My guest for Episode 85 of The Startup Playbook Podcast is Patrick Llewellyn, the CEO of 99Designs.

Patrick initially spent a decade in boutique corporate advisory where he primarily worked with Australian technology and new media companies.

He then joined 99Designs in 2009, around 18 months after the business had launched to setup their presence and office in the US.

Fast forward 9 years and 99designs is the world's largest online graphic design marketplace, connecting businesses looking for design work with more than 220,000 graphic designers from 192 countries around the world.

Patrick has been the CEO of 99Designs for the last 7.5 years and alongside the growth of the business, he has overseen raising a $35M Series A round from Accel in 2011 before raising a further $10M in 2015.

We covered a range of topics in this interview including:

Understanding risk

Their decision to shutting down, Swiftly, a popular spinoff brand created by 99Designs

Aligning personal and team focus

The importance of planning

Developing an evolving culture through hiring

WATCH ON YOUTUBE

PLAYBOOK MEDIA – Growth through Data-Driven Storytelling

THE E-COMMERCE PLAYBOOK

ACCELEPRISE AUSTRALIA

STARTUP PLAYBOOK HUSTLE APPLICATION

Show notes:

• Mark Harbottle

• Matt Mickiewicz

• Leni Mayo

• 99Designs

• Sitepoint

• Flippa

• Learnable

• Jason Aiken

• TaskRabbit

• Accel

• Adrian Stone (podcast)

• Duncan Anderson (podcast)

• Patrick (LinkedIn)

Feedback/ connect/ say hello:

Rohit@startupplaybook.co

@playbookstartup (Twitter)

@rohitbhargava7 (Twitter – Rohit)

Rohit Bhargava (LinkedIn)

Credits:

Intro music credit to Bensound

Other channels:

Watch the video on Youtube here.

Don’t have iTunes? The podcast is also available on Stitcher & Soundcloud

The post Ep085 – Patrick Llewellyn (CEO – 99Designs) on planning and focus appeared first on Startup Playbook.