Eldar Galiev: CEO of Growave

^{Joe Fox (00:01.105)}
Hey, everyone, Joe Fox here, president at Growave. I'm excited to announce another episode of Retain Grow Thrive. Today we have a very, very special episode for you. I'm joined by our leader, our founder, someone I'm lucky to have in my life as a close mentor, our CEO, Eldar Galeev. I'm very excited today. Eldar and I are going to dive into a couple of big announcements that we're having at Growave.

^{Joe Fox (00:28.765)x}
on just a business front and advisory front and also quite a few updates on what we're doing with products. So without further ado, I'd like to introduce the man who I wouldn't be here without, Galeef. Hey Elder, how you doing?

_{Eldar Galiev (00:45.998)}
Thanks for having me and thanks for all the kind words. I like it that you're with us.

^{Joe Fox (00:50.855)}
Of course. Of course. Yeah, no, you deserve them, my friend. So I'm super excited for today. Obviously, today is a very special day for us, for Growave. It's the day that we've announced our advisory board. So I definitely want us to kind of dive into that, how those relationships have came about, what we envision for the advisory board and...

Eldar Galiev (01:04.845)
I really want us to dive into that, how those relationships have came about.

^{Joe Fox (01:16.187)}
While I've got you, I really want us to kind of dive into the product side of things quite a bit. I know we've got a lot of incredible updates that we're doing on a POS front, on a Klaviyo front, as well as just general kind of updates to the product. So I definitely want to dive into that as well. But yeah, thank you for coming on board and thank you for supporting the vision with this podcast.

_{Eldar Galiev (01:25.16)}
I think it's one of the great things that we're doing right now. And podcast, I think we're launching at the right time, especially when we do so many things. And I guess when you do so many launches on the product level, on the marketing level, then guess the main thing is distributing the information. And you're doing a really great job, it great guest. So I'm really honored to be here, to be one of the first ones launching this podcast with you.

^{Joe Fox (02:17.621)}
Thank you so much, Eldar. Much, much appreciated. So in regards to, you know, we spoke about quite a few things going on. think one that, you know, you and I are very particularly proud of is the advisory board that we've just launched, you know, literally an hour ago this morning. So can we dive into that a little bit more? I think I'd like to, you know, just dive into

^{Joe Fox (02:43.696)}
the individuals chat a little bit about them and all of the cool things that they're doing. So let's start with an easy one because, you know, both you and I have spent quite a lot of time with Steph Lou and we'll kind of go in that sequence. But, you know, what were your sort of first thoughts when you met Steph? I know that you two hit it off really well when you met in Austin in your first visit in the US a couple of years ago. What are your thoughts there?

_{Eldar Galiev (02:54.131)}
I remember the day we had delicious sushi amazing, beautiful place in the center of Austin. And when we are talking with Steph, you know, she thinks so fast. And it was really incredible. Just taking a look and understanding how she solves the problems, how she can easily zoom out and see what's happening in the world, what's happening with her company, market, and what's really important for her. And it was really amazing just to see and learn. how she can easily zoom out and think ahead, plan things ahead. And it's really amazing to be a company having this bright mind in our advisory board.

^{Joe Fox (04:07.897)}
Yeah, no, absolutely. think from my side, one of the things, you know, I'm lucky to have became friends with, you know, Steph when I soon first moved to Austin, you know, a few years ago now. And I feel like Steph's almost like a little sister in a way to me. I feel like we're constantly years from now and I feel like it's almost like a little sister in a way. I feel like we're constantly talking to each other and nodding each other out.

^{Joe Fox (04:27.769)}
you know, kind of looking out for each other and helping each other out. And I think what she has built, you know, alongside the team at Levitate Foundry is just amazing. And, you know, she's got such a cool team. work on such cool projects. mean, selfishly, I, I, I'm a big Drake fan, even though a lot of people probably aren't anymore, but, I really like, you know, the, the cool projects that they work on and the brands that they're associated with. And I think having her. It's just amazing and you know it's just got a touch on the books. They've got such cool projects. I I'm a big Travex fan. There's a of people who probably aren't selling pop-up. I think that's one of the key matters of the board. Obviously Rachel J. is someone that's a powerhouse in the communities that she's built and that's who...

^{Joe Fox (04:56.985)}
you know, as one of the key members of the board is, is very exciting. think fading into, you know, that kind of Austin side of things, you know, obviously Rachel Jacobs is, someone that's, you know, a powerhouse. think the communities that she's built and the absolute, you know, strength that she brings to the agency community is very impressive. mean,

_{Eldar Galiev (05:21.204)}
Yeah, definitely. like, it's enough to have like, you know, very short conversation with Rachel to have understanding that how many things she does.

^{Joe Fox (05:23.097)}
You've caught up with Rachel a few times in person now. I'm very jealous that I didn't get to catch up with you guys when you're in Europe. But what are your thoughts on Rachel and the strength she brings to the board?

_{Eldar Galiev (05:48.87)}
She always knows what's happening and she always knows how to build right things, what's right for the company at this stage. And I think it's really great asset for our advisor board, just having the person who understands all ins and outs of all e-commerce, all the agency world. And when the person connecting so many amazing agencies, tech partners, brands, huge community. And just talking not about all this network and so on, but I would say she's really a humble person and it's really amazing just to have things not related to work at all. especially when you go to her events, you can see this vibe, how everyone involved for things happening, how they think beyond of just of the work. And I think it's really great and amazing to work and had a chance to work closer with Rachel.

^{Joe Fox (06:59.994)}
Absolutely. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. think, you know, not only is she incredible, you know, same as Steph, same as everyone on this board really is like, not only are they all incredibly talented individuals, but they're all great people. So it makes the whole experience a lot more exciting and it's good. I think, you know, them being shareholders and advisors is just incredible. On that note, I want to dive into Brendan who are, you know,

^{Joe Fox (07:28.986)}
On that note i wanted to dive on Brenden from Anzen, who I've personally known since like 2012. We grew up in the same hometown back when I had my agency, he launched Anzen around the same time. We've got a lot of mutual friends, you know, back home. And we've both kind of been in this e-commerce landscape for quite some time. And I think, you know, the seeing Anzen just and Brendan just go strength to strength to strength has been incredible.

^{Joe Fox (07:58.946)}
So I think, you know, that's definitely something, you know, that's, where I can talk from my side of things, but I'd love to get your input on, you know, the journey you've had with Brendan since, since you met him back in Austin.

_{Eldar Galiev (08:19.092)}
Yeah absolutely, agree with eveyrthing you just said. I want to talk about his extensive experience in email marketing. know, Andzen is one of the leading agencies working closely with Klaviyo via email marketing. And it's really amazing to have such person who understands everything related to Klaviyo, how to better utilize. how to create best performing campaigns. And especially when Growave, at Growave, we have a solid integration with Klavyio and put a lot of efforts, investments to ensure that we have a top integration in the market, ensuring that our clients getting most out of this. So it's really amazing that working closely with Brenden, we can significantly improve this one.

^{Joe Fox (09:17.304)}
Absolutely. Yeah. think, I mean that Klaviyo relationship that they've developed, you know, I actually spoke to Jason, the other co-founder at Anzen Brennan's business partner about this on the podcast, episode, whether that's before this or after this in terms of release, I'm not sure, but I think what they, their, their sheer level and knowledge of Klaviyo is second to none. Like it's just amazing what they've done, how much influence they've had on the product and the partnership programs over the years too, is absolutely incredible. And you and I both were on their podcasts when we're at shop talk, the Andzen approach, I'll make sure that that's linked in the show notes as well. yeah, just an incredible person Brendan is and such a... Such an honor to be able to have him on the board and of course, all of the other members. So super excited for that. A bit of a full circle nostalgic moment for me, having known him for so long as well. And, you know, second last, Tabish over at Mastrat. I think he's such an incredible person. I think he's got such a talent. I think he's an incredible, speaker and business person and he's done so well. And, you know, for me, when we've gone through this process together, Eldar, when we were kind of shortlisting people, wanted to invite to this opportunity. think Tabish and Mastrat have just been such a crucial partner in this growth we've seen on the partnership side of the business. mean, some of the deals that have been brought in, you know, some are really big, some are medium sized.

But I think the thing that's been really cool is that Tabish has always provided this feedback on onboarding on product and really given us a lot of insight from a partnerships perspective, but also from a business perspective. And I think it's really exciting to have him involved. And once again, an incredible person. And I know that you spent some time with Tabish and meet with him quite often as well. So.

_{Eldar Galiev (11:08.169)}

Yes, that's true. I would say like, Tabish honestly, our advisor, I guess for many months before we officially announced this, as soon as they onboarded the first brand, he got back to us with some feedback like what should be improved at Growave. And I would say, like we did tons of things he said, like how we improved analytics in Growave and so on. And I would say like, with Tabish, I guess it's so easy because he understands really well how products should look, work, when we talk about user experience, when we talk about how we should perform. So it's really amazing when we now working officially like an advisor and we're expecting that Tabish could be involved more into what we're building at Grow Wave.

^{Joe Fox (12:35.063)}
Yeah, no, absolutely. you know, I, you're so much more of a product person than I am. And Tabish is definitely more of a product person than I am. So I love how you two both connect over that. I think that's, that's really cool. And, know, I, I know that he's going to be invaluable, you know, on the board as well, which is, which is super exciting. Um, and last but not least, you know, I, this is the one person you haven't kind of met in person, but, um,

^{Joe Fox (13:05.313)}
Jess of Ellen, you know, I'm so excited to have Jess on board. think there's a few really key standout points about Jess. There's a lot that I could mention, but I think there's a few key things that I want to talk about. And I think Jess has such a natural and incredible ability to be able to break down things that seem complicated in a way that's very simple and easy for people to understand, particularly around UI, UX, customer experience. Jess has such a, you know, incredible resume with the brands that she's worked with, Mr. Beast brands, Feastable. She was really core and responsible for blowing those brands up into what they are today. And I think the content that she puts out is absolutely amazing. think, you know, she's just such a powerhouse and,

^{Joe Fox (14:02.837)}
I'm really excited for you to obviously meet her in person. I think you will at additions, but yeah, I definitely knew that that was someone that we needed on the board. think, you know, her, just her sheer expertise is going to help in so many ways and a lot around product feedback as well as Tabish obviously. So yeah, it's super exciting. I'm sure you're looking forward to meeting with her.

_{Eldar Galiev (14:18.566)}
Absolutely. And I think it's really amazing. Like listeners can see that it's growing. Honestly, do many things like independently and especially when comes to advisor board. I would say like...

Joe, you honestly played a key role here, building all those things and shaping how it should look like, work and so on. And kudos to you. And then when you're saying like, this the right person to invite to our board? We are 100 % sure that it's the right decision. So I think it speaks louder than any other word about the culture, about the Growave vision.

And I'm really thankful for all of those things and really excited about what we are going to do next.

^{Joe Fox (15:26.176)}
Absolutely, absolutely. And thank you for that. I appreciate it. And once again, thank you because like, you know, I think, um, you have a very core vision of where we're headed with Growave. And I think what I'm able to do is, is really help support that. And I think you and I are very, very aligned on, all of those things, which is incredibly exciting. And I think that's, you know, a testament to what you've built, you know, since you've built Growave, right? Like I'm

^{Joe Fox (15:53.415)}
I'm a new addition. You've been there since the beginning. So, it's, it's super exciting to be a part of this journey, my friend. elder, I want to dive in, you know, cause we try and keep these at 30 minutes. know we've just, we've taken up a lot of time singing at runs praises, but, let's dive in a little bit around some of these product updates. Cause this is going to really excite, I think a lot of our customers, a lot of our agency partners and the audience who watch this. So.

_{Eldar Galiev (16:15.269)}
Yeah, that's true.

^{Joe Fox (16:23.24)}
Tell me, let's focus on three kind of core updates. I think I know what they are, but what's the first one that you want to talk to everyone about?

_{Eldar Galiev (16:15.269)}
Yeah, that's true.

Yes, sure man. Thanks for limiting me up to three key updates. I can talk very long and could be very long monologue. We'll just talk about what we are going and what excites me. So I would say like a few key things that it's cloud integration. It's something that we are going to launch soon is integration with customer hub, which is something new that Klaviyo will launch then we'll be ensuring that

all customers can see all the points, all right, information about the tiers and so on, right from customer hub. And one more thing is that we're working on is TikTok integration. And so allowing customers, first of all, see customer reviews right on the products on TikTok. So adding more credibility and helping merchants sell more, convert better.

And honestly, we are thinking and doing bit more things, especially when it to TikTok, like how we can leverage loyalty information. And I don'y want to unveil everything. Let's keep working and announce them later. And beyond all of this, we are also doing tons of improvements and they are starting on the product level. It's what Tabish loves, like analytics.

helping brands see what's happening, what's working, what's working, what's not working, how to adjust the campaigns. And also, we are rebuilding all options to customize loyalty programs, allowing brands to tailor everything according to their brand voice, brand colors, and so on. and there's so many other things happening, starting from like... of reviews, compliances with GDPR and others, integrating with Google Merchant Center and more things. And I'm not sure how much time we have. But if you want to stop me, I can keep talking about all of them.

^{Joe Fox (18:47.474)}
No, no, no, no, that's why I limited you to three. That's why I limited you to three because I know that there's so many, you know, the product team is incredible. They're just working so hard. And I think, you know, the ones that you've mentioned there are just going to be so impactful for our customers and so impactful for our new customers too, I think.

^{Joe Fox (19:11.816)}
That's the other thing that we need to talk about is what we're finding in the market at the moment. Right. Like I think we're finding this max exodus in two areas. one being from some of our competitors who are priced, you know, quite high. think we're just the way the economic market is the brand awareness we've developed and the fact that people are understanding how good our product is. We're seeing this exodus from other brands that

^{Joe Fox (19:41.713)}
You know, I would say are probably not as friendly as us. think, you know, I, we keep coming back, you and I to this, we're the friendliest retention platform. And I think we're seeing that, but also I think what we're seeing is a lot of, brands who, you know, used to using multiple tools. And then they're not getting the data that they need out of those tools. And they're looking at ways that they can, essentially, combine everything into one platform and really get this kind of experience that is unified that brings all of these tools that Growave offers into one. So I think that's incredibly exciting and all of the updates that you've mentioned really complement that direction that we're going in. So that's super exciting as well. And then I think another update I'd really like to talk about is, we announced this yesterday is,

^{Joe Fox (20:41.341)}
Chris Henroten joining the team as our head of US sales. I think that's incredibly exciting. Something that you and I kind of had spoken about extensively as we were going into this phase of growth over the past 12 months. But I think we've really made the right decision by waiting for Chris, essentially. I feel like he's the perfect fit to this. And I've known Chris.

‍
I think it was before I moved to the US.

^{Joe Fox (21:10.96)}
my goodness. think it was before I moved to the U S maybe one of the first times I came to the U S yeah. So we've always stayed in touch. We have a lot of similarities in our personal lives as well, which is cool. But, I've always just seen Chris as an absolute like operator. Like he just is so good with people. He's such a good sales person, not in the fact that he, has a sales methodology as such. He's just very good at understanding.

^{Joe Fox (21:40.358)}
the customer's problem and then understanding what solution can help with that. And so for context, Eldar, I think we discussed this, but for the audience, Chris pretty much headed up the entire revenue department for mute six. He's been at Google. He's been at Meta. He just has such like a valid and incredible career in the e-comm and tech space. And I think

^{Joe Fox (22:10.544)}
You know, I think it's a testament to what you've built over the years, that he wants to actually come on board for this journey, right? Like he sees so much value and, and, excitement in, what we're doing. And I think that's incredible. And sometimes I pinch myself about everything that's happening going on at the moment, but it's, it's incredible that we have that talent wanting to join and complimenting, you know, Amanda who's joined.

^{Joe Fox (22:40.239)}
the team as well. think we've got a great, you know, I think we've got a great global team, but I think this US team that we're building, it's such a good culture. Everyone is top tier. It's very exciting.

_{Eldar Galiev (22:52.577)}
Yeah, agree with all you said. And, you know, I think everything should be done in a timely manner. this year, we are doing double down all things we do in US hosting more events, attending in more conferences, events. And like you said, bring to our team, Chris.

And it was something that, you know, I guess maybe we should do bit earlier, but I would say, just saying like, it's really amazing that we spent some time to think about this, to plan everything properly. And we are lucky that it was the right timing for Chris too. So I feel like very, lucky with all decisions coming and that all of them, you know, so aligned.

It was so alligned when we brought Amanda to the team. And right now we see that so many brands, US brands, in the line. And I think it's all things we're doing. Yes, it's right. It's the right time. And it really could help us to keep this momentum, our expansion in US, in North America. So I'm really excited. All things we're doing.

_{Eldar Galiev (24:21.121)}
So, excited about what we are going to do next year. So, let's keep momentum.

^{Joe Fox (24:26.366)}
Yeah.

Absolutely, absolutely eldar. And, you know, I think, yeah, it's just amazing. I mean, we have such incredible team members and everyone's working so hard for this growth and for supporting this. And I think, you know, it's really starting to pay, pay off what we're seeing and the amount of inbound kind of, you know, referrals that we're having and the people who are, you know, coming directly to demo and.

^{Joe Fox (24:57.275)}
just the brand awareness we've gotten, the enterprise merchants we're talking to. It's just such an incredibly exciting time and such an incredibly exciting team. So yeah, very excited and very grateful for the support in everything that we're doing. I wanted to touch on this one, because this is a, this is a question, you don't know that this is coming either, but this is a question that we have been, you know, asking all of the guests.

^{Joe Fox (25:25.326)}
And it's super relevant to you because you know, you've got, it'll be three U.S. trips in under 12 months for you. And I think maybe potentially even a fourth. But I'd like to ask the guests, because we all travel so much in this ecosystem, what is one thing that you cannot live without when you're traveling? So you can't say a person, you can't say your family.

^{Joe Fox (25:51.632)}
Cause I think everyone would say that cause everyone's so enamored with their family. But you know, what's the one thing that you can't travel without? it music? Is it a book? Is it something like that?

_{Eldar Galiev (26:12.993)}
I'm not a fan of having big, heavy bags and so on. And I always try to minimize everything. And here's one thing that I bring always to all my trips. It's a long distance, a short distance, whatever. It's my headset, headphone set. So it's called JBL and it has noise cancellation thing like this.

^{Joe Fox (26:37.592)}
Yes.

_{Eldar Galiev (26:43.008)}
So, you know, I hate like when things are too noisy and especially, you know, in airports, in planes, or, you know, if I simply want to get a sleep, and, you know, it's really important for me to have a good sleep. So I use it every day, everywhere. So it's important things that I bring to all my trips.

^{Joe Fox (27:06.348)}
Awesome. Awesome. And, you know, is it, I'll dive in a little deeper because I know you you've recommended me some incredible podcasts. Is it music you're listening to as well? Or is it podcast, podcast, podcast?

_{Eldar Galiev (27:06.944)}
Honestly, listen to many things and starting from podcasts ending with music especially when you know and then I'm going to sleep I have some classic music that I'm listening to just to fall asleep so I honestly listen to everything

^{Joe Fox (27:38.766)}

Yeah. Yeah. No, I love that. It's interesting. A lot of, a lot of people I've interviewed so far or had on the podcast, I didn't realize how into music they were. So some of the guests have like incredible vinyl collections. some of the guests have like curated these incredible, you know, Apple music libraries for like 10 years. So it's really interesting. A lot of people in our space are super into that. That's a, that's a good one.

_{Eldar Galiev (28:17.403)}
Yeah, I'm just saying like my favorite one is Vivaldi. It's something, you know, it makes me calm down and fall to sleep.

^{Joe Fox (28:27.892)}
Excellent. Excellent. Yeah. I, strangely enough, I do, I either fall asleep to podcasts, my wife being an attorney, she's obsessed with like true crime podcasts. don't sleep so good as you know. So I don't like it when she plays those ones. but what I also sometimes play is, rainforest sounds, but not any rainforest sounds. has to be Australian rainforest sounds.

And it kind of like puts me to sleep because it reminds me of when I was a kid and we'd have these big torrential storms on like a tin roof. And so I can hear the rain all night. So that's, that's one of my ways of, of sleeping better, but yeah, it's interesting. It's good. It's good to slow your mind down at night.

^{Joe Fox (29:16.767)}
Awesome. Well, Eldar, thank you so much. I know we're going to have a lot of these podcasts, you know, recorded and, and, everything. And I think it's really nice. It's probably a really nice thing that we can share internally, but also just kind of bringing our customers and our partners along the Growave journey with us and letting them hear first what we're working on and what we're most excited for.

^{Joe Fox (29:42.882)}
Thank you so much. Thank you for being an incredible leader. Thank you for joining us on the podcast today. And I'm sure we'll talk very shortly.

_{Eldar Galiev (29:43.506)}
Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me.

^{Joe Fox (29:57.122)}
Thank you, Eldar. Everyone, thank you so much for tuning into this special episode with our CEO and founder, Eldar. All of the links that were mentioned in the show will be in the show notes. I'm very grateful that you've tuned into another episode of Retain, Grow, Thrive, and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Stay tuned. Bye.