Building for Sales as a non-engineer

Keeping any bigger picture views on AI aside, being able to create something that was previously not possible is objectively exciting. Knowing what to build and what not to build is the biggest challenge of 2026 - how to create tools of genuine value for the team, and what is worthy of operationalising, what is just a fun toy.

So I've spent many chunks of evenings and weekends this year building tools specifically to drive effectiveness in sales - that I wanted to use myself, mostly in Lovable, and some sprinkles from Claude.

Here are some reflections on a few of the tools I’ve built and quickfire learnings.

High intent lead signal tool

Of everything I've built, this may have the best ratio of "simplicity to utility".

Just go into Lovable, and describe each of the signals that represent high intent for your particular ICP. As an example, in building this tool at Foodles, that's offices offering staff benefits (ideally recurring team lunches), based in Central London. You then ask Lovable to build a tool that lets you import any form of lead list (CSV, lists on webpages, photos of buildings with company names on them, whatever you've got), and for it to check each company against the signals you've inputted. It will use firecrawl to parse through the documents (if an image or pdf), or Perplexity to scour the web or to check against specific sites. In our case the tool scoured career pages, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Welcome to the Jungle and Indeed for staff benefits.

To add further utility (perhaps saving need for separate enrichment tools like Apollo etc), you can ask Lovable to get the tool to find the name and contact details of the relevant ICP within the leads that come back as high intent.

The most efficient combination I found was pairing this with something like Claude Cowork to continuously run the lead list searches. Cowork creates the initial curated automated lead lists, import them into your new lead enrichment tool to find highest signal leads, and then outbound with tailored, relevant messaging.

If your team is price sensitive, an in-house tool like this can lead to real cost savings versus paying for a tool like Clay.

The sprint dashboard

Competitions in sales are fun. Sprints are often necessary to align everyone, test an outbound approach and create a sense of togetherness, ideally with an incentive attached.

Building a dashboard with progress bars, podiums and a visual representation of unlocked incentives adds a layer of fun to a sprint. You can connect it to Slack for daily or weekly updates too.

Done within 30mins. I'd file this more in the "novel and fun" category rather than genuinely useful however.

CRM

I rebuilt our CRM with Lovable. I was pleased that there were no (clear) technical faults to it, it worked well, and I could iterate on it daily based on feedback and requirements. It feels feasible to broadly replicate every function of the major CRMs on the market.

However, there are major downsides:

The real value of a CRM is the legacy knowledge; Which contacts have we had relationship before in a given account? Who has spoken to them before? What have we sent them in the past? What meeting notes do we have that can provide as much context as possible? 

Almost by definition, a vibe coded CRM will be more on the MVP side, so much of the richness of context will likely not be captured, and retrospective context is lost. Other than for a short term solution, it doesn’t make sense.

Many strong sales tools integrate with CRMs. If you’ve built your own CRM, you will be less likely to connect to the broader ecosystem available, workflows not seamless, and your stack is likely to be more fragmented.

AI Sales Roleplay tool - Igi

The question I asked myself is - can I build something that can feel sophisticated enough to be a product usable for SMB or mid market - with the hygiene factors needed for it to a) feel like more than a chatgpt wrapper, and b) have functionality and depth that could provide genuine value, and c) is this possible in the space of a weekend or a couple evenings?

So I built a voice AI sales roleplay tool. You add your sales materials (website, pitch deck, ICP document, call transcripts) and it extracts the key information about your product: ICPs, USPs, likely objections, competitors etc. The user can then practice various roleplay types, including elevator pitch, cold calls, discovery, objection handling, your next meeting, or selling against a competitor. Every call is scored against your sales methodology, with dynamic feedback and a full transcript. Answers can be saved to a model answer library, shared with the team.


I was extremely excited by this concept, because it was:

a) something I could very much use myself when learning the positioning of a new product ("scratch my own itch")

b) something I could use to train new BDs and AEs

c) genuinely quick and fun to build.

However, the quicker and more fun something is to build, the lower the barriers to entry. A quick Google reveals hundreds of similar tools, and extremely well funded juggernauts like Gong and Hyperbound have built fully fledged versions of this in the name of sales enablement.

With that said, I'm proud of the functionality. All built on Lovable, and affectionately known as Igi, from the Japanese word for "to object". 

It started purely as objection handling roleplay, but then progressed to various practice types, and then I built structured training programs with the view of creating a tool that could provide tailored and structured onboarding for new team members.

A few things I learnt building it:

It is absurdly easy to get to MVP via Lovable. That includes the backend, multiple user logins, integrations like Google sign in, connecting to ElevenLabs for the voice agents, and even Stripe for free trials and paid usage by seats.

It is much harder to decide what not to build than what to build.

The more features you build, the harder it is to maintain, the messier it becomes, the harder the narrative becomes and the more difficult the bugs are to resolve. In a world where building is effortless and ubiquitous, discipline is critical.

The below is a screenshot of the Model Answer Library I built (and by "I", I very much mean: Lovable) - using a competitor objection in the AI roleplay space as an example. The thinking behind a Model Answer Library is that most sales teams have a google doc with several objections shared amongst the team and best-in-class answers. The problem is, this is representative of "moment in time" best-in-class answers, and usually gets updated extremely rarely. As any product evolves, the objections and the answers should evolve too - and sales teams often get left behind, until they lose a deal to objections they're not comfortable with yet. What if we could reframe objection handling sessions, and Model Answers could be a dynamic page, constantly evolving, and saved objections can be practiced via AI roleplay at any point? The AI can suggest better answers after the roleplay which you can choose to save instead of / alongside your team's existing best-in-class answer. Answers to objections should be constantly changing, and practicing positioning should be a daily practice for the best sales teams.

This is "nice to have", but not necessarily a game changer, internally or as an external product. This ties into the importance of user conversations. As fun as it is to build for an audience of one, if you want to build something that scales, user interviews come before committing to a solution. What problem are you really solving? Ie. Do objection handling roleplays need to be replaced by AI? Will the AI prospect simulatons be better than the human interaction? Can practicing at scale through AI lead to faster ramp times than practicing a few times with your manager or sales enablement in onboarding? Will the conversations be dynamic and realistic enough that they will genuinely prepare AEs for difficult prospect conversations?

Going from "nice project" to "highly useful" is the real challenge. It's very easy to connect voice agents via ElevenLabs. Nailing the system prompts so that each roleplay feels unique, without hallucination, with realistic latency, and with enough logic to simulate an actual prospect is the hard part. That means tinkering with the LLMs inside ElevenLabs to find the balance between speed and the ability to handle complexity, and working through the various latency settings.

The standard UI and UX of a Lovable build is fair to good, but a lot of tinkering is needed for it to stop feeling like a vibe-coded website. I don't think I've nailed it. I'm not a UX expert and I over-rely on asking Lovable to review its own UX.

Using Claude as a product manager to build the spec, then feeding that into Lovable's Plan mode, is the most efficient approach I've found.

Distribution, and specifically integrating into existing workflows, is the most important factor for a successful product in the AI world. I've been toying with Slack as the medium for Igi, to put it inside a user's workflow rather than asking them to visit another tab. I can see how this would lead to higher adoption and engagement, but the challenge would be to find the balance of simplicity (Slack apps should be very easy to use) and value. I'm still not convinced there's enough of a moat there to compete with the large players and their integrations into cold calling tools and CRMs. 

In a world where building anything is possible, making “the adoption experience" exceptional will separate the winners from the losers. This applies for an tool where the goal is internal adoption, or selling externally.

Honourable mentions to simpler tools built through Claude for enterprise deals: 

• ROI Calculator - I've found this to be quite useful for a) internal use for the team to get comfortable with the financial value of the product, and b) to share with the buyer for them to use internally. It's worth noting that buyers are typically skeptical of ROI promised to them, but it is always useful for framing the discussion away from price and towards value.

• Business Case - getting Claude to compile an artefact to be talked through in a meeting (and sent via pdf or slides after) with the information gathered through discovery needed for the Champion to sell internally, based on the main business pains they've highlighted. 

My concluding learnings

Building used to be the hard part. Understanding what to build, what to leave out, and for who to build it now is the key. 

Internal tools are great, but knowing what to operationalize is the hard part. 

External tools are great, but no prospect wants to be overwhelmed with sales assets.

Based on these learnings, I'd argue not everyone should be "a GTM engineer", but everyone should try, test, play, and search for efficiencies for your specific role, your product, your team. 

Be industrious. Have fun. Get efficient at quickly understanding the difference between a fun tool, and something that can lead to real business impact.  

A call to "like things more"

Firstly, I must state up front this post is more of an appreciation post than anything else. It's a reference to an original post by a writer I admire, and this serves as my notes to myself from his writing.

"How to like everything more" (on the skill of enjoyment) by Sasha Chopin. 

I first read this post in January this year, and it's undeniably the most important and impactful thing I've read all year. It's resonated in my mind at least weekly, and I've re-read it at least 8 times in 2025. 

The words within were a reminder to me that every small thing we're exposed to in life is an opportunity to really, truly, enjoy. And if we're going to enjoy, why not try enjoy deeply? Can we extract every drop of enjoyment out of even the seemingly most mundane or taken-for-granted experiences? What effect would that have on our quality of life? Surely if it's possible, we should explore how to? And, is it possible to learn to develop an appreciation for things that we previously didn't see as "our kind of thing"? 

From the tangible to the intangible (I warn you some of these might sound silly or fluffy but I'm being serious) - a flat white, a night where stars are visible, a well presented meal, an impressively curated garden, a unique tasting wine, strange decor in a shop, precisely chosen plates by a chef, a majestic tree, a pastry that overwhelms the palate, a song that stirs emotions, a towering building, art that confuses, a view that inspires... The list is infinite. And the more polarising hobbies or experiences that we may not currently resonate with - could we develop at least a mild appreciation for them? Hunting, death metal music, weaving, CrossFit, camping, foreign language movies, watching other people play games online, K-Pop, interpretative dance, birding, collecting rare items etc etc (granted some of these are more polarising or niche than others, but you get the point).

There's essentially an unlimited number of things for us to "like" or "appreciate" in this world on a daily basis. Irrespective of cost. Natural and man-made. Tangible and intangible. Taking a conscious approach to do so is a skill that we can and should sharpen. 

This ties in to what I see as an ultimate goal - being content. 

If we can refine and enhance our ability to "like everything more", it allows us to get deeper joy out of what we currently experience rather than falling into the trap of believing we can get more joy out of the experiences we don't have. 

Not always craving more. 

Simply, being content.  

A few practical highlights from Sasha's post:

- Try be as conscious as possible about each experience in the day.

- Move your attention beyond the part that you immediately focused on. 

- On experiences that historically haven't been "your thing", drop resistance and adopt curiosity. 

- Find mental associations with something else that means something to you. Ie. What does that song *feel* like to you? Does it remind you of anything?

- Develop an interest in the person / people behind the creation. The director, the producer, the songwriter, the craftsman, the chef, the architect, the car manufacturer, the farmer. If we can understand and appreciate their journey more deeply, we can understand and appreciate their work more deeply. Watching interviews with a director or songwriter helps me appreciate their movies and songs more. For me, God is the creator of the universe, so everytime I appreciate nature, I appreciate His works.

- Notice your body's response to it. Beautiful things in life can be viscerally calming. 

- In forms of art like song and movie, be an active participant in it, even predict where it's going as if you're the creator. 

- Get lost in tiny details.

- Be a time traveler - imagine discussing the thing that's captured your attention with someone in the past. Modern rap music with Tupac. Modern rock with Beatles. AI art with Matisse. 

- Take a moment to internalise and take a mental snapshot of anything that strikes you. Hold it and savour it. 

- Build a context. Historical art in it's current form might be less impressive than imagining it's creation within geographical and historical context of what existed at the time. If I listen to a song from the 70s or 80s I'm often mildly unimpressed because I've heard so many variations of that style since then. But if we can mentally time travel to the context of its release, it's completely different experience.

- Pretend you're a buyer or investor. Anything takes on a whole new look and sense of value if approached from perspective of ownership.

- Step away from binary "like" or "dislike". Have mental language for the nuanced emotion. 

- If initial emotional response is "dislike", take a second to pause and try challenge that thought - try see it from perspective of the creator and then guage if anything changes in your emotion towards it.

- Find one flaw. I love this line from Chapin: "If conducted covertly, this particular mental habit allows you to love people more deeply and realistically, by noticing how the annoying thing about them and the great thing are fundamentally intertwined." This applies to any experience across art, music, objects, movies, food etc. Nothing is perfect, and the imperfect part complements the perfect part. 

If there's one thing you do today/ this week, please read Sasha's post. Please feel free to slide into my proverbial DMs with your thoughts. 

Questioning Normal

I've thought a lot about why we travel. 

And why someone who has travelled a lot isn't materially or noticeably more interesting, wise, mature, better equipped at dealing with life, or fun to be around, than someone who hasn't travelled. Have you ever noticed sometimes there's an inverse correlation of how much someone has travelled and how interesting they are?

But in thinking that, I missed the point. It’s not about gaining wisdom or maturity or gaining life experience that will pay off at a later date. It’s not even about the social capital of a fleeting rapport with a stranger at a party when you find common ground about that same place you’ve both travelled to (although I can’t deny that is nice).

This could be a post on the 750 different motivations or benefits of travel, but I wanted to highlight the 2 key ones that struck me in my most recent trip. Neither of them will make me more interesting (maybe the opposite), and definitely not more wise (never any risk of that), but that’s completely okay with me. 

The 2 benefits that hit me shifted between the acute and the chronic.
The short and longer term.
The fun and the meaningful.

The “fun” was the dopamine hit of Awe. The novelty and unknown of every moment in travel gives the purest neurochemical concoction of joy, intrigue, confusion and surprise. I suspect that's the real attraction to travel outside of relaxation by the beach. That every time we go to a new place that’s recommended by a friend or a travel guide - the anticipation and hit of novel experience is difficult to describe, and that’s why we keep coming back for it.

Then there's the “meaningful”.

The one that struck me in Japan was the impact of an awakened sense that our normal isn't or doesn't have to be *the* normal. At least not “the only” normal.

