April 3, 2020

080: Money Talks #10: Your Pursuit of Happiness While the World’s on Fire

080: Money Talks #10:  Your Pursuit of Happiness While the World’s on Fire

In another crossover episode, this time with Your Pursuit of Happiness, Paul Smyth and Pete Townsend talk through how to keep things running in your work life and your home life, two things that have become one since the world caught fire. They dig into VC funding, hiring, startup decisions, transformational projects and more....with a guest appearance in the intro from Pete's kids!

This episode is kindly sponsored by Ireland’s fintech and financial services recruitment specialists, Top Tier Recruitment.  If you would like an intro to the team at Top Tier Recruitment, please click here.

This week we’ve produced another Money Talks segment with friend of the show and sponsor Paul Smyth from Top Tier Recruitment and Possible.ie.  We’re looking at the right here, right now this week with the world on fire with coronavirus and how that’s impacting business across startups, VCs, funding, hiring, coaching, corporates and new ideas.  This episode is also featured on Top Tier Recruitment’s podcast, Your Pursuit of Happiness, so check that out on your favourite podcast platform as well, loads of great insights from that crew.  In this episode, we get into:
 

  • As a startup, focusing your efforts on what people are willing to pay for - what's your niche - what can you do in the short term to generate revenue that businesses and consumers need right now?
  • The impact of downtime, and being in a position to help - if you look back in ten years and knew you were in a position to help but decided not to for some reason, how would you feel?
  • How Possible.ie are offering that help with free 90-minute coaching sessions:  https://www.possible.ie/covid
  • Corporate & Social Responsibility as a draw for prospective employees - what's been your community response during all of this and how the actions you take now can define how you're perceived as a business for the long run?
  • Managing remote teams when you’ve never done that before and the impact on your own management style. What can you do now with the tools you have available to react and stay afloat?
  • How do you cope as a leader with that pressure coming down on you now?  Take it and channel it and run with it and do what you can with it, or do you pass it on in a negative way to your teams?
  • Focusing on a 100% virtual sales process - witnessing a startup shifting from enterprise sales to a true SaaS online-only sales model in 2 weeks
  • The importance of human contact and making connections and turning the Zoom camera on (tastefully!)
  • How what we're all going through right now will encourage more of the mindset of "bringing your whole self to work", being yourself and being authentic.
  • Approaches by VCs to reassess their funding position, and how the money behind the money impacts how VCs are considering or re-considering their investments in startups.
  • The different ways that corporates are handling hiring right now, and the thought of your first day of work with a new company being from home.
  • What to read (from Pete):  What You Do is Who You Are by Ben Horowitz
  • What to read (from Paul):  The Choice by Edith Eger

To listen to more, please visit https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ for all of our other episodes.  Also, follow us on Twitter @MNSShow for updates and more information.

Paul SmythProfile Photo

Paul Smyth

Co-Founder, Top Tier Recruitment and Possible.ie