In this episode, hear how Digital freight startup Zeus Labs is aiming to transform transport management. We learn how they have been able to build a successful business working with some of the largest household names.
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Episode Transcript
Matthew Todd
Hi. My name is Matthew Todd, and welcome to Inside the ScaleUp. This is the podcast for founders, executives in tech, looking to make an impact and learn from their peers within the tech business, we lift the lid on tech businesses, interviewing leaders and following their journey from startup to scale up and beyond covering everything from developing product market fit, funding and fundraising models to value proposition structure and growth marketing. We learn from their journey so that you can understand how they really work, the failures, the successes, the lessons along the way, so that you can take their learnings and apply them within your own startup or scale up and join the ever growing list of high growth UK SaaS businesses. Hey, and welcome back to the podcast. Really pleased to be joined today by Alistair Lindsay from Zeus labs. Good afternoon. Great to have you here.
Alistair Lindsay
Thanks, Matt. Yeah, it’s great to be here. Thanks for having me.
Matthew Todd
No worries at all. And I’d like to kick things off as always by asking the guests just to do a very brief intro to themselves and the company they work for if that’s okay.
Alistair Lindsay
Yeah, no problem. I’m Alison Lindsey. So I’m, I’m the Chief Operating Officer here at Zeus labs. I’ve been with the business now approximately a year. I joined from Tesco. I was I was with Tesco for 12 years, a variety of roles were all always centered around Tesco’s global logistics products. My responsibility was ensuring Tesco was able to move the products that they source from different countries into the various markets, be it UK or Central Europe or Asia, using planes, trains, automobiles. Prior to that I was 11 half years with a Danish company called A. P. Moller – Maersk a big shipping business. So my 2024 years working career has always revolved around transport in some form or another. A little bit about its Zeus Labs. So we are we’re a startup business, we’re a digital freight platform was that means we we have essentially two products our core product the one that really started with is our marketplace platform where essentially connecting supply and demand. So demand from from shippers and connecting that with with the supply side i.e hauliers. That’s done through digital freight platform, Very Light Touch. That was our very, very first product. Then about a year ago, we launched. We started our SaaS product, which is essentially, the way we put it is taking all of that digital capability that that we use within Zeus within our marketplace platform, taking that and giving that power to our to our shippers so they can then use use that digital capability to be able to run their fleets to run their their road haulage network. So those are the two key products which essentially make up Zeus.
Matthew Todd
Sounds really interesting and look forward to digging into some of the detail about that. But first up, you’ve gone from to massive organizations for some pretty significant length of time into a startup. I’d love to hear what that transition was like and what some of those those motivations will be. I imagine it’s quite a shift.
Alistair Lindsay
Yeah, it is a question that I have been asked many times, actually, you’re absolutely right, to sort of behemoths of their respective industries. So yeah, firstly, very, very different. What inspired me to do it, I think there’s, there’s two things, it felt right, I was certainly inspired by the two founders, Jai and Clem, their motivation and their whole kind of vision for Zeus. That was, that was a big, big draw. Second to that, as well, was having having sort of worked within the transport industry for many, many years. What irked me was that adoption of technology, that was the speed of adoption of technology with the industry, I think lags behind many other industries. I think, you know, technology and digitalization, you know, can add massive amounts of benefit to any business in terms of efficiency. So, I thought well, rather than getting irked by it, I will join the revolution. So those are the two big draws for me one was the was Jai and Clem, the whole vision for Zeus and secondly was the again the opportunity to be part of and drive that change within the industry.
Matthew Todd
In terms of use them launching that first products. You mentioned that marketplace. How difficult was it to attract customers to it. With a marketplace, there’s always the question of well, which side of value building first, but especially with an industry that may not be so technologically empowered. How was that kind of foundational part of the journey?