That we apply our own social constructs in our own lives. We've been shaped by them, and we perpetuate them. 

Other cultures shape and perpetuate their own social constructs. 

Each micro experience in a new environment can give us the opportunity to think about why we do what we do, and seek to learn why others do it differently. Even if we don’t dig deeper, just observing how differently some people do the things we take for granted as “conventional” feels enriching. We don’t have to actively seek these micro experiences - walking through the streets in a new city or spending time at a cafe can flood us with these moments. Low effort, high yield.

The very first moment that captured me on this, at Haneda airport, was a pristinely dressed elderly (approximately 70 years old) man with the laser-focused role of grabbing each luggage bag as they popped out of the carousel, and aligning each one so that they were easy for the traveller to grab. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so dialled in and intent to absolutely nail their job. It was like the World Championships were at stake. Why is this a role? Wouldn't a physical job like this be better suited to a younger fitter man? How is he seemingly still in incredible physical shape with perfect posture despite his age? Is he proud of this job? Is he doing this by choice at his age or is it due to not being able to afford retirement? Why don’t other international airports have this role? What is the real utility of the role? (You get the point).

This was the first of over a dozen moments like this. That captured not only attention, but Awe. These moments forced the question of "Why is it this way?" . More often than not I didn't and don't have the answer. Which I also loved. 

I'm convinced in some ways the beauty of life is just constantly being exposed to things we don’t understand, and accepting that is okay.

The moments continued:

Elderly woman pouring her heart and soul into her one-person restaurant, silently making okonomiyaki right in front of us to the tune of Japanese news in the background. 

The awkward - yet charming - yet fascinating - yet bewildering - yet wholesome "thank you" , "no, thank you!", "thank you very much", no, thank you very much" that seems to end almost every interaction.

Waiter at the wrong restaurant offering (and requesting) to inconvenience himself and walk us to the right restaurant - 15 minutes away.

Restaurant giving patrons gifts just for eating at their restaurant. 

Uber driver inconveniencing himself to make absolutely sure we get to our right stop at no extra charge.

Elderly construction workers in air-conditioned gilets.

The awkwardly long bow until the elevator closes. 

A one-table bakery; inside the house of a solo baker.

The first time the bidet hits your bum after sitting on the heated toilet seat.

The impassioned emotion and expression fully commensurate with the tone of the words.

The sumo wrestler thanking you for stepping on his turf. 

Darts and Karaoke as the wedding afterparty.

The shoes off policy of a barbecue house.

The Michelin chef who has impeccable Google Translate small talk with his doting patrons over the counter. 

Bar staff giving customers free dessert just for having a good time. 

The ‘8 thank you minimums’ in most cafes.

Vending machines selling 16 different types of freshly brewed coffee with 7 different sub-options each - payable with travel card.

Bartender named Champagne.

… And those were the first few off the top of my head from 6 days.

None of these moments feel "normal" to me. Or at least not common in my daily life in London or in Johannesburg. That's not to say it's better. That's not to say it's worse. 

But it is a version of normal. 

And that's enough for my subconscious to get excited enough to transfer the questioning of “normal” onto countless other everyday life things. 

At least until the busy-ness of life distracts again.
And then, it's onto the next trip to reawaken the senses again. 

An Ode to Awe

New years resolutions are fun.

To some extent, they're necessary. 

Or at least the thought process of reflection, and taking deliberate steps within our control to choose the life we want.

Cut out the carbs, eat less chocolate, drink less, go to gym more etc etc. We can pretty much all agree to these, even though we know we'll stick to them for approximately 8 days (or if you have a painful and rehab-esque addiction to basque cheesecake and almond croissants like me, maybe 2.75 days).

Over the last 5 years, I've taken Tim Ferriss' approach of doing a 'review of the year'. Reviewing the experiences that brought the most joy, and the things that brought anxiety or frustration. 

The goal is to tweak the next year by proactively planning more things similar to the ones that brought joy, and consciously rejecting the ones that brought anxiety (you know that feeling when someone cancels a plan and you get so excited that you could kiss a small grandma or run around pants-less with excitement. Yeah? Do less of those plans next year).

Every year I find that the experiences that bring me most joy involve quality time with my family and my close friends (usually over incredibly indulgent meals), and moments that give me that feeling of awe; the childlike buzz associated with discovery. 

That's why I think so many of us love travel - it gives the feeling of awe, of novelty, of short term discomfort that quickly transitions to euphoria, and the consequent series of dopamine hits that come with "achieving" mini discoveries of amazing places, views, restaurants, cultural experiences in new environments. 

Learning a new skill that unlocks a series of new experiences can bring that same feeling - like learning to ski can unlock ski holidays in the beautiful snowy mountains of the most picturesque places on the planet. Scuba diving can unlock discovery of a whole new subterranean world - opening up island holidays as an opportunity for both ends of the spectrum of relaxation and exploration.

Surfing. Hiking. Photography. Rock climbing. Languages. Golf. Dance. Cycling. Yoga. 
The list is almost infinite - skills that open worlds of cultural connection and new lenses to experience the world. 

I still can't ski or scuba dive in my 30s (amongst several other of the aforementioned skills that I probably shouldn't admit to)... But damn, I can't wait to learn. And I'm so excited for the infinite possibilities of adventure that will be opened through these mini worlds.

Anticipation, awe, unlocking a skill that opens new worlds. 

That's what I want to optimise for in 2025. And beyond. 

'Fitting as much life into life as possible'.

Here's to a 2025 of awe and full of life.

The most boring things in the world.

As I was heading to Abu Dhabi airport a few weeks ago, I noticed a bunch of apartment buildings. Many many many apartment buildings. That got me thinking.

Could tall buildings exist if people didn’t have a way to get to the 30th floor? Would they exist if the only way to access floors was stairs? What did people do before elevators? Are elevators key to the existence of apartment buildings, and to tall office buildings?

Don’t get me wrong, talking about elevators on a first date would ensure you never get a second date. Could be top 3 most boring topics in the world.

But they’re key to our world.

Before elevators just 6 generations ago, cities had to grow outward. They have led to enhanced urban density, and catalysed economic growth by improving economic viability of high-rises, and fitting more tenants and businesses per square foot - transforming real estate.

So, at risk of scaring everyone away that this is going to be a 100 000 word post on elevators, I just want to draw a few quick learnings for us.

There’s beauty in the mundane. And it’s the mundane things that have catalyzed modern society.

That got me thinking. What other absurdly boring things (the topics that would get you exiled from a dinner party for mentioning) are actually key to our society?

Then I thought of toothpaste.

Just 5 generations ago, people cleaned their teeth with clay or twigs or cloth, or not at all. Dental hygiene was a frequent cause of death. That's pretty crazy isn't it? Now if you don't brush twice a day and floss you're considered a madman.. 100 years ago, the idea of toothpaste was absurd. Our grandparents may not have brushed their teeth. Madness.

Barcodes.

Just 3 generations ago, every item had to be manually priced and inventory was tracked by hand. Checkout was slow, error-prone, and inventory management was a nightmare. Today there are over 6 billion barcode scans daily. Global commerce efficiency has been transformed forever.

Have you ever had a sexy bar code discussion? I thought not. 

Even something like zippers that we use on our bags and luggage. Only been around for 5 generations, but imagine international travel without securely locking luggage? Not really possible.

All of these things are so intertwined with everyday life and painfully mundane, but have only been around for a few generations and we take them for granted.

What is the next generation version of elevators that will catalyze residential and commercial growth?

What is the next generation version of toothpaste that will transform hygiene, and even personal health?

What is the next generation version of barcodes that will accelerate retail growth?

What is the next generation version of zippers that will transform how we transport objects from one place to another?

It’s just a reminder that there is still opportunity in everything.

That’s what excites me about the world of angel investing. There are so many incredibly intelligent people out there working on daily problems building their version of elevators, toothpastes, bar codes, zippers - that in 2050 will be seen as disgustingly boring because they’re so intertwined with everyday life.

But they will be multi-billion dollar industries.

Solving a problem for the world doesn’t necessarily have to be something that sounds extraordinary in the moment in order to change the world forever.

A Case for Ignorance

In his book 'Psychology of Money', Morgan Housel described how his daughter has a few dozen mental models of the world, and she'll always have a crystal clear explanation of any experience by fitting it directly into that mental model: "dad isn't playing with me, I wanted him to play with me, I'm now sad."

She doesn't ponder the why or the how, she tells herself a coherent story based on what she does know, and that's enough.

That got me thinking (terrible idea, I know).

As we get older, we refine the narrative. It becomes complex, as it should, as we gather more information to inform the narrative. Our analysis of the how and why of each experience informs our thoughts, decisions, actions.

We all form our perceptions of reality based on our mental models. On patterns. Reference points. Wanting to replicate or avoid the emotions resulting from lived experiences.

We get wiser, as the spiderweb of our pattern recognition becomes more complex and mature.

We learn to appreciate nuance. That is beautiful. We need to evolve our views based on new information. Strong beliefs loosely held. If we didn't, we'd all be insufferable stubborn closed minded bigots.

But there's a case for being the naive 4 year old.

It would be foolish to start a business if you consider the >90% chance of failure.
It would be foolish to go on a date if you consider all the reasons why there may not be a connection.
It would be foolish to invest in a startup if you consider the chances of that being the one that changes the world forever.
It would be foolish to make a cold call if you consider how much the person on the other end disdains being cold called.

But, every now and then, we need to be foolish, to be naive, to be mesmerized by the opportunity in front of us.

The world moves forward from these bold moves underlined by a beautiful blissful ignorance.

Credit to all the founders in my network who have been, are being, and will be "foolish", and seek to improve the world.

The big bet

Choose a distinct path.

Make yourself undeniable.
Follow with conviction.

He's not a household name, but he's the man that led the round in the single best investment in history.

He's been a catalyst in one of the biggest companies on the planet - the third biggest gaming company in the world, a company that owns a platform with 1.3 billion users.

I'm talking about David Wallerstein. 

In 2000, he identified a trend in internet cafe behaviour in Zhengzhou China - People would spend 4 hours+ per day using a web chat platform (QQ). He would see the same faces, different faces, trance-like behaviour - absolute total immersion.

He could see a movement forming. He built enough conviction to fight for an opportunity to invest in the company who owned it - Tencent.

As an American who went to high school in Japan, who taught himself Mandarin, with an intense interest in Chinese culture and belief that China could be a global superpower, he was uniquely positioned to act on his conviction.

He positioned himself in a way that he had to be listened to.

He made himself undeniable.

He couldn't invest on a grand scale with his own money, so he consulted for Naspers, convinced them to invest in Tencent off the back of this (for a 46.5% stake), and convinced Tencent to accept the investment.

The year was 2001.

This is now known semi-unanimously as the single best investment of all time.

Ofcourse the story here is Tencent, and there's a million things to be said about their fascinating business model, Pony Ma, and how they are central to not only Chinese culture but a growing global superpower. That's a discussion for another time.

As a South African, what really grips me here is the role of a south African business in this. That a South African business bought a 46.5% stake in this Chinese company. How random that appears, and how David Wallerstein was the catalyst behind it. Wallerstein went on to join Tencent directly after the Naspers investment, and was key to their growth in building a "spiderweb" of products that facilitate human connection in the digital world. I guess you could say it worked out.

If Wallerstein didn't convince Naspers to invest in Tencent, would they have grown to what they are today? As the third biggest gaming company in the world, would gaming be as big as it is today? With WeChat as a platform for so many other Chinese companies, would the Chinese economy be as big as it is today?

Bold decisions and investments like this can shape our culture. Shape our world.

Nasper invested $32 million in 2001.
That investment is worth approximately $115Bn in 2024.
Approximately 3500x increase in value.

Perhaps the best investment in history.

Besides an obscene amount of luck, there's something we can try extract from this.

David Wallerstein is an example of -
Choose a distinct path.
Make yourself undeniable.
Follow with conviction.

Mistakes

I’ve been thinking a lot about mistakes.

I make a few of them. More than I would like, if I’m being completely honest.

In my first visit to Helsinki, on my first night, approximately 53 minutes into my trip, I put my Airbnb key in the wrong door.

Not a big deal right? Honest mistake. I tried to enter the wrong building (two metres away from the correct building) as I wasn’t really concentrating and I thought it was the right building. Didn’t feel like it would be an issue as I realized I made the mistake. However, the key got stuck in the door. Turns out Finland is known for having some of the most intricate locks in the world. Fast forward 6 hours - 3 (!) locksmiths had to come and try remove the key. One after the other, they failed. Apparently this was the toughest lock in all of Finland, arguably in all of Europe, possibly in all of planet Earth. They ended up having to remove the entire lock from this apartment building’s entrance and replace it. I replaced the lock of that building, and inadvertently invested in the infrastructure of Finland.

6 hours. 400 Euros. An expensive mistake.

A younger version of myself would have ‘beaten myself up’ about it. I would have started to overthink why I did something so silly. It would have affected my mood. I would have struggled to be fully present afterwards.

Over time, I’ve realized that doing ridiculous things is completely normal.

Making mistakes is completely normal.

In sport, messing up a serve, losing a point, conceding a goal - completely normal.

But…

The next serve? The next point? The next goal? The next door in Finland? That’s the one we have to get right. The mentality directly after. That’s the test.

In Roger Federer’s Dartmouth College address, he noted that he has won a staggering 80% of games in his career. That is absolutely incredible. However, the really jarring statistic he shared is that he only won 54% of the contested points within games. That means he lost nearly half of all points he played in his career - he made mistakes of some sort in nearly one in every 2 points he ever played - yet he still won roughly 80% of his matches.

As Federer says, “You want to become a master at overcoming the hard moments” .

Kevin Kelly’s line on this resonates:
“Pros make as many mistakes as amateurs;
They’ve just learned how to gracefully recover from their mistakes”

I absolutely love that.

How liberating is it to know that mistakes are normal?

