Building a global business from day 1, with Fred Plais (CEO, platform.sh) (S14E14)

How can you build a business that is genuinely global on day one? How do you set up marketing, sales, delivery, recruitment and operations when your local market is not going to be your largest market, and where you want customers to come from anywhere?

Today Richard speaks with Fred Plais, co-founder and CEO of Platform.sh, a leading, VC funded Platform-as-a-service for building, running, scaling web applications.

In this conversation, you’ll learn:

The critical early decisions that enabled the business to go global from day 1

Why Platform.sh limits employment to only 12 countries, despite being 100% remote

The process innovations that have allowed Platform.sh to successfully operate a remote-first culture

The big mistake Fred made when needing to accelerate profitability... and what happened

Resources/sources mentioned:

The Impact Multiplier CEO Podcast(https://xquadrant.com/podcast/)

Platform.sh (https://platform.sh/)

Join Rivendell (https://xquadrant.com/rivendell/), our exponential programme for elite CEOs dedicated to transforming themselves, their businesses, and the world.

Ready for a big leap forward in your own leadership? Elevate your leadership forever with Richard's book "Making time for Strategy: How to be less busy and more successful". Buy your book here: https://xquadrant.com/time/

For full show notes, head to https://xquadrant.com/fred-plais

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

06:01 Building global businesses

10:14 Finding great talents outside major hubs

13:56 The new remote work paradigm

21:58 Distributed global teams ensure 24/7 customer support.

26:52 Ensuring cultural fit, clear goals, and remote work.

31:24 In-person meetings enhance problem-solving and collaboration.

36:09 Reducing cloud app carbon emissions, efficiently.

41:29 Focus on future strategy, not micromanage tasks.