Interview with Malcolm Kerr, Head of Growth and Go-to-Market Strategy
Malcolm’s experience spans across Corporate Strategy, Product Marketing, Sales, and Growth Marketing, all within rapidly growing start up environments. He is also an investor and mentor to early-stage growth companies.
What is your position and role here at Formic?
I am the Head of Growth and Go-to-Market Strategy, which basically encompasses sales development, marketing, and sales operations.
As you oversee marketing, sales development, and sales ops, what are the questions or concerns that you are constantly thinking about?
The biggest question that we are constantly asking ourselves is: how do we describe this new model to the market? How do we efficiently communicate what we're doing and how it's different, in a way that resonates with our customers’ day-to-day struggles and is not only clear, but also compelling.
Our other big focus is: how do we stay aligned across the organization as the company grows and scales so rapidly? We are constantly improving and outgrowing our processes, which requires really tight communication and documentation.
What about the Formic offering has been the biggest driver for customers?
A lot of manufacturers are in a tight place right now, where the cost of most production inputs is increasing, including labor, which is not only more expensive, but also more scarce than ever before. Those two challenges go hand-in-hand, because if you can't hire anybody, you struggle to hit production deadlines, and you're beholden to expensive staffing agencies.
Manufacturers are always looking for ways to cut costs, and now they can automate without expending any upfront CapEx. We can deliver the automation they so desperately need without them having to take any money out of their CapEx budget, which is probably already stretched thin.
Have there been any challenges in making this message resonate among our audience?
The response has been great, but we’re always looking to express our uniqueness and value in a way that is more clearly understood. Every corner of every industry is filled with people trying to sell things, so we need to find a way to stand out and be a trusted ally to manufacturers, not just another voice in the crowd.
What makes us an ally to customers?
Two things make us an ally to the manufacturers that we serve. One is our model, which is unique in that it is results-based, where we have "skin in the game", and we only win when our customers win. That's quite unheard of in most industries, and particularly in the industrial robotics space.
Secondly, our team's background makes us a strong ally. We have over 130+ years of experience within automation and manufacturing, but we also have a lot of people bringing fresh perspectives from other industries. This cocktail of experience supports our ability to deliver reliable automation solutions and also challenge the industry in a new and positive way.
Where do you see the company heading in the next few years?
A really, really high amount of growth. This company is growing extremely quickly, and with that is an increasing amount of complexity with our internal operations and our ability to execute.
On the customer side, working with Formic will be increasingly fast and simple as we continue to refine our offering.
What type of talent is the company recruiting for?
We are looking for smart, hungry people that can build the company with us, and we will continue to hire the very best that multiple industries have to offer, across automation, manufacturing, tech, and finance. Our hope is to combine those disciplines into a single company and come out as both strong and unique.
We are hiring! Look here for open positions, https://boards.greenhouse.io/formic
Malcolm Kerr