If we don’t close that deal? Absolutely fine. Recover gracefully. Close the next one.
If we don’t win that point? Absolutely fine. Recover gracefully. Win the next one.
If we don’t know that answer in the exam? Absolutely fine. Recover gracefully. Answer the next one

If we put that key in the wrong hole. Absolutely fine. Recover gracefully.

Get it in the right hole next time.

Tribalism

Tribalism

In modern society, it has a place.

I am a Liverpool fan. It’s a zero sum game. No other team can exist in my emotional stratosphere. I am entirely immature in that 90 minutes watching that specific football match. 

By virtue of being a Liverpool fan, I “hate” other football teams. They are the enemy, and Liverpool must win.

This is a sports ideology. Your fandom is your identity. There’s something fun about the tribalism of it. We realize it’s ridiculous and non-sports-fans struggle to understand it. But we do it because it makes us part of a community - a tribe. We connect within seconds when we meet someone who is part of that same tribe. If I meet another Liverpool fan, I have hours (if not months) of content I can speak with them about. I know we will agree on most things and compound each other’s views. By virtue of being Liverpool fans, we are “the same”.

In sports, tribalism is fun. It’s an escape.

However - It’s dangerous to apply this tribalism to other parts of life.

Politics should not be tribal. 

Building views about what’s best for our country or the biggest societal issues of our times should not be tribal. It should not be a zero sum game.

I don’t believe our identity should be aligned with a political party. I don’t believe it’s in any society’s best interests to view politics as an “us” vs “them” battle.

Elections should be about values and approaches to solving key societal problems; who we believe will make decisions that will benefit the population as a whole. Each party will always have extremely complex challenges to deal with. Opportunity cost of every dollar. For every dollar they spend on one issue, that’s a dollar not spent on a different issue. We have to make our choices based on the issues we value the most at the time - the problems that need to be solved in our society. Acknowledging that things will change, and we’ll have more information over time to make our next decision.

I will be a Liverpool fan even if we lose 300 games in a row, get relegated, and only sign players I dislike. It’s a marriage. I made it through the “Roy Hodgson years” - I can make it through anything. Nobody can change my mind about being a Liverpool fan.

But if we apply the same ideology to societal issues, we will not learn from each other. We will not allow ourselves to have healthy debates and consider the various sides of the biggest problems facing our country and the planet. We need to appreciate that our current views are largely influenced by our upbringing, our friendship groups, social media, the news, and possible biases. 

We need to challenge ourselves and allow ourselves to be challenged. 

I should allow myself to change my mind on how I vote based on topics at hand, and which party will be for the greater good of the country. I should be open minded as I consider issues, and as I hear counter-arguments to my views.


Be tribal in sports. Be considered in every other part of life.

Think like a Scientist

I spent the weekend reading 'Think Again' by Adam Grant. Organizational psychology has always fascinated me, and I always find books that analyze social behaviours probably more intriguing than I should - both from a perspective of reviewing the way I approach situations personally, and how I can use any learnings in a professional capacity. A few key themes stood out from this:

One line that resonated with me was “being wrong is the only way I feel sure I’ve learned anything”. There’s real value in admitting to being wrong. Whether that’s finding Product Market Fit in a startup, learning that the problem you’re solving is not the original problem you were seeking to solve (and adapting extremely quickly), or in a personal context where disagreements can either strengthen a relationship or damage it depending on the approach taken by both parties.

Jeff Bezos said “People who are right a lot listen a lot, and they change their mind a lot - if you don’t change your mind frequently, you’re going to be wrong a lot”. This is a very challenging concept, as in the professional world we all have a layer of imposter syndrome and ego. Admitting to being wrong feels like it comes with a risk of exposure to the fragility that lies beneath the ego. In the context of sales and finding PMF, the difference between going out of business and achieving that tipping point of scale is listening to customers’ demands, changing your mind where appropriate, and admitting to being wrong based on ever-changing hypotheses. In fact, any professional leadership role has a variety of decision-making crossroads which require questioning options, making judgment calls, reviewing the judgment calls, and hoping for learnings and greater wisdom over time to make more effective judgment calls. It’s non-linear, and there will never be a point where listening and being open to changing your mind based on information at hand isn’t necessary.

Reading this book reminded me of the value of “thinking like a scientist” in all contexts of everyday life. The value of being humble in the face of new information and when reviewing progress, and always looking at what can be improved. Listen, admit you might be wrong and see if adaptation is needed. In the art of B2B sales, and in building a startup - Truly listen to the real problems that prospects have, and refine the proposition and approach accordingly.

Think like a scientist.

AI in Sales: The Balancing Act

I have been thinking about how AI and specifically ChatGPT can help me and our team in our day to day sales roles. I’m currently cautious in my view and am aware of The Law of Instrument bias- the idea that “if you only have a hammer, you see everything as a nail”. There will be temptations to over-use GPT for every part of the role and lose sight of the subtleties that translate into sales teams succeeding.A new outbounding campaign? GPT. Difficult negotiation? GPT. Objection handling? GPT. 

My view is likely to change, but I'm currently of the view that we should only use AI for up to 20% of the "art" of sales. I'm a massive advocate of sales being authentic and human in a world where everyone is bombarded with 1000s of automated sequences that read like poorly edited marketing templates. GPT puts sales teams at the risk of going deeper down this path- if we don’t use GPT with finesse, if we use it as “a hammer”- we will see sales teams with higher automation and higher volume; which on the surface level can be attractive, but at the risk of foregoing quality interactions and conversion. To keep the tool analogy going, we need to use ChatGPT as a screwdriver- showing precision and care rather than brute force. Keep the subtleties of the human approach of B2B sales; reading between the lines; relevant touch points at relevant moments; letting the empty spaces between contact points do the work. Nuance.

ChatGPT can, however, be the ultimate sales advisor, coach, and refiner. One exciting use case is that of an “onboarding companion”- we can ask GPT to take the form of a prospect, by giving it the prospect website so that it has context of the company, giving it the sales deck so it can ask relevant questions, and using prompts that guide it in the right direction on the type of questions that are appropriate. We can then use it for role play meetings ahead of meeting prospects in real life. I played with this today and am extremely impressed, and feel that for self-training, it can be an invaluable tool.

Zooming out from day to day sales, I see significant value in GPT regarding sales operations. Sales activity trend analysis- summarizing and analyzing bulk notes taken by the sales team. This will help sharpen ICP, getting a better understanding of stakeholders involved in the decision, who's budget it's coming out of, what problems are being solved, other solutions considered etc. This can save considerable time in helping find product market fit, and help refine the value proposition. In addition to this, giving GPT info from CRMs to do deal funnel analysis and helping provide insight into challenges around the corner could be invaluable to sales leaders.

This is not my definitive view, and everything I've said might be out of date in 2 weeks time anyway. It’s up to us to keep experimenting, and allow ourselves to be open to change our current approach while not losing sight of what leads to successful sales teams in the first place.

26 Key Sales Leadership Learnings in 18 Months

As I type this, I feel in a particularly reflective mood. I am sitting at a bar, in Palma de Mallorca, where I should probably be partying or eating chipirones (trust me, there will be lots of eating, but at most a geriatric amount of partying). As I sit here, I am extracting learnings from Q1, from 2022, and generally from the last few years of management both at Crowdcube and 3 years in management at tastePal. So this is really 4.5 years of reflections. Leadership is a fascinating thing. Intangible. No right or wrong. 50-50 moments. Off-the-cuff decisions.

