A Founder's Journey with Hadleigh Ford

05/11/25 • 40 min

Going from superyachts to SaaS isn’t your typical founder story—but that’s exactly what makes this episode stand out. In this episode of B2B Inspired, Dale Koerner is joined by Hadleigh Ford, founder of SwipedOn, to explore the unexpected journey behind one of New Zealand’s B2B tech success stories.

Hadleigh shares how a frustrating detail on a $100M yacht sparked the idea for SwipedOn, and how he built the product from scratch with no technical background. He unpacks the lessons learned through early failures, global growth, and two major acquisitions—while staying grounded in culture and customer simplicity. Whether you’re starting out or scaling up, this episode is full of honest insights on product-market fit, resilience, and thinking bigger than your starting niche.

For more B2B insights, ideas and opportunities, head to www.blueoceanagency.co.nz
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B2B Inspired - A Founder's Journey with Hadleigh Ford

Transcript

Speaker 100:00:19.391

Thank you , ecosystem . We're here to help the New Zealand B2B community to become one of the best , boldest and brightest anywhere in the world . Now if , like me , you live and breathe all things business to business and you're looking for a place to connect , learn and be inspired , you have come to the right place .

Speaker 100:00:40.700

Kia ora , and