwide.com/rob-liddiard).

Alfie Lambert is a Co-Founder (Product and Growth Lead) at BizCrunch, an advanced off-market deal discovery platform which helps business users identify potential companies to acquire, providing vital metrics and key contact data. With over 10 years’ experience working with startups and scale-ups, primarily in B2B data, AI & Data Science, Alfie has co-founded two startups and successfully pitched & raised funds.

In this episode of the First-time Founders Podcast, Alfie discusses how there has never been a better time to buy an established company in the UK, with a wave of baby-boomer business-owners inches closer to retirement and increasingly open to succession M&A. Alfie explains how a significant portion of UK SME business leaders have not yet put succession plans in place for their enterprises, paving the way for a new generation of entrepreneurs (like you!) to step in!

Interested viewers can reach Alfie (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfie-lambert/) at [email protected] and Rob (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertliddiard/) at [email protected] (or to book some free time with Rob, visit https://www.eosworldwide.com/rob-liddiard).