Alistair Lindsay
I would say it’s just down to a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, you know, hard graft. Once you have your first first customer on board, then you’re able to, you know, you’re you’re able to give given us the supply side. So the hauliers, you know, that opportunity to then get involved, you know, that’s the absolute starting point is to have the demand, which you can then supply that was really, really key. Then from there, it becomes a two degrees network effect. That’s the key for any startup, you know, because you’re having to create awareness and that awareness is through doing the do. Our minimum viable product was launched back in August 2020. So, just over two years ago, and you’re absolutely right, kind of you’re launching something from from essentially nothing. I think Jai and Clem, they’re both both young founders. They saw very quickly the, the importance of recruiting in seasoned people, people who understood the industry, people who could could help upskill them and help them, you know, realize their vision. Before I joined was when we launched that that first product, and I know, having been told it was it was hard work, it was hard graft, you know, it’s, it’s everybody getting mucked in a lot of time on the phone, doing as much marketing online as possible, just to create some awareness. It’s an absolute credit to, to guys, those those who were there, right from the start, what they were able to do in terms of drumming up that activity, drumming up that business and developing it. What is a real credit to them is that the majority of those customers who started out in in August 2020 are still with us. You know, which, again, is a testament to the product and testament to the way we’ve been able to build and develop and enhance, as we as we’ve gone on. You know, that’s, that’s absolutely key to any business, but critical to a start up as well.
Matthew Todd
I can see from looking at the website and the case studies you’ve got some pretty big household names on there as clients as well.
Alistair Lindsay
That’s something I think we’re all incredibly proud of. And again, it’s not through any sense of luck, it’s absolutely truce with judgment and focus and we absolutely see the opportunity with with those larger businesses, because the potential for the potential for expansion and growth is obviously significantly higher than it is for for a smaller, smaller business. That was always something that was in the forefront of our mind. How do we how do we scale and grow? Naturally, there’s, there’s two ways of doing this, either through through just sheer volume and scale of number of clients or through having a lot of focus on the right clients will give you that opportunity to grow because one naturally has one has greater efficiency benefits than others, you notice it’s easier to to work with 100 clients than it is with 10,000 clients, for example, you know, in terms of managing the growth in a considered and careful way. That’s something we continue to focus on. Those household household names that we work with, you know, again, we’ve been able to grow and develop with those clients which, again, is is testament to our plan, but it’s also a testament to the product and the service delivery because with these clients, with any client, you have to earn their trust for them to grow with you.
Matthew Todd
That’s a really, really good point that I think a lot of people and founders are aware of, but probably don’t give the attention it deserves in that there’s a lot of ways to get to a particular goal, whether it’s a financial goal or say or something else, but it is, as you say, it’s a lot of smaller companies or it’s a smaller number of higher value ones, and the proposition is going to be quite different. And the efficiencies will be quite different. But I speak to too many kind of founding teams that aim to start small and then grow into those bigger customers. But I think the proposition, the value proposition to those different very, very different types of customers is entirely different. I think if you start off building small than you do end up with a product that is really only suitable for those smaller customers.
Alistair Lindsay
One of the things we’ve seen, over the last year through growing and developing with with these various customers is you get to really understand what’s really important, what’s really important to them. In the transport market, delivering certainty or as close to certainty as possible is, I think that’s the key. So that’s something we always strive for. Then that opens up new opportunities, and something where we’re working with a number of clients now as on how we can help really, really help their sustainability plan. And really help deliver on their sustainability targets, you know, this year, and in 10 years and 20 years and so on and so forth. Again, that’s something that’s allowed us to to, I think, develop ourselves in terms of the product that we can offer in that proposition to clients, which I think, you know, the world we’re in it’s a growing a growing concern, and that’s something that we can we can develop and help with, then I think, that’s, that’s something we can we can be proud of, and continue to develop as well.
Matthew Todd
How much of that roadmap is, is customer driven? You know, are you starting out with a clear idea of, you know, from technology and service perspective, exactly what the vision is, and what you’re trying to create? Or is there a lot of iteration and feedback from the types of clients that you work with it, you, you kind of work into the product as you go?
