Episode #1: Paul English and Mike Volpe of Lola.com
02/19/20 • 32 min
Episode Summary:
Our Boston founders series kicks off with guests Paul English, Cofounder and CTO of Lola.com and Mike Volpe, CEO of Lola.com. Hosts Rob May and Matt Hayes visit Lola’s headquarters in Boston to learn more about the founding of Lola (Paul’s 5th company to date), and how Mike and Paul's different work styles provide a well-balanced leadership approach.
Uncovered in this episode:
- Fun facts most people don't know about Paul and Mike
- Why Paul English transitioned from CEO to CTO and how they made it a smooth and successful transition for the Lola team
- Hiring at Lola.com; making it fun to come to work; and building a culture around collaboration and learning
- Why vulnerability is important to discuss and how implementing one simple practice has helped both Paul and Mike drive stronger managerial relationships
List of resources mentioned in episode:
- Hiring Religion by Paul English: http://paulenglish.com/hiring.html
- Learn more on Lola: http://www.lola.com
About Mike Volpe:
Mike Volpe is the CEO at Lola.com, the corporate travel SaaS platform that helps companies stop wasting time and start saving money on their business travel program. He has been asked to speak at numerous conferences on sales, marketing and growth, as well as people operations, leadership, hiring and culture and is a strong advocate for building great teams with a wide range of talent.
Previously Mike was CMO at Cybereason, a cybersecurity SaaS company, where he helped the company increase its sales pipeline by 650% in a single year and grow revenue by five times during his tenure. He was also part of the founding team at HubSpot, where he spent eight years growing the company from five people to over 1,000 employees, $175m in revenue, and a successful IPO.
Mike is well-known and active in the Boston SaaS and startup communities as a member of the board of directors of Validity and Privy, and as an angel investor in more than 30 startups. He holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a BA from Bowdoin College. Check him out on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
About Paul English:
Paul English is the CTO and co-founder of Lola.com, where he oversees product strategy, definition, design, and development, working closely with customers to make sure that Lola’s newest features are well received by users, and that they become “must haves” not “nice to have”. He also makes sure Lola’s products are innovative, fast, and beautiful with the objective of completely shattering the soul-sucking experience today’s business travelers must endure when planning travel.
Paul was previously the CTO and co-founder of Kayak (took public then sold to Priceline), and he also co-founded GetHuman (ongoing), Boston Light (sold to Intuit), and Intermute (sold to Trend Micro). Separately, Paul is an investor in dozens of startups, and he sits on six nonprofit boards. You can read more about Paul at PaulEnglish.com.
Episode Summary:
Our Boston founders series kicks off with guests Paul English, Cofounder and CTO of Lola.com and Mike Volpe, CEO of Lola.com. Hosts Rob May and Matt Hayes visit Lola’s headquarters in Boston to learn more about the founding of Lola (Paul’s 5th company to date), and how Mike and Paul's different work styles provide a well-balanced leadership approach.
Uncovered in this episode:
- Fun facts most people don't know about Paul and Mike
- Why Paul English transitioned from CEO to CTO and how they made it a smooth and successful transition for the Lola team
- Hiring at Lola.com; making it fun to come to work; and building a culture around collaboration and learning
- Why vulnerability is important to discuss and how implementing one simple practice has helped both Paul and Mike drive stronger managerial relationships
List of resources mentioned in episode:
- Hiring Religion by Paul English: http://paulenglish.com/hiring.html
- Learn more on Lola: http://www.lola.com
About Mike Volpe:
Mike Volpe is the CEO at Lola.com, the corporate travel SaaS platform that helps companies stop wasting time and start saving money on their business travel program. He has been asked to speak at numerous conferences on sales, marketing and growth, as well as people operations, leadership, hiring and culture and is a strong advocate for building great teams with a wide range of talent.
