Episode #1: Paul English and Mike Volpe of Lola.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.