Alistair Lindsay
What’s clear is our vision is about sustainability. It’s about creating a single technological standard which delivers on true sustainable transport.
Alistair Lindsay
At the core of it, you know, we’re clear from Zeus in terms of, you know, what we want to be, and we are, we are a technology business. First and foremost, we’re a technology business, which is, is servicing the transport industry. But on top of that, and what’s clear is our vision is about sustainability. It’s about creating a single technical, technological standard, which delivers on true sustainable transport. So it’s a big proposition. But it’s our vision, and it’s something we aspire to, and we will continue to make strides towards that. How we then get there – using technology digitalization. Again, that links back to our two products are our marketplace platform and then our SaaS product. By continually developing both of those products then also from a sustainability perspective, how can we, how can we help better decision making from a sustainability perspective to ensure that actually, our customers are executing their transport moves with Zeus from a marketplace perspective, or across their wider network with our SaaS product. That’s really key. I think what’s quite apparent is if you go back three, four years, sustainability, of course, was on the agenda, it’s been there some time. If you hit troubled economic times where, you know, like now where inflation is skyrocketing, it’s very tough economic conditions. If you hit those four or five years ago, then would sustainability still remain at the top of the agenda? Or will it start to drift down because then the focus really comes on that kind of the bottom line? It’s really hard now with serving the the kind of the economic situation situation in the UK and globally. We’re in at the moment, what we’ve seen is sustainability is still right up there, which I think is fantastic. Which is great for us because that really runs through to our vision, so I think it’s a bit of a, a way of being able to check in and say, yeah, we got our vision right, we’re doing the right thing for sure.
Matthew Todd
So are you helping those companies track their sustainability footprint and are there kind of metrics on the goals that they are setting? Or, potentially being forced to set for themselves as well?
Alistair Lindsay
Across all these big businesses, they have their they have their their targets, which are set out that they come on top of the corporate level, and then that will obviously will filter down to the various divisions across that business, depending on what industry they’re in. What we’re able to do, we’re bringing to these customers, new products, which allows them to run their transport to physically deliver transport in a much more lower co2, so far more sustainable, far more effective manner, which is then backed by true measurement. Another thing is that the measurement of is critical. Again, that’s something which I think is, is cool core to that product is, is the measurement that you mentioned there as being able to track and measure in a way, which is autoable as well and can be stood over with the highest confidence.
Matthew Todd
I see that makes a lot of sense. In terms of the SaaS product on that value proposition then what does that look like? Is it mainly operational efficiencies? Is it unlocking new capabilities they didn’t have before?
Alistair Lindsay
The SaaS product is essentially, if you look at if you were to take a, a traditional kind of transport operation, there is still a, there’s still an over reliance on manual ways of working right. There are, of course, there are tools, there’s a degree of digitization, but the reality of it is the industry is still overly reliant on lots of spreadsheets, the industry is overly reliant on a lot of kind of check the check a lot of data checks to kind of think when when working with with operations in that way there is there is a high risk of error, and that can create all sorts of problems. You know, up the chain down the chain. It’s no secret that digitization helps to take a lot of that risk of error away, it makes the efficiency of the workflow much improved, which then gives you the opportunity and the space to be able to layer on top of that real value added products, whether that be the environmental piece, whether that be just improved and faster ways of being able to execute, but at the same time getting really good data back, really good insight. Tthat’s something which is critical. I know this from my previous experience to Zeus is, you know, if you haven’t gotten good data integrity, then it becomes very, very difficult to make the right decisions at the right time. That’s one of the things digitization, the automation that technology brings is, is much improved data quality, much improved insight, which actually, you know, then then kind of turns it turns a dial a little bit from being really reactive to being far more proactive, which, you know, is really important within within the transport industry where things happen, which are, are not you can’t plan them and they come from left field, but how you react to fix those as mitigate those those issues is really, really key.
