“Be stubborn on the vision and flexible on the details…. the “why” is what drives you to keep fighting the good fight” is some key advice from Leanne Kemp.
Leanne is the Founder and CEO of Everledger and until recently was Queensland Chief Entrepreneur. Originally from Brisbane, Leanne describes herself as unemployable and a serial entrepreneur. She is a self taught engineer who loves to solve problems and scale and grow companies. She talks about how being an entrepreneur is like throwing yourself out of a plane (which she has done many times along with many other extreme sports!).
Leanne talks about how she wanted to increase truth and transparency of supply chains and how she started with tracking the traceability of diamonds. She is driven by sustainability, believes that all businesses should have a profit, loss and impact statement and that people and planet should be at the forefront of decision making.
Leanne is a female founder and unconscious bias has actually been one of her superpowers! She can code like the best of them and spends most of her time on a keyboard rather than with people. Leanne’s values are really important to her and have driven the culture of Everledger as she has grown the company to over 100 people globally across 6 locations. These values include:
o Be the trust.
o Be you, be united.
o Pack light, work right.
o Bring the future forward
Leanne stresses the importance of having aligned principles when attracting investors. You can’t simply get rid of an investor!
Leanne also talks about how she plans to innovate and disrupt the insurance industry. We discuss her time as Queensland Chief Entrepreneur and how innovation and entrepreneurship can really create change.
Leanne was talking to me from Seattle and the sound quality is not as good as I would have liked. Nevertheless, it is an insightful, engaging and fun conversation!