Levi Fawcett's story is a testament to the power of ambition, from launching multiple businesses as a university student to co-founding Partly, a company revolutionising the US$1.9 trillion auto parts industry.
Alongside co-founders Nathan Taylor, Mark Song, Evan Jia, and Tony Austin, Partly is digitising an industry where 95% of sales activity happened over the phone. With Partly’s AI and machine learning infrastructure, buyers across the world are now connected with the right parts automatically.
Levi's achievements include being a finalist for EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2023, making the Forbes' 30 Under 30 list, and more recently, winning Overall Winner at the 2024 New Zealand Leadership Awards. His impressive background — founding four companies while pursuing engineering studies and later working at Rocket Lab — demonstrates the wealth of wisdom he has to share with us all.
In this interview, Levi shares insights on:
Kia ora Levi,
Firstly, was there a lightbulb moment when you realised the potential of Partly? How did you make the decision to go all-in?
LF: The 'aha' moment was uncovering that 95% of part purchases were happening offline, compared with the 79% average for retail.
To make the decision, we asked ourselves some tough questions: Is this a real, painful problem customers actually want solved? Would fixing it make a big difference? Are we the right team to tackle this? And importantly, are we willing to dedicate the next decade or more to this challenge?
After hundreds of talks with customers and industry experts, it became clear and we went all-in.
You've mentioned the importance of your background in engineering and your time at Rocket Lab in shaping your approach to problem-solving. Can you provide more details on how these experiences influenced your entrepreneurial journey and how it applies to how Partly operates?
LF: I could talk at length about how working at Rocket Lab has shaped Partly's DNA. One of my biggest takeaways was the importance of having a really clear goal - you can build a culture of ownership with minimal processes and management when everyone knows exactly what to work towards.
Pete is wildly ambitious, and that’s been an influence on me. When I joined, there was only one other company that had launched a rocket - SpaceX, and here we were, a team of a hundred people from New Zealand looking to do the same. New Zealand punches above its weight in raw talent, but often lacks that extra level of ambition that sets places like Silicon Valley apart.
Other takeaways were the value of pairing best-in-the-world experts with inexperienced but wildly curious, ambitious younger talent, and always reasoning from first principles.
"Pete is wildly ambitious, and that’s been an influence on me. When I joined, there was only one other company that had launched a rocket - SpaceX, and here we were, a team of a hundred people from New Zealand looking to do the same. New Zealand punches above its weight in raw talent, but often lacks that extra level of ambition that sets places like Silicon Valley apart."
Partly's rapid growth and international expansion within just three years is impressive. Could you share some strategies or key decisions that facilitated this growth?
LF: Focus on the customer, making sure that you’re genuinely providing value.
Securing New Zealand's largest Series A funding is a significant achievement. What insights can you share about this fundraising journey, and what advice would you give to other startups seeking substantial investment?
LF: My advice would be to focus on the startup fundamentals, ignoring the noise. It’s also important to understand what VC’s are looking for. Are you solving a painful, global problem? Are you wildly ambitious? Why are you the team to solve this problem? Why now?
Maintaining a strong company culture and high-performing team is essential for a growing, geographically dispersed team. How do you ensure alignment with Partly's mission across the organisation and continue to hire the best people?
LF: Repetition. We repeat our ‘one-thing’ (Partly’s goal is to make it easy for buyers to find the right parts) so often that every one Partly knows it by heart. We also continually refocus the team around the customer. Be it an engineer in NZ or sales team in the UK, our team are always co-creating our product alongside great customers.
Our hiring philosophy is to hire well ahead of where Partly currently is and raise the bar with every hire.
🔥 Quick-fire questions
Your favourite resource you’d recommend to read/listen/watch?
Founders Podcast by David Senra.
A word or phrase that reflects how you approach life at the moment?
Ambition.
It’s the year 2044, what’s one thing that you hope has materially changed for the better as a result of the work you’re involved with?
No more cars end up in landfill unnecessarily.
Meet Levi here.
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