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Tyto’s commitment to diversity: inside our DE&I podcast series

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Tyto takes a mindful approach to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I). This means creating a workplace where people from all backgrounds and with different perspectives can thrive. With our remote model, and a team that is eclectic and culturally diverse, the habits and cultures within our company need to be inclusive. 

In line with Tyto’s core value of “borderless thinking”, we launched a DEI Speakers Series within our WithoutBorders podcast.  We invite industry experts to help us see the industries we are closely tied to (media, communications and tech) from different perspectives. The aims of this series are to challenge our preconceptions around our industry, help us learn new insights and skills and create a culture of inclusive thinking that we can not only bring to our own company model, but also share with our clients. 

Our recent staff survey revealed that 85% of people said that they are able to be their most authentic self at Tyto. By encouraging conversations, providing resources and engaging with our team, we aim to create this inclusive environment and contribute to an industry that is moving forward by offering more accessibility and equity for everyone.

Becoming change-makers   

Our topics so far have been broad and very diverse. We were able to chat with different leaders and get their views on how to make our industry a better and more inclusive place. The more we give visibility to challenges that our society faces, the better we will address our own biases and decision-making processes. Our guests have shared their takes on various topics, but also tips and advice that allow us to be accountable for our diversity and inclusion efforts, and hold ourselves responsible for making changes when necessary.   

For starters, we spoke to Molly Watt,who specialises in assistive technology, about accessibility in tech. Molly is a passionate usability and accessibility consultant and motivational speaker with Usher Syndrome, and she shared with us some great advice for designing accessible products and creating inclusive work environments. She candidly spoke about her personal story and raised the importance of diversity in teams to make sure products are built in an inclusive way.  

We also welcomed Rebecca Vincent, who is an American human rights activist and current International Campaigns Director and UK Office Director for our pro bono client Reporters Without Borders, an international NGO which promotes and defends the freedom of the press around the world. According to Vincent, there is a worrying trend of violence against journalists in countries that are supposed to be at peace, such as the UK, the Netherlands, Greece and Malta, among others. 

As a PR agency, we recognise our work is dependent on journalism. We have a responsibility to support journalists, so we are excited to be working with the RSF and to have had Rebecca as a guest on our DEI series podcast. Listen to Rebecca Vincent’s episode to learn about the work Reporters Without Borders are doing across the world, their World Press Freedom index, the Julian Assange case, and how the state of press freedom stands today. 

Ella McCann Tomlin, founder at Ardent, raised that implementing a DEI strategy in a company goes hand in hand with transforming management culture. She recognises that starting a DEI strategy can be overwhelming. The most important thing is to work from the inside out and focus on strong internal processes that leverage the voices of people most excluded within organisations. Ella challenges the performative nature of companies when it comes to DE&I and discusses the need for companies to be held accountable. In our WithoutBorders interview, Ella recognises many companies don’t know where to start and leaves practical tips for companies to adopt. 

This point of view was reinforced by Ritu Mohanka, MD at Syndio, who believes that representation matters, and encourages businesses to make it happen. It’s the leaders’ responsibility to offer opportunity equity in the workplace for all. Ritu spoke about workplace equity and diversity, and her journey from conservative India to becoming an award-winning executive in European Tech. Recognition, according to Syndio’s MD, is a powerful motivator, and breaking barriers for women and acknowledging the professional achievements of the BAME community is something Ritu is hugely passionate about. 

Léa Lejeune, business journalist and passionate about providing assets and finance education specifically towards women, gave us insights about her latest piece of research on what she calls ‘femwashing’. While businesses may appear to be communicating about feminism, they often fail to actually prioritise women in their policies and decision making. This disconnect between rhetoric and action, suggests a lack of genuine commitment to gender equality and highlights the need for more thorough analysis and implementation of feminist practices in the business world. Her words are particularly meaningful at this time of year as many companies gear up to mark International Women’s Day on 8th March. Offering support and recognition to women at work isn’t something that should just happen on one day.  

Raising awareness within and without 

By educating ourselves and opening-up our minds, we are better equipped to drive conversations around communications strategies and progress overall. We help create a safe space for our guests and our audience to learn, discuss, and celebrate the diversity of our industry. In each podcast episode, we explore how we can make our industry better. 

Experts and leaders from our fields share their knowledge and learnings. Additionally, we aim to facilitate conversations around topics like unconscious bias, privilege, and how organisations can create a more inclusive and safer workplace. We believe that by creating these conversations and learning from one another, we can make our industry better for everyone. We strive to create an environment of understanding and respect, and we believe that these conversations are essential to create meaningful change. 

We hope that these conversations will help us continue to build an environment where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work and be respected for their unique perspectives. Tune in to our Without Borders podcast here. And, if you have any suggestions on who should be next for our DE&I series, reach out to us!

5 most listened ‘Without Borders’ podcast episodes of 2022

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2022 was a year of revolution in the unicorn ecosystem. Of that there is no doubt, as anyone working in the technology sector will know. After slower growth of the Unicorn Club following the boom of startups reaching unicorn status in 2021, we saw how, in the investment ecosystem, it was time to tighten the belt in a context marked by global trends such as inflation, rising interest rates and a geopolitical crisis.  