This post will primarily focus on 18 months as Head of Sales at Crowdcube. Grab an avocado, dig in, and let me know which parts you disagree with.

Also - disclaimer is that there may be some glorious full sentences, and other points that feel like messy bullet points and should have remained jumbled scrawls in my mind. Such is life.

Disclaimer 2.0 is that if you're not currently in sales or management, you might find this to be an extremely dry read. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Here’s 26 reflections and learnings. Bon appetite.

(I reserve the right to completely change my mind on all of this by this time next week).

1. Remuneration

Incentivize on upside. Sales people will always want more money. They are hungry, motivated, driven, smart people. Where is the upside to working on Saturdays and Sundays outbounding to be the best in the team if commission is capped at a level disproportionate to time invested? This is how sales people think. These are highly intelligent people with opportunity cost in their lives, so committing time outside work hours needs to feel worth it. The upside needs to feel potentially life-changing. A sales-person wants to buy into what they’re selling, as if it’s their own business. And they want to believe - they need to believe - that committing their blood, sweat and tears can lead to outsized returns. Ofcourse this commission needs to be proportional to revenue brought in by the individual, and needs to be carefully considered on a team relative to individual level. Would outsized individual commission lead to a disruption in culture of "stealing" leads from other team members? Is hybrid model of team and individual commission preferable? Details depend on structure of team and company revenue, but the principle of outsized (potentially life-changing) commission potential needs to apply to get the best, most motivated BDs.

2. Lead by example

A Sales Manager or Head of Sales needs to gain trust and respect early on in the role. Key way to do this is to lead by example by being exceptional at sales, closing deals that are seen as “marquee”, and being the model to aspire to. One of my failings was that when I started the role, I became so transfixed on the “management” side of it, and I wanted to allocate my pipeline to the new team members to boost their pipeline - but it came at the cost of bringing in deals myself. I became rusty, I became more of a manager than a leader or a world class sales-person, and I jeopardized the respect of the team as my role appeared more administrative than operational.

3. To consider when rebuilding a team

Hire fast - if hiring is priority. It is priority. Easy to do 11 things at 50% quality, but then hiring can take months. When there are key hires to be made, I recommend throwing everything at it.

Based on recent learnings, I recommend going this route if you need to make a great hire quickly - Do all of these in conjunction with each other, simultaneously: Use multiple recruiters; Otta; Flexa; Update your Linkedin page as “Hiring”; Post about it; Outbound top candidates yourself; Get different teams in the company to share; Offer referral incentives within teams; Revisit salary band and commission if needed. Do whatever it takes to get a high volume of top candidates as quickly as possible, because for any business where sales cycles take months, taking months to hire new team members on top of that in a rebuild is suicide.

4. Learnings from Interview process

There is no perfect process. I have learnt that a task that is representative of the daily job is helpful - for the individual to present in an interview and to talk through their thinking. Look out for soft skills - the little things like if they pause after making their point to see if you have questions or feedback, look out for if they are confident enough to provide substantiation to what they have stated in the task. Challenge them to see how they hold up to it. Disagree with them. Challenging and disagreeing will test how, even under pressure, they are able to show confidence and control the room - because clients will challenge them and disagree with them so you need to test it here first.

Be sure to give them enough time to discuss their questions with you, and be generous with your time - giving a clear view of the business’s growth plans and commercial model so they have as much information as possible to make an informed decision if they want to proceed. Remember - interviews should be a perfect fit for both, not just the employer. Final point on this - If the candidate is a 7/10, it’s a “no”.

5. If the majority of your team members are new

Pour your heart and soul into training them to be the best. If there are multiple people being onboarded at the same time, they are the future of the team - and your investment in them now may only yield rewards in a few months time, but those rewards will be worth it. Do not overlook the importance of an excellent onboarding

6. Onboard plan learnings

Be conscious of “nice to haves” versus essentials. “Nice to haves” may extend onboarding plans by weeks, but that theoretical training may only come up with clients 5% of the time. Think about onboarding in terms of the 80-20 rule. Get candidates to know enough to start working with clients asap, and optimize for practical learnings “just in time” rather than “just in case”. Get them in front of clients early, join them on meetings, and do full debriefs with them on what they did well, and what they can improve.

Aim for quick wins with clients - if you have a strong inbound and partnerships channel, be sure to give straightforward deals to new members of the team to boost their confidence and to demonstrate to them that the onboarding has been effective, and they know more than they think. I am a big advocate of the idea of learn-by-doing more than overwhelming with theory which has no context in real client situations. I remember when I started at Crowdcube, I felt overwhelmed by the theory. The onboarding was 4-5 weeks of theory but I didn’t have much of a reference point. Then when I started with clients, it felt almost like I was starting from the beginning because I wasn’t fully absorbing the theory at the time (maybe that just means I’m a slow learner). The goal now is that our Business Development Managers can lead meetings by the end of week 2. Get quick wins and iterate their learning. One of the big breakthroughs in our onboarding has been the use of Jiminny (you may know of their competitor, Gong). Being able to watch / listen to other team members’ historical meetings is a game-changer. Ambitious BDs take it home, drink in the content on weekends, and arrive at work in week 2 as if they’re 6 months in because of the quality learnings available.

7. Introduce new hires into the culture early on

It’s extremely important to make new hires feel at home as early as possible. Put yourself in their shoes - new company, new role, new people, significant pressure, and some have even moved cities or countries. We need to do everything we can to integrate them seamlessly. I strongly encourage having sessions already booked in their calendar and their systems ready for setup. I’d advise also having a team lunch on their first day or first week, and/or a team or company social to integrate them outside of work hours. Details matter for new hires.

I joined Crowdcube from South Africa in 2019. I arrived in UK on the Friday and I started work on the Monday. We went for team lunch on my first day and there was a social that week - it made all the difference to me in feeling “like home”.

8. Training never stops - and has to be consistent

Have recurring training sessions in the calendar - some weekly/ some monthly/ some quarterly.. Have a clear map of what training is needed when (it can be a mix of Objection Handling, Compliance sessions, Value Proposition Refreshers, Marketing Refreshers, Peer-to-Peer coaching sessions etc). Be on top of where the team’s weaknesses are and constantly be looking to fill those gaps. Send quarterly Google Form out to the team to check in where their training gaps are - for them to as honestly as possible state where they are unsure, so that you can be proactive in booking in necessary trainings.

Host a weekly meeting for the nuclear team - this should be a small session that’s as interactive as possible - each individual in the team should discuss what are priorities for the week; how can we help each other; what did we learn that week; current quantitative position in the quarter. The goal of that weekly session should be to create a culture of supporting each other, and sharing mistakes and learnings for accelerated team learning - there is no room for ego.

One of my mistakes has been to only set up Weekly sessions like this very late into my role. This meant for the last 18 months, some team challenges either only came up in discussions in the other training sessions, or I needed to pick up trends in our one-to-ones. That leads to higher likelihood of reactiveness. The Weekly sessions provide structure, support and accountability and if I could start again, I would implement that Week 1 as a no-brainer.

