He’s worn just about every startup hat: founder, growth, bizops, revops, people, culture; you name it. But he ultimately found his calling in the people space.

Now, he’s scaling Partly, hiring the world’s top 1% talent, and building a culture where people stay excited about their work a decade in.

In today’s episode, we discuss:

• Scaling Partly from its first non-technical hire to ~100 employees—and the lessons behind making it the best startup to work for.

• Building a company culture that lasts, where 10 years in, you’re still buzzing to show up every day.

• Co-founding and selling MeatMail (a food subscription startup) with Dave Booth, the zero-to-one story.

• “This is a pretty good V1” — what Tim Ryan taught Harry about quality work and scaling startups globally.

• Tilt to Airbnb: From first APAC hire to Country Manager, scaling Tilt, and what it takes to land a global “boots on the ground” role.

• A bad-reception phone call that changed everything. How Airbnb’s acquisition of Tilt set Harry on a path to helping make Australia Airbnb’s most penetrated market worldwide before the IPO.

• Focus as a superpower. Mastering the art of focus is the most impactful skill an operator can develop.

• Learning from the best. How Patti McCord, Reed Hastings (Netflix), and the Collison Brothers (Stripe) are shaping Harry’s playbook as a world-class Chief People Officer.

• Angel Investing 101. His advice for operators making their first bets.

Listen On:

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

Harry’s Recommended Frameworks, Podcasts & Books:

• Books:

  • Delivering Happiness (people and culture)

  • No Rules Rules (Netflix culture)

  • The Hard Thing About Hard Things (gritty leadership)

  • Amp It Up (high-performance culture)

  • Powerful by Patty McCord (freedom + responsibility)

  • Radical Candor (feedback and relationships)

  • Great by Choice (10x leadership)

  • How to Win Friends and Influence People

• Podcasts:

  • Acquired, a16z, Founders, Tim Ferriss, Crucible Moments, 20VC.

• Frameworks:

  • The One Thing (goal-setting)

  • The Quarterly Rhythm That Fuels Growth and High-Performing Teams (includes duplicatable resources/Notion pages)

  • Eisenhower Matrix (urgent/important prioritization)

  • Radical Candor (caring personally + challenging directly).

• Operators—Future leader/vision:

  • Patti McCord and Reed Hastings from Netflix (culture)

  • Patrick Collison and the Stripe brothers (execution)

Ones to Watch & Other Folks Mentioned in the Episode:

• Pene Barton (CEO at Crimson Global Academy)

• Kirsti Grant (Chief People Experience Officer at Auror)

• Jamie Beaton (CEO and Co-Founder at Crimson Education)

• Dave Booth (Founder in Residence at Blackbird)

• Mike Duboe (General Partner at Greylock Partners)

• Levi Fawcett (CEO at Partly)

• Tim Ryan (Co-Founder and CEO at Atomic8)

• Andrew Huynh (GTM Strategy Lead, New Products at Culture Amp)

• Dan Brockwell (Co-founder and Head of Program at Earlywork)

Find Harry Online:

• LinkedIn

• Harry’s Newsletter

The debate around remote work has collapsed into a false choice: fully remote, fully in-office, or "hybrid."

Each side is entrenched. Remote advocates cite autonomy and broader talent pools. In-office defenders talk about culture, collaboration, and speed.

Hybrid attempts to strike a balance, often resulting in the worst of both worlds: half-empty offices, scattered teams, and a diluted culture.

The problem isn't the options. It's the frame of the debate.

This isn’t a three-way standoff. It's a chess game. And most companies are missing the queen: Office-First with Flexibility (OFWF).

Why "Hybrid" Falls Short

Most hybrid models fail because they lack a strong centre of gravity. In the absence of a clear default, they gradually drift toward remote by default, often unintentionally.

Teams are told they can "choose" when to come in. The result: inconsistent attendance, thin in-office energy, fragmented collaboration.

You can't build a high-trust, high-performance culture if people are physically scattered without rhythm or purpose. Slack and Zoom solve logistics, but not culture. Not decision speed. Not the ambient learning that occurs when great people work shoulder to shoulder.

