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With Hadleigh Ford from SwipedOn
Building a company isn’t a single event – it’s a long game. One with messy middles, unexpected pivots, and the odd “what now?” at 2am.
Join us for a series of raw and real conversations with successful Kiwi founders who’ve taken the hits, made the calls, and kept showing up. This is about the stuff they wish they knew earlier – the kind of lessons that only come from doing the work (and a few things going sideways).
This event is for founders, early-stage teams and leaders who are serious about growing. We screen all registrations to make sure appropriate criteria is met.
More on our speaker:
SwipedOn is a workplace sign-in system turned global SaaS success story, built in Tauranga and scaled to thousands of businesses worldwide.
Hadleigh Ford didn’t set out to build a SaaS company and definitely not one that would be sold twice. He started in the maritime industry, worlds away from term sheets and cap tables. But SwipedOn scaled globally, was acquired by a public company, and later snapped up by private equity. And oh boy, has it been a ride.
The one thing he wishes he’d known sooner? Back yourself. Especially when things get noisy and complicated.
“There were times I overthought things or waited too long for more certainty,” he says. “But you rarely get certainty. You just make the best call you can and keep moving.”
Life inside a listed company came with its own lessons: constant reporting, shifting priorities, and investor pressure. It taught Hadleigh to let go of perfect timing and to move with clarity, not consensus.
These days, he leads with gut instinct and a steady hand. Even when things get messy.
“No ragrets,” he laughs. “You learn far more from the rough patches than the smooth sailing.”