9. Professional Development is key

Once a quarter, run Professional Development plan sessions with each individual in the team. The goal of this should be to work on what they want to Stop, Start and Continue in their current role, what their medium term goals are in the company, and what their medium / long term goals are in their career. These sessions are key to show you care - and that you are going to work with them to achieve their goals.

Consistency is key - one of my mistakes has been that I started with these plans, but then as things got busier, I relegated them and haven’t done them for the last few quarters.

10. Never get complacent on the team’s ambitions

Tying into the above point; be proactive in understanding each individual’s professional ambitions and do everything to clear the way for them. Fight for them for salary. Give clear quantitative goals for them to strive towards and stick to your word if they achieve. Fight for gender equality on pay. They need to feel that their boss wants them to grow and succeed. That’s the only way they will truly give their all.

These are critical factors in morale and indirectly on performance. I have sometimes done this well and sometimes not - it’s something I will always strive to improve on because I know it’s so important for me if roles are reversed.

11. Be a data machine

Have a rock solid definition of what good looks like in terms of handover volume, estimated revenue, closed lost rate, outbounds-to-meeting-to-deals-signed ratio. It’s extremely difficult for a new member of the team to come in and know "good" if numbers are murky. I haven’t been excellent at this - I’ve had a good grasp of the big picture numbers, but haven’t been as laser focused on the micro numbers as I should be - another big learning.

12. Be physically present

As a sales leader, you should be available wherever the majority of the team is. If the team is in the office, you should be in the office. Being physically present allows for serendipitous moments after a client meeting where you can provide advice and support - it’s really difficult to quantify the value of that, but I believe it’s extremely high. It took me a while in the beginning to adapt to this - I was so pro-remote work that even when the majority of the team were in the office, I was working from cafes and from home. Oh I just love working from cafes - too much. Over the last 5 months I’ve worked most days in the office when my team has been there, and I’ve seen the serendipity in action where perhaps previously they wouldn’t have sent that additional Slack message asking for support. Little things like this can make a big difference.

13. Find a working model that works for the team

Whether it Hybrid or flex or remote, the manager needs to understand each individual in their team. Where do they live, what works best for them, how productive are they in the current system, what is the composition of their average day. The manager should have that discussion with each individual. This decision should not be top-down enforcement. I believe the hybrid vs. office vs. remote is one of the great professional challenges of our times - but I also believe it’s really simple. We should trust each other. We should show each other respect, find a way that works for everyone, and if we do that, the team will feel it and want to perform at their best.

14. Morale is incredibly... incredibly important

Tough times in a company may lead to cost cutting. It may lead to a lack of salary increases or bonuses. Sacrifices need to be made. But morale will always be important. No matter what. The manager needs to understand how to boost morale of the team - and it doesn't need to involve significant costs. Senior leadership should support this. It may be simple things like celebrating birthdays of people in the team, vouchers as a “congratulations” for successful deals closed, or a proverbial arm around the shoulder of support . Little things, but if done proactively they can show the team that the company has best intentions, and backs the team to turn things around.

15. When someone in the team is over-performing, show recognition

Sales cycles take long and sales may not convert into revenue immediately (at Crowdcube it takes 3-4 months after signing a deal for it to convert into revenue). A BD needs to know they're doing a good job. If you "lose" 1 deal after winning 9, it can still feel like the world has fallen apart. I recommend asking other senior people in the team to send a message to the achieving team member or take them out for coffee/lunch - it’s a very simple low hanging fruit way to show that the person is recognised and appreciated in the organization

16. Continue to sell at a high level

To re-iterate this one. The manager needs to continue to sell at a high level. How can you train / lead / be proactive on what's not working with Product Market Fit if you’re not staying sharp? Such a big part of the job of a Sales Manager or Head of Sales is objection handling and help with getting deals over the line, and it really is like a muscle that needs to be exercised to experience hypertrophy, or else it will atrophy. Volume may be lower, but value would be higher. Close high value deals, and host “learning sessions” on what you did to close those deals. The learnings and trainings never stop

17. Join the team on their sell and encourage team-sell where necessary

Self-explanatory. If a client brings multiple stakeholders onto a meeting, we should do the same. If the deal is high value, we need to recognize that by bringing in people who have the gravitas of experience. The subtle signaling of team-selling shows that you value their business. This is massively important not only in a competitive environment, but generally if you want to be the best consistently.

18. Be an ultra-effective liaison with other key teams

Be proactive on engaging with marketing on assets that are needed to help with the position of the value proposition. Get very close with the campaign / account management team - because they have the best understanding of if client’s expectations have been managed appropriately by the sales team. We need to constantly get feedback from them and improve.

19. Competition.. Oooh Competition

Use competition as inspiration to be better. Show them respect. They are clearly not sh*t at everything, and clients know that. Acknowledge to yourselves internally, and directly to clients where your competitors are strong, and give clear and practical thinking on why you have chosen to do it the way you do it. There is a reason for every decision in your business, and your sales team should buy into it with every fibre in their being and be able to explain the rationale to clients like their life depends on it. Use competitors as fuel to be better, rather than bashing them. Hold objection handling frequently to keep the team sharp

20. Firing

Do it the right way. When concerns start to arise, initiate a firm Performance plan with assistance from HR. Communicate up front that there is job risk, and provide clear areas that are not where they need to be (this again highlights the value of having a good understanding of the quantitative "what good looks like" in the role to use as a benchmark). Share written performance plan and work through it together candidly and transparently with the goal of turning it around and turning the individual into a top performer. Do not just one day set up a meeting and pull the trigger. It’s not fair to the individual, and doesn't give them a fair chance to turn it around - and the knock-on effect on team morale is profound. Probation is different if a wrong hire is simply wrong hire. But after several months / years into the role, there is a certain level of respect and share of responsibility that is deserved. I had big learnings on this one, and definitely feel that I’m much better prepared now to handle this situation in future.

21. Resignations

It is your goal to see it coming. A surprise resignation is a failing of management, because the manager should have their finger on the pulse of the team at all times. If there is a risk of resignation/s coming, start the hiring process early. Hiring can take longer than hoped because, as Liverpool FC manager (I had to get them in here) Jürgen Klopp says "it’s better to have a hole than asshole". Never rush hiring. But if you know in advance you may have to hire, it makes that much easier.

Support the resignation of the employee and do whatever you can to help them. If you have helped them to take an exciting step in their career that is a better fit for them, you have succeeded as a leader, and that’s what it’s about.

22. Misconduct

If there is anything that looks like it even has the slightest chance of misconduct, escalate it internally to those who have had experience dealing with previously. At a company party social, a leader still has to take responsibility if you see something that doesn't look right and needs to act swiftly. Then escalate as if it's the most serious version of events, rather than seeking to handle it yourself.

23. Process and operational improvement

While juggling the above plates, the manager’s finger needs to be on the pulse of where major blockers are in the team. You need to use any goodwill internally to push for this and put together a strong case for how that efficiency increase can translate into results. A real life example (and another mistake I’ve made) at Crowdcube is that Inbound applications from clients could be much slicker and more efficient. I noticed this and had it requested many times by people in our team, but I de-prioritized. If I had sorted this out upon first request, we would have had a more efficient inbound system over the last year, and it’s difficult to quantify how many hours could have been saved for clients and for our team.

