Ep145 - Ashik Ahmed (Co-founder & CEO - Deputy) on COVID, conviction and customer obsession by The Startup Playbook published on 2021-04-01T15:11:40Z My guest for Ep145 of The Startup Playbook Podcast was the Co-founder & CEO of Deputy, Ashik Ahmed. Ashik launched Deputy in 2008, initially as the co-founder and CTO of the business. He transitioned to the CEO role after Deputy raised there Series A funding round in 2017. Deputy has since gone on to being used by 250,000 businesses across more than 100 countries and the company has raised a total of AUD$144M ($101M USD) including Australia’s largest ever Series B funding round of AUD$111M ($81M USD). However, it hasn’t been all plain sailing with the company suffering significantly through COVID last year having to stand down 30% of it’s staff. In this interview we covered a wide range of topics including: - How Deputy and Ashik managed the challenges of COVID - Why founders need to retain their customer obsession and love customers who complain - Ashik’s journey from software developer to the CEO role - Ashik’s approach to fundraising and building relationships with VCs and investors - Why more companies die from indigestion rather than starvation - & much more! Full show notes available at startupplaybook.co Genre Business