In our Without Borders podcast over the last three years, we have interviewed multiple companies that have achieved this unicorn status. If you’ve tuned in to our episodes, you’ll know ours is a podcast full of inspiration for passionate communicators, courageous creatives and entrepreneurial business brains. If you haven’t you can expect candid chats with bleeding-edge innovators and left-field thinkers and doers. Our guests have captured the interest of our audience by sharing their advice on entrepreneurship and building a successful organisation from the ground up, as well as the key communication and culture tips for business leaders.  

We recognise that not everyone has the time to listen to podcasts, so we have distilled some of the most valuable, actionable insights and bottled them in a convenient eBook form. You can download our ‘Growing without borders: The unicorn CEO guide to communication and culture’ for free here. Stay tuned for the 2023 version coming soon! Now, let’s look at the episodes that attracted the most listeners in 2022. 

5. Shane Happach, CEO of Mollie

Unlike other successful startups where the CEO is also one of the founders, Shane Happach started his journey with Mollie after the company was already established as a unicorn. He had to find a way to complement with his skills the work that the founder and the rest of the leadership team had done for the company. 

This journey has taught him plenty, and he tells us that a lot of this knowledge comes from making mistakes and figuring out what you don’t want to become or the ways in which you wouldn’t want to lead. “There is not a book that can teach you as much as experience does”, says Happach.   

In terms of culture, Shane Happach states that his company wants to make sure people can express themselves in their work environment and feel there are opportunities to progress. “Be bold, be loved, be authentic” are Mollie’s values. This type of nurturing allows for freedom of expression and new ideas.  

Tap into his knowledge and tune into the full episode here. 

 

4. Krish Subramanian, co-founder and CEO at Chargebee

It is possible to fall in love with “some good boring problems”, says software engineer by training, Krish Subramanian, CEO and co-founder of Chargebee. He believes subscription management is one of those problems that is now growing in complexity and infrastructure, and he couldn’t have foreseen that so many businesses would embrace subscriptions the way they have today. Now, Krish says, as he has a workforce of 1,200 people spread across the world, his job is mainly focused on making sure they are able to bring the right talent into the organisation and communicating more often about what they are doing, bringing that consistency internally and externally. 

The Chargebee founder also highlights the importance of authenticity as a communicator. He explains how he is very grateful for the number of people who put themselves out there in an authentic way, without trying to look or sound different, and how he has learnt by listening to others. Krish also shares a connecting piece of communications advice to those wanting to succeed in business: invest time in educating yourself. “Watch more podcasts, listen to others talk… There is so much to learn!” We can only agree here!   

Follow his advice and listen to Krish’s podcast episode here.    

 

3. Robert Wahbe, co-founder and CEO at Highspot 

Having spent more than 16 years at Microsoft, working with Satya Nadella himself, Robert Wahbe can admit he had quite a firm knowledge to start his own company called Highspot in 2012. The Highspot CEO acknowledges that the biggest challenge during these last 10 years was the initial stages of the business, where uncertainty about the future reigned. As we learnt during our Without Borders podcast, he is now very proud of what Highspot has become – a $3.5 billion unicorn, nonetheless. 

One of the main communication tips that Robert Wahbe points out in this episode is the importance of having a vision, a North Star to communicate. But it is fundamental as well to meet people where they are and then build the bridge back to whatever vision you have. Wahbe says leaders need to avoid being too blindsided by their own vision and put themselves in the shoes of whoever they are trying to communicate with.  

Project your own star and listen to his episode here. 

2. Doug Winter, co-founder and CEO at Seismic

From basements, breweries, and beaches to being a unicorn company? Yes, it’s possible. Doug Winter, CEO and co-founder of Seismic, tells us the full story. Doug believes it has been especially rewarding watching a lot of the people who had faith in his early vision join this journey, progressing their careers moving up into more and more senior roles and growing along with the company. For the Seismic CEO, that people-focused aspect is one of the most satisfying. 

Doug says Seismic used to have a straightforward approach to culture, as all the employees had a sense of belonging and of their mission, as well as enjoyed working there from the start. However, when faced with astronomical growth after March 2020, they went through an exercise of developing, formalising and documenting their culture. Doug explains that as a team they came up with a goal that brings the company together around things they all believe in, and they all believe are important.  

Thinking about the foundations of your company culture? Tune in to this episode here.   

1. Erez Galonska, co-founder and CEO of Infarm 

It is no secret that healthy, sustainable living and environmental health have become a priority for individuals and governments alike. Erez Galonska, co-founder and CEO of Infarm, wants everyone to have healthier produce, reduce waste, and produce in a more efficient way. His company, as he explained to us in this top Without Borders episode, is seeking to find ways to feed the growing population in a more sustainable, efficient way, while also helping retailers to source better ingredients for their customers. 

For you and your business to excel in communications, you must build everything around transparency, the Infarm CEO states. Erez also believes, « when you build a brand, you also need to look inside ». They have been very focused on bringing purpose-driven experts into their business, as Infarm has had to demonstrate the impact of its sustainability purpose on its people and its culture – for them, it’s not just about constant growth. He points outs this has led him to develop a particular perception of development and hiring. For him, it’s really about « ownership clarity and helping people to build what they’ve been hired for ». As his co-founder says, they are very proud of all the Infarmers out there. 

Listen to our top podcast episode of 2022 here.  

You can listen to our Unicorn CEO series on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, etc. If you don’t want to miss our interviews with unicorn CEOs and other inspirational speakers, subscribe to ‘Without Borders’ on your preferred podcast platform!  

Unicorn Club turmoil: Dehorned unicorns and VCs pullback

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In 2021, 539 companies achieved unicorn status. Yes, you are reading that right. Five hundred and thirty-nine companies achieved a valuation of more than $1 billion. In other words, the once rara avis started popping up like hot cakes, at a rate of almost 1.5 unicorns a day. To put this in context, almost four times as many unicorns were minted in 2021 as in 2020 (137 in total). What’s more, that figure was 20% more than the unicorns minted in the previous three years: 446 new unicorns between 2018 and 2020. 

2022 began with the same cadence of unicorn growth, with 126 in the first three months of the calendar year. At the height of the boom, the unicorn club surpassed 1,000 members for the first time in February last year. Then suddenly we saw a recognisable shift in frequency. There were 87 in Q2, 26 in the following quarter and only 19 in the last three months of the year. In other words, 258 new unicorns. A much higher figure than in any year prior to 2021, but a far cry from that of 2021 with a progressive drop quarter by quarter. The golden days when the money of VCs flowed uninhibited were over and instead, they tightened their belts in a context marked by macro trends such as inflation, rising interest rates and geopolitical crisis. Not only was this evident in the slowdown in the emergence of new unicorns, many of those already in the stable felt the brunt of drastic reductions in their valuations; to the point where some of them lost their horns. 

Unicorns minted every quarter between 2018 and 2022 – Source: CB Insights

The Unicorn Club in 2022 in figures 

2022 was a year in which the stable was revolutionised. There is no doubt about that, as anyone working in the technology sector will know. For us, as an agency at the intersection of technology, science and innovation, it is imperative to remain informed with these types of companies as many of them are revolutionising  industries and creating solutions to some of society’s biggest challenges.  Remote, Workato, ClickUp or Immuta are among some of the amazing brands we work with. We pride ourselves on being  great researchers of these types of fast-growing companies and enjoy learning about their journeys, their challenges and their practical advice. We have interviewed more than 30 unicorn leaders in our podcast – you can listen to all the episodes here – and we have published a practical guide summarising the main communication and culture tips we have learned during the first fifteen episodes with these inspiring entrepreneurs. We will soon be publishing the second edition with learnings and key takeaways from the most recent episodes, so keep an eye out for that! 

While there are multiple sources for information on this large group of organisations, we tend to rely on the data compiled by CB Insights. Earlier this year they published an updated version of the Unicorn Club as of 31st December 2022 (at the end of the article you will find an infographic with all the companies divided into 15 technology sectors). After diving into the data, these are the main trends we would like to highlight. 

The 3,800 trillion-dollar club 

The Unicorn Club is made up of 1,205 companies with a combined value of $3.86T. Currently only three companies exceed the $100B+ barrier (ByteDance, SpaceX and SHEIN). At the opposite end of the spectrum are 22.4% of the companies on the list, with a valuation of exactly $1B. After what we have seen in recent months with the readjustment of valuations for many unicorns, it is foreseeable that quite a few of these companies will have to leave the club.  

The world’s most valuable unicorns 

Of the hundreds of companies in the club, Chinese company ByteDance holds the honour of being the world’s largest unicorn, with a valuation of $140B. It is followed in the ranking by SpaceX, SHEIN, Stripe and Canva. 

The top 10 is dominated by three countries. Half of these companies are American – in addition to the aforementioned SpaceX and Stripe, Instacart, Databricks and Epic Games who are all among the world’s most valuable startups. China (ByteDance and SHEIN) has two companies at the top of this list, as does the UK (Checkout.com and Revolut). Australia’s Canva completes the top 10. 

The US dominates the club 

The top 10 is a representative sample of what is happening among the more than 1,200 unicorns in existence. Although unicorns originate from 47 countries, just over half of the companies are from the United States (54%), with China a distant second (14.3%). Rounding out the top 5 are India (5.8%), the UK (4.1%) and Germany (2.4%).  

Fintech and Internet software & services, the preeminent categories 

Four out of ten unicorns belong to the Fintech (20.9%) or Internet software & services (18.9%) categories. In the Fintech sector, companies such as Ripple and Plaid stand out in addition to the aforementioned Stripe, Checkout.com and Revolut.. Canva, Miro, OpenSea and Grammarly are some of the companies with the highest valuation in the Internet software & services category.  

The third most represented category is e-Commerce & direct-to-consumer (9%), among which SHEIN and Fanatics stand out. It is closely followed by Health (8%), a sector in which the main unicorns are the US companies Devoted Health and Biosplice Therapeutics.  

The veterans of the club 

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, a remarkable number of unicorns emerged in 2021. Of the 539 that joined the club, 524 remain in it today. But who is the longest-serving member of the club, and how many have been members of this select group of private companies for more than a decade? 

The French company Veepee holds the honour of being the longest-serving company in the club. It achieved that status in mid-2007 and is currently valued at $1.38B.  

Only seven companies have been unicorns for more than ten years. After Veepee, the oldest members of the stable include Klarna and Vice Media (joined in 2011). In 2012, SpaceX, Fanatics, Avant and Trendy Group International joined the club. 