That’s one thing which has been a really key element for us being able to deliver that service excellence. I go on about that. I will because it’s something where we’re super proud of is being able to deliver, you know, brilliantly every day, you know, that certainty is so key. One of the reasons we’re able to do that, not just the focus and the enthusiasm of the Zeus team but it’s about the the digital products that we work with and allowing our customers to work those products as well.
Matthew Todd
Yeah, absolutely. I can see how that digitalization certainly does improve that decision making capability because of that quality of data and I think what something that many people have seen you know, since 2020, that may have been completely invisible to them before, it is that complexity of supply chains and supply chains breaking down and, you know, months and months of delays ofall sorts of types of products because of those issues that have been going on.
Alistair Lindsay
You’ve hit the nail on the head, there is a buzzword that kind of gets bandied around across the industry, you know, supply chain resilience has been one of those things, which has been talked about, many, many times since, since the pandemic, and but it’s absolutely right, I think, you know, I was sort of I was at the coalface I was at work were with Tesco when when the pandemic hit, and, you know, there were, there were issues which you couldn’t have foreseen. But then being able to work through those those issues in a really structured, and also kind of fast way was, was definitely hindered by a lack of product B, lack of when I say price, me digital products, but also just lack of visibility and good data. I think that’s probably one of the positives that’s come out of the pandemic, if there are. I think, people working in supply chain have seen the importance of supply chain resilience, you know, and, and it’s also a broad, kind of, I suppose, supply chain activity, transport logistics, all these kinds of things. I think it’s raised its profile, you know, in many, many businesses, it’s, it’s a very, very vital piece in the success of the business, you know, if you can’t move your products, then you got nothing to sell.
Matthew Todd
A supply chain sounds like a very complex thing with lots of moving past lots of different people types of organizations involved in that process in terms of tackling a problem, which sounds is as big as digitizing that kind of industry, what are the challenges then that you face when onboarding new customers and clients to your platform?
Alistair Lindsay
That’s a good question. I think the digital technology is still relatively nascent. One thing I’ve wanted to be clear on, I’m definitely not saying that the industry has no technology. That’s definitely not the case. But it is it is relatively early days, when you compare it against other industries. Now, other industries have deployed technology to do certain tasks. That is often the biggest challenge is, is getting people to change their ways. That’s just that’s human nature, to a degree. I think it’s the trust as well, it’s people trusting the technology, because it’s quite a, it’s quite far removed from the manual ways of working. So it’s it is it is getting people to trust the technology, right? What what we find is, with customers, we regularly run a pilot, so new customer will run a pilot for for a number of weeks and depending on the results of that pilot, then that results in either no business or interaction committed business. Our conversion from pilot to contract is super, super high. Again, because it’s people understanding the technology and understanding the benefit, it creates improved visibility and improved certainty, actually freeing up headroom and time to be able to again, go and concentrate efforts and focus efforts on other areas of their business, which should have been left maybe on love for some time. That realisation, that comes pretty quick. That’s not something which takes months or years. I think it’s something which, you know, when the proof is in the pudding.
Matthew Todd
Yeah, absolutely. I think so many people don’t fully realize and appreciate the impacts that can have when you really get that products, that first product experience, right, that it can add value that early on. For a product of any complexity, and especially in the b2b space, I think a pilot can be such a good way to demonstrate that value and build trust and show the capability as well as be a bit of a forcing function to ensure that all the people that need to be involved in that process do actually come together as well.
Alistair Lindsay
You made a comment there about complex supply chains. And yeah, it absolutely is, you know, there is there is enormous complexity of moving product from A to B to C, regardless of whether it be domestically or internationally. But that’s really, really key because it is a, it is a complex, sophisticated sort of industry. But being able to translate that into a product, which is simple and easy to understand and most importantly, intuitive, I think, is critical as well. It’s really, really easy to be complex, but it’s very, very difficult to be simple. I think that’s absolutely 100% correct. So that’s something we’re working on from a from a UX perspective is, how do we give the the easiest and the simplest product for our customers to work with. I mean, both the shipper side, the demand side, also the supply side to our haulier partners as well.