Previously Mike was CMO at Cybereason, a cybersecurity SaaS company, where he helped the company increase its sales pipeline by 650% in a single year and grow revenue by five times during his tenure. He was also part of the founding team at HubSpot, where he spent eight years growing the company from five people to over 1,000 employees, $175m in revenue, and a successful IPO.
Mike is well-known and active in the Boston SaaS and startup communities as a member of the board of directors of Validity and Privy, and as an angel investor in more than 30 startups. He holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a BA from Bowdoin College. Check him out on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
About Paul English:
Paul English is the CTO and co-founder of Lola.com, where he oversees product strategy, definition, design, and development, working closely with customers to make sure that Lola’s newest features are well received by users, and that they become “must haves” not “nice to have”. He also makes sure Lola’s products are innovative, fast, and beautiful with the objective of completely shattering the soul-sucking experience today’s business travelers must endure when planning travel.
Paul was previously the CTO and co-founder of Kayak (took public then sold to Priceline), and he also co-founded GetHuman (ongoing), Boston Light (sold to Intuit), and Intermute (sold to Trend Micro). Separately, Paul is an investor in dozens of startups, and he sits on six nonprofit boards. You can read more about Paul at PaulEnglish.com.
Previous Episode
Intro: Welcome to The Uncovered Podcast
On our intro episode and teaser for season one of The Uncovered Podcast, Rob May sits down with co-host Matt Hayes, Principal at PJC, and David Martirano, Managing Partner of PJC to chat about why the firm decided to launch the podcast, what you can expect listening to season one, lessons learned from our guest speakers, and plans for PJC and the podcast moving forward.
Next Episode
Episode #6: Peter Mahoney of Plannuh
Episode Summary:
In this episode we sit down with Peter Mahoney, CEO of Plannuh, to learn more about his journey from marketing executive with 30 years experience to early stage startup founder. Designed specifically to address the pain points that Peter experienced throughout his career, Plannuh helps marketers simplify their lives with an all-in-one platform that can be used to build and manage marketing budgets, create plans, and track campaign performance. Listen in to learn more about Peter’s journey, how he prioritized hiring (hint: hiring a full stack inside sales rep was key!), his tips for avoiding common start-up mis-steps, and why he thinks talking to your customers on the regular is key.
Uncovered in this episode:
- The importance of understanding -- and then solving -- your target audience’s core problems
- The challenges of raising money as a sole, non-technical founder
- How to think about hiring and the value of hiring an full stack inside sales rep as early as possible
- Marketing tips for early-stage founders from a seasoned marketing executive
- Why scheduling meetings with yourself might just be the best way to keep things on track
List of resources mentioned in episode and suggested reading:
- Follow Peter and Plannuh at @plannuh and @nerdCMO
- Plannuh Website: https://www.plannuh.com/
About Peter:
Peter Mahoney is the founder and CEO of Plannuh. Peter has degrees in Physics and Computer Science and studied Latin for 7 years, and then showed up in the wrong room one day and ended up in marketing. In his 30+ year career, Peter has built products and led marketing for startups and for multi-billion dollar public companies. You can follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Plannuh:
Marketers looking to align teams, optimize budgetary spend and exceed organizational goals, use Plannuh, the first cloud-based Marketing Leadership platform, to quickly and easily create winning plans, maximize budget impact, and improve ROI. Unlike disconnected, static spreadsheets and disparate tactical marketing systems, only Plannuh offers a unified, collaborative platform that delivers AI-driven recommendations, benchmarks, and process automation for achieving industry-leading marketing performance. Visit Plannuh to learn more.
The Uncovered Podcast - Episode #1: Paul English and Mike Volpe of Lola.com
Transcript
Welcome to the uncovered podcast where we take a deeper look into the ideas of companies and entrepreneurs that are creating the future and uncover the stories you haven't heard. Uncovered is presented by PJC and early stage venture capital firm committed to supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2This is PJCs, a uncovered podcast. Um, I have my cohost Rob Mae here and we have some ve
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