A glimpse of the next generation: Zoe Zhao and Annalise Dragic, co-founders of Azlin Software

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Orbit - An Hg software leadership podcast 29 min 8 chapters transcribed 1 month ago

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Who are Zoe Zhao and Annalise Dragic and what is Azlin Software’s mission?

Annalisa Dražic 0:04

In talking to founders, we've also seen that a lot are building from their own lived experience. Their families are farmers or cabinet makers, and they were the ones who studied computer science and actually ended up building software to help their parents or siblings run the business better. And then they discovered that actually it's also useful. useful to their competitors or similar types of companies. And so with that realize that they've actually built something quite valuable.

Nick 0:40

Welcome to Orbit, the HG podcast series where we speak to leaders from across the tech ecosystem to hear how they've built and scaled some of the most successful software companies in the world. And I'm very happy to be joined today by Zoe Zhao and Annalisa Dražic, co-founders of Aslin Software. Both Zoe and Annalisa have extensive experience in investing and growing B2B software companies. Zoe is an alumni of HT's very own Saturn investment team, having worked in both our London and West Coast offices, and Annalisa has worked in Venture Capital and corporate M ⁇ A at Sapphire Ventures, Atomico and LinkedIn. Now they're combining their strengths in building Aslin Software, a pioneering investment company that buys, holds and grows vertically specialized B2B software for the very long term.

Nick 1:31

And I should mention that they're also serving as industry advisors to HG, for which we're very grateful. Zoe Annalisa, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. Um so I'm gonna kick off, if I can. Zoe, we've obviously known each other for a long time, six years working together as colleagues in the Saturn team at HG. Um you're on the board of VISMA, you led a number of our investments for us, for which we're eternally grateful because they're doing super well. Um Give us a bit of an update of what you've been doing together and individually since you left H G.

Zoe Zhao 2:02

Uh well thank you Nick. I always say I learned everything about software investing at HD. Um and I'm still very close friends with a lot of colleagues I've worked with at HD. So I feel like I've never left. Um and what we're doing now is still investing in B2B software, just a slightly different business model in a different part of the market. Um last year since I started taking some time off thinking about all the things I learned. And really enjoy doing at HG and working together on several of our platform investments, including Visma. This much smaller part of the market, like working with a lot of founders when they're thinking about scaling the business, is super attractive. And Annalisa and I also had the advantage of um having spoken with 150 people who are.

Zoe Zhao 2:57

our founders, builders and investors in different kind of business model investing and backing software companies. Finally we designed and launched Asoftware this year with great support from investors including yourself. So very excited to get things started.

Nick 3:16

Brilliant. I'm gonna go off script straight away by just asking you both quickly. You did a lot of research. I remember talking to you and there are a lot of people that you met that I've been fortunate enough to kind of get in touch with since then and you put me in touch with. Um It's a really kind of interesting, kind of vibrant ecosystem that you're you're now part of. I mean, can you illustrate that in any way for us?

How did Zoe and Annalise transition from HG investors to co‑founders of a B2B software platform?

Nick 3:38

Like just the types of people and types of businesses you've met, all that kind of stuff?

Annalisa Dražic 3:43

Yeah, I think f Zoe and I really where we started when we decided we wanted to work together was defining our core values. And so we had those as kind of guiding principles. But then from there we did. We went out and we spoke to many different types of both operators and investors in and around B2B software. And that was you know, people coming from the private equity world, from more growth equity, from venture capital, from others who had built and scaled really successful businesses. Because I think for us it's like we share this passion around B2B software. But we wanted to figure out a strategy for Aslan that was gonna best leverage our skills and also figure out kind of the par the parts of the market that had opportunities.