Campbell Brown: helping the world's biggest brands predict demand

The ‘Diaspora’ podcast features Blackbird entrepreneur in residence (EIR) and investor, David Booth, profiling the founders, innovators, and emerging leaders of the great Kiwi expat community.

In this episode, Booth sits down Campbell Brown, founder and CEO at Sanfrisco-based PredictHQ.

PredictHQ help customers understand the catalysts behind any form of consumer demand, with a particular emphasis on real-world events. Today, they provide this “Demand Intelligence” to a who’s who of global brands, airlines, and marketplaces like Uber and Airbnb, helping them optimise supply and pricing whether they’re facing an anomalous weather event or Taylor Swift concert.

Before founding PredictHQ, Campbell was part of the early team at GrabOne, where he saw first-hand how sudden volatility in demand could affect business operations (for better or worse). He went on to join Online Republic as CMO, where he encountered the challenges of predicting traveller demand based on global events and weather conditions.

In today’s episode, they discuss:

• The journey from GrabOne to PredictHQ and how past experiences shaped Campbell’s understanding of data-driven business decisions
• PredictHQ’s evolution from focusing on the travel industry to diversifying across various sectors, including parking, transportation, and accommodation
• Building models on top of event data to provide unique intelligence and enable businesses to become context-aware
• The importance of selling value over features and focusing on a product’s impact on a customer’s business
• Exploring different pricing models, including category-based and consumption-based approaches
• Challenges and strategies for managing a multi-location team and fostering company culture across New Zealand and the US
• The pros and cons of having a top company in New Zealand versus the US, and navigating international tax implications
• Campbell’s fundraising journey and advice for approaching investors, including the importance of warm introductions and treating fundraising like a sales process
• Balancing work and family life in the US, and tips for building community when moving abroad.

Listen in here.