 

As new funding shrinks, tech companies expect more bang for their buck 

2022 has been a difficult year for a number of companies that were growing at a fast pace. In recent months many of them have had to make adjustments (sadly including layoffs) to adapt to market dynamics and, above all, to the reduced amount of funding available.  

« Doing more with less » has become the business mantra of today, forcing every company to make the most of every dollar/euro/pound invested. This is something we discuss on an ongoing basis with our current clients and our prospective clients. The words that come up most often during these discussions are « efficiency » and « flexibility ». Essentially, clients find that under the current pressure from investors, every communication activity must deliver the highest added value and in an environment with changing priorities, it is essential for them to partner with an agency that is able to adapt quickly. What we often hear as well is that this is a leading reason as to why our current clients choose to stay with us and why prospective clients decide to embark on a new communications journey with Tyto. Our distinctive PRWithoutBordersTM operating model is purpose-built for flexibility, efficiency and agility, allowing us to deliver 30% more value for the same budget with one single team in multiple markets operating without silos. Our model ensures that clients get more bang for their buck, whether it’s via media relations or broader content marketing actions. Our budgets are unique and not split between different entities or country teams, meaning we can change routes nimbly depending on the tailored and specific needs of our clients. We anticipate that 2023 will be a year of adaptation for further growth for many companies and we are uniquely positioned to achieve the best communication results in Europe for the most innovative brands out there. 

 

The global unicorn club market map (as of 31st December 2022) – Source: CB Insights

Tech 500 podcast: Discussing influence in the European tech world

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In late 2021 we launched the fifth annual Tyto Tech 500 Power List, our objective assessment of influence across the pan-European tech sector, now more comprehensive than ever. As we discussed before, for this edition we expanded our analysis of influencers in France from a Top 100 to a Top 500 list, matching the German and United Kingdom lists. We also identified the rise of HealthTech and BioTech, and the GreenTech boom, as well as tracked new technology categories at the cutting edge of science, including quantum computing and SpaceTech.  

To carefully address what we learned in our fifth year of the Tech 500 Power List from a different perspective, we launched a special episode of our Without Borders podcast in which we talk about influence and technology trends in Europe with a panel of experts, including three key European influencers identified in our Tech 500 list. These are Sophie Proust, Dr. Andreas K. Maier, and Jonathan Symcox. Sophie, Andreas and Jonathan were joined by our own Zoë Clark, Head of Media and Influence at Tyto. Let’s dive into the podcast highlights and main themes.  

Understanding influence in today’s hyperconnected world  

From an academic’s perspective, and especially during the pandemic, digital and social media is becoming an important tool to understand influence. Dr. Andreas Maier, our academic representative from the German Influencer list in this episode, is a researcher, professor and Head of the Pattern Recognition lab at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. With the start of COVID-19, Andreas and his team began recording lectures and sharing their work to platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn. Conferences were an important part of the knowledge sharing process in the academic world, but as these became less frequent, the online audience for the scientific community grew.  

Andreas also explains that “with the increase of open science and open access publishing, people can also download articles and follow the research much better”, which is a great development in his field. This has amplified influence in a more digital-friendly ecosystem, and Andreas shared with us that he is not surprised that many academics are going in this direction.  

As explained by our Head of Media and Influence, Zoë Clark, at Tyto we look at influence as a well-rounded or multifaceted concept. To create our Tech 500, we think about relevance, not only influence, and this concept is much more than just having a huge social following. We do analyse an influencer’s social following, but also other factors such as their Google Trends score, the domain authority of the organisation the individual works for, the number of times they have been mentioned in earned media and the reach of those articles, as well as the number of books they have published in the past year. We believe people can influence through different channels, not just social media.   

Zoë also stated that “any true influencer never sets out to be an influencer.” A more likely starting point is wanting to change things, and that is something we’ve found all our podcast guests have in common. We believe we need to talk about influence in a human, broad way: however small the audience, it’s about building meaningful relationships, not about consumption or brand loyalty.  

The trends that will continue to shape the European tech landscape 

An important part of our research and our work as a media relations agency is to identify trends in the technology sector, which is the ecosystem that companies who choose us as consultants navigate on. 

Jonathan Symcox, journalist and our UK list representative in this podcast episode, leads tech publications BusinessCloud and TechBlast UK. Jonathan believes there will be an increase in businesses across all sectors – from education to the workplace – experimenting with new technologies, such as artificial intelligence or digital twins. He also states it will be interesting to see how the metaverse develops and interacts with all immersive technologies to create a virtual experience.  

When taking into account all the information society has been producing for the past decades, Jonathan points out something that has caught our attention. Data sovereignty is starting to become really important, in an environment where privacy for both users and companies is key in the world of technology. But also, the decentralisation of work environments and the shift to a remote work economy will allow technology to stretch away from cities and « innovation will continue to spread to all corners of the UK, not only London ». This will allow for cities to flatten, to create more opportunities outside of crowded, traditional corporate areas, and for employees to access a better work-life balance.  

The influencer perspective of women in tech  

For there to be more women and girls in tech, the first thing we need to do is to help spread information about what it means to work in the technology field. Sophie Proust, our  business leader representative for France in this episode, has been the Chief Technology Officer of Atos since early 2019. As stated by Sophie, on the one hand, women need to be interested in science and technology, and they need to understand that “this is an area where they can succeed and have fun”. We are truly living in crucial times where we can see how much technologies have a real social impact in our lives and the lives of others. Technology is “more context aware, and there are more immersive experiences that girls can understand and that can be appealing to them,” says Proust.  

