Shift & Thrive: CEO Insights on Driving Change

What's the hardest leadership skill for a founder to learn, and why does almost everyone get it wrong at first? In this episode of Shift & Thrive, host Natalie Nathanson talks with Ahmad Jadallah, Founder and CEO of PanBio, an AI-native platform that helps governments and hospitals localize clinical genetic testing and makes genomic data more accessible for researchers worldwide. Ahmad opens up about his unconventional path from medicine to startup leadership, the early years of doing every job himself, and the moment he realized he had to delegate or stall out. He also reflects on staying close to clients no matter how much the company grows, and the childhood influences that shaped his drive toward science and discovery in the first place.

Takeaways:

~ Applied research, the kind tied directly to industry and market validation, moves faster and creates more real world impact than research pursued for its own sake.

~ When entering a hard market, look outside your comfort zone. PanBio found product markets fit not in the US, but in the Middle East and Central Asia.

~ In highly regulated or technical spaces, incentives need to be overwhelming. Make an offer your prospective client genuinely cannot refuse.

~ The hardest part of founder growth is learning to delegate. Early hires were brought on to tell the founder what to do in their domain, not the other way around.

~ Two things matter most in early stage leadership: build fast and stay close to your clients.

~ Founders should stay personally involved with their earliest and most important clients, long after the deal closes.

~ Education that connects science and math to real world impact early in a child's life can shape a lifelong passion for research and discovery

Quote of the Show:

~ “Every founder knows that at first, you need to do everything. But the worst thing you can do is get stuck there. It’s very important as you grow your company to really learn how to delegate. Today we are much faster, much more efficient than the early years when I used to do everything.” - Ahmad Jadallah

Links
~ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahmad-jadallah/
~ Website: https://pan.bio/

Ways to Tune In:
~ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2D1YbT2QhKxIwbREpU7EMb
~ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/id1740828813
~ Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/fa60b654-1955-4055-93df-fdd40c2a5c8f/shift-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change
~ iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-shift-thrive-ceo-insights-166792501
~ Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/podcast/shift-and-thrive-ceo-insights-on-driving-change/PC:1001086797 
~ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClf9QxGUxZw_Sv8_4bZP34Q 

This show is sponsored by Magnetude Consulting, bringing you the thinking-Power of a Growth Consultancy and the Getting-It-Done Power of a full-service B2B Marketing Agency. 

Learn more at: https://www.magnetudeconsulting.com