The art of hiring selfishly

Partly has one goal: to make it easy for buyers to find the right automotive parts 100 percent of the time. 

“That’s the only thing we do well and the only thing we’re going to be doing for the next few years,” says Partly founder Levi Fawcett. 

The startup was inspired by Fawcett’s time working in the automotive industry, where the process for locating car parts is rather “antiquated”, he says.

“We would get on the phone and call asking for parts. That’s the industry standard; 95 per cent of all parts sold are on the phone.”  

Though he was well-placed to recognise that finding auto parts was an “unsexy” problem that needed solving, Fawcett was still young. He shelved the idea and instead joined Rocket Lab in 2016 for a stint as a guidance, navigation and control engineer. Then, in 2017, he founded Partly’s predecessor, an e-commerce platform called AllGoods. 

While AllGoods was not specifically directed at the automotive industry, 150 of its 1000 customers sold automotive parts. Fawcett found that those customers all experienced the same sourcing problems he was familiar with from his own time in the industry. 

Market research told Fawcett that car parts are an estimated US$1.9 trillion industry. This information was the kicker he needed to pivot AllGoods to Partly in 2020. 

With the world’s top 50 car manufacturers contributing more than half of that almost two trillion figure, Fawcett decided to go international first, focusing on the European and Australian markets. Only recently did it land its first New Zealand customer.

“There’s just no way we’re going to scratch the surface by being a New Zealand-only company,” Fawcett says. 

The pivot and new global focus meant Partly was primed to scale. 

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Right and wrong

In 2022, Partly closed the largest Series A raise in NZ history at $37 million. At the time, the company was valued at $180m. 

The team has grown along with the company’s ambitions. Having started with five cofounders, Fawcett, Nathan Taylor, Mark Song, Evan Jia and Tony Austin, the startup now has over 70 team members spread around the globe. The company bases its product and engineering teams out of Christchurch. 

Finding the right people is important to Fawcett’s founder journey. He describes it as hiring selfishly. 

“I optimise for people I can learn the most from. When I think about hiring a person, I ask myself, will I be excited by spending a lot of time with them? If yes, that is a big input to the hiring decision.” 

His tactic is to hire well ahead of where Partly currently is. That often means finding people with more experience than himself. 

Fawcett also surrounds himself with those who can help the business grow, which includes Icehouse Ventures, one of Partly’s early believers.

“I’d say we had more experience with venture capital than Levi for the first five minutes of our relationship. Levi is very bright and a voracious learner – this was a key attraction to investing in Partly,” says Icehouse Ventures CEO Robbie Paul.

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While Partly’s economic viability and a clear market need sealed the deal for Icehouse, a lot of the decision to back the company came down to faith in Fawcett himself, Paul says. 

“In most cases, we are trying to be right about the founders and their mission, not the concept or strategy they’re working on. They change quickly and significantly. Success often boils down to the founders’ ability to navigate this change.”

“Levi is wise beyond his years. He’s quick to identify whether there’s a fit in terms of work ethic, culture and intellect, and to move people into different roles or out of roles accordingly.” 

That’s an issue even seasoned entrepreneurs can struggle with, Paul says.

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Building a team

Harry Uffindell is one of Fawcett’s selfish hires. Now chief people officer at Partly, he joined the team as the first non-engineering hire, leaving his own startup to do so. 

With a background in law and management consulting, Uffindell was the first APAC employee for Tilt (acquired by Airbnb), later serving as head of business operations and strategy for Airbnb across the Asia Pacific region before the initial public offering. 

Uffindell was drawn to the Partly team’s grit and low ego, which he says continues to this day.

“They were very hard and determined workers; there is still a sense of indefatigability and urgency across the team today. There is no plan B,” he says, attributing that attitude, at least in part, to the equity offered to all Partly employees.

“If everyone’s an owner, it means we’ll all be rewarded in the long run if we succeed.”

Another thing that Partly does is instil high trust in its workforce, removing hierarchy, Uffindell says. 

“We don’t have layers of management; we don’t even use the word managers at Partly. We also encourage very open, candid debate. It doesn’t matter if you’re an intern on your first day or you’re the CEO,” he says. 

“We treat people like adults. We give people a lot of freedom and responsibility. We remove processes and policies whenever possible because they typically frustrate smart people and slow you down.” 

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Responsible for operations, people and talent acquisition, Uffindell says that one thing he looks for in people is a “chip on the shoulder”. 

“This is an intrinsic motivation or reason to prove something to the world. You find that a lot of founders or early-stage employees feel like they’re not ever comfortable or satisfied; they didn’t stay in that five-year legal or consulting job, whatever it might be. [They’ve] got this inner ambition, point to prove, or just an insatiable curiosity to learn and solve problems.” 

Uffindell credits their “maniacal focus” on people to Partly’s success so far, plus a culture that optimises for impact and actively strips out unnecessary processes and rules.

“When you have an engineering-first culture and people who will immediately ask why and call bullshit, you don’t bring in new things unless you need them,” he says. 

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Partly’s scaling tips:

1. Spend a disproportionate amount of time understanding the market.
2. Parachute in your best people; don’t just hire in-market. If you can’t afford it, you’re not ready to scale. 
3. Write down as much as possible from day one.

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The Young Founders series is brought to you by Icehouse Ventures.