Episode 89: Simplifying Alignment of Goals and People, with Michael Cheng of Lumen5
In this episode of Leaders of B2B podcast, Michael Cheng, CEO and Co-Founder of Lumen5, shares what he learned on his entrepreneurial journey leading to the development of Lumen5. He emphasizes simplifying the alignment of people with the small company’s vision, mission, and unique differentiating proposition. The company now has 40+ staff on the books.
Lumen5 is a SaaS business; a video creation platform that’s helped 1000s of people who have never created videos before to be able to create their own professional-looking videos for marketing and communications purposes.
In this discussion, you can expect to hear about:
The transition from running an agency to starting a tech company, and the lessons learned.
Lumen5’s journey, and building the first minimum viable product.
The financial approach taken.
Hiring a marketing team and what they look for in candidates. Since Michael’s background is marketing, he knows there must be a good balance between logic and magic; if the team is too far on the logic end, you end up with projects that are more targeted at revenue or engagement or funnel optimizations. If it's too far on the magic side, you’ll get crazy creative campaigns.
The company’s hiring process, and how they use a “skill and will” model: do they have the skill to do the work? And do they have the will to do the work? Both are necessary.
The framework they use to align team members to the company’s vision and mission.
What Michael would do differently if he could go back to the start of his entrepreneurial journey, and how he would practice discipline, patience, and focus.
Resources Mentioned:
EOS framework from the book Traction by Gino Wickman.
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