KLP Resident Profile: Streamtime

Learn more about Streamtime on their resident page.

Like many New Zealanders that hop around the globe, San Francisco was not Kate McLeod’s first stop overseas. But after picking up some anglicised vowel sounds and valuable London-based experience, the Streamtime Business Development Manager now calls the sunny capital of the tech universe home.

As the US based representative of Kiwi company Streamtime, Kate has been on the ground in San Francisco for a year and a half now. The decision to join the Kiwi Landing Pad was a no brainer for the company who were keen to take advantage of the time saving resources and network in place. They especially valued the community aspect of the Landing Pad, given that Kate was to be heading up Streamtime’s US presence as their first employee Stateside. Hello real live colleagues!

Now with an office location in the heart of SOMA, just blocks away from where many of San Francisco’s creative agencies base themselves, Kate has been able to help Streamtime establish a presence and reputation on the ground. And it’s the reputation in particular that they’re focusing on. As Kate pointed out “It’s an interesting market to focus on [creative agencies], in that they know all of the marketing tricks. So we like to use word of mouth, social, and just being nice people to get our brand out there.”

For those advertising and design agencies that have become part of Streamtime’s growing client base, the product offers a way to streamline the way they manage their time and money. “But we go a lot further”, says Kate. “Streamtime takes care of everything from tracking new business to quoting, then the actual job management, scheduling and time capacity planning, through to invoicing and reporting.” It’s already an essential tool for many agencies in NZ, Australia, UK and a number of other places around the globe. Now American creative agencies are starting to discover its headache reducing powers.

Streamtime’s US growth since arriving at the Landing Pad a year and a half ago has been an intentional slow burn. They’re not preoccupied with instantly becoming a Fortune 500 company and building a campus in Palo Alto, instead they are focusing on building “a great culture and a great company with great people”. And although Kate had experience working for Streamtime previously in London, doing business in San Francisco has meant a slightly different way of operating. Kate’s advice to Kiwi companies when calling American customers? “Be concise, on the ball. Just get to the point and don’t waste their time.” Oh, and go easy on the small talk, the word is that it doesn’t go down as well here as it does in NZ and the UK.