Client: Orbit
Position: CEO
Orbit creates Shopify apps that help merchants push the frontiers of their online sales. Their apps power over 23,000 Shopify stores. They operate on a principle of continuous improvement, always striving for innovation that enhances both the merchant and the customer experience. They want their apps to be exceptional so customers can rely on them as integral parts of their operations. Their success is their client’s success. Ultimately, an orbit is a partnership.
Opportunity
Orbit needed a leader for their team and entire apps business who would champion new opportunities for development of products and offerings, specifically for the Shopify market, as well as help maintain and grow existing apps in the portfolio. They needed someone with intimate knowledge of e-commerce customer problem sets.
Orbit wanted a CEO who would set the vision and direction for growth, define a roadmap, and implement strategy. The right person for the job would manage and grow the team; interact with stakeholders throughout the organization; and develop an intimate understanding of the Shopify platform and merchants, then leverage that understanding into new and effective approaches to each product offering. They also needed a CEO who could build and maintain meaningful relationships with external partners.
The person they hired would be fully accountable for the division's performance to the company's management.
Solution
Orbit sought a recruiting partner who could curate a plan to find a uniquely skilled c-level leader. They needed someone with proven experience operating SaaS businesses or product lines with expertise in building, scaling, and leading successful product teams. The right candidate needed to have managed SaaS product development and driven results through product and growth-marketing strategies. They needed someone who had previous accountability for business P&L, including forecast setting and reporting to senior management. The ideal CEO would have managed and scaled complex projects through growth as well as navigated dynamic environments with multiple stakeholders and departments to achieve desired outcomes.
Orbit needed an established leader who had operated as part of an executive team and worked closely with senior leadership. Someone who had led, inspired, coached, and developed team members for growth. They needed an analytical and data driven decision maker.
Results
Orbit hired a proven CEO to lead the team and business, while successfully navigating their vision and roadmap for growth. Partnering with srch helped Orbit find and hire a specifically defined CEO, while alleviating the use of their own resources and time to find the right person. A CEO with the knowledge and imagination to take Orbit’s business into the stratosphere.
In just 2.5 years with a new CEO, the company has:
Seen great successes with repricing two main apps (Wholesale Club and Ultimate Special Offers), which has increased ARPU significantly and helped mitigate against the economic slowdown. This has allowed them to keep growing despite the ecosystem.
Consistently released new features that merchants love.
Released a brand new app, without adding to costs:
A market opportunity was identified by customers who were using one of the main apps for an unexpected use case.
They needed a tailored solution that didn't exist, and they built it.
Thorough. Thoughtful. Customized. At srch, no two projects are the same. We carefully craft a strategy for SMBs to grow via a talented, ambitious leadership team that focuses on profitability