29: Elena Verna: Growth Solopreneur - How to growth advising
07/05/23 • 61 min
Season 2 of the ProducTea! Elena Verna joins me to openly gossip about our diverse income streams: Advisory, consulting, and everything else in that word salad. We both dive into our different modes of engagement with an emphasis on what the ideal duration and conditions are for each of them.
If you ever wanted to have an inside look into how growth advising happens, this is your episode.
Timestamps:
03:00 What Elena has been up to in the last 6 months
03:50 What does being a growth advisor/consultant or solopreneur mean?
09:50 Is career optionality a strength or weakness as a candidate?
15:11 How content, advising, and full-time role play into each other
17:04 How to get your first contract?
22:59 It takes a long time for your seeds to grow, learn to seed fast and putting yourself out there including your knowledge
27:19 Leah’s modes of engagements
28:34 Elena’s modes of engagements
34:14 Acceptable durations for different modes of engagements
36:54 The first 3 months as an advisor
39:10 The case for interim positions and why Elena picks them occasionally
43:40 Interim positions and reasons why companies use them
46:55 Contractual conditions you need to set up to have a chance at advising
52:10 Monetizing your advising career too early
54:50 Being a generalist vs. a specialist, disclosing weaknesses
Season 2 of the ProducTea! Elena Verna joins me to openly gossip about our diverse income streams: Advisory, consulting, and everything else in that word salad. We both dive into our different modes of engagement with an emphasis on what the ideal duration and conditions are for each of them.
If you ever wanted to have an inside look into how growth advising happens, this is your episode.
Timestamps:
03:00 What Elena has been up to in the last 6 months
03:50 What does being a growth advisor/consultant or solopreneur mean?
09:50 Is career optionality a strength or weakness as a candidate?
15:11 How content, advising, and full-time role play into each other
17:04 How to get your first contract?
22:59 It takes a long time for your seeds to grow, learn to seed fast and putting yourself out there including your knowledge
27:19 Leah’s modes of engagements
28:34 Elena’s modes of engagements
34:14 Acceptable durations for different modes of engagements
36:54 The first 3 months as an advisor
39:10 The case for interim positions and why Elena picks them occasionally
43:40 Interim positions and reasons why companies use them
46:55 Contractual conditions you need to set up to have a chance at advising
52:10 Monetizing your advising career too early
54:50 Being a generalist vs. a specialist, disclosing weaknesses
Previous Episode
28: Kieran Flanagan: CMO@Zapier | ex SVP Marketing Hubspot | Sequoia Scout | Advisor
Season 2 of the ProducTea! Kieran Flanagan is one of the most valuable things I read every day on LinkedIn, his incredible ability to connect the dots when it comes to AI and Business is the reason why it will stay that way for quite some time. He delves into the 'Content Paradox' explaining how AI is transforming content creation and curation and shares intriguing insights into Hubspot's origin story and the potential role of AI as a retention tool, not just an acquisition one.
Timestamps:
01:00 Kieran’s Introduction and Background
06:35 What people get wrong about Kieran
09:00 What are you doing in Marketing if AI is about to kill it?
13:00 Conent Paradox. AI bundling and unbundling content.
19:00 Technological leaps that make people more efficient. Are knowledge workers immune to it?
21:30 Hubspots origin story
26:00 AI is maybe a retention rather than an acquisition tool
31:40 How we think about Software is changing radically
35:20 How product-led growth is dramatically getting accelerated by AI
39:50 People definitely buy from companies not just people
43:48 How Zapier tries to offer value from before AI and now after AI
Connect!
Kieran Flanagan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieranjflanagan/
Leah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahtharin/
Next Episode
30: Gaurav Vohra, Growth Leader, Startup Advisor, FoundingTeam "Superhuman"
Season 2 of the ProducTea! In this episode, we’re looking at how awful or delightful it is to work with your sibling.
There's a deep dive into Superhuman and Leah's disdain for email, along with the importance of creating defensible moats in product development. We elaborate on what it means to be "exceptional" and give a glimpse into Superhuman’s unique "Delight" team and its unusual structure emphasizing an oversized customer success component.
We reflect on how to attract investors for a product reliant on another product's survival. The conversation then shifts towards security vs convenience in product positioning, anchored by the founding thesis of Superhuman. We conclude it by discussing the rapid progress of underlying technology against the backdrop of regulation and how productivity tools enable more efficient utilization of time, aligning with individual aspirations.
Timestamps:
03.00 How is it to work with a sibling?
05:25 What do people get wrong about Gaurav?
08:00 Superhuman and Leah’s Disdain for Email
11:24 Defendable moats and what your product should do
15:15 What does being “Exceptional” mean?
18:30 Superhuman’s “Delight” team
20:05 Customers in dire need
23:15 Superhuman’s unusual structure with an “oversized” customer success part
26:45 How to convince investors to invest in a product that depends on the survival of another one
33:20 Security vs convenience positioning products
35:20 The founding thesis of Superhuman
39:30 Ai as proof that people put convenience before accuracy, security
44:25 The breakneck pace of the underlying technology development vs. regulation
47:08 Productivity tools free up time to do more useful things, wherever your aspirations may lie
Connect!
Gaurav's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gvohra/
His personal page: https://www.gauravvohra.com/
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/productea-with-leah-growth-and-senior-leadership-364839/29-elena-verna-growth-solopreneur-how-to-growth-advising-52419525"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to 29: elena verna: growth solopreneur - how to growth advising on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy