What It Means to Put People First | Ben Stephenson, CEO of Impala (Series B)

The Founder Coach Podcast

What does it mean to put 'People First' in a fast-growing company? Meet Ben Stephenson, CEO of Impala—a company building a suite of travel APIs that make building travel tech a lot easier.

In this episode, Ben Stephenson explains how he went from Seed to Series B in six months, how the pandemic affected their travel-focused business, and why hiring a head of people made a huge difference in building a remote-first culture. We also discuss the importance of inviting your leaders to the conversation.

Key links:

Impala website: https://impala.travel/

Ben Stephenson profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-stephenson-13032b33/

Key timestamps:

[01:47] What happened in TechStars?

[07:07] How did you approach your Series A?

[08:52] How did you raise Series A in less than a month?

[10:37] How did you raise a Series B 6 months later?

[14:47] What happens when you get a global pandemic in travel?

[16:48] How do you shape culture in a remote environment?

[23:51] Why do you use external search firms

[25:51] What has been one of your most significant learnings as a CEO?

[30:58] What can we expect from Impala in the next few months?

Thanks to Jens, Jean and Julian (all the Js) for their great input.

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