Matthew Todd
There’s so much to be said for knowing that audience incredibly well, and building as you say, that simple experience for them, which may not be easy to build, but from their perspective, it should be very simple to use. So turning the focus internally a little bit, then as Chief Operating Officer, what are some of the scaling challenges you’ve seen, and ensuring that that quality of product is delivered?
Alistair Lindsay
We’re a young business. So in terms of, you know, number, number of employees, we’re not a Tesco. So we don’t have a bulging workforce, I think getting putting together the right team is really, really key, you know, so, you know, how we resource we recruit is, is really, really critical. We’ve, you know, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve grown quickly, and so the numbers of people in the business in our business, and Zeus is growing quickly, as well. And with that comes the, I suppose, the added complexities because you have to take time match and recruit the right people in terms of selection interviews, and so forth, extend the training off of individuals, and, and, and that all takes time, and that sort of a time away should say from the day to day they do you know, so. So it’s hard, that’s always hard balancing that, but then, you know, recruiting the right people is getting that blend of, of industry experience, technology savvy, you know, we’ve we’ve been, we’ve been quite quite focused, laser like, focused in ensuring we, we, we get that as well, we recruit the right people in the right, the right roles, because you’ve got different different teams across the business and all requiring a slightly different set of skills. But what’s important is that everybody is tech savvy, and, and are, you know, acutely aware that coming into a tech business, you know, let’s say we’re not in logistics business, but a tech business. The two are quite different. So that’s that’s been one of the areas we’ve had to focus on as we grow. And that’s something which, you know, I’ve been been involved in quite focused on to make sure that we’re, again, we’re growing at the right pace. We’re not, we’re not growing from a workforce perspective too quickly. You know, at the same time, we’re not, we’re not growing too slowly, where actually, there simply isn’t enough people to do the to do to do the work or the too much work. Yeah. So that’s, that’s, that’s one of the challenges. Then, you know, I think monitoring and being able to say pivots or be quite agile in terms of how we, how we maneuver through the through the year and through through the industry. So the trials and tribulations, you know, we’ve, we, we moved down into Europe, we opened up our European operations back end of July, so early August, and that was earlier than we had initially planned. But the reason for that was was again, being customer LED. That’s where we were being being requested to, to support and help in in certain lanes across Europe. So so we were able to be in a small and agile business, we will be able were able to advance what was in the plan in advance that five months earlier than originally planned and, and that’s that’s proved to be really, really successful, and absolutely the right move. And I think, again, that’s the luxury of being a In a small, but nimble and agile business, because you can take advantage of, of opportunities, you know compares us, obviously, the is the stock opposite with with Tesco, for example, being such a massive organization it was as I stood by steering a tanker. And as I think Tesco they move, move quick. But you know, in real terms, it’s not quick because they are having to, you know, they’re having to move 1000s and 1000s of people into a certain direction. So, yeah, so that’s been, again, something which has been really, really important for us is making sure we’re taking advantage of the right opportunities at the right time. And also ensuring that we’re staying within that mission and the vision and we’re not veering outside of that goal, but staying true to where where we want to go.
Matthew Todd
Yeah, I see a nice a lot of sense. So your kind of customer led approach, then is you’re not kind of seeking complete global dominance from day one, but you are very much moving into the locations that your your customers are operating in and letting them drive that geographic expansion. Absolutely.
Alistair Lindsay
Again, you know, kind of, sort of quick to add on that as well, that has to be the right, the right opportunities for us. So it’s still about we just take anything that’s going is making sure we’re doing the right considered considered way to ensure again, we’re staying true to what we want to do and how to do it. That’s really, really key.
Matthew Todd
How intuitive is that? Because, for me, that’s certainly a principle that I advise many startups and scaleups on is that importance of knowing exactly what that mission vision are, and who your ideal customer and audience are, and making sure that you genuinely are serving them and staying true to that. I think many people can get distracted by other shiny opportunities that can often end up watering down that process. So I’m kind of interested to hear from your perspective. If you can share some kind of perspective of the rest of the team as well, you know, how intuitive is that? Has it been hard work to make sure that you do stay on track?
Alistair Lindsay
It’s always something we have to stay stay focused on. Because, you know, when you when you look at an operations team, the operations team who are executing, and then you have a sales team and commercial team who are going out and, and pulling in that demand, and you’ve got one which is essentially executing the supply, then the sales, sales, by their very nature, aren’t keen and ambitious to, to go and grow and grow and grow. There always has to be that balancing act to ensure that our, our growth is balanced with what we can do. The last thing we need to do is go and over promise and under deliver, right, but that’s really, really important. Because that can that can end up very, very bad, right? The outcome of that can be can be really, really bad. So, so for us is again, I go back to that being a being a small team, we’re a tight team as well. So ensuring communication is, is it’s clear, and it’s got the right cadence. So we’re discussing the right opportunities at the right time. And we’re we’re putting over that the, the right lens, to ensure that we’re not going off on a tangent, which is taking us down somewhere, which is miles away from where we were originally wanted to be that that’s really, really important. I don’t want to sound cliche, but communication is really, really key. I’ve been quite keen and quite obsessed with that we communicate well across the business in terms of business performance in terms of business direction, how we how we do that, and when we when we do that is really key and so far, it’s proved to be successful. We’ve continued to grow at a really, really good pace, but growing in the right direction with the right customers, and also the right supply haulier partners as well.
Matthew Todd
It sounds like you are and have to be very strategic that in terms of how you lay out that roadmap for for what you are trying to achieve and the direction that you’re heading and it certainly sounds like it’s very well thought out considered and deliberate in terms of that plan for growth and expansion.
Alistair Lindsay
It’s really important as well that we check in. So we don’t. So our we have our vision and our mission, the plan behind that. So the how we do that, we, you know, it’s important as a leadership team as well, we’re checking in on that. And we’re kind of validating that it’s still writing, we’re validating whether there are other opportunities to just sort of tweak, tweak the tiller, if you like, just push the tiller if we need to. That’s really, really, really key. With any with any business, whether it be a startup or a well established corporate business, you know, you have to, if everybody knew what the future held, then it would be really, really easy. Sadly, we don’t. So you have to place your bets on in the right areas. There’s always an element of doing that, but placing your bets with thee in a really informed way. So using data using insight, all of that data we have available, all of that insight we have, then we can be competent in actually taking that decision is the right decision, because we’ve made that decision mass through gut feel. They’ll always be an element of gut feel. But as long as you’ve got it backed with some good, you know, good, good data and good insight, then then you can go forward with a great deal of competence. Yeah,
Matthew Todd
So certainly very data driven, both in terms of what you deliver to your your customers and clients, but also, internally very much driven by that as well, then,
Alistair Lindsay
Yes. 100%.
Matthew Todd
In terms of takings Zeus from where it is now , what are the next 12 months look like for the business?
Alistair Lindsay
Without revealing all of our secrets, the next year, next 12 months, we’ll definitely be further growth in Europe, we see Europe, mainland Europe as a, as it’s a massive opportunity, it’s an enormous market. But we’re ready to go into Europe, I think with what we feel is a unique product in the sense of our green products. That’s where we were able to utilize more different modes of transport to deliver to deliver a really green solution, but again, backed up and enveloped with good data, good reporting. So again, giving that confidence, particularly to those clients that we work with. So they’re able to, they’re able to use that in all of their their own internal reporting and drive towards their own internal targets. So for us the green agenda, the sustainability drive, we’re going to double down on that in 2023. With with greater expansion into into Europe. At the same time, we will be growing our SaaS product. So we will be launching with one one client via our SaaS solution, that will be go live early 2023. Then we anticipate them landing more SaaS opportunities throughout 2023. There marketplace and the SaaS side will grow.
