Startup Life: Unscripted #26 with Beth Carter, Head of Growth at Flexa

Startup Life: Unscripted is a TNG Media newsletter, as part of The Nudge Group, where we feature candid conversations with startup operators about their career journeys and experiences. If you received this email as a forward, you can read all our past interviews and subscribe right here.

Welcome back to Startup Life: Unscripted! Today, we're chatting with Beth Carter, the go-getter Head of Growth at Flexa. Beth's had quite the ride, starting in content marketing and zooming her way up to leading growth strategies.

Beth spills the beans about her customer-centric growth strategies and how her role at Flexa is all about shaping the future of work. She’s also juggling being an angel investor, rooting for underrepresented founders, and she's got some great insights on that.

Key interview takeaways:

🌟 From Content to Growth Leadership: Beth shares how her background in content marketing laid the foundation for her leap into leading growth at Flexa.

🔍 Customer-Centric Growth Tactics: Unveiling the importance of a customer-led approach in driving startup success.

💼 Merging Investing with Operations: Beth discusses how her role as an angel investor enhances her strategic perspective at Flexa.

📈 Navigating Startup Challenges: Insights into balancing strategy and agility in a fast-growing startup environment.

🧠 Essential Startup Wisdom: Beth's top advice for those eager to carve their path in the startup world, alongside her recommended resources for ongoing learning.

Hey Beth, great to have you join us today! Your journey to becoming Head of Growth at Flexa is quite interesting, especially with your background in content marketing. Can you tell us how this path unfolded for you?

Starting out in content marketing was actually great training for a Growth role because in content we are answering people's questions to move them through the funnel. It's so centred on the customer — what they want, what they need, what they are blocked by — that it was easy to expand that thinking out to encompass everything else in Growth. 

Ending up at Flexa was a twisty road too though, I have known the founders Molly, Maurice, and Tim for a long time, and Flexa was the first ever angel investment I made! I was helping them to find a Head of Growth, and after a couple of months Molly asked if I'd consider doing it myself — so I ultimately moved from being a friend, onto the cap table, and now into the team! 

You're all about a customer-led approach to growth, spanning the whole funnel. How does this strategy actually play out in a high-energy startup environment?

You can't not take a customer-led approach to growth. People debate about whether their company is sales-led, product-led, marketing-led — but it has to be customer led. In the metrics you track, and the customer interviews you run, your customers are telling you where they are stuck and what's stopping them moving forwards with your product — listen to them. 

As the Head of Growth, you're driving how teams can strategically impact a business. Can you peel back the layers of this approach and how it gets woven into the startup fabric?

Who you hire is one of the most important, strategic decisions you make in any business. But it has a massively outsized impact in small teams. At the end of the day, a business is a group of people working on the same project. Who those people are, what skills they bring, and whether they are aligned with your culture is critical to your growth as a business. 

The future of work is flexible. What does that mean for you personally, and how does it shape your work at Flexa?

We've only seen the beginning of the future of work. Over the next few years companies and employees will have to adapt to new technology, like AI and AGI, and this will continue to reshape the relationship we have with work.

Companies who are embracing flexibility are getting out ahead of these changes and already are gaining an advantage in attracting and accessing people who care about how they work, as well as what they do. 

And it doesn't have to be scary! There's a version of flexibility that works for every business and everyone. It's all about finding where you belong — both from a technical fit, and in terms of the way you want to balance or blend your work and life.

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You're not only leading growth at Flexa but also investing in underrepresented founders as an angel investor and scout for Ada Ventures. How did you transition into the investment world, and how does this role intertwine with your current position?

I'm a pretty new angel investor! I've made two personal investments so far — Flexa, and Odin — and now am an Ada Ventures Angel which means I'm working alongside Ada Ventures to find and invest in founders building in the climate, health and ageing space. I'm particularly keen to invest in women, and founders who have a background in growth or product. 

I started investing because I wanted to understand how everything worked from the other side. Having worked in startups my whole life fundraising is a standard part of that journey, but seeing it from the side of investors has given me a new perspective on startups and how they grow. My work at Flexa makes me a better angel investor, and my angel investing makes me a better Head of Growth. 

Could you share more about your role as a Growth Coach at SYSTM? How have the experiences and challenges you faced in startups helped you guide other teams?

Coaching is super rewarding to me. I get to learn so much from every single team I interact with and feel really honoured that the founders put their trust into me and the rest of the SYSTM team to help guide them through implementing a growth process — it's certainly not an easy thing to do! 

Seeing such a variety of team dynamics, growth models, challenges and successes means I have this depth of experience to pull from in my work at Flexa, and also as an investor. I've seen more than my fair share of startups which helps me to sense check my own next steps. 

The startup world can often feel intense and fast-paced. How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance while juggling your roles at Flexa, Ada Ventures, and SYSTM?

It is fast paced, and I think that's something you're looking for if you enter into this world. Flexa is brilliant because we operate entirely from an output based culture. We don't measure the time you spend sitting at your desk, we measure the amount of impact you have on the business.

This, combined with the flexibility of Flexa's core hours and remote-first set up allows me to get everything ticked off my to-do list whilst also being able to finish early on a Friday to get in a round of golf. 

I think more about work-life blend than work-life balance, because blend is what works for me. That might mean that I work in the morning on the weekend, but it might also mean that I'll meet a friend for a 4pm drink on a Wednesday.

Let's say someone is chomping at the bit to break into the startup world, particularly in growth and marketing. What nuggets of advice would you share with them?

Learn as much as you can, and optimise for that over everything else — to the extent that you can. Try to see as much of the business as possible, and say yes to getting involved with anything that falls outside of your usual remit. You'll learn so much from helping to onboard a customer, run an event, or by manning live chat for an afternoon. 

Last question before we wrap up, have you come across any particular books, podcasts, or other resources that you found invaluable in your startup journey and that you would recommend to our readers?

Matt Lerner's newsletter is brilliant. Lenny's newsletter and podcast is fantastic. And I really rate Josh Lachkovic's newsletter. And of course, come follow me on LinkedIn!

From the Startup Life team

And that's a wrap! We hope you've enjoyed this edition as much as we loved putting it together. Stay curious, keep learning, and above all, enjoy the rollercoaster ride that is Startup Life. Catch you in the next one! 👋 Not subscribed yet? Do it here and don't miss out! Subscribe Now.

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