Ep 01 - Leading Growth to a Massive Exit and Beyond, with Freshly and Wikibuy Growth leaders

Anish Shah speaks with growth experts Adam Gassman and Luke Fernandez about the importance of delegating and elevating key people in order to grow a scaling startup and avoid burnout. They also talk about the shift from just solving problems to creating systems that are made up of the right processes and people. 

When it comes to structuring teams, Luke explains that the mistake he learned at Wikibuy was not hiring quickly enough. Adam shares that hiring to fill the ‘hole of today’ was not the right strategy for Freshly. Lastly, the two share their reflections on what they would do differently or better if they could go back. 

Here’s What We Discussed: 

• [00:42] Our speakers share their backgrounds and experience 
• [02:33] What were the most important decisions you made when transitioning from a small startup to a scaling business? 
• [6:37] How do you create a system that empowers employees and informs them to make correct decisions? 
• [10:07] Adam discusses his tenure at Freshly and the importance of maintaining relationships even when leaving a company 
• [16:37] The value of executive coaching and how it benefits companies long term 
• [19:41] Luke talks about how he almost left Wikibuy twice and what kept him at the company 
• [25:20] Lessons learned and mistakes made when attempting to structure teams 
• [31:12] How to define the right outcome KPI’s and north star metrics as a company matures  
• [39:15] In retrospect what are some things you could have done better? 
• [43:41] Tips for hiring the right team 

About Our Speakers 

Adam Gassman is a Growth & Marketing executive with a decade of experience driving user growth for both content & D2C brands. Adam previously led growth at Freshly from its earliest days through its 1.5B sale to Nestle. Currently, Adam is leading Lane 529, the boutique marketing shop he founded after leaving Freshly.

Luke Fernandez is a Consumer SAAS and e-commerce user growth leader and advisor who is always looking to share knowledge and meet great teams. An early hire at Wikibuy, Luke worked as Head of Growth to lead the company to its 2019 acquisition by Capital One where he went on to become Head of Growth Marketing for Capital One Shopping. Today, Luke is a growth advisor and angel investor.

About Our Moderator

Anish Shah is the CEO & Founder of executive search agency Bring Ruckus. Anish has worked in-house in Growth roles at Snapfish and Getable. He started Bring Ruckus as a Growth consultancy 11 years ago working with 40+ clients, then re-focused his firm on executive recruiting for Growth leaders.

Quotes

 

“One of the most critical decisions is really knowing that if you don't start to delegate to and elevate people, you're gonna reach a ceiling rather quickly.” - Adam Gassman 

 

“When you're working as a first hire for a startup, you are the go-to person to provide the best answer for the problem in front of you. When you start scaling up, you move from having to be the person to solve the problem, to being the person who has to build a system to solve the problem.” - Luke Fernandez  

 

“There's nothing more critical than making sure you leave on just as good of terms as when you got hired. And sometimes that could be difficult, but I think it's really important because we also work in a very small world and relationships are critical.” - Adam Gassman

 

“I think most early stage companies burn because they're not thoughtful enough. Because they lean in too aggressively on building teams and spending dollars without a clear return… I would characterize the thing that we could have done better as being the exact opposite of that.” - Luke Fernandez 

 

“Scaling is like building muscle; You have to bulk and then cut. You can't build muscle quickly by dieting.” - Luke