Getting back to the basics

In November, it’ll be 10 years since I founded Podia.

So many ups and downs since I started the company.

Early on, we fought for our survival.

Then we grew exceptionally fast during COVID and had every major venture capital firm wanting to invest in us.

Ultimately, we passed because we didn’t want to overextend ourselves, and we were concerned about what would happen when the world reopened if we raised too much money.

Our instincts were right, and we whiplashed back to pre-COVID growth as the world normalized. 

Since then, we’ve been operating at a slow, but steady growth rate.

I’ve been reflecting a lot about the past few years, and one thing I’ve come to realize is that somewhere in the hustle and bustle of peak COVID growth (2020), and post COVID slowdown (2021-2023), we lost a bit of ourselves.

We generally focused on taking bigger bets to chase our record growth numbers by expanding into more markets, rather than just working day-in and day-out to delight our existing customers.

As a VC-backed business, the mindset we adopted was to take big bets at all costs, but when scrutinizing our past decisions, it’s clear that our success came from getting better every day, rather than the times we bet big.

So going forward, a big change we’re making is to get back to the basics.

To get back to what made us successful in the first place.

On the product side, it simply means re-shuffling our roadmap to focus on our current customers’ needs, rather than market expansion.

On the company side, it means ensuring that every department gets back to focusing on the craft of their work.

Ensuring that we’re doing our best work on everything we do.

I strongly believe that this change will lead to greater success for Podia.

My confidence comes from looking back at our history, because after 10 years of operating Podia and having worked with many people on this team for 5+ years, this is where our team thrives.

And at the end of the day, your strategy will be most effective when you pair it with a team that can execute it.

I’m excited to bring back the early feeling at Podia to today’s team and customer base.