Inspiring Innovators: Alex Lamb
Chief Executive Officer and Founder of BOLDLY-Get A Couch, On Being BOLD
At SAP.iO, we work with innovators and new technologies that positively impact our world every day, and we think it’s time to share their stories with you! In our series, “Inspiring Innovators,” we hear how founders, CEOs, and presidents of cutting-edge startup technologies overcame, thrived, and pursued their goals. SAP.iO’s Alexa Gorman sat down to discuss the road to success and lessons learned with some of our most inspiring startup founders.
Meet Alex Lamb
People described as bold tend to listen to their gut, prioritize, take action, and demonstrate courage. Boldness inspires and energizes, both of which are important qualities in a leader and a coach. As the Chief Executive and Founder of BOLDLY, these are traits that Alex Lamb personifies. In addition to her leadership role at BOLDLY, Alex is also a fractional Chief People Officer, organizational psychologist and executive coach, and has a deep understanding of how to create an environment to develop people’s skills. We were excited to have the opportunity to speak to Alex about her path, starting with looking for career advice, to coaching, to becoming a Founder and Chief Executive.
Working in Shanghai and Hong Kong for Korn Ferry over seven years, Alex honed her skills in various positions, from client management to product development. To get direction for her next career move, Alex started searching for a framework for decision-making which led her to studying evidence-based coaching practices and becoming a coach herself.
Observing an appetite for customized solutions suited to Asia, Alex moved to Singapore and started a consulting service designed to nurture domestic leadership talent. The service grew rapidly, taking on 11 consultants, and she quickly realized they needed a coaching technology platform to build BOLDLY beyond the reach of consulting. Alex launched the BOLDLY platform in 2017 to democratize coaching.
BOLDLY is a global coaching marketplace of qualified executive coaches and career coaches who are trained to develop staff and impact business performance using evidence-based coaching practices. Coaching is an evidence-based career development method proven to nurture professional growth, enhance workplace performance and provide targeted support for vocational confidence, competence, and leadership development. Their mission is simple: to ensure everyone has equal opportunity in the future of work.
Let’s Chat
What need did you see in the market that you wanted to address?
When taking a broad look at the coaching industry, Alex concluded it had a lot of space to grow and the potential to mature into something that plays a critical role in the future of work. At the beginning of BOLDLY’s journey, Alex observed that the coaching tech available was a good match for big-scale coaching but that the rest of the coaching market was still undigitized and not scalable. Also needing attention was early careers group and team coaching, executive coaching, and everything around building a coaching culture. To address these gaps, BOLDLY offers technology and consulting to support all coaching across the organization.
What challenges have you faced, and what did you learn from them?
When asked to reflect on challenges she has met as an entrepreneur, Alex shared that even though she is in the business of helping companies source people, she would say finding the right people for BOLDLY itself was a challenge. She had colleagues who believed in what BOLDLY was about, and who had great skills and credentials, but not the start-up spirit. It took time to really fine-tune how she spotted talent for the stage and phase of business growth.
“It’s ironic being that that’s what I consult clients on. But the people, I can genuinely say, have been the hard part. With some great colleagues, I had to consider how they fit the needs of the business and make some acute decisions. There’s very few second chances to get a startup right, and people are your biggest asset and cost.”
And then, COVID. BOLDLY was just about to raise their seed round with strong interest from investors in the US, and then COVID hit, and many venture capital firms had to refocus on their existing portfolio companies. Alex had to make a complicated decision about using funds to keep staff employed, not knowing how long COVID would last.
“That was a really tough time. We held on to all our team for a year, but it depleted the business. I feel that was a challenge from a business perspective; it probably wasn’t the right thing to do, but from a personal perspective it was a values-based call. In 2021 however, we had to emerge from COVID as a leaner operation — all of our team landed into new roles in other organizations, and we learned how to bootstrap again — it was an incredibly beneficial learning experience.”
What character traits do you possess that help you be a successful entrepreneur?
