286: Building Unicorns, How Andy Mowat Helped Build 3 $1 Billion+ Companies

This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Andy Mowat. Andy has helped build 3 $1Billion+ companies, Upwork, Boc, and Culture Amp. He is a serial entrepreneur who knows how to build a scalable company that gets results. His specialty is building successful sales and marketing organizations.

But, at the core, he’s a great entrepreneur. He knows how to spot a trend, create the vehicle to capitalize on the opportunity, and make it go. Most recently, he is doing that in his latest company, Gated, which is a unique twist on how people can access you.

I want to discuss all of this with him today and squeeze all of the wisdom I can from him on how to start, grow, and build a brand.

https://www.gated.com/

Andy’s path was not a straight line. He went to college on the East Coast and ended up in finance and banking. He took Czech while he was in college and ended up going into private equity in eastern Europe.

He ended up running the finance function for every grocery store chain in Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. It was early in the days of coming out of Communism and was eye opening.

He then went to business school but came out in 2001 and things were slow. He found a family office to work for and they tasked him with finding a new business to buy and get into. He suggested health clubs and ended up building high end athletic clubs throughout the west. He knew tech was where it was at, so he then reached out Elance and others and cold called the CEO’s ending up working for Elance. He ran sales and marketing operations. He then went to work for a company as a co-founder outsourcing administration assistants. He then went to work for BOCs running all their post-sale operations and then leading marketing. He then went to work for CultureAmp taking it from $5 mil to $80m. Along the way, he noticed the need to need to better guard a person’s email, so he built Gated.

At the 7:30 mark, Andy shares what Gated is. It is an email management system that keeps people from getting to your inbox unless they are willing to give a donation to charity. It helps to make sure you are communicating with people that genuinely want to communicate with you.

What elements are needed to build a unicorn – a billion-dollar company?

• Product/Market fit
• Brand
• If you don’t have those 2 things, it’s almost impossible.
• Andy gives an example of ow this happened with CultureAmp.

Talk to us about Go to Market Machines. How do you build a successful, scalable business?

• It is a custom fit each time.
• It is not “cookie-cutter.”
• Andy starts with marketing because you must have the demand generation.
• Pattern recognition is important, but a marketing strategy must be customized to each company.
• Andy has a 6-part article series on his LinkedIn that lays out how to build the Go to Market engine.

Any specific part of the 6 that you feel is most important?

• The team is the most important aspect of a growth engine.

What are the key elements to building a successful sales team and growth engine?

• Read Jason Lumpkin’s stuff around hiring and building sales teams.
• Invest deeply in sales-enablement vs. throwing people at the problem.
• From a sales enablement standpoint, the managers are your customers, not the reps. If the managers aren’t deeply invested in the training and asking for what is needed to make their people better, it won’t do well.
• Invest in good managers and support them well.

What should business owners and entrepreneurs do from the start to avoid some of the common mistakes in building a sales organization?

• The classic mistake is that founder’s hire a salesperson thinking they can figure out how to go to market. The founder needs to do that and figure it out.
• The founder needs to be selling the first half million to a million of ARR.
• You need to be able figure what the repeatable sales process is before you bring someone into to sell.

At the 17 min mark, Andy talks about being a non-technical founder….

What type of data should people be looking at to maximize the impact of a sales team?

• Systems that are good are Hubspot for smaller organizations and Salesforce for larger ones.
• Look for all the ways you can scale and find leverage.
• Key metrics to look at include:
• • Client retention
  • Funnel conversation
  • Time for the sales process. (How long it takes from lead to sale)
  • Lead flow.
  • MQL to Opportunity conversion. The opportunity to win conversation.
  • Customer acquisition costs.

What does it take to build a great brand?

• Brand starts with what you name your company.
• Naming matters.
• Being very clear around what your company does and what you stand for is critical.
• People should understand very clearly and quickly your value to them.
• Product marketing and differentiation is very clear.
• The last important piece is the experience people have when they interact with your brand.

Most unexpected thing that you have found on your entrepreneur journey?

• Andy shares how Gated has surprised in that people give more than required and how much people want it.

Routines or best practices you do every day to help you maximize your success?

• Andy writes down his Top 3 things he has to do on a notepad each day.
• He spends each evening reviewing what he needs to do and accomplish the next day.

 

Best Quote: The classic mistake is that founder’s hire a salesperson thinking they can figure out how to go to market. The founder needs to do that and figure it out.

 

Andy's Misfit 3:

1. Have a career thesis. Get clear around the path that is most likely for your career.
2. Don’t worry about the steps you make in your career. You can always tell a good story about your career. Don’t take too many steps at one. Take one step and pivot, then the next and so on.
3. Have a side-hustle to give you an outlet.

 

Show Sponsors

LinkedIn Jobs (Free Job Posting)

www.LinkedIn.com/Misfit

5 Minute Journal

www.MisfitEntrepreneur.com/Journal