The Greenhouse team
Starting out in 2018 as a coworking space operator, Singapore-based Greenhouse has gone through changes in the different stages of its journey as a startup.
A year after its debut as a coworking space in Jakarta, after winning several awards and becoming home to high-growth companies in the region, the company noticed a new opportunity that led to its pivot. Its clients who were entering the Indonesian market from abroad often struggled to source service providers to help them launch, operate, and commercialise their business in the country.
This led the company to become a business matchmaker for entrepreneurs, startups, and SMBs with service providers to help them scale. They started to qualify and contract service providers into their network, and launched the first version of the Greenhouse Marketplace in December 2019.
This year, the company introduced the latest addition to its business line: Revenew.
Revenew is a curated marketplace that offers startups a platform to source and hire outbound sales agencies to grow leads and revenues in new markets. The platform operates on a margin-based business where Greenhouse gains a commission for each deal that the suppliers close from the network.
As COVID-19 forced businesses to digitise operations, yet expanding into new markets as quickly as possible, Greenhouse builds the platform to help businesses to achieve that goal.
“We launched with 40 suppliers across 31 countries [by early September], now have more than 65 suppliers across more than 40 countries. We have helped at least 200 startups expand internationally, since starting this venture. Our ambition is to service 300 by EoY, and close with more than 100 suppliers across 50 countries,” explains Drew Calin, CEO at Greenhouse.
Connecting to the future
Throughout its short journey, Greenhouse has gone through changes from a pivot, layoff, restructuring, and two fundraises. The company, which was named in the e27 Luminaries list earlier this year for surviving the challenges of the time, is currently at a stage where they aim to become a platform that helps businesses scale through a curated marketplace of go-to-market (GTM) services).
“Our plan is to become the Business Services version of UpWork, through the marketplace and SaaS solutions,” Calin writes in an email interview with e27.
“With the limitations of COVID-19, travel is harder than ever but scaling businesses still require access to new markets. Revenew is our solution to help founders grow leads and revenue in new markets, remotely. In all likelihood, Greenhouse services (corporate services) will roll into Revenew.ai in time, and the entire platform will become a GTM marketplace, offering startups access to business development, corporate, operational, and growth services – covering every stage of growth for every startup,” he further explains.
After undergoing this process, there are several lessons that Calin can share as a founder.
The first part is related to building a team that is resilient enough to go through challenges. Apart from living the philosophy of running the company as a team –instead of a family– Calin also believes in the philosophy of hire slow and fire fast, a principle that is commonly implemented in the business world.
“Over hiring may feel great at the time, but it will kill your business,” he says. “Better to pay well for one great hire, than three or four mediocre ones.”
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This careful and value-oriented approach is also implemented in the company’s fundraising process, where Calin puts emphasis on raising capital only from “investors who can offer value beyond the monetary sense.”
Another lesson that the company has learned is related to the process of product development itself.
“Test and iterate weekly,” Calin stresses. “User testing is the most valuable part of your product development process.”
The company also believes in being efficient in its product development process. For example, by knowing when to invest more in this process.
“Don’t build tech when you can stitch the solution together through low or no-code tools,” Calin says. “Spend as if you’re bootstrapping until you reach product-market fit.”
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Image Credit: Greenhouse
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