Christian Watts, CEO City Sightseeing San Francisco & CEO Magpie – His Entrepreneurial Journey from Newcastle to Silicon Valley
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Show Notes
DESCRIPTION
In this episode, Jeannette speaks to Christian Watts, who is the founder and CEO of City Sightseeing in San Francisco and CEO of Magpie a travel/technology business. , They talk about how Christian started with nothing and arrived in the US with $50 and his cute British accent and found a way to stand out from the crowd in a highly competitive market. Christian has funded and founded several start-ups and with City Sightseeing went from zero to becoming the market leader. More recently Christian talks about how he was able to use his travel industry experience to enter the very lucrative Software as a Service (SaaS) space. During the podcast, Christian shares his approach to business including how to deal with failure productively, develop the right mindset, adapt your skillset quickly and make use of mentors. They also talk about how the travel industry is adapting post lockdown.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- We thought we could take over the world in the early days, It took a few years to realise we needed to focus.
- Regardless of the field you work in, finding a way to differentiate yourself from your competitors will enable you to grow fast
- Diversifying too soon brings problems, it is best to master one business model first. Being in a commodity business is not a good place to be, as always competing on price.
- Attending conferences is a great way to learn and pick up new ideas, but you must act
- Christian tells how he started out City Sightseeing by buying an old London bus and shipping it over to San Francisco
- Deep rooted belief and vision to become number 1 within 3 years – visualised it, talked about it to everyone and made it happen
- Ignoring negative people around you is important. Somebody saying something isn’t going to work is like a challenge to prove them wrong
- The thrill of building something, creating growth and gaining market share is what drives you on
- It’s important to adapt your language depending on whether you’re speaking to investors or to end customers and suppliers
- Keeping up with and using new marketing techniques is vital if you don´t do that you soon get left behind
- SaaS is a very lucrative business model which many people can incorporate into what they are already doing
- Entrepreneurs should ensure they are continually learning
- Listen to others who work in your field, but if you are certain you can do things differently don´t be afraid to do so, even if it is going to be a big challenge
- Finding mentors, people you can safely seek advice from will save you from making all kinds of mistakes which will help you progress faster
- By having the right people around you, you can save so many mistakes
- Back up your ideas with an actionable plan to make things happen
- Everybody needs to put more tools in their toolkit to be ready for whatever the future world is going to look like
- Challenging times push you not to give up button learn and be creative and think ‘this is my time to step up’
- During the bad times you can really use that drive onwards
- How to develop the right mindset to take advantage of the opportunities business challenges and failures present
BEST MOMENTS
‘Took us a few years to really work out that we need to focus on one business,’
‘Doesn't matter if you succeed, or if you fail, it's all about what can we learn from this? ´
´I probably spend more time now learning than ever’
VALUABLE RESOURCES –
Brave, Bold, Brilliant podcast series
ABOUT THE GUEST
Christian is the founder and CEO of Magpie Travel, a company that is focused on content management for the tours and activities sector. He is best known in the industry as founder and CEO of City Sightseeing, San Francisco's first operator of hop-on-hop-off and day-tour sightseeing. From its founding in March 1997, the company's fleet grew to 25 open-top double-decker buses carrying over 200,000 passengers annually. Christian is a native of Newcastle, UK, and a graduate in Economics from the University of Leeds, UK. An early adopter and proponent of web-based distribution strategies, he is a frequent speaker on the topic at industry conferences.
CONTACT METHODS FOR GUEST
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianwatts/
ABOUT THE HOST
Jeannette Linfoot is a highly regarded senior executive, property investor, board advisor and business mentor with over 25 years of global professional business experience across the travel, leisure, hospitality, and property sectors. Having bought, ran, and sold businesses all over the world, Jeannette now has a portfolio of her own businesses and also advises and mentors other business leaders to drive forward their strategies as well as their own personal development.
Jeannette is a down to earth leader, a passionate champion for diversity & inclusion and a huge advocate of nurturing talent so every person can unleash their full potential and live their dreams.
CONTACT METHOD
https://www.jeannettelinfootassociates.com/
Podcast Description
Jeannette Linfoot talks to incredible people about their experiences of being Brave, Bold & Brilliant, which have allowed them to unleash their full potential in business, their careers and life in general. From the boardroom tables of ‘big’ international business to the dining room tables of entrepreneurial start-ups, how to overcome challenges, embrace opportunities and take risks, whilst staying ‘true’ to yourself is the order of the day.