Scott Hinton
For me, I think the biggest mistake that an entrepreneur can make, and the thing that really separates those that thrive and those that don’t, is knowing that you can’t do everything
Meet Gren Paull – an experienced operational leader who has spent his career building fast-growing businesses. An individual who recognizes the value of the teams, he is relentless in his pursuit of a good return for his customers, staff, and shareholders.
As a director with P&L visibility at Affinion International, he oversaw a 6x+ increase in revenues, and served as Group Sales & Operations Director at SaaS startup RMI, taking the company from startup to multi-million in revenue.
As COO at IPG Global, Gren prepped the company for sale before joining the boutique management consulting firm, Shine, as COO and restructuring it for future growth.
Gren is well known in the investment community for his successes and his ability to deliver a return on investment, and is passionate about building healthy businesses that endure, and is pleased that Lilli offers such an incredible opportunity to build a truly global company that can make a real difference in the world.
Tell us a little bit about your current projects. What exciting milestone would you like to share with our readers? (Don’t hesitate to delve into your achievements, they will inspire the audience)
Gren Paull: Now is a really exciting time at Lilli as we have lots of great things that are going on. We have four new clients who are due to go live soon, and we are now an approved supplier to Her Majesty’s Government as well, which is something we are really proud to have achieved, particularly given we have not been around long. We have also just been granted our first patent, which is a real testament to Lilli’s incredible innovation credentials. Another key milestone for us was the recent pre-Series A funding round, for which we were 50% oversubscribed. It’s clear that Lilli is heading on the right track, and that the work we do here matters, with the oversubscription showing that we aren’t the only ones who think so. As part of our global growth plans, we are due to launch in Denmark, Norway, Australia, and Canada, and I’m excited to take Lilli’s technology worldwide.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
Gren Paull: There is someone who has had a large impact on helping me get to where I am now, and that is Lord Victor Adebowale. He was the chairman of a company that I worked with when I was the COO, and I had the belief that it was my job to fix the problems. But what Lord Victor instilled in me was that it wasn’t just my job to solve the problem, but rather that it was my job to determine how our team could solve the problem instead. He taught me that it was about working with other people to find the best fix rather than thinking that it was something I had to conquer on my own, and that is a life lesson that has influenced the way that I have been doing business throughout my career since then. I learned from him that I can solve bigger problems, quicker and with less stress by working with the people around me, and that is a lesson that I now try and teach to every colleague that I work with.
What are the most common mistakes you see entrepreneurs make and what would you suggest they do?
Gren Paull: Over the past years, I’ve been very fortunate to work with some phenomenally successful entrepreneurs and some that haven’t been as successful. For me, I think the biggest mistake that an entrepreneur can make, and the thing that really separates those that thrive and those that don’t, is knowing that you can’t do everything. Even the most intelligent, competent, and skilled entrepreneurs can’t do everything on their own, and those that accept that and learn to trust and rely on the knowledge of the skilled team they have around them, are the ones that continued to go from strength to strength.
Resilience is critical in critical times like the ones we are going through now. How would you define resilience?
Gren Paull: My definition of resilience is not taking things personally. In the world of business, things do inevitably go wrong, and you will find yourself coming up against different challenges, whether that be financial, staffing, or something different altogether. However, resilience comes from being able to rise up against the challenges and face them head-on, without taking them as a personal attack on you.
In your opinion, what makes your company stand out from the competition?
Gren Paull: For me, it is 100% the team. The talent we have at Lilli is incredible and that is highlighted by the great products that we create and the culture we instill here. Instead of having a team that gets the ‘Sunday night blues’, I receive texts and emails on a Sunday evening from colleagues who are so passionate about their work that they couldn’t wait until the next day to tell me about a new idea they had or a new initiative that they want to pursue. It is the enthusiasm I have from the team that allows us to continue to innovate, and that is reflected in the great work that we do here. At Lilli, we have truly understood what the problem is that we are trying to solve, and by focusing on that, we have been able to create the technology that is going to help – something that a lot of our competitors haven’t quite done yet.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success?
Gren Paull: Being curious, being humble, and being confident enough to ask the question when I’m not sure about the answer.
Being a CEO of the company, do you think that your personal brand reflects your company’s values?
Gren Paull: Yes. When I made the decision to join Lilli, a large part of that choice was that I wanted my two children to be proud of the work that I do. This parallels really nicely with the fact that as the CEO, I want our team at Lilli to be proud of the work that they do. I am proud of the team, the culture we have created, the sector that we are in, the product that we have developed, and the people we are impacting, and I think the rest of the team at Lilli also shares that pride too.
How would you define “leadership”?
Gren Paull: It’s a tricky one, but I would define leadership as trust and respect. Everyone that works for us at Lilli has my trust and respect from the outset, and the onus is then on them to maintain that trust and respect. On the flip side of that, as a leader, I will do everything that I can in order to ensure that my entire company trusts and respects me too because that is the kind of environment that I would like to be the leader of.
What advice would you give to our younger readers that want to become entrepreneurs?
Gren Paull: That is a difficult question to answer because for a lot of people, being an entrepreneur means different things. One thing that I have noticed in my time is that true entrepreneurs don’t label themselves as one. Being an entrepreneur is a title that other people give to you and a by-product of what you have done, not something that you should attribute to yourself. With that in mind, and for any young people looking to earn that title, my advice would be to focus more on building the smallest, viable business. By doing this, and by finding a way to solve that one problem for just one customer, you’ll find that you become an entrepreneur without even realizing it’s happening.
What’s your favorite “business” quote and how has it affected your business decisions?
Gren Paull: I like Richard Branson’s “train people well enough so they can leave and treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
This is something that encompasses everything that I believe and directly influences the decisions I make for, and about the people within my business.
This interview was originally published on ValiantCEO.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings