Podcast
SuiteFiles CEO Andrew Sims on the Opportunities and Challenges of Scaling Globally
Andrew joins Steve on the latest episode of Give It A Nudge to talk about his company’s journey, and the opportunities & challenges of scaling globally.
About the guest
Andrew Sims
CEO at SuiteFiles
Andrew Sims is the CEO of SuiteFiles, a Wellington-based cloud document management platform built for professional services businesses. He co-founded the company roughly nine and a half years before this episode, spinning it out of a Wellington IT services firm called Provoke. Under his leadership SuiteFiles grew its annual recurring revenue by 70 percent in a single year and expanded from Australasia into North America and the UK.
Episode overview
Andrew Sims joined Steve Grace on Give It A Nudge to walk through the full arc of SuiteFiles: from a side project inside a Wellington IT consultancy to a cloud document management platform with customers across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and North America. The conversation covers how private equity found SuiteFiles almost by accident, why the company only hired its first salesperson after years of purely inbound growth, and what it really takes to shift a small New Zealand SaaS company into a global mindset.
How private equity arrived without a pitch
SuiteFiles never went looking for investors. Its majority shareholder, Provoke, was acquired by San Diego-based BridgeWest, which meant BridgeWest simply inherited the SuiteFiles shareholding. What started as an unexpected arrangement has since become a genuine partnership, with BridgeWest board advisors including a former ServiceNow board member and a seasoned SaaS M&A specialist who Andrew speaks with weekly.
“It was purely by accident really. We weren’t out actively looking for a private equity investor or anything like that. It’s just that the company that had the majority of our shares got purchased.”
Andrew Sims 3:00
Building a sales engine from zero
For most of its life SuiteFiles relied entirely on inbound demand. Andrew admitted to Steve that when they first met he had called asking for help hiring a salesperson because the company had never done any selling despite already having a substantial customer base. Shifting from a product-led, build-it-and-they-will-come culture to running SDRs and account executives was, by Andrew’s account, the single biggest internal transformation the business has gone through.
“A SaaS business when we built this thing… if you build it they will come. That’s really not how SaaS businesses are successful. SaaS businesses are successful because they have sales and marketing engines.”
Andrew Sims 24:00
Losing the CTO and rebuilding stronger
On the first working day of the year, the company’s co-founder and CTO resigned. With only eight staff at the time and a codebase largely locked in one person’s head, it was the most difficult period in SuiteFiles’ history. Andrew rebuilt the development team to seven engineers, opened up the codebase so that no single person holds exclusive knowledge of any area, and shifted from large quarterly releases to two-week sprint cycles.
“We’ve got to be thankful for the fact that we were in a good place this time and make the most of it.”
Andrew Sims 33:00
Thinking globally from a small country
With 70 percent ARR growth behind them, SuiteFiles made the call to expand beyond Australasia. Andrew’s first US hire, based in Atlanta, works a 16-hour time-zone gap from Wellington. His advice to founders eyeing global markets: commit mentally before you commit operationally, be ready to adjust your personal schedule, and be honest with new hires about the scale difference between a 23-person Wellington company and the 19,000-person businesses they may have left behind.
Key takeaways
Chapters
0:00Introduction and SuiteFiles overview 2:00How BridgeWest became the major shareholder 6:00The origin story and the Xero connection 12:00Business size, ARR growth and where SuiteFiles is heading 16:00Expanding globally: challenges of time zones and hiring overseas 21:00How COVID forced a shift to digital lead generation 24:00Building a sales culture from zero 28:00Andrew’s personal habits and the value of natural light 30:00Maintaining culture with a globally distributed team 34:00Biggest mistake: chasing distraction projects early on 37:00Why you should consider joining SuiteFiles
Mentioned in this episode
Frequently asked questions
What does SuiteFiles do?
SuiteFiles is a cloud document management platform designed for professional services businesses such as accounting and financial advisory firms. It integrates with Microsoft 365 and Xero to give teams a single place to store, access, and manage client files from anywhere.
Who invested in SuiteFiles?
San Diego-based private equity firm BridgeWest became SuiteFiles’ major shareholder after acquiring Provoke, the Wellington IT services company that originally spun SuiteFiles out and held the majority stake.
How fast did SuiteFiles grow?
In the year leading up to this episode, SuiteFiles grew its annual recurring revenue by 70 percent. The team also expanded from around eight staff to over 23, with additional hires in Melbourne and the company’s first US-based employee in Atlanta.
What markets is SuiteFiles expanding into?
SuiteFiles is actively expanding into North America and the UK, building on an existing base of around 30 to 40 UK clients. The company sees the Northern Hemisphere markets as critical to reducing its dependence on the Australasian seasonal cycle.
What was the biggest challenge SuiteFiles faced?
The departure of the co-founding CTO on the first working day of the year was the single hardest episode Andrew describes. With the codebase concentrated in one person’s hands, the company had to rebuild its engineering team and overhaul its development processes almost from scratch.
Topics discussed
Full transcript
Auto-generated, may contain minor errors. Click any timestamp to jump to that point in the video.
Show full transcript (39 minutes, 8 sections)
0:00 Introduction and SuiteFiles overview
Steve Grace welcomes Andrew Sims and introduces SuiteFiles as a cloud-based document management solution for small to medium professional services businesses. Andrew explains the company is based in Wellington and has been incorporated for about nine and a half years, turning ten in April.
2:00 How BridgeWest became the major shareholder
Andrew explains that BridgeWest, a San Diego private equity firm, became SuiteFiles’ major shareholder not through a fundraising process but because they acquired Provoke, the company that originally held the majority of SuiteFiles shares. He describes the relationship as now being highly collaborative, with BridgeWest board advisors including a former ServiceNow board member and an M&A specialist he speaks with weekly.
6:00 The origin story and the Xero connection
The company was born out of conversations between Provoke and Xero founder Rod Drury, who was looking for a way to move accounting practices into the cloud. A developer within Provoke had also been working on a personal project to make Office 365 function more like Google Docs. Those two threads combined to become SuiteFiles, with that developer, Callum, becoming the company’s CTO.
12:00 Business size, ARR growth and expansion plans
At the time of recording, SuiteFiles had 23 to 24 staff, with two people in Melbourne and its first hire in the US, based in Atlanta. Annual recurring revenue grew 70 percent in the prior year. The company is actively looking to hire more in Australia and expand into the UK and North America.
16:00 Challenges of global expansion
Andrew talks through the mental hurdle of committing to a global strategy and how he manages an Atlanta-based employee across a challenging time zone. He stresses the importance of being honest with overseas candidates about the scale difference between a small New Zealand company and the large enterprises they may have come from.
21:00 COVID, lead generation and the pivot to digital
Pre-COVID, SuiteFiles generated most of its leads through in-person events in Australia and the UK. When those disappeared, the company had to rebuild its lead generation entirely around digital marketing and cold outbound, a significant shift for a team that had never done outbound sales.
24:00 Building a sales culture
Andrew describes the cultural transformation required to move from a purely inbound business to one with SDRs, account executives, and daily sales stand-ups. He reflects on calling The Nudge Group as the only founder who had ever rung asking to hire a salesperson because they had never done any selling yet already had a significant customer base.
34:00 Biggest mistake, CTO departure, and why join SuiteFiles
Andrew covers two major challenges: the early tendency to chase unicorn distraction projects for short-term cash, and the sudden resignation of the founding CTO in January. He concludes by making the case for working at SuiteFiles, highlighting the company’s global ambitions, strong investor support, and a culture where new hires genuinely move the needle.
About the host
Steve Grace is the founder and CEO of The Nudge Group, a technology-focused recruitment and advisory business. He has built and scaled companies across Australia and the US, and hosts Give It A Nudge to spotlight founders and operators building something meaningful.
More Episodes
View All
Podcast
How Lawpath Reached 600,000 Customers: Tom Willis on Co-Founder Dynamics
Podcast
800 Billion Behaviour Changes: Mick Liubinskas on Commercialising Climate Tech
Podcast
Angel Investing in Australia with Aussie Angels CEO Cheryl Mack
