GoCardless is on a mission to take the pain out of getting paid for businesses with recurring revenue. Clients range from small businesses to household brands, including TripAdvisor, Funding Circle and the Financial Times. GoCardless also has over 180 partnerships with software platforms around the world, including Xero, Zuora, QuickBooks and Sage.

GoCardless approached Think & Grow for assistance in the search for a Country Manager to launch and scale the brand in ANZ. As part of the ambitious global growth strategy, the business required an entrepreneurial and commercially-minded GM executive with a proven background in scaling technology platforms or SaaS businesses. More specifically the goals of this individual were to:

• Grow the marketplace by building the overall GoCardless brand and acquiring customers for the platform
• Collaborate and influence effectively at executive level across the group too cement GC as a major player in its sector locally and globally
• Be the key executive on the ground accountable for growing the P&L, driving day-to-day operations, strategic direction, business development and people leadership of the business

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Key outcomes:

Talent

• Secure Carolyn Breeze as GM of ANZ, previously of Braintree, eBay and Vodafone
• Salary guidelines provided across all role types required for land and expand strategy
  

Network/presence

• Founders roadshow across Sydney and Melbourne. Introduced the team to local SaaS founders to build their network in that space
• Venture capital luncheon. Introduced Hiroki to VC community in order to oenable a flow through of business development leads via this channel
• PR: created and secured articles in leading Australian newspaper to coincide with Hiroki’s arrival in Sydney and Melbourne
  

Go-to-market

• Secured 20 clients from a specific target list to meet global CEO and founder, Hiroki
• Competitor analysis review completed
• Sales target list deepened
  

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Pranav Sood, the Head of International at GoCardless worked with Think & Grow on this hire. Pranav decided to go with Think & Grow due to their:

• Understanding of the executional and cultural challenges that high-growth businesses face when they scale into new markets
• Strength of network in the Australian market, and relevant experiences supporting similar businesses making critical leadership hires
• Robust and clearly communicated process, plus their strong team
  

“Think & Grow quickly understood our business and our aspirations, and were able to work with us to build a simple, compelling candidate pack”

Pranav believed the following aspects of the search stood out:

The broad support.

‍Think & Grow’s partnership approach enabled us to drive successful growth strategies. The scope of support extends much further than hiring.
‍“I love the way that Think & Grow are always looking to connect the humans and businesses you work with inside and outside of the office”

The momentum.

Think & Grow were constantly introducing high quality candidates.
‍“With some recruiters you need to wade through a couple of rounds of dross before you get to the really strong candidates. I didn’t feel that at all with Think & Grow”

The team

‍Think & Grow are a great partner for UK businesses expanding globally. They take the time to really understand your needs and are passionate about getting to the best possible outcome.
‍“I enjoy working with you guys and would gladly recommend you to others in my network looking for support in scaling businesses”

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GoCardless were able to secure the former Country Manager of Braintree for Australia to be their ANZ GM. Carolyn is an experienced leader with over 15 years’ in the technology sector, including extensive international experience with the fintech, ecommerce and telecommunications sectors. Carolyn started at GoCardless in May 2019.

“Four months in and I am absolutely loving it! When I started there were four of us. Now there is 11 of us and I split my time between Melbourne, Sydney and New Zealand, plus have already had three trips to London”

For Carolyn, she was attracted to the GoCardless opportunity for:

• Their vision for democratising another area of payments
• An opportunity to build something from the ground up in ANZ for a well-establishing startup with a lot of funding
  

The things that stood out to Carolyn about Think & Grow were:

• The touchpoints: Think & Grow took me through the process and were in touch very regularly. They provided me with insights, supporting documents and feedback which enabled me to be prepared and successful in interviews.
• The relationships: throughout the process and post-joining, my relationship with Think & Grow has really continued. I catch up with the team regularly and I am looking forward to doing more work together.
  

“Collaboration has been great”

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Thinking of opening an office in ANZ as part of your global scaling journey? Reach out to learn more about our “land and expand” services.