24. Clear blockers for the team to excel

It could be an escalation of a deal that has become extremely complex, or it could be frustrating admin that’s stopping them from doing what they do best. A manager needs to remove blockers. If it’s a complex deal that has stumped the member of the team - it’s the manager’s job to jump on it , level with the client , sort it out, reflect on learnings as a team and move on, rather than letting the complexity fester and disrupt that BDs pipeline and time for hours/days/weeks to come.

25. Be ruthless in prioritization

Between hiring, onboarding, training, one-to-ones with team, one-to-ones with individuals in other teams, professional development, outbounding, closing deals, building strong relationships with adjacent teams and striving for greater operational efficiency, it's impossible to do all of them at 10/10 all the time. A sales leader needs to be able to say no. I recommend setting 3 key priorities on any given day, week and month. It’s such a simple concept - but I remember from his book, Bob Iger advocated for this when he became Disney CEO when he took over a mess and had to describe his objectives to the board - it worked out pretty well for him to provide that much needed clarity and focus.

26. Manage upwards

Be open to take coaching and advice from your boss and boss’s boss. Be a company-person first and strive to fulfill the desires of your manager. But hold convictions, be candid in discussions giving the thoughts and experiences of what you believe is right based on being in the thick of things on a daily basis, and have evidence ready to support your case if disagreeing with your manager. Be proactive in seeking advice from senior leadership in the company if it feels like the team is facing a significant and concerning challenge. Be persistent in ensuring that the challenge is taken seriously even if that means discussing with multiple stakeholders in the business.

If you have enough conviction in it, you have to fight for it.

So those are my reflections.

I will have many more over the next 18 months, but I felt the need to get them down on digital paper. I realize about myself I often need 2 or more attempts to get something right, but the beauty of the last 18 months is that I have been exposed to a little bit of everything and often more than once, so my skills have had many opportunities to sharpen and re-sharpen. I haven't always prioritized effectively, and I’ve often fallen into trap of being reactive. Every day in Sales Management there are new challenges and new opportunities to improve. That's the beauty of it. Makes it fun. I hope at least one of these thoughts are interesting / useful - and if not, it was cathartic for me to write down - so we all win.

Onwards and upwards!

100x Multiplier

The 100x multiplier 

No, I’m not talking about every VC’s dream of getting a return on their fund. 

(Although I could talk about that all day with anyone who wants to have lunch with me)

I’m talking about positively impacting as many people as possible, as much as possible. 

According to Will MacAskill in ‘Doing Good Better’…

If you’re earning >£10,500, you’re in the richest 10% of the world’s population. 

If you’re earning above £34,000, you're top 1%.

[as of 2015 stats]

According to MacAskill, for those of us living in UK, you could do at least one hundred times as much to benefit other people (elsewhere in the world) as you can to benefit yourself.

Now that number should be taken with a pinch of salt, but even if it's 5x the impact, we should dig deeper.

Philosophers Peter Unger, Peter Singer and more recently William MacAskill have been advocates of the notion of  ‘Earning to give’: This is an enormously powerful way of doing good in the world, and may be more effective than doing good through our career, or sometimes even volunteering (controversial, I know). 

Earning to give exploits the fact that even "typical" workers in developed countries are among the top income earners in the world. Combine that with currency arbitrage when giving to developing countries and the effectiveness of some of the most best charities in the world, and we have a recipe for optimum impact.

Looked at another way. Compare the cost of distribution of edible surplus food in fighting poverty. Felix Project and Food Forward SA are two excellent NGOs in this space, and both redistribute edible surplus food to those at risk of extreme hunger. An extremely noble cause that is saving lives. 

Felix Project (UK): Approximately £0.22 to distribute 1 meal

Food Forward (South Africa): Approximately £0.033 to distribute 1 meal (roughly current exchange rate)

There might not be 100x difference in cost between distributing a meal in SA (via FoodForward) compared to in UK (via Felix Project), but the principle applies with a significant cost difference - as £100 can distribute 454 meals in UK, which is great - but, it can distribute 3030 meals in South Africa, which is substantial scale for a relatively small donation (3030 meals = 1000 people fed for a full day, or 100 people fed for a full month, depending how you want to cut it).

That is not to say we should ignore local problems. Charity starts at home and all that. But a question to consider through the lens of effective altruism is, “how do I impact as many people as possible, as much as possible?

I find this idea intoxicating. We get caught up easily in our day to day lives, struggling based on cost of living increase, comparing our salaries to those around us. And faced with the paradox of choice of charity, it’s easier to simply do nothing and focus on our own lives. But if we zoom out - We are genuinely doing well. We should not only be grateful for everything we have, but consider the outsized impact we could have if we leverage the Great British Pound relative to Rwandan Franc, the South African Rand, the Colombian Peso, the Cambodian Riel etc . How the pancakes we ate this morning could translate to monthly school fees for a student, or 340 meals reaching those in need through an effective NGO. 

Impacting as many people as possible, as much as possible. 

I’ll end this with MacAskill’s 5 key questions of effective altruism

• How many people benefit and by how much?

• Is this the most effective thing you can do?

• Is this area neglected?

• What would have happened otherwise? 

• What are the chances of success, and how good would success be?

So what's my key takeaway from all this?

Based on our current salaries, even if we feel we should be earning more (which we probably do), we are still incredibly well placed to make a difference in the world. I find that extremely powerful and encouraging, and should inspire action - check out givewell.org for more insights into best way to do this.

Fat and lazy

I’ve been eating a lot lately. 

Pizza. Tapas. Hackney Gelato. All the patatas bravas I could get my hands on when I was in Sevilla.

Everyone acknowledges that excess food physically affects you with weight gain, health etc. But here's the problem - there’s more to it.

That is - the short term psychological side that affects discipline. After I’ve over-eaten, I’m lethargic. I’m lazy. I’m more inclined to do the bare minimum of whatever my task is thereafter. If I have the option of either writing a blog post or watching a movie, I would choose the latter every day of the week. Starting a no-code online course, or starting rewatching The Office for the 785th time? Give me Dwight Schrute.

It takes a significant amount of discipline and mental energy to overcome the mental malaise from being full and lethargic. 

That’s an issue. 

The phrase “to be hungry” is not just a trope. 

It applies on an individual level and on a company level.

As Roelof Botha famously said, “more startups die of indigestion than from hunger”. 

Being scrappy and lean on resource is a gift, and possibly a superpower. 

Being bloated with excess resource leads to sloppiness, inefficient use of resource.

This is one of the major problems of the recent bull market. Companies were bloated. There was indigestion. Lazy allocation of resource. Attempts to grow in markets that were luxury / not core to business.

Hunger is a powerful motivator. 

To be content is dangerous. 

And to have indigestion is the biggest trap of all. 

As a society, in this market, we will all eat less. 

Doing more with less. Raising less capital. Less disposable income. Time to be scrappy. 

Those who thrive will be the ones who see it as an opportunity.