Nicholas Bloom’s research shows most employees like hybrid models about as much as getting an 8% pay raise. That’s useful to know, but preference isn’t the same as performance. Just because hybrid is popular doesn’t mean it works.

Designing your company around what’s liked, rather than what drives outcomes, is how performance degrades over time.

The nuance: good hybrid systems have a clear default and social expectation. Without that, you’re just paying for expensive offices no one uses, while creating a second-class experience for those who show up.

What "Office-First with Flexibility" Actually Means

Office-First with Flexibility flips the dynamic:

• The default is working in-office.

• Flexibility exists (for legitimate needs, e.g. appointments, childcare, focused work, etc.).

• No attendance tracking, no rigid mandates. The goal isn’t to police; it’s to create an environment where high performers thrive.

• No arbitrary quotas like ‘three days per week.’ Instead, there’s a clear expectation: if you're in a city with a core team, you're in the office most days. That’s the norm, not the exception.

This is not "hybrid.” This sets a cultural gravity around being together, while treating people like adults.

The idea that office-first is about managers ‘looking over shoulders’ is a lazy caricature. This isn’t about control. It’s about proximity, speed, and shared momentum.

Netflix captured this spirit early:

"People tend to do their best work when they understand the context, not when they’re tightly controlled."

Sam Altman reinforces the same principle:

"The most ambitious people often want to be around others who push them."

In OFWF, offices are not mandatory prisons. They are magnetic environments: energising, focused, high-trust spaces where the best work gets done, and people want to be.

Gen Z Isn't the Problem

There’s lazy thinking, such as "Gen Z won't tolerate the office."

That’s wrong.

The best Gen Z talents (like the best of any generation) want growth. They want to be around energy, learning, and ambition. They value proximity to mentors and colleagues who raise their bar.

Max Marchione doesn’t hedge:

“At Superpower, whilst we hire some people remotely, we only hire Gen Z talent in SF. To be hired that young, you need to be an outlier. Outliers want to learn as quickly as possible, grow their networks, and be in person.”

Grouping entire generations into one stereotype is bad strategy. Focus instead on exceptional performers, regardless of age. Exceptional young talent thrives in environments that offer speed, rapid learning, and visible ambition.

If you optimise for the average, you will get average. If you optimise for the exceptional, you will get greatness.

Not Everyone Will Like It; That’s the Point

Some people will prefer to work from home permanently. Sometimes for good reasons (childcare; commute), sometimes for less good ones (comfort; complacency).

That’s fine. But high-performance cultures should be unapologetically polarising. They’re not built to maximise comfort for everyone; they’re designed to attract the few who thrive in the environment.

Some people do great work remotely, and that's okay. But if the culture is built around in-person energy and ambition, it’s better to be clear. Not everyone will want in, and that’s the point.

Alex Fala said it well:

“Companies can't optimise for everything, and ambitious environments have particular requirements that aren't for everyone.”

You can’t turn average performance into greatness just by changing where someone sits. The best companies, like Stripe and Amazon, design their cultures around exceptionalism, not comfort.

Paul Graham put it sharply:

"The natural state of a startup is growth. If you're not growing, you're dying."

High-performance cultures need density: physical, intellectual, and emotional.

The Future: Strategic, Not Dogmatic

The future of work is not fully remote. Nor is it blindly in-office.

The future belongs to companies that think function by function, role by role, level by level:

• A junior engineer onboarding? Office presence is invaluable.

• A senior back-end developer working independently? May need more remote flexibility.

• A product leader running cross-functional strategy? Needs to be in the room.

It’s not about ideology. It’s about effectiveness. It’s about setting a clear default: in-office, with flexibility, applied consistently in cities where we have critical mass.

Some roles, teams, or individuals may warrant exceptions; however, the bar is high, and the reasoning is clear.

This avoids the chaos of negotiating conditions on a case-by-case basis, while still enabling exceptional people to do exceptional work, wherever they are.

How We Operate at Partly

At Partly, we are Office-First with Flexibility:

• Where we have critical mass, we invest heavily in offices worth coming to.

• We encourage being in-office most of the week; no tracking, no rigid rules.

• We hire the best people on the planet, even in cities without offices, if the role truly allows remote effectiveness.

• We have high trust and high expectations; that’s the deal.

We believe proximity compounds trust, speed, learning and innovation. We believe frameworks beat chaos.

And we believe exceptional people deserve an environment optimised for their ambition, not one diluted for average preferences.

Conclusion: Build for Performance, Not Preference

The companies that thrive over the next decade won’t treat location as ideology.

They’ll design for what works: in-office by default, flexibility when it matters, and a culture grounded in trust and clarity.

The “remote vs hybrid vs office” debate is stale.

For startups that want to outperform, the move is clear: Office-First with Flexibility.

Cheers,
Harry 👋

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

From launching a babysitting hustle at 16 to building two successful startups, Gen George's journey is all about bold ideas and solving real-world problems. 🚀

In this episode, the co-founder of LMBDW (Like-Minded Bitches Drinking Wine) and founder of tamme, Skilld and OneShift joins us to share how she built and scaled multiple businesses, the lessons she learned along the way, and her insights on hiring, scaling, and the future of work.

In today's episode, we cover:

✅ Early entrepreneurial ventures – How Jen’s childhood exposure to business shaped her mindset, from working in her parents’ factory to launching her first side hustle.

✅ From university dropout to startup founder – Why traditional education wasn’t the right path, and how her gap year led to unexpected business opportunities.

✅ Building OneShift & Skilled – The story behind launching her first marketplace startup, securing $5M in funding, and later pivoting to Skilled, a platform revolutionizing hiring for small businesses.

✅ Scaling a two-sided marketplace – Lessons on balancing supply and demand, leveraging AI for matchmaking, and overcoming hiring challenges in the service industry.

✅ Growth strategies & traction – From old-school flyer marketing to real-time ad optimization, the marketing playbook that took Skilled to 120,000 users in just six months.

✅ Startup culture & leadership – Why hiring for adaptability matters, how to foster a culture of experimentation, and the key traits she looks for in a team.

Jen also shares her thoughts on the gig economy, what it takes to scale a lean startup, and her best advice for founders navigating the early stages of business.

Resources & Links:

👋 Gen George: linkedin.com/in/gengeorge
👋 Harry Uffindell: linkedin.com/in/harrisonuffindell
🎧 Apple Podcasts
🎧 Spotify

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

From McKinsey to Trade Me to leading one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing tech companies—Alex Fala’s career is a masterclass in leadership, strategy, and scaling businesses. 🚀

In this episode, the former CEO of Syft and Vend (now Lightspeed) joins us to talk about his journey into tech, the challenges of scaling a SaaS company, and what the future holds for retail businesses navigating an ever-evolving landscape.

In today's episode, we cover:

✅ Early career & McKinsey days – How Alex’s experience in strategy consulting shaped his approach to leadership and decision-making.

✅ Jumping into tech – From TradeMe to Vend, what drew Alex to the world of startups and high-growth SaaS businesses.

✅ Scaling Vend – The key milestones in Vend’s journey, from its early days to expanding across 140 countries and raising nearly $50 million in funding.

✅ Building a global SaaS business – The challenges of balancing rapid growth, hiring top talent, and keeping a company culture strong across multiple markets.

✅ Growth & go-to-market strategies – What’s worked for Vend, how their marketing has evolved, and lessons learned from optimizing for sustainable scale.

✅ Retail & the future of POS software – How technology is reshaping retail, why independent retailers still matter, and what’s next for Vend in an AI-driven world.

Alex also shares his insights on fundraising, leadership, and the importance of resilience in building a world-class company.

Resources & Links:

👋 Alex Fala: linkedin.com/in/alexanderfala
👋 Harry Uffindell: linkedin.com/in/harrisonuffindell
📌 Learn more at vendhq.com
📌 Explore career opportunities at lightspeedhq.com
🎧 Apple Podcasts
🎧 Spotify

Harry Uffindell is the Chief People Officer at Partly.

He’s worn just about every startup hat: founder, growth, bizops, revops, people, culture; you name it. But he ultimately found his calling in the people space.

Now, he’s scaling Partly, hiring the world’s top 1% talent, and building a culture where people stay excited about their work a decade in.

In today’s episode, we discuss:

• Scaling Partly from its first non-technical hire to ~100 employees—and the lessons behind making it the best startup to work for.

• Building a company culture that lasts, where 10 years in, you’re still buzzing to show up every day.

• Co-founding and selling MeatMail (a food subscription startup) with Dave Booth, the zero-to-one story.

• “This is a pretty good V1” — what Tim Ryan taught Harry about quality work and scaling startups globally.

• Tilt to Airbnb: From first APAC hire to Country Manager, scaling Tilt, and what it takes to land a global “boots on the ground” role.

• A bad-reception phone call that changed everything. How Airbnb’s acquisition of Tilt set Harry on a path to helping make Australia Airbnb’s most penetrated market worldwide before the IPO.

• Focus as a superpower. Mastering the art of focus is the most impactful skill an operator can develop.

• Learning from the best. How Patti McCord, Reed Hastings (Netflix), and the Collison Brothers (Stripe) are shaping Harry’s playbook as a world-class Chief People Officer.

• Angel Investing 101. His advice for operators making their first bets.

Listen On:

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

Harry’s Recommended Frameworks, Podcasts & Books:

• Books:

  • Delivering Happiness (people and culture)

  • No Rules Rules (Netflix culture)

  • The Hard Thing About Hard Things (gritty leadership)

  • Amp It Up (high-performance culture)

  • Powerful by Patty McCord (freedom + responsibility)

  • Radical Candor (feedback and relationships)

  • Great by Choice (10x leadership)

  • How to Win Friends and Influence People

• Podcasts:

  • Acquired, a16z, Founders, Tim Ferriss, Crucible Moments, 20VC.

• Frameworks:

  • The One Thing (goal-setting)

  • The Quarterly Rhythm That Fuels Growth and High-Performing Teams (includes duplicatable resources/Notion pages)

  • Eisenhower Matrix (urgent/important prioritization)

  • Radical Candor (caring personally + challenging directly).

• Operators—Future leader/vision:

  • Patti McCord and Reed Hastings from Netflix (culture)

  • Patrick Collison and the Stripe brothers (execution)

Ones to Watch & Other Folks Mentioned in the Episode:

• Pene Barton (CEO at Crimson Global Academy)

• Kirsti Grant (Chief People Experience Officer at Auror)

• Jamie Beaton (CEO and Co-Founder at Crimson Education)

• Dave Booth (Founder in Residence at Blackbird)

• Mike Duboe (General Partner at Greylock Partners)

• Levi Fawcett (CEO at Partly)

• Tim Ryan (Co-Founder and CEO at Atomic8)

• Andrew Huynh (GTM Strategy Lead, New Products at Culture Amp)

• Dan Brockwell (Co-founder and Head of Program at Earlywork)

Find Harry Online:

• LinkedIn

• Harry’s Newsletter

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

From launching a startup in the ‘90s to shaping Australia’s venture capital landscape—Niki Scevak’s journey is a testament to vision, resilience, and the power of community. 🚀

In this episode, the Co-founder of Blackbird Ventures and Startmate joins me to talk about building a world-class startup ecosystem, the evolution of Australia’s tech scene, and what founders need to know about raising capital.

In today's episode, we cover:

✅ Early entrepreneurial ventures – How Niki’s first startup, a bookmark-sharing service, got acquired in the early days of the internet boom.

✅ Lessons from failure & success – What he learned from launching multiple ventures before pivoting to the investment side of startups.

✅ The birth of Startmate – Why Australia needed an accelerator, how Startmate helps early-stage founders and the traits that make a great startup leader.

✅ Scaling Blackbird Ventures – How Blackbird grew from an ambitious idea to billions of dollars under management and backing the likes of Canva, Safety Culture, Culture Amp and many other global success stories.

✅ Startup fundraising & investment – What founders need to know about venture capital, common pitfalls in pitching, and why clarity of vision is crucial.

✅ Building a strong startup ecosystem – Why ‘lighthouse companies’ matter, how a thriving tech scene fuels future entrepreneurship, and what’s next for Australian startups.

Niki also shares his insights on hiring, the role of resilience in startup success, and the advice he gives to founders navigating their first fundraise.

Resources & Links:

👋 Niki Scevak: linkedin.com/in/niki-scevak
👋 Harry Uffindell: linkedin.com/in/harrisonuffindell
📌 Learn more at blackbird.vc
📌 Explore career opportunities at blackbird.vc/careers
🎧 Apple Podcasts
🎧 Spotify

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

From a motorsport club with friends to launching and scaling one of Australia’s biggest marketplace startups - Tim Fung’s journey is anything but conventional. 🚀

In this episode, the Airtasker founder and CEO joins us to talk about his career, from investment banking to startup life, the lessons learned along the way, and his insights into the gig economy’s future.

In today's episode, we cover:

✅ The early days – Tim’s first entrepreneurial ventures, from hunting down action figures as a kid to co-founding a motorsport club in university.

✅ From finance to startups – How an internship at Macquarie Bank led to a career in investment banking and, eventually, a leap into entrepreneurship.

✅ Building Airtasker – The story behind Airtasker’s launch, its unique marketplace model, and why 40% of the jobs posted don’t fit into traditional service categories.

✅ The future of work – Why flexible work models are growing, the challenges of scaling marketplaces, and how Airtasker is tackling worker engagement.

✅ Scaling growth – The marketing and growth strategies that worked, including PR, digital acquisition, and brand-building.

✅ Fundraising & leadership – Raising $22 million, building a world-class team, and structuring a company for long-term success.

Tim also shares insights on startup culture, lessons from leading a high-growth business, and the advice he’d give to aspiring entrepreneurs.

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! See you next week. 🎧

Resources & Links:

👋 Tim Fung: linkedin.com/in/timjfung
👋 Harry Uffindell: linkedin.com/in/harrisonuffindell
📌 Learn more at airtasker.com
📌 Explore career opportunities at airtasker.com/careers
🎧 Apple Podcasts
🎧 Spotify

Most companies treat offsites like a silver bullet; a few days of bonding and strategy to carry them through 12 months of execution.

That doesn’t scale. Strategy fades. Priorities shift. People forget faster than you’d like to admit.

After 17 quarters of iteration at Partly, we landed on something simple: connection and alignment aren’t events. They’re rhythms.

This post focuses on the part of our operating cadence that created the biggest step-change in clarity, accountability, and energy: our Quarterly Season Openers.

The Problem with the Annual Offsite Model

Most companies treat offsites like a magical reset button:

• Bring the team together once a year

• Set the strategy

• Hope it holds for the next 12 months

It rarely does.

Annual alignment is a myth. Strategy shifts. People forget. Startups (especially early-stage ones) are supposed to move fast, learn, and adjust. Your operating model should support that, not fight it.

Most offsites lack a clear objective. If you don’t know the "why," you won’t design the right agenda. You’ll get good vibes but not much else.

Good vibes ≠ Great execution. Team bonding matters. But not everyone wants a full week of socialising. And connection without clarity burns out quickly.

What We Do Instead

We run Quarterly Season Openers: in-person weeks for the entire company, once per quarter.

The goal is simple: reset, realign, and refocus.

In these weeks, every team aligns on quarterly goals. Every person walks away with one single-threaded priority for the next 90 days: their One Thing.

It’s not a to-do list. It’s an outcome. It clarifies what matters and kills busywork.

We host Season Openers in our hubs: Christchurch, London, and Manila. They complement (not replace) our Annual Offsite. Together, they form the cadence we call Peak Moments.

Each Season Opener runs Monday to Friday. The highlight is Launch Day on Thursday, when we share company priorities and celebrate team wins.

The rest of the week is designed to build context, accelerate learning, and deepen connection:

• Coffee delivered to HQ, team lunches, and shared dinners

• Workshops (customer deep dives, finance 101, equity overviews)

• Fireside chats with external leaders (e.g. Figma, Sharesies, Crimson)

• Optional evening events (board games, bowling, pub quiz, etc)

• Local meetups and community events

What We Learned (The Hard Way)

1. More is not better. We used to pack Season Opener Weeks with sessions and activities. It was too much. People left exhausted and scattered.