Alex Lamb is bold in her thinking about the coaching space, and her business. When we spoke about characteristics that support her role as a founder, being bold is right at the top.
“I figure if I don’t show up and have a try at something, somebody else will. And so, why not me? I often do things that scare me or might be a bit awkward at first, but this is where I learn. So being bold and finding courage has meant that we’ve taken the business further than we expected.”
Alex has a lot of perseverance and believes this is vital for an entrepreneur when encountering bumps along the road. The perseverance to rise and meet these challenges as they come up shows strength in character. She advises us to be courageous too, and not shy away from business opportunities because they’re uncomfortable or unknown.
Why did you want to become a coach yourself?
When Alex reached a point in her career where she had to make decisions about how to progress, she found herself asking friends and colleagues for advice. Realizing all the feedback she received was mainly opinion, she wanted a framework for decision-making to feel confident and intentional in making her career choices. She wanted something that was evidence-based to help guide her choices. Alex started researching coaching for herself and realized the style of questioning worked for her purposes. She then studied the research into coaching practices and found something other professionals like herself would want. Describing that she “became a coach selfishly,” Alex’s own experience now informs how she coaches others through challenging crossroads.
“I value getting honest conversations with coachees. There’s no one else there to observe, and they can be completely candid about what drives them and what they think. It is a privilege to hold that kind of honest conversation with people. But most importantly, I relish those ‘ah-ha’ moments when a coachee has a breakthrough in their mental model or approach to a challenge. It’s great to co-create those spaces where people can be challenged and find their best selves.”
What advice do you have for future entrepreneurs?
Taking time for self-reflection, Alex realized that experience had taught her to focus on the right things and be very specific about how she uses her time. She encourages us to not be afraid to say ‘no’ to more things. The lesson is to be protective of your time and be purposeful with boundaries.
“As a founder, everyone is vying for your time. As I attended events and was asked to speak with different VCs, I realized that all these people were getting more from me than I was getting from them. It’s not about the GET but more about asking if I’m at the right stage where I can just be a giver. Right now I’m not — I need to say no sometimes.”
She also advises being as lean as you can on employees for as long as possible. Alex found that payroll is your most significant expense, and that money could be going towards product or marketing. When you start to grow, you feel you need more people to help manage the workload, but Alex tells us to keep in mind that you also need to manage all those people, which creates more breadth of work for you to cover too — so in solving one problem you’re creating another. Maintaining payroll costs against productivity opportunity was an important lesson Alex learned to balance along the way.
What advice do you have for someone starting a SAP.iO program?
Going into the SAP.iO program, Alex said it took more tech resources than she had planned, so she advises that future participants make sure to have resources allocated for the integration and documentation to make the most of the partnership. She also recommends having a marketing person ready to go at the beginning of the program. In doing so, you won’t miss any important details, and it ensures that you jointly leverage all the value you’ve created. Afterall, she explains that it is in the startup’s best interest to start talking about your solution and partnership with SAP as soon as possible.
What we learned
Alex Lamb shared with us that there are a ‘million small wins’ along the way that make her proud to be a part of BOLDLY. As a coach, she understands the power of having the proper support to develop staff and how that impacts business performance across an organization. Building on her personal need for coaching, she identified a gap in the market for customized coaching tech solutions. Alex described the coaching industry as being on a big maturity journey, with a significant shift towards science, psychology, and implementing formal accreditations globally as clients look for qualified coaches.
Alex went BOLDLY ahead to build a framework for personalized goal planning and learning. She decided ‘why not me?’ and forged ahead with perseverance and courage to help shape coaching culture on a global scale. Alex encourages us to watch this space because it will help define the future of work in the coming years.
BOLDLY is a graduate of Foundry Singapore’s Future of Work Program. BOLDLY has recently relaunched its 2.0 marketplace, making it even easier for clients to get up and running with their coaching solution. Their techology is integrated with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and can be found here on the SAP store. If you are a startup looking to impact the future of work like BOLDLY, check out our upcoming programs here.
