#127 Michael Stocks: Sydney to New York, Harvard MBA, Early Linktree hire, Demystifying operations in a high growth startup!

Michael Stocks is Head of Strategy & Operations at "FL0", previously he joined the global success story Linktree as one of their earliest hires, scaling the startup to a billion dollar business. He was born and lives in Sydney, Australia. In this episode #127 w Michael Stocks, learn about:Michael’s sunrise, a mix of the Blue Mountains in Sydney and Malaysia — his parents met bush walking (how good), and mum was a speech pathologist and dad in the navy followed by working in Oil & Gas. We connect over our shared love for quality storytelling and advertising, especially in today’s closed loop world with Netflix and Spotify where ads aren’t like live TV. We spend the majority of this episode on Michael’s career journey from starting in advertising to joining Google first in Sydney and then New York when they were slightly smaller than they are today, how this led to his MBA study at Harvard and then the big moment!How did he join Linktree when they were a dozen people and had not raised much external funding. Today they’re valued at over a billion dollars — what exactly is operations in a startup and why the perceptions can be wrong, using the vision to values framework to set team and company vision, how to strategise pricing for a global product launch, sequencing ambition and impact in a fast growing company, world class investor relations and successful off boarding and on boarding.And that’s not all — Michael has decided to go back to early stage company building, joining Flo (that’s Fl0) — the platform that empowers back end engineers to deploy code, and how he’s using his link tree experiences to see around corners, especially being the first non engineer hire.It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy! (Timestamps below)***Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or TwitterContact us via our website to discuss sponsorship opportunities, recommend future guests or share feedback, we love hearing how to improve! Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show! ***02:48 - Where were you born and live now? 03:20 - What was your first job and now?05:04- High Flyer in Michael’s life06:18 - Malaysia and the Blue Mountains07:46 - Introverted and shy 09:02 - Advertising love from day dot13:15 - Mad Men15:02 - Young Wisdom 17:08 - Rationale to work at Google19:30 - Corporate vs startups 22:39 - Google in America vs Australia 26:35 - Harvard MBA 28:30 - Joining Linktree (when it was 34:10 - Setting up for success in early startup38:06 - Unpacking what “operations” means in a startup 42:05 - The vision to values framework44:32 - Setting pricing for a viral global company 46:57 - Executive Coach49:33 - Sequencing ambition and impact 53:06 - World class investor relations56:00 - How can investors be most helpful 58:10 - Team management being a sharp curve59:33 - Joining the startup, FL001:00:31 - Successful off boarding and onboarding 01:02:25 - Most formative experience in his career01:03:39 - Final sprint***