Kim Perell is never far from the ocean. An avid traveler, Perell has visited over 70 countries and found inspiration in the big blue.
“I just feel the power,” she says. "It's a reminder of how life is full of amazing opportunities. ”
Born to enterprising parents, Perell grew up listening to discussions about growth strategies and smart budget cuts at the family table in Portland, Oregon. Now the 40-year-old serial entrepreneur shares a home in San Diego with her husband and their 3-year-old fraternal twins, but a new tropical getaway is always on the horizon.
As enviable as his adventures seem on paper, Perell's life has not always been amortized. Her father, a property developer, took a strict no BS stance on life, often telling her, “Eight o'clock? It's half a day. Go back to work. She spent hours visiting her job sites and naming Meyers-Briggs tags in personnel files with her mother, an organizational behavior consultant. Witnessing the stressful and financially uncertain roller coaster of the business taught Perell resilience, passion and a strong work ethic.
“It was their focus as opposed to a job because they owned it and ran it,” says Perell. “They lived it and breathed it. If you do it because you love it, eight hours turns into 16 very quickly. ”
With her background, Perell has built and navigated her way through the highly competitive digital startup industry, most recently as CEO of the approximately $100 million digital marketing company Amobee. Now she's ready to share the blueprint of over a decade of experience with other entrepreneurs in her upcoming book The Execution Factor , via McGraw-Hill.
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In some ways, Perell was primed for the entrepreneurial life. Keen to create her own opportunities, she collected aluminum cans from her neighbors to recycle to spend money. Interested in horseback riding, she cleaned the stables for seven hours in exchange for a one-hour lesson. She worked at a pizza place and sold men's suits to fund a car at age 16. As a full-time student at Pepperdine, she worked two jobs at an investment bank and a direct marketing firm.
"You can't put a price on experience. I love being an entrepreneur. I love ideas. But you have to be realistic and live. »
She found failure as quickly as success. A fresh-faced graduate, she eagerly joined the dot-com boom as director of marketing and sales for internet startup Xdrive Technology, the forerunner of Dropbox. Despite its lack of experience, Perell acquired 10 million members and generated more than $9 million in ad revenue to become the company's only money-making division. But like so many others in the dotcom bubble, Xdrive has fueled its rapid growth at the expense of cash flow and profitability. Over the next two years the business fell, and in 2001 Perell fired dozens of her friends before she was fired.
“It was probably the worst thing that ever happened to me, but with hindsight, it created an incredible opportunity,” says Perell.
Less than a year later, Perell was launching his first startup, Frontline Direct, a performance marketing company, from the kitchen table of her in-laws in Hawaii. She funded it with the remaining $10,000 in her bank account and any available credit card balance. Still reeling from the devastating rise and fall of Xdrive, Perell was determined not to repeat the company's mistakes. She and her husband have worked tirelessly to keep in touch with customers on the East Coast. Their hard work paid off, generating nearly double revenue year after year, reaching $100 million in 2010 with 380 customers and 74 employees.
"If I didn't believe it or wasn't not passionate, I just wouldn't,” Perell says. "It wouldn't be worth it. »
Related: 3 reasons why productive passion is the tool you need to succeed
But growth is not without cost. Perell's parents divorced when she was a teenager. Just as she learned from her experience with Xdrive, she also learned by observing how the stress of entrepreneurship strains relationships.
“I prioritized my business, then my personal life, by making sure I had the time and finances to meet both of those needs and be successful.” she says. "You can't put a price on experience. I love being an entrepreneur. I love ideas. But you have to be realistic and live. ”
In 2008, Frontline merged with a European-based marketing company in a $30 million deal to become Adconion Direct, with Perell named CEO. She brought the same simple lessons she learned all those years ago:focus on results and be careful not to take outside funding. Adconion saw a 70% year-over-year increase due to ad sales.
In 2014, Amobee, a unit of Asian telecommunications giant Singtel, bought Adconion Direct for $235 million, and Perell once again took the lead as CEO, tasked with building one of the largest independent marketing companies in the world. With 20 offices worldwide and 550 employees reporting to her in the heart of Silicon Valley, she sticks to a simple formula:Execution on IQ.
“You could be a great visionary, but if you don't associate vision with action, it's just your head in the clouds,” she says.
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Perell is the kind of person you instantly love and respect . She is both frank and charismatic, confident and graceful, direct and kind. She knows what she wants, but she doesn't trample others to get it – certainly a redeeming leadership quality. But you don't become the CEO of a massively successful company without making some tough decisions.
Perell's friends have a running joke:Who makes the annual audit list? Unlike a financial audit or a fun and naughty vacation list, she sits down to analyze which relationships are improving her life and which are dragging her down.
"If I didn't believe in it or wasn't passionate about it, I wouldn't be doing it. It wouldn't be worth the day. »
"It's very intentional," Perell says. “At some point you have to make decisions. If it doesn't push you forward, it holds you back.
“I can only deal with bandwidth and noise. Having truly meaningful relationships is the key to success, so why add meaningless or superficial conversations? »
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In 2005, the entire Frontline Direct client and internal database was accidentally erased. Couldn't afford a backup server, data was unrecoverable. Perell remembers standing in an Ikea, considering where to run and hide from trouble. Rather than cower, she took action, reaching out to each client, explaining the situation individually, and working together to rebuild the database. Not a single customer has left the company.
“High IQ doesn’t always equal success,” says Perell. “It takes more than a good idea to be successful, and I think I'm living proof of that. ”
It’s the same honesty and integrity that has made Perell a savvy angel investor with over 70 startups, 12 of which have since been acquired by some of the biggest Fortunes 500 companies. As a leader and investor, she learned a lot about people. Namely, they don't like being told what to do. She doesn't care how her team goes from goal to execution, as long as they achieve the desired outcome.
“I believe in collective thinking,” she says. "I like the entrance. I don't think it's my way or the highway because I like having a lot of smart people around the table who all have different points of view. As a leader, it made me more open to accepting new ideas. »
Related: How to Execute and Make Things Happen
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2018 issue of LadiesBelle I/O magazine.
