Today, it gives me great pleasure to introduce you to Lihong Hicken, the CEO of TheySaid, and a seasoned startup veteran.

Lihong was raised in a remote village in China, and learned five languages before immigrating to the US where she then rocketed into a successful career in tech.

Starting out as an individual contributor selling high school parents' education packages, Lihong quickly moved up the ladder and became one of User Testings' first female employees and later became CRO at GitPrime where she grew revenues 300-400% YoY.

GitPrime’s co-founder, Ben Thompson, referred to her as "the most impactful hire they ever made”.

Since then Lihong has gone on to experience 4 successful exits from acquisitions to an IPO and is currently leading “TheySaid” as CEO.

Together, we unpack Lihong's story from China to the US and the learnings she’s had along the way.

(01:19) Growing up in China, running family businesses

(03:31) Coming to the US, visas

(06:02) Growing skills throughout her career

(09:02) Deciding to go to business school at Berkeley

(10:14) Building the Wild Dog sales team at GitPrime

(11:01) How her immigrant work ethic impacted her

(17:14) Building her sales team with the customer in mind

(21:58) Creating team incentives

(25:48) Exits and golden handcuffs

(29:47) Building ‘nuffsaid

(37:29) Why NPS doesn’t cut it

(45:36) How to get insights from 500 people

(50:12) Customer Perceived Value

(53:52) Rapid-fire questions

Lihong Hicken's LinkedIn

TheySaid.io

Crossing the Chasm

Three-Body Problem

The Search For Growth Podcast

Alfie Marsh B2B Go-To-Market Advisory

Alfie Marsh's Newsletter "Rocket GTM"

Chris Gibson's Newsletter "Content I Consumed"

Alfie's LinkedIn

Chris' LinkedIn