What does it take to scale a business from an idea to unicorn status? Suneera Madhani would say to look to family values—specifically the ones her Pakistani parents instilled in her. With her brother, Suneera co-founded Stax Payments, a fintech platform now processing $23 billion in payments, so it’s clear that these immigrant family values are working.
Suneera speaks with Erica about her three-bucket principle to prioritizing what matters most, Stax’s rituals around shared meals, why they’ve chosen a hybrid model for the office, and how onboarding should be intentionally thought through from the moment a prospective hire receives an offer letter. Suneera also runs the CEO School, a platform dedicated to educating women entrepreneurs on how to scale their businesses and go from founder to CEO.
Suneera launched this platform after learning that less than 2% of female founders ever break $1 million in revenue, so now she aims to increase that number. CEO School includes a podcast as well as a membership with monthly classes, community events, fireside chats, and a quarterly curated product box. Additionally, Suneera’s new CEO School Course—an 8-week experience, with workshops on power, pitch, process, product, people, and profit—is open for enrollment May 19th-May 25th, and you can sign up below!
Please Subscribe, Rate and Review on Apple Podcasts
You can also listen to the show on:
Resources:
Quotes:
“Less than 2% of female founders ever break 1 million in revenue.”
“This [success] was all a compilation of saying ‘yes.’ Saying yes to opportunity, saying yes to following my heart, following my passions. But I will tell you, there was a point last year where I faced complete, utter burnout. That’s usually what happens when we say ‘yes’ to too many things. We really have to recalibrate, where can I say ‘no’? And without feeling guilty about saying no. It’s definitely a struggle.”
“You can have your plate and you can fill it sky high, but usually if you look at a healthy plate, it’s balanced in three components. That’s how I view the three-bucket principle.”
“I think onboarding begins from the offer letter; it begins even on the interview process…So we take it all the way back to say, ‘How can we drive incredible experience all the way through?’ And that’s just done with purpose and intention and showing your value system.”
“I work with my brother; this is a family business as well. Part of our DNA was always one team, one dream. And we’re always team above self. That’s how I want our people to be, and that’s truly this team that we have.”
Links to Websites or Resources, text numbers email signups
Suneera’s post on immigrant family values
Suneera’s Forbes article on the Great Resignation
Order Erica’s book, Rituals Roadmap
Order Erica’s book, Bring Your Human to Work
Text ‘human’ to 66866 to sign up for Erica’s newsletter where she shares how to honor relationships well and how to bring your human to work and life.
Connect with Suneera:
Connect with Erica: