From Marine Biology to Payment Infrastructure: Gr4vy’s Founder on Building in Boom and Bust Cycles
Career pivots rarely follow a straight line. Sometimes the most unexpected transitions lead to the most valuable insights about building companies through different market cycles.
In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, John Lunn, CEO and Founder of Gr4vy, shared how his journey from marine biology to payments shaped his perspective on navigating market volatility.
The Unexpected Entry into Tech
The story begins with a practical problem. “I was based in the UK at the time and there wasn’t a lot of people employing marine biologists,” John recalls. His solution? “I taught myself to code and kind of right place, right time.”
This pivot landed him in the midst of the first internet boom, joining CyberSource in 1997, “probably their first Internet payment company.”
The Wild West of Early Internet
The late ’90s tech scene was transformative. “It was wild, like, it was crazy,” John remembers. “We were pioneers on the edge of something brand new. It was sort of shoestrings and pirates and all the rest of it.”
This era provided crucial lessons about building in uncharted territory: “We were inventing something that never been done before on a medium that was brand new… trying to take a legacy system and make it work with something new, which was the Internet.”
Navigating Multiple Cycles
John’s career spans multiple market cycles. After CyberSource’s sale to Visa, he joined PayPal as “employee four outside North America 16 years ago” and helped build it “from a very bad idea to pretty successful company over the next 14 years.”
This experience through different market conditions informed Gr4vy’s approach to growth. “We raised and launched during the boom times,” John notes, “and I think a lot of the advice at the time is grow very quickly, spend, grow, get as big as you can, as fast as you can. And then the wheels fell off that sort of model.”
Adapting to Market Realities
The recent market downturn prompted a strategic pivot. Looking back, John advises founders to “go a bit slower to start with… getting it right and then growing from there based on revenue is a better way to grow.”
This measured approach has proven successful. The company is “doubling month on month” in transactions and has “tripled in the last quarter” in revenue, but not through aggressive customer acquisition. “The rise in volume is not because we’re adding hundreds and hundreds of new clients,” John explains. “It’s because we’re growing with the customers we’ve got today.”
The Essential Skills for Different Markets
Through these cycles, John identified two critical founder skills: “Versatility… and resilience.” He elaborates: “As a Founder, you wake up every day and you have no idea what you’re going to be dealing with that day… You will be going through spreadsheets and maybe doing fundraising one hour. Next hour, you might be working on your next marketing campaign, then you might be flipping over to sales numbers, pitching to some clients.”
Lessons for Today’s Founders
Gr4vy’s experience offers valuable insights for founders building in today’s market:
- Build for sustainability over speed
- Focus on revenue-based growth
- Prioritize customer relationships over rapid expansion
- Maintain versatility in different market conditions
Their journey shows that success in different market cycles isn’t about following the prevailing wisdom, but about adapting your strategy to market realities while staying focused on sustainable growth.