Once women understand that the field of technology is also an option for them, and an attractive and interesting career alternative with a myriad of different applications, we will have started to build a path for them. And after this, we need to promote them and encourage them in order to have more women in leadership positions. In a truth-laden argument, Sophie states that “we need to understand that leadership does not have to be this immutable stereotype model invented by men.” There is a place in the business world for more collaboration, more listening and empathy, and a more sustainable and inclusive way to drive economic success. 

From an academic, business expert or journalist perspective, Andreas, Sophie and Jonathan share so much more that cannot be condensed into this short blogpost. If we’ve piqued your interest in the world of influence within the technology sector, listen to our podcast episode here to learn more about these influencers’ unique points of view. 

And if you are not yet familiar with the Tyto Tech 500 Power List, get to know the main tech influencers in Europe and discover the trends that have transformed the tech sector in 2021 with this podcast episode featuring bestselling author of Make It, Don’t Fake It: Leading with Authenticity for Real Business Success, Sabrina Horn and three Tyto media experts from the UK, France and Germany.  

 

Featured image credits: James Padolsey, Unsplash

The culture secrets of unicorn startup CEOs

The culture secrets of unicorn startup CEOs

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Creating a great company culture is not an option, it’s a necessity. According to a Glassdoor survey, 77% of staff would consider a company’s culture before applying for a job there and over half of the respondents said that company culture is more important than salary when it comes to job satisfaction. This is even more relevant to young job seekers as the number rises to 65% in the 18-to-34-year-old range. While high salaries and unique perks may have once been the keys to attracting top talent, this shows that a company’s mission and culture matter most to job seekers. So, how do you build a solid company culture that lays the foundation to a great place to work? 15 of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world reveal their best culture advice in our recent book Growing without borders: The unicorn CEO guide to communication and culture.

How to build a distinctive company culture at speed

In a fast-moving, high-growth environment, a strong company culture is the intangible sauce that binds the people inside it together. To build a distinctive culture at speed, the unicorn CEO’s objectives should be to define and communicate the company’s values, unite people behind a common goal, communicate the vision well so it is understood, and set and communicate expectations.

Defining and communicating your values

Vijay Tella, the CEO and founder of our client Workato, advises start-up CEOs to “prioritise the culture at least as much as the business.” Workato is Vijay’s fourth start-up and experience has taught him that culture is defined by the original team – the first employees. He adds, “It’s very hard when you are early stage in a start-up to think about culture when you are looking for survival and traction. But it’s really important to prioritise that equally.”

Featurespace’s CEO, Martina King, also admits that it is vital to define and communicate the company values as you scale. At one point, the whole Featurespace leadership team sat around a table to discuss this. “We thought long and hard about what the values of the company should be. For those of us who’d battled day in, day out, and we’d all worked together as a leadership team for a long time… there’s a shorthand. They don’t need to be articulated. But when you grow rapidly with lots of new people joining, then people do need to know what the values are.” Your values may already exist; your starting point should be to identify and define them.

Uniting your people behind a common goal

This is a huge challenge but one that needs to be overcome to thrive as a company. Working cultures around the world vary, individual commitment levels are unequal, and some roles feel less connected to the company’s objectives than others so recruiting becomes paramount. For Avinash Rugoobur, President and Chief Strategy Officer of Arrival, it all starts with making the right hires and ensuring that the culture is at the forefront every day. “Once you have that group of brilliant people, essentially my job is just to get out of the way and let them do their thing.”

Poppy Gustafsson, CEO of Darktrace, highlights the impact hiring has on the company’s culture as well. “The culture really is defined by the people that you bring in. It’s all about that hiring. It’s all about bringing on people that reflect the principles that you want to reflect to the outside world, and then bringing them in and training them and keep investing in employees. If you get that right, the culture will remain.” Hence recruit people who share or are willing to embrace your values.

Communicating the vision well so it is understood

“You’ve got to make sure everyone understands the vision so they can make the right decisions decentrally, even though they may not have been with the company for such a long time,” recommends Tim Sievers, CEO at Deposit Solutions. Understanding the vision is an empowering experience for individuals in your start-up. It enables them to make the right decisions.

Culture can also be reinforced through celebration. This approach is effective for Tipalti, reveals co-founder and CEO Chen Amit. Chen says, “We have a very clear cadence of celebrating those who are representative of the culture, those who did something great with the customers, those who really were really strong on collaboration. It’s a really collaborative team celebrating that, celebrating those who exemplify that, just showcasing what we believe in, what makes us successful.”

Setting and communicating expectations

Unicorns are often global businesses from the start. Multicultural teams require cultural sensitivity – hearing what you say is not the same as truly understanding your message. As Arik Shtilman, CEO of Rapyd, says on this issue, “You need to understand the culture you’re talking to before you communicate. The fact that somebody on the other side speaks English doesn’t mean he understands you. There is a difference.”

Mike Massaro, CEO of Flywire, refers to the company’s open culture that allows any employee to ask any question – even of the CEO – which is critical to keeping expectations clear. “There is truly no bad question to ask. There is no question I won’t answer to a Flymate. And that’s even happened during pretty challenging times,” says Mike.

The founder and CEO of Quantum Metric, Mario Ciabarra often gathers small, random teams together to listen to their thoughts and to highlight the company’s core values repeatedly. For Mario, “The vision of the company is so important to get everyone aligned, to get everyone behind that shared goal; that shared mission. I wish I understood it earlier… It kind of happens when you get past maybe 20, 40, 50 people, when you don’t spend your day with each employee.”

The process of setting and communicating expectations must be ongoing and repeated over and over. As the company expands and employees come and go, the need to communicate your vision and reinforce your values will continue.

The key elements of a distinctive company culture

There are five requirements in an excellent company culture:

  • Vision – a statement that guides its purpose.
  • Values – the core of its culture.
  • Practices – these should reflect the company’s values.
  • People – who either share or are willing to embrace your values.
  • Narrative – a culture that is built on the company’s unique story.

With these in place, any fast-growth company has a firm foundation – its culture – on which to grow.

Interested in learning more about how to create a strong company culture and improve your internal communications? In this article I have just highlighted tips from some of the 15 unicorn leaders featured in our book. Download your copy here and you will be able to learn the secrets to a successful culture from other top entrepreneurs like Felix Van De Maele (founder and CEO of Collibra), Adrien Nussenbaum (co-founder of Mirakl) and Charles McManus (CEO of ClearBank). You can also learn more about external communications and leadership from their experiences. And if you are into podcasts, then you can have a listen to the interviews with each one of these unicorn leaders on our ‘Without Borders’ podcast. You will find fresh content like our recent conversations with Pedro Bados, co-founder and CEO of Nexthink, Mariano Gomide de Faria, co-founder and co-CEO of VTEX, and Zeb Evans, founder and CEO of ClickUp.

Image ©Parabol, unsplash.com

Communication_tips_unicorn_CEOs

8 top communication tips from unicorn CEOs

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Managing a high-growth organisation is probably one of the greatest challenges a leader can take on. Startup CEOs wear many hats that they take on and off as company priorities change. One hat, far too often, is left in the cupboard: The hat of the communicator. This is a mistake. Communicating effectively is integral to the success of any startup – as confirmed by the unicorn CEOs we interviewed for our podcast series.

Experienced unicorn CEOs acknowledge that the importance of communication skills is overlooked in the early days. Looking back, Clay Wilkes, founder and former CEO of global payments platform Galileo, which supports 70 out of the top 100 most valuable fintech companies in the world today, says that if he could travel back in time, he would challenge his younger self to communicate more clearly, succinctly and “specifically more directly”. “It’s the CEO’s role to be the chief communicator. Earlier on, I think that’s really, really key. And being able to communicate the company’s strategy is really important, especially as you’re starting a new and young business,” says Clay.

Clearbank CEO Charles McManus adds that one of the key communication techniques he has learned has been what he calls “authentic storytelling”. “You can get lost in facts. The ability to story tell and make sense of it all, and then interject facts is something a lot of us, as leaders, actually try to do. Can we relate and tell that story and interject facts rather than lose the audience in terms of boring, dull, boffin-like facts?”.

Simplicity is another key characteristic of great communications. Martina King, CEO of Featurespace, illustrates the power of simplicity really well: “If I throw five balls at you, how many do you think you’ll catch? But if I throw one, there’s a fair chance you’ll actually catch it. So when you’re thinking about your communication, what’s the one message that you want to try and convey?” Charles McManus agrees. For him, it is critically important to focus on the essentials, especially in meetings with key stakeholders who can decide your young company’s fate: “You’ve got five minutes with God. What points are you going to make in your five minutes? And you mustn’t come out and walk down the street and say, ‘If I only said X or Y’. The five minutes with whomever it is are the most important of your life.”

Learn by doing, and falling over

Most unicorn CEOs are experts in their own technical field. Communicating is frequently not part of their core competencies. However, “natural communicators” are a myth. Communication can be learned, it is a craft that improves with practice. “If you don’t spend time on it, you’ll lose the skill and if you don’t spend time with it, you can’t make it better. So, like anything, you’ve got to work on it,” explains Avinash Rugoobur, President & Chief Strategy Officer of Arrival.

Founder and CEO of Octopus Energy, Greg Jackson’s advice for spokespeople in younger companies is to consider the legacy of their words as the company grows. “As the spokesperson, I certainly moved from a world in which I would just throw hand grenades at the old guard to a world in which, actually, my job is not to do that but is to build a really positive vision of the future for our company and for our society. And I think, you build that platform and you’ve got to use it wisely,” explains Greg.

For Mirakl co-founder, Adrien Nussenbaum it’s critical to support everything you do with communications consistently and in a strategic manner: “The key to successful communication, beyond being creative, is to consider it as a programme and not just as a one-time project. And if you approach it like that, it helps to solve all the short-term dilemmas that you will have around ROI. It’s really something that needs to be deeply integrated in everything you do.”

Mastering internal communications

At a time when many companies are born remote, like Workato, ensuring employees stay in the communications loop is a huge task. For its founder and CEO, Vijay Tella, “Communication and being connected is the hardest challenge a company faces. It’s been a big challenge in every company that I was part of. There is always this sense of people being able to connect with each other at the watercoolers – but people in remote areas don’t feel as connected. I’ve never found a place where we felt that we communicated enough, and we did enough to get everybody on the same page.” It’s essential to find ways to keep staff informed and build a sense of belonging, whether it is by hosting ‘Town Hall’ meetings, arranging weekly Zoom calls or creating open channels of communication where employees can ask anything to the leadership of the organization.

CEOs may need to adapt their communication style to be clearer, impactful and avoid any potential ambiguity when addressing their staff and maintaining team spirit. “Your communication has to be far more absolute and black and white, because by the time it’s filtered down through the business, you cannot allow any interpretation of anything that’s not well-defined,” says Poppy Gustaffson, co-CEO of Darktrace. Vague communication fails so ensure your message is clear.

The must-read communications guide for startup leaders

These are just a few excerpts from our book Growing without borders: The unicorn CEO guide to communication and culture. We have compiled valuable advice from the leaders of fifteen startups that have reached unicorn status into an actionable guide for business leaders.

If you want to learn from their experiences, you can download our book here. Or you can listen to the full interviews with each one of them on our ‘Without Borders’ podcast, where you can also listen to new unicorn leader content that is not featured in the book like the recent chats with Pedro Bados, co-founder and CEO of Nexthink, and Mariano Gomide de Faria, co-founder and co-CEO of VTEX.

Growing without borders: The unicorn CEO guide to communication and culture

Launching ‘Growing without borders: The unicorn CEO guide to communication and culture’

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In late 2019, we began a series of ‘Without Borders’ podcast interviews with tech entrepreneurs at a critical stage in their careers. They had each achieved ‘unicorn’ status, having created a privately-held start-up company valued at over US$1 billion.

We wanted to know what they had learned about communications on their journey; the hard lessons and experiences that they will never forget. Why? Because although Silicon Valley and other tech hubs, from Cambridge to Tel Aviv, are ecosystems, there is a gap in those systems. While technology entrepreneurs are nurtured through all kinds of knowledge-sharing and funding within the ecosystem, in my 20+ years of working with the technology industry as a communications consultant it has become increasingly clear that it offers precious little in terms of nurturing communications skills. And this, at a time when stakeholder expectations of transparency and a ready-made public persona are higher than ever.

Plugging a gap in the technology ecosystem

Our aim with the podcasts has been to build a community that shares the communications skills required for this specific group of technology leaders; to plug the knowledge gap. It was a good fit with our guiding principle at Tyto PR, which is to be the perfect partner to our clients and the technology ecosystem.

More than a year on, and the first podcast series of interviews with unicorn leaders (the second continues to be recorded and broadcast) has become an eBook. We recognise that not everyone has the time to listen to podcasts, so we have distilled the most valuable, actionable insights and bottled them in a more convenient form. You can download our free eBook ‘Growing without borders: The unicorn CEO guide to communication and culture’ here.

The ‘cast’ in this series have shared lived experiences and knowledge. They include insights such as Darktrace Co-CEO Poppy Gustaffson’s discovery of analogies as a powerful tool for explaining technical information to non-technical audiences – so powerful that the company has extended this approach to naming some of its core products this way.

I could also mention Adrien Nussenbaum, Co-Founder of Mirakl, whose experience of founding a company in France but that now has more employees in the USA has gained him a unique understanding of how to manage cultural differences in a fast-growing workforce.

Here also, Martina King, CEO of Featurespace, shares how an external change of perception of the company, when it transitioned from “underdog start-up” to major success, affected how the company communicated.

These are just a few among the many insights shared by our ‘cast’ of entrepreneurs that includes:

So a final note. CEOs of unicorn companies are some of the brightest people on the planet. The majority come from an engineering background and while some take to communications naturally, many do not. The insights and experiences captured in this book, I believe, can help technology leaders become wiser, even more articulate communicators. Once gained and added to their already extraordinary skillsets, communications skills will only help their businesses, and their careers, thrive.

Brendon Craigie
Founder and CEO, Tyto PR

Unicorn

Startup frenzy: A new unicorn is minted every day in 2021

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The world is going to need a bigger unicorn stable soon. 2021 is proving to be a record year, as never before have so many companies achieved this status in such a short time. The speed at which new unicorns are emerging is such that it is likely that from the time I have started writing this article until it has been published, at least three more unicorns will emerge. I am not making this up: every day 1.18 new unicorns are minted.

In 2021 alone, 203 new companies have achieved unicorn status, joining a herd of over 700 companies. In just over five months there are already 69% more new unicorns than in the whole of 2020. The Unicorn Club includes 120 companies that reached this milestone in 2020, a very similar number to 2019 (123) and 2018 (122). That year is when the stable started to fill up: there are only 154 startups with a value of more than a billion dollars that were created before 2017 that still belong in the club. In other words, there are 31% more startups valued at $1B+ in 2021 than there were between 2007 and 2017.

The term ‘unicorn’ was first used in 2013 to refer to a privately-held startup company valued at over $1 billion. The term was coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures. She chose this mythological animal because only a very small group of companies reach that value, and it is highly unusual to do so — almost impossible. The reality is that it is no longer so unusual, as the data shows.

The Unicorn Club in 2021 – Key trends

X-raying a club that welcomes a new member every day and where valuation is constantly fluctuating is no easy task. Thankfully, CB Insights regularly publishes very interesting studies analysing startups with a valuation over $1 billion. The most recent one includes all the unicorns that existed by the end of March 2021 when « only » 611 unicorns existed (today, there are already 101 more!). Head to the end of this article to see an infographic mapping out all 611 unicorns.

The most valuable unicorns in the world

According to data compiled by CB Insights, these tech start-ups have a collective value of over $2T and have raised a combined total of $426B. The world’s most valuable private company is ByteDance, reaching a $140B valuation following an investment from Tiger Global Management in March 2020. The Chinese multinational is the developer of content platforms such as TikTok and Toutiao.

Payment processing platform Stripe (valued at $95B) and aerospace company SpaceX ($74B) are ranked in second and third position. App-based transportation services Didi Chuxing ($62B) and online grocery delivery platform Instacart ($39B) complete the top three most valuable private companies.

The valuation of some of these companies has reached such a high point that the term ‘unicorn’ is no longer enough and new terms had to be coined to differentiate them.

ByteDance is now the only company considered to be a “hectocorn” (worth more than $100B). Meanwhile, 5% of all unicorns — 31 companies including the four previously mentioned and other such as Klarna, Databricks and Rivian — have reached “decacorn” status (valued at $10B+).

Fintech and internet software & services dominate the ranking

These two categories account for 30% of all unicorns (15% each). Stripe is the most valuable fintech unicorn ($95B) while website builder and hosting firm Squarespace ranks first in the internet software & services industry ($10B valuation as of March 2021).

The third biggest category is e-commerce & direct-to-consumer (12%), led by China-based fast fashion platform SHEIN (valued at $15B as of August 2020). In fourth position and growing at high speed, 8% of companies with billion-dollar valuations are in the artificial intelligence space. Another Chinese company is at the top of this category: the $140B tech firm ByteDance.

Half of all unicorns are US companies

One out of every two unicorns is founded or headquartered in the United States. The leadership of the US in this field is indisputable, with China in second place with 23% of companies in this prestigious club. Far behind are the UK (5%) and India (4%).

Despite having relatively few unicorns, Sweden and Brazil occupy a privileged position in the ranking. Swedish e-commerce payment solutions Klarna is the 6th highest-valued private company and Brazil’s fintech startup Nubank rounds out the top 10.

Communications and leadership advice from unicorn leaders

As an agency that works with some of the most disruptive brands in the world in the fields of technology, science and innovation, we are in constant contact with the employees of unicorn companies. In fact, some of our clients such as Workato and Riskified are members of the club.

In late 2019, we began a series of interviews with the leaders of unicorn companies as part of our Without Borders podcast in partnership with the csuite podcast. We wanted to find out about the key issues, pain points and challenges that startups face and how they can address them with a strategic approach to marketing and communications.

So far, CEOs from 15 of the fastest growing businesses in the world have shared their experiences of leading companies that are shaping our future. We have interviewed visionaries such as Mike Massaro (CEO of Flywire), Avinash Rugoboor (President & Chief Strategy Officer of Arrival) and Mario Ciabarra (founder and CEO of Quantum Metric).

We recognise that not everyone has the time to listen to podcasts, so we have distilled the most valuable, actionable insights and bottled them in a more convenient form in an eBook that we will be publishing soon. Stay tuned!

Global Unicorn Club

The global unicorn club market map (as of 24th March 2021) – Source: CB Insights

Image ©hamur0w0, wunderstock.com

Tyto Without Borders PR Podcast

Presenting ‘Without Borders’ – a new podcast from the Tyto team

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It should be no secret that here at Tyto we’re passionate about the power of brilliant content and believe strongly in the medium of podcasts as a way to engage audiences and deliver strong stories, inspiring information and create emotional connections.

Which is why I’m proud to present a new podcast, Without Borders, produced and created by the Tyto team. Without Borders is a dose of fortnightly inspiration for passionate communicators, courageous creatives and entrepreneurial business brains. Expect candid chats with the wisest old hands, bleeding edge innovators and left field thinkers and doers.

As an agency we’re custom built around our PR Without Borders philosophy, from our location agnostic structure to the way we approach creativity and innovation, both internally and as a perfect partner for our clients. We’re inspired and empowered by people and brands who aren’t afraid to make left-field thinking the norm, especially when it comes to innovating and reinventing modern communications. We’ve created the podcast to encapsulate this philosophy, but far beyond PR.

As we begin to release our first series (you’ll find the first episode here), we hope listeners will note the unexpected mix of guests, from age and experience to discipline, viewpoints and backgrounds. We’ve spoken to everyone from agency trail-blazers and award-winning journalists to brand storytelling visionaries and even the director and cast members of a sell-out Edinburgh Fringe improv show.

My co-host, Zoe Clark (Partner and Head of Tyto’s Fintech practice), and I are excited to present you with an ongoing selection of brilliant and interesting people. The kind of guests who can and will change the way listeners think about communicating ideas, building purposeful and successful businesses, creativity, innovation, and overcoming obstacles to success.

Tyto isn’t inhibited by rules, or how things have always been done: from the very ground-up, through each strand of DNA, we’re about tearing up the rule book; doing things differently, learning and improving. Therefore, it’s been enormously exciting to me to have the privilege to sit down and talk about these ideas with likeminded individuals on Without Borders. I hope you enjoy the episodes as much as we did in creating them.