Inspiring Innovators: Paula Paw
Co-CEO of VersaFleet, On Being Tenacious
At SAP.iO, we work with innovative people 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 get to 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 Paula Paw
Just four days after submitting her last exam paper, Paula Paw was offered a job at VersaFleet. Paula joined VersaFleet as a pioneering team member and played a central role in its growth journey. Graduating from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Arts and Social Sciences, she started her career at VersaFleet in Sales and Marketing. Over the course of 6 years, she was promoted to Senior Sales Executive, Regional Sales Manager, Head of Sales Strategy & Operations Planning, and now leads the company as Co-Chief Executive Officer.
VersaFleet is a transport management software that optimizes route plans and fully digitalizes supply chains, all the way to the last mile. At VersaFleet, Paula now focuses on accelerating VersaFleet’s growth and synchronizing essential company functions, from sales & marketing, product design, and engineering, to finance and people operations. The company’s mission is to provide technology for all transporters — in any industry, market, or country. They built VersaFleet in hopes that the technology would enable the unsung heroes of logistics to get home in time for dinner.
“The goal for the coming years is to establish a stronger market presence so that we can serve the brands that face difficult challenges. When we help them, it will have a trickle-down effect, and the drivers will ultimately benefit; we are hoping to create a better work-life balance.”
Let’s Chat
What are some challenges you have encountered, and how have you overcome them?
Paula describes coming into VersaFleet as a young company with a young team as a challenge because there is not much previous experience to pull from. When you are determined to make your company a success, you must use this challenge as an opportunity to learn. The team did a lot of research and self-learning; they brought in mentors to help with different stages of their growth and close knowledge gaps so they could better perform.
What characteristics do you have that support you as a Leader?
Paula credits her tenacity as being a trait that has helped her on her journey to where she is today. She shared that your original idea may not work, or perhaps not exactly how you thought. Don’t be afraid to experiment to find success. Coming into a new venture with an attitude of determination can continue to move the team forward. In Paula’s experience, this characteristic has facilitated her drive toward achieving her goals in many aspects of life.
“I’m a believer in hiring smarter people than you; their knowledge will help give you perspective. The combination of that and the tenacity to keep moving ahead is key as you might fail many times before you get it right.”
What is the best advice you’ve received?
Paula received a piece of advice that she keeps coming back to ‘listen to understand, do not listen to respond’. She credits this as a huge difference-maker in her career because most of the time, when you listen to people, it’s to give a response. In that case, you don’t take the time to understand and see their problems and pains. A big part of solving people’s problems is being able to empathize with them; it is one of her company’s core values.
“Additional advice that I learned from was to trust your gut. You have to listen to understand people truly, but at the same time, you need to listen to yourself; what is your gut telling you? Trust your instincts.”
What advice do you have for a person thinking about launching a business?
Paula suggests bouncing ideas off of as many people as possible to anyone looking to launch a new endeavor. She recommends participating in pitching competitions where investors that are judges on the panels ask you tough questions; they will often offer questions you never even thought of before. This will help test the idea’s feasibility before you get too far down the road and realize your concept is not achievable.
“Go to as many pitching competitions as you can. Doing so will help you refine your pitch and give you an opportunity when asked questions to step back and reflect. This reflection will help you assess if you are on track and ensure that you are not wasting time on the wrong concept. Because that is time you can never get back.”
What we learned
In her conversation with Alexa, Paula credited tenacity for giving her the drive to help lead her startup toward completing its mission. She practices the methodology of listening to understand someone, not only to provide a response. Overcoming the challenge of working with young people at a young business, her team immersed themselves in research, listened to understand their customer’s pain points, met with mentors, and used pitching competitions to close any knowledge gaps to offer the best product to the logistics industry.
One of the resources VersaFleet used was SAP.iO Singapore’s Foundry program; if you are a startup looking to work with us, check out our upcoming programs here.
