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podimo.comMorten Strunge founded Podimo in 2019 as a premium podcast and audiobook service, which rewards creators for making content that people want to hear. Podimo joined the Highland family in 2021 – here’s Morten’s experience of taking Podimo from startup to global growth company.
How has your perspective as a founder or CEO changed from early stage to growth stage?
Clearly communicating what you want to build, including the vision and the direction for the company, is extremely important at all stages, but how you go about it changes and evolves as you scale your company. When you grow to 250 people like we are now, communicating and living your vision while setting a clear direction needs to become increasingly driven through your management team. Understanding the importance of this allows you to drive faster, better execution and build a great company.
The benefit of starting a company from scratch is that you have a deep understanding of all aspects of your business. As you scale, you need to be mindful of how you use this superpower, balancing being operational and strategic – which is also a prerequisite for being able to hire and retain a strong management team.
What was the hardest mistake you made during the growth stage and what did you learn from it?
Pre-growth stage, we started scaling abroad too quickly. First you need to truly understand what works in your model, what is scalable, and how you amplify your fly-wheel. If you scale before this – you add complexity and it will risk you taking longer to find that formula.
What key strategies have you used to achieve sustainable growth in the past few years?
If you build a beautiful product experience that your customers love, it makes your life easier and growth will likely follow. Successfully aligning interests with the parties in your ecosystem – ours being Creators and listeners – the fly-wheel will start to spin and can be amplified through marketing, product differentiation, etc. Secondly, predictability in your business is key. If we do X then Y will happen. The more predictability you can create the easier it is to fundraise. High predictability = low risk.
How did you maintain or adapt your company culture during rapid growth?
Culture is something I’ve been very conscious about from day one. At the outset, we said the most important thing is the journey and ensuring we have a strong vision – Enriching life through listening. Being purpose-driven is a powerful tool in creating a passionate and driven team.
Finding strong advocates to reiterate the company mission and vision that you and your management team live daily will make people go that extra mile to build a successful company. Being true to your purpose and culture pillars is essential. Culture is a fragile thing, you have to protect it to keep it. Succeed with that and you’ll build a better and bigger company and you’ll have a more fun ride doing it.