CMO Canva, Zach Kitschke: From Employee Number 5 To $40 Billion Valuation
Grit25 Juli 2022

CMO Canva, Zach Kitschke: From Employee Number 5 To $40 Billion Valuation

Canva CMO Zach Kitschke was the company’s fifth employee, joining right before the product launched to the public — or, that was the plan anyway. Emerging technologies like HTML5 and negative feedback from early testers delayed the debut of the design startup, but in the 10 years since its launch Canva has become one of the most successful companies to ever come out of Australia. “One of our values is to set crazy big goals and make them happen,” Zach says.

In this episode, Zach and Joubin discuss Zach’s first job in small-town bureaucracy, how he got introduced to Canva before the company was hiring anyone, helping teammates achieve their potential, “culture carriers,” the pressure of comparing your companies to others, Canva’s “underwhelming” launch night and finding product-market fit, the four pillars of success in Canva’s culture, localization as a growth strategy, predictable anxiety, the hypergrowth gap, and “the two-step plan.”

In this episode, we cover:

  • What Canva does, and where the idea came from (08:08)
  • Zach’s first impressions of Canva co-founders Mel Perkins and Cliff Obrecht (12:49)
  • Making bets on unproven people in an organization (16:41)
  • Setting “crazy big goals” and readying Canva v1 for launch (21:17)
  • The pre-launch inferiority complex (27:30)
  • An important cold email from the Huffington Post (33:59)
  • Wearing many hats in a startup and building company culture (36:17)
  • Learning on the job and managing a hypergrowth company (45:23)
  • How does Canva’s growth compare to what Zach expected? (51:09)
  • Canva’s unique approach to work-life balance, and Mel and Cliff’s philanthropic “two-step plan” (59:23)

Links:

Avsnitt(284)

CRO Flexport, Will Urban: Streamlining Global Trade With Revolutionary Technology

CRO Flexport, Will Urban: Streamlining Global Trade With Revolutionary Technology

Global trade is as complex as it is essential to worldwide economic stability. From organizing freight shipped through the air or over oceans, to customs and other governmental red tape, there’s a lot...

1 Feb 202150min

Founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, Qasar Younis: Creating Customer-Oriented Company Cultures

Founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, Qasar Younis: Creating Customer-Oriented Company Cultures

When it comes to building a company from the ground up, Qasar Younis has done it all. A mechanical engineer by trade and entrepreneur at heart, Qasar transitioned from working on cars to building star...

25 Jan 202155min

Board Director at Fastly, Kelly Wright: How She Went from Selling Door to Door to Board Director

Board Director at Fastly, Kelly Wright: How She Went from Selling Door to Door to Board Director

Kelly Wright has had a remarkable career in sales, from her early days selling books door to door to joining Tableau as a developing startup and helping them grow into a multi-billion dollar company a...

11 Jan 202149min

CRO Auth0, Dave Wilner: Discussing Growth and Leadership

CRO Auth0, Dave Wilner: Discussing Growth and Leadership

Dave Wilner joined Auth0 in November of 2014, and has played an instrumental role in growing the company to $1 billion in valuation.In this episode of Go to Market, Joubin and Dave discuss Dave’s uniq...

28 Dec 202037min

CRO Atlassian, Cameron Deatsch: Exploring Atlassian’s Unorthodox Strategy

CRO Atlassian, Cameron Deatsch: Exploring Atlassian’s Unorthodox Strategy

Atlassian is one of the most unorthodox technology companies in the world. Almost everything the company does is completely different than what you would expect. And yet, the organization has been mas...

14 Dec 202055min

CRO Twilio, Marc Boroditsky: A Behind the Scenes Look at Twilio’s Go to Market Strategy

CRO Twilio, Marc Boroditsky: A Behind the Scenes Look at Twilio’s Go to Market Strategy

Marc Boroditisky brings a unique perspective to the table as CRO of Twilio, as a founder and builder who has led several companies. In this episode of Go to Market, Joubin and Marc discuss his unique ...

30 Nov 202051min

SVP and Head of Sales at AppsFlyer, Mar Brandt: Leadership Insights

SVP and Head of Sales at AppsFlyer, Mar Brandt: Leadership Insights

Mar Brandt is a sales veteran and ad tech expert who has spent time at leading organizations including Experian, Sitecore, and most recently AppsFlyer. Mar is also a founding member and senior executi...

16 Nov 202045min

COO of LinkedIn, Dan Shapero: Discussing Go to Market Leadership

COO of LinkedIn, Dan Shapero: Discussing Go to Market Leadership

Imagine taking a company like LinkedIn to a billion dollars in sales in just a few years, only to leave at the top of your game to rebuild your career and pursue a different path in product. That’s ex...

2 Nov 202050min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

framgangspodden
varvet
rss-jossan-nina
rss-borsens-finest
rss-svart-marknad
badfluence
avanzapodden
uppgang-och-fall
svd-tech-brief
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
fill-or-kill
rss-dagen-med-di
lastbilspodden
tabberaset
bathina-en-podcast
24fragor
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
dynastin