Interview with Greg Watts, CEO of Findr

We caught up with Greg Watts, CEO of Findr, to talk all things from the importance of approaching brand partners in the right way, to global expansion in 2021…
 

Tell us about Findr

 
Findr is a digital marketplace that allows businesses of all sizes to submit their partnership requirements and get matched with partners who can fulfill those requirements.

Powered by a unique machine learning algorithm that ‘matchmakes’ if there’s common interest or appetite, Findr enables businesses to radically cut down the time and effort it takes to create commercial partnerships, effectively generating warm leads in minutes or hours, in just a few clicks.

Findr can be used in three easy steps:

1. Sign-up and search for potential partners – Users sign-up to Findr via their LinkedIn account. They tell Findr about their business and the types of partnerships they’re looking for, from a short-term project to a longer-term strategic relationship. Then, they can search for prospective partners and opportunities that meet their criteria.

2. Request a one-hour Discovery call – Users can request a Discovery call with potential partners, receive an alert when their match is accepted, then book a one-hour audio or video Discovery call through the Findr platform.

3. Explore opportunities live with key decision-makers – Users discuss opportunities with key decision-makers who have a specific need or requirement for what they’re offering. They pay just £99 once their Discovery call is completed.

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
I was previously head of market acceleration and partnerships for Visa Europe, where I created commercial partnerships with global retailers, banks and other organisations. Later, I founded Demand Creation Partners, a growth consultancy helping fintechs to accelerate their partnership efforts.

I founded the company – just days before the pandemic hit, as it happens – to resolve the longstanding challenge that creating partnerships is complex, manual, resource-intensive and often takes months or even years.

Traditionally, even once a potential partner has been identified, businesses then need to pinpoint who’s who within the organisation. Then, they have to make assumptions about what those stakeholders are looking for and figure out the best way to get in touch – often leading to a cold outreach that doesn’t hit the mark.

We wanted to fix this challenge – so we built Findr!

How has the need for Findr evolved during the pandemic?

 
Globally, businesses are struggling. Our platform enables them to speed up the creation of commercial partnerships to help them grow and thrive.

Also, now is the right time to cut through longstanding, bureaucratic systems and processes that hold back innovation. To that end, we’re working with a number of procurement, innovation and partnership teams to introduce Findr as a way to accelerate growth.

So, for us, the backdrop of a global pandemic that restricts people being physically together is the ideal timing for launch. We’re creating a platform that allows businesses to create partnerships in a short space of time without in-person contact.

Now, we’re not naïve enough to think we can completely eradicate the ‘handshake impact’ of a deal, but we can certainly speed up the process.
 

What can we hope to see from Findr in the future?

 
We plan to launch Findr to our beta users in October. At present, we’re approaching 300 people across a number of leading businesses and start-ups who have signed up for early access. Then, we’ll roll out the platform to the financial services industry in Q1. Later in 2021, we plan to launch into additional industries and geographies.

Our ultimate goal is to become the partnership matching platform for all businesses across all industries around the world.