From New Zealand to Silicon Valley: Victoria Ransom’s Wildfire Journey (Part 6)

Sramana: How important is it to develop a unique culture in a company?

Victoria Ransom: In my opinion, one of the things we have done well at Wildfire is that we took time and effort to create a great place to work. People at Wildfire are passionate about being at Wildfire. The culture is a reflection of the initial people who joined Wildfire. We are very ambitious, hardworking, driven people who are also extremely collaborative and humble. People pick up on it and talk about it. There are no assholes. Our team is very young. Our team is probably in the mid-twenties.

The sales team is the biggest group, followed by engineering and product. Transparency is part of our culture. We encourage our team to ask questions and make suggestions. We really want to hear people’s experiences and ideas. Those are the traits of our culture. We hire accordingly. Employee referrals are key to our hiring process.

Sramana: After the $250,000 grant, what else did you do from a financial standpoint?

Victoria Ransom: In May 2010 we raised a Series A, which was $4 million from Summit Partners.

Sramana: That is unusual; they are not an early-stage VC [firm].

Victoria Ransom: It was unusual. It was because we were profitable and they invest only in profitable business.

Sramana: What was your revenue level?

Victoria Ransom: That year we did several million dollars in revenue. When they invested in us, they could see how fast we were growing. We also raised another insider round of $10 million from Summit just recently. In terms of our size, we have been very capital efficient.

Sramana: Where are you at now in terms of revenue?

Victoria Ransom: We are approaching the hundred million dollar mark.

Sramana: Tell me about the relationship between you and Alain Chuard.

Victoria Ransom: He is from Switzerland. I think a lot of people wonder how we can be a couple and work together.

Sramana: It is pretty common among entrepreneurs.

Victoria Ransom: It is, so I don’t know why people make such a big deal about it. Our skill sets are very different and it is very clear who does what in our company. Alain is a product visionary and he has a real eye for design. We both collaborated on the product, but he really ran the engineering and oversaw the development. I did the selling and everything else. What is critical for co-founders is to have different skill sets and a very clear delineation of roles. I think it works very well for us.

Sramana: There are people who are trying to create controversy by saying that Silicon Valley is biased against women entrepreneurs. I personally don’t believe that.

Victoria Ransom: I have not seen that, either. I certainly have noticed that there are not a lot of women. There are times when I was raising money that when I met with 30 to 40 investors, most of them were men. However, I never felt I was being discriminated or disrespected. I think the reality is that not enough women do it.

Sramana: It’s a numbers game; 99% of businesses that go out to raise money do not succeed because it is too early or they do not fit the venture model for a variety of reasons. Some of those businesses should not be funded; they should be bootstrapped. There are a lot of women who do lifestyle businesses and they don’t go for the venture route. That is fine. The tech venture game is something that not enough women play.

Victoria Ransom: I agree. I think it starts very young. Not enough women go into technology very early on. I was meeting with someone the other day who told an anecdote about her daughter that illustrates this. Her daughter is nine years old, very mathematically inclined and very smart. She joined the chess club and loved it the first couple of times. After the third time she did not want to go back because kids were teasing her. She was the only girl in the chess club. All the boys would continue, and she dropped out. That just creates an ongoing cycle.

This segment is part 6 in the series : From New Zealand to Silicon Valley: Victoria Ransom's Wildfire Journey
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