Matthew Todd
In terms of advice to any other execs working within similar b2b startups, scale ups, you know, certainly serving those bigger customers or perhaps trying to plan out a strategy work out what type of customers they should be going out to is there any kind of advice that you’d give them based on your your startup experience so far?
Alistair Lindsay
My advice to any other COOs, CEOs is listen to all elements of the business, because all of them have brilliant insight, a brilliant understanding of each of their areas of business and collectively, that allows the best plan, the best strategy, the best products to be built.
Alistair Lindsay
If I look back on my last my last 10 months, 11 months with Zeus listening has been really important because we’re fortunate have some some brilliant people within the business on the tech side on the sell side, on the operation side, finance side. Every single element is really key to the successful delivery of the business. So my advice to any other COOs, CEOs is listen to all elements of the business, because all of them have brilliant insight, a brilliant understanding of each of their areas of business and collectively, that allows the best plan, the best strategy, the best products to be built. I never came into the business thinking I knew everything because I know I didn’t know everything and respecting and appreciating that expertise across the business is absolutely paramount. Then second to that is have a vision, have that direction and stay true to it. As long as you don’t veer off and completely miss the target, or you you go so far away from the target, it takes a mammoth effort to get back, I think that’s really, really key. You can veer away now and again, but as long as you’re pushing in the right direction and not losing sight of your Northstar, I think that’s really, really key as well. Because if that vision is right, then that’s half the battle won.
Matthew Todd
For founders, for anyone in that exec team, that vision and alignment and agreement on that vision is so important. Many of the ways that you’ve described, you know, the planning activity, the scaling and the value that you deliver, and some of the things that you’ve done to ensure you stay true to that vision, I think is really good advice worth following because there’s so much power in sticking to that not just in the ability to acquire the right kind of customers, but the ability to deliver the most value for the most one.
Alistair Lindsay
It kind of goes without saying as well, when we’re working in the middle of the equation, you’ve got the supply and the demand side, right. So the customers are as equally as important as our hauilers, right. Delivering brilliant service to our customers is absolutely key. They’re at the heart of everything we do. But ensuring that we’re giving that same degree of kind of love care and attention to our hauliers and making sure our hauliers, feel valued, feel love, feel that they’re in a, an equitable relationship as well, is really key and where they can see there’s opportunity for them to be part of that journey. That’s super, super important. And as long as and again, I think we have that that balance really, really right within Zeus, in the sense that focus, that kind of obsessional delivering brilliantly, and you can only do that by working with brilliant, hauliers, brilliant partners. And I think we’ve got that that balance right.
Matthew Todd
Now, it’s really interesting, because I think many businesses trying to create a marketplace, like platform where you’ve got those two sides of the equation, you know, there are different ways you can and different factors that go into deciding your which side of that marketplace you need to focus on at any one time. But you see, somewhere, it’s clear that one side of that equation gets a lot more care and attention than the other, maybe because that’s where they see the money as coming from but I think you’re right, it is so important to make sure that you don’t under deliver to one half of that, that marketplace.
Alistair Lindsay
I think a key differentiator as well is service level and delivering very, very high levels of service.
Matthew Todd
There’s so much to be said for the importance of making sure that that whole customer experience is of a high quality not only up until the point may be a customer but you know, throughout the onboarding, but also extending to every interaction they have with the product beyond that, because you want to keep them as a loyal customer, but you want them to love the product and there’s always new opportunities that open up because of that. Really really good advice for for anyone in our audience to listen to. So thank you very, very much for sharing those points, those lessons and the story of Zeus so far, and I certainly you know, wish you all the best of luck in terms of that expansion and that continuation of that sustainability piece as well.
Alistair Lindsay
Thank you, Matt. It’s been a it’s been a pleasure. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.
Matthew Todd
Thank you for joining me on this episode of Inside the ScaleUp. Remember for the show notes and in depth resources from today’s guest. You can find these on the website insidethescaleup.com. You can also leave feedback on today’s episode, as well as suggest guests and companies you’d like to hear from. Thank you for listening.