Now we optimise for balance: structured sessions, space for deep work, and optional social time.

2. Structure matters. Too many small breaks = no focus. We now batch sessions and anchor them around meals. People reset properly and engage more fully.

3. Don’t force everything. We make strategic sessions mandatory. Social events are opt-in. Some people recharge solo, not at karaoke night. That’s fine.

4. Start and end strong. We used to just drift in and out of the week. Now we open with a kickoff lunch and close with a Friday wrap-up. Clear bookends create momentum.

5. Measure everything. After each Season Opener, we run a short team survey:

• NPS: How impactful was the week?

• What should we start, stop, continue?

• Which sessions were most useful?

• Are you clear on your One Thing?

The feedback loops are short, honest, and drive real improvements.

And Once a Year: The Annual Offsite

Our Annual Offsite is different by design.

It’s not about quarterly execution. It’s about zooming out. Big-picture strategy, long-term planning, and deep team connection.

We bring the entire global team together for 3 days and 2 nights. We rent out a dedicated space; no hotels, no outsiders, no distractions.

Each offsite is anchored by a single theme. Last year’s: The Road to Series B. It helped demystify our funding journey and aligned the team on what we need to achieve.

We go deep. We connect. We leave clear.

The Payoff

Quarterly Season Openers helped us stay as aligned at 85 people across 9 countries as we were at 5.

They keep us agile. They make space for deep connection and deep focus. And they reinforce the idea that execution is a rhythm, not a single event.

You can steal this. Tweak it. Adapt it to your team. Just don’t rely on one offsite a year to hold your company together.

Rhythm beats intensity.

Resources (Things You Can Steal)

📌 Want to experiment with running your Season Openers?

• I’ve compiled Notion templates you can duplicate/edit/adapt to your company’s needs as you see fit.

  • Season Opener Plan: end-to-end plan or agenda to design your week, and eventually, share with your team. See a screenshot of our “Launch Day” on the Thursday below.

    

  • Season Opener Creation Steps: outlines the step-by-step prep work needed before the Season Opener Week.

• Key links

  • 📘 All Resources

  • 🌄 (Template) Season Opener Plan

  • 🖋️ (Template) Season Opener Creation Steps

📌 Want to receive templates and startup memos in future?

Final Thoughts

Offsites are moments. But performance comes from momentum.

The best teams don’t align once a year. They reset, refocus, and recommit every quarter.

This model made it real for us. Take what’s useful. Leave the rest. Then build a rhythm that works for you.

• I write about scaling ops, talent, culture, performance, accountability, and anything else that’s keeping you up at night as a startup founder, CEO, COO, or CPO. Subscribe below to receive the monthly newsletter.

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Ask

📌 If you found this post at all helpful, please take 30 seconds to:

1. Subscribe to Harry’s Newsletter for early access to resources and playbooks.

2. Like the post and comment with your biggest insight or question.

3. Know anyone who could benefit from this?

   1. Refer them by going here and earn rewards (like a 30-minute 1:1 with me, perhaps to discuss your next Season Opener or Offsite!) 🙏

Cheers,
Harry

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He’s now building AMP, a company that acquires, rolls up, and scales Shopify apps - and incubating new ventures at the intersection of AI and vertical SaaS.

In today's episode, we discuss:

• Cam’s journey from an NZ kiwifruit orchard to founding Trade Gecko, how they landed in Singapore.

• Scaling a B2B product, including specific growth tools, frameworks they used along the way - so much of which is still relevant today, and eventual $80M+ acquisition by Intuit.

• Building Amp and the strategy of acquiring "landing pad" businesses in the Shopify ecosystem, how - as acquirers - they assess, value, and execute an acquisition … including the use of debt, how to think about revenue multiples, etc.

• The vision for a platform allowing businesses to build customized niche software

• Reflections on ambition, the importance of a supportive ecosystem, and the potential for fostering innovation in New Zealand

Where to find Cam online:

• https://x.com/cameronpriest

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronpriest/

Listen on:

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

Subscribe for more expat stories every Friday!