Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to another episode of the Growth Focus Podcast where we bring together leaders from all across the globe to share their time, their expertise and their insights with us when it comes to growing a company in tech today. My name is Gary Lafty, CEO and founder of the Growth Focus Podcast and Partnerships, where we bring together the authority and expertise of tech leaders and share that out to the world by the means of powerful leveraged webinars and workshops. On this episode, we're going to be talking about growth via strategic partnerships, what's working, what's not working, and also how to to stand out in a very crowded and noisy world. So stick along with us cause we've got an awful lot to get through. So without further ado, let's get started to bring on our guest, Haifi. It's an absolute pleasure having you here. It's great to see you. Why don't you get started by telling us who you are and what is it that you do?
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Hi, my name is Haifi Hua and I'm head of strategic partners for Code Cloud.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: Fantastic. So why don't you tell us a little bit about what is the company? What is it that you do as a company?
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Yeah, so we help different businesses build websites and we also do custom software development.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: All right, so let's go. Before we dive into what's working for you and growth and whatnot, let's talk about you.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: What?
[00:01:32] Speaker A: What, how did you get started? Let's talk about your journey. How did you get started in what you do and brought you up to today?
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. I love this question. I started as a salesperson, sales and marketing, doing that for a couple years. And then I decided to go get my master's at USC in communications and journalism so I can include more of public relations and storytelling into my marketing after that. I started in performance marketing in 2016, so I've been doing it for quite a while, almost 10 years now. And now I'm in this world of direct response, E commerce, and we also deal with a lot of technologies in the E comm space and it's such a fast, dynamic world. Learning a lot about AI. AI is a part of our everyday life now too, for our clients, projects and businesses. So we're.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Well, we can't have a podcast without talking about AI. So we're going to talk about that a little bit later on. AI always creeps into whatever episode we actually have, so I'm looking forward to talking about that. I want to dial it back a little bit because you mentioned two things. There Number one was performance marketing and number two was storytelling. Now, as a company that helps our clients with their presentations and their workshops, storytelling is an absolute must. It's an absolute skill that must be learned if somebody wants to stand out. From your insight, from where you see things, Ivy, how do you go about ensuring there's a story to be told with your clients?
[00:02:58] Speaker B: I think just like what we did earlier, I like to know the reason why, like why are you doing this? Like, why are you starting your business? Like, what's so important to get you motivated to start this business and to go through all of the challenges of a founder? Like, it's not easy and a lot of stressful times, uncertainty. And so just learning the person's why and why they want to help people through their products or services makes their storytelling much more impactful.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Exactly. I totally agree with that. Because there's a story behind the story isn't just for an individual as well. A story is behind the, you know, the reason for the product, the reason for the service. There's always a good story to be told and I don't think enough founders out there, especially in our industry of tech, is actually sharing that story story.
So let's talk about your everyday life. Your title, Head of strategic partnerships. What does that actually mean and what is it that you do on a day to day basis?
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Yeah, so I've been in the performance marketing industry for some time now and what I find is it's not just about direct sales, but it's building that strong relationships and partnerships and see how the two companies can align and you know, introduce each other's clients that way. So here at the company, we don't take any referrals or rev shares. We strictly refer our clients different technologies and companies and vendors with other companies that work really well. So, so I go out there, I do travel quite a bit to the conferences and I make sure to vet out these vendors properly.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: So tell us a little bit more about that. So you're putting, you're put, you're putting introducing people you can almost introduce. Is that, is that correct? Have I got that?
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: So you go out, you vet them and say, hey, this will be a good referral partner for you and form a partnership. So your company is global. I mean, you started off as a company, you know, in India from small, humble beginnings to where it is now. Is that predominantly down to the, to the part strategic partnerships that you've got done or has there been another way of growth for your company that seemed to have worked as well.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: I think it's. It's always been there. Yes, the.
It started with two founders at Brian Hill and Kinkar Saha. So they first worked together. Kinkar was actually a client of Brian and then they kind of merged.
They merged together and really expanded it that way. Currently we have over 600 developers and engineers all located in India, but we have four offices around the world in the U.S.
new Zealand, Australia and also in India. And we just kind of really build from doing consistent good work and quality for our clients. And a lot of that is referrals from our clients. They'll introduce us to their other colleagues that they know that needs our services and we just grew it that way. I joined the company over a year ago, but I know king Carr, the CEO for about 10 years. We are really good friends that I've joined the team, part of the executive team to help bolster this division, to expand, to show other people that we, we can really do good work for them and provide good insight. So my goal is to partner with the right vendors that can help our clients succeed and make more money.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: So I'm intrigued to know more about. I mean it's fantastic from there because there will be people listening and watching on this podcast who leaders who run their own companies and that they know, they absolutely know that forming great partnerships rather than just referrals is rather is an important part of growth. What is it in your experience, Haifi, that's that most of your clients, what is the biggest mistake they tend to make, you know, or they take for granted and that you've got to, you know, repoint them in the right direction to get a good strategic partner set up.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, I think it's. What's important is to talk to the all of the executive team to look at their previous case studies to make sure that they have proven work that they can really get the job done of what we do. We help more e comm brands from ADC to set up their e commerce store. So first of course we need the website, the landing pages, but also we need to advise them of a really good fulfillment vendor, a really good merchant processing vendor, also a campaign manager and also traffic for sales. Right. So building a website is just one small part of the pie of the business. But what can make a brand from just selling a product to a real business is the whole infrastructure. It's very important that if our clients succeed and they have revenue going, they have net profit revenue going, they'll be our longtime clients. So for us, if we Ensure that our clients build their infrastructure correctly, then they will succeed. So we will also can service them long term as well.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: Absolutely. This really, from what I'm hearing, there is not just a case of saying, hey, I need a new ecom website. That's just part of the puzzle. In order to make it work, there has to be a complete infrastructure of other people coming together to make that all work. Would you say that's very much one of the biggest mistakes people or myths or misunderstandings that a lot of new companies coming on board think that they underestimate what is actually needed to grow?
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Exactly. I mean having a great idea of like, oh, I have this great product, I, I can sell it, that's great. But that's just one part of the hurdle. Right. And then you can't just slap a product into a website and just hope and pray to God that you're going to make sales.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: There's a system and a science. So when we, when we talk to our new clients we would tell them, do you have a media buying team? Do you have that in place? Or how do you plan to get sales? Is it salespeople door to door? Is it B2B? Is it digital marketing? Is it affiliate marketing?
What does your traffic source look like? So that's where I come into play. I've been there, offer owner myself so I can help advise our clients accordingly. So I know the pain points. I've been there. There's you know, sleepless nights where it's like I set up my product on Shopify and like am I going to get any sales? I don't know. I'm doing this for the first time. I, I helped when I had, you know, I did it for a company before.
I had a full team behind me so it was just one part of the job. But when you're your own owner or founder, that's a different story. Everything is, falls onto your lap. So. But then I will advise them accordingly. So that's my reason why that's, that's my joy to especially the newer, newer E Comm owners when they're new to this like that I'm very passionate, passionate to work with female founders. A lot of time they have an amazing idea but they're just not as sure if they should do this. And I would just walk them through like, you can do this. Here are the steps that you need to do. Have that in place and you, you can, you can make sales and you can do great.
[00:10:18] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. It's made sure, as I said, having A great idea. Being product or LED service first is one thing, but you do need the backup for it and making sure you've got everything else in place as you knew when you went into an offer. Founder, I want to talk about AI. What's changing in the world? What, what is, what is happening at your end when it comes to AI that you're seeing that has really helped businesses growth today.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Yes. So we're getting a lot of inquiries right now to help with AI workflow automations into their businesses. So that's been really interesting and I think that's a great thing. AI is not going to take people's job. Right. It's going to help, I think the person do their job faster. I think it's all great things. I think just like with anything else, we just have to, we just have to adapt, just use it as a tool for our advantage. So I love AI and I use it every day.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: So as we all do now. As we all do now, it's just that every day there seems to be something new to learn and it's great and getting the team together as well. And what did you learn today? So let's talk about how the E Comm market has taken a tremendous leap forward over the last three to four years. We've all seen it, we've all seen E Comm literally launch itself, especially with Shopify and things like that. Where do you see the next sort of three years of E comm? Three to five years. What is, what does that look like in your world?
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's, it's been so fascinating to see the evolution of E commerce now. Speaking of AI and how, how that has changed into the E comm world, I'm seeing a lot of AI customer service technology like Gorgeous is one that is embedded into their Shopify stores or their E commerce stores. So you don't need to talk to a customer rep anymore to, you know, make a refund or exchange on your product or make a complaint about your product. You can just go to, you know, your E Comm site, let's say the E Comm store and a lot of these brands are using AI customer service and you can just ask quickly FAQs like I, I need to change my change. I don't like this, I don't like this product, I want a refund or I want to purchase more. It's all now AI automated in some way. So I think servicing the customer, just keep having the customer in mind of what will make our customers journey, experience amazing. And so they will con, they will stay as a customer in the future and buy again, making it easy and frictionless.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: So if we talk about, you know, as you know, where does, where do you see the E Comm market growing, how big a market is it and how much more is it? Because some, there'd be some people listening who are looking to come into this world as founders, as developers, as engineers thinking, have I missed the boat as the E Comm boat really, you know, got to saturation point now or do you believe there is so much more to come?
[00:13:18] Speaker B: I mean I believe that there is.
There's room for everyone. You just have to do it right. And what is your.
How do you. How does that brand and product stand out from the other similar, similar competitors? So you just have to really know like who is your customer target demographic, what does that look like, who are you trying to sell to and why does this product is different from the others. So once you know exactly, precisely who that customer is, what your brand is, you can sell it better. But I believe there, there's room for, room for everyone. So. And E commerce not going to go away. And you can't rely on brick and mortar stores like you can't rely on having only like a retail storefront. You have to go online because people are there. That's where people are buying. And a lot of the traffic online is on mobile. So you also have, you just have to do it to, to, to just survive.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: Yeah, we've really seen a massive shift, haven't we? From fixed to laptop to now sell a mobile. That a majority of stuff now is done on the move, irrespective of what type of business it is. So it is a fascinating topic to keep an eye on. For your final question, Ivy, I've got one last thing. It's a bit of a loaded question. It's one I ask all of my guests from that you've always had a great career, you've grown through it and doing various things to where you are today. If you had to give young Ivi a piece of advice, one piece of advice, what would it be and why?
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Wow, this is beautiful question to enjoy the journey and one of my colleague, one of my amazing friend in the industry, her name's Anka, CEO of MaxWeb. I saw one of her podcasts today on Instagram. She says enjoy the climb. Remember to enjoy the climb. And that's so beautiful. Young me, I'm a daughter from immigrant parents who escaped Vietnam after the war on a boat with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. So they gave me this amazing opportunity here to be born and raised in America. They risked their lives for it. And my mother just passed away two months ago. But I'm doing it for my parents and their legacy with great purpose and integrity. And young me was so worried of like my parents never, like they don't come from, you know, we don't come from like families of generations that been here. So it's kind of like my first time to make it here and I didn't know if I could make it and I, I, I really stress out about it. But now, you know, fast forward many, many years later, I can say, hey, girl, it's all good. Enjoy, enjoy the climb, enjoy the journey. It's okay, I think as long as you have, you know what the purpose is and your reason why and a game plan. It doesn't have to be all mapped out, but a little bit of some kind of sort of game plan.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Well, what a fantastic ending to this interview. Haifi, it's been an absolute pleasure having you here. Thank you very much for sharing your time with us today.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us for yet another episode of the Growth Focus podcast. And by now, you know what I'm going to say if Ivy has said something that you go, oh, that's really interesting. Make sure you like it. Make sure you comment at the bottom there so we, we know what you're picking up. But more importantly, please share, share these episodes with other leaders, share these episodes with other people who in the business as well, so that we can all grow together by standing on the shoulders of giants. So until next time, keep working hard, but more importantly, be profitable and we shall see you on the next episode. Bye bye, Sam.
