Beyond Borders: Cracking the Code for Global Success

Beyond excited to introduce our brand new column with Heather Gadonniex. Heather is a US born and bred tech executive specialised in GTM. As CMO and Operating Partner at GD1, she’s passionate about translating best practices for growth and scale to the NZ ecosystem. She also serves as an Independent Director and Pavilion Envoy. 

First Things First: Get Your First Team Sorted

In the fast paced world of scaling technology companies, we tend to obsess over the next big product release, revenue growth (profitable, efficient revenue growth in today’s market), or closing that new deal that will take us to the next level. While all of these activities are important, many founders and leaders miss a fundamental keystone - growth and scale are built on an effective First Team. After all, in the thrilling business of global expansion, nothing screams winning like a well oiled team ready to take on the world. 

If you’re serious about scaling your company, making an outsized impact, and expanding internationally you need to get your First Team sorted. Here’s why. 

Heather, what the heck is a “First Team” you ask? 

The First Team concept is rooted in a leadership model developed by Patrick Lencioni. He defines it as a leadership group that prioritises the organisation as a whole over any one function. In other words, if you’re the CTO, your First Team isn’t your engineering group — it’s the leadership team that includes your CEO, CMO, CFO, and other senior executives. If you’re not in an executive leadership role, yet you sit on a leadership team that drives a specific goal, this is your First Team. 

A solid First Team operates with a shared purpose and mutual accountability for the overall business, not just departmental goals. It sounds simple, but for most it's far from instinctive. The tendency is to defend your functional territory, meet your personal and departmental OKRs/KPIs, protect your team at all costs and, well, justify your paycheck. But when you focus too much on your own swimlane, you lose sight of what really matters: the collective success of the organisation. 

TLDR: In a First Team leadership model, true leaders prioritise supporting their fellow leaders (the most senior team they sit on) and organisational health over their direct reporting lines. 

Why is the First Team Crucial for Scaling? 

As a company begins to scale, foundational cracks become more visible. Without a cohesive First Team, those cracks can turn into deep, dysfunctional fault lines. Unpredictable challenges will test your fortitude. You need a team you can celebrate with when times are good, and openly solve problems when times are tough - even if it might make your department look bad. 

I was once part of a newly formed team that was in the early stages of building a First Team mentality. We were just getting to know each other - and to trust each other - a crucial component of First Team success. As a team, we made the decision to target a new vertical. We had big revenue goals and we knew there was marketshare to be captured. There was a clear gap our solution could fill, and from the market research we did, we thought we had a compelling offering. 

The funnel was filling, leads were converting to opportunities at a solid clip, the sales team was moving prospects far down the sales cycle - yet, they found it really challenging to close. 

Now, here is where it could have gotten really ugly. Sales could have blamed marketing for delivering crap leads. Marketing could have blamed sales for not closing prospects that were squarely in the ICP, expressed interest, and clearly had a need given they were late stage deals. Instead, we put our heads together, along with product and finance, to determine why these ready-to-buy prospects were dropping out of the funnel. The culprit - we didn’t have a specific feature that this specific vertical was after, and our pricing was a bit off. We made a plan to fix this quickly, incorporate ‘vision selling’ into the sales playbook for this specific vertical, tweaked our pricing, and saw our close rates soar. 

Did it take extra effort from a cross functional leadership team to make this happen? Yes. Did we have to reprioritise to execute quickly and effectively? Yes. Did it cause disruption to our functional teams? Yes. Was it the right thing to do? Absolutely. We nailed that vertical. 

Now, why were we able to come together and openly interrogate our data and problem solve? We rallied around crucial elements that served as core anchors in our work: a unified vision and strategic direction, shared goals and compensation incentives, a culture of accountability, a cohesive culture, and trust. With these in place, we were able to do our best work and get down to the business at hand - growth, scale, and impact - as a First Team. 

How to Build and Strengthen Your First Team 

Building a solid first team requires intention and consistent effort. Sure, it helps that everyone has chemistry at the start. But, you need to put in the work to build a dream team. Here are a few key tips. 

1. Prioritise Trust: If your leaders don’t trust each other, everything else falls apart. This requires vulnerability. Encourage open communication and the sharing of challenges and concerns without fear of judgment.
2. Align on Company-Wide Objectives and Incentives: Every member of the First Team should know the company’s top three strategic goals. Their personal KPIs should link back to these overarching objectives. Aligned incentives drive positive behavior that leads to scale. 
3. Encourage Debate, Then Commit: Healthy conflict is essential; but once a decision is made, every leader must commit to it fully, even if they disagreed initially.
4. Meet Regularly: It’s easy to let busy schedules get in the way of First Team meetings. Don’t let this happen. Regular touchpoints are critical to staying aligned, solving problems early and reinforcing accountability.
5. Don’t Forget to Be Human: At the end of the day, we’re all human - we all have strengths, challenges and motivations. Know what makes your colleagues thrive, and what triggers them, so you can best support each other as you scale. 

Scaling is hard - sure it is extremely rewarding and the good times are totally worth it - but, let’s be honest with ourselves. Sometimes it can be downright brutal. Scaling requires market understanding, strategic alignment, brilliant execution and a whole lot of grit. But, none of this matters if your First Team isn’t aligned and there to support each other in good times and bad. Your First Team is the foundation of your company’s growth. Get it right, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can make faster, better decisions that scale. Get it wrong, and no amount of strategic pivoting, fundraising, or marketing magic can save you.