What It Means to Put People First | Ben Stephenson, CEO of Impala (Series B)
Description
What does it mean to put 'People First' in a fast-growing company? Meet Ben Stephenson, CEO of Impala—a company building a suite of travel APIs that make building travel tech a lot easier.
In this episode, Ben Stephenson explains how he went from Seed to Series B in six months, how the pandemic affected their travel-focused business, and why hiring a head of people made a huge difference in building a remote-first culture. We also discuss the importance of inviting your leaders to the conversation.
Key links:
Impala website: https://impala.travel/
Ben Stephenson profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-stephenson-13032b33/
Key timestamps:
[01:47 ] What happened in TechStars?
[07:07 ] How did you approach your Series A?
[08:52 ] How did you raise Series A in less than a month?
[10:37 ] How did you raise a Series B 6 months later?
[14:47 ] What happens when you get a global pandemic in travel?
[16:48 ] How do you shape culture in a remote environment?
[23:51 ] Why do you use external search firms
[25:51 ] What has been one of your most significant learnings as a CEO?
[30:58 ] What can we expect from Impala in the next few months?
Thanks to Jens, Jean and Julian (all the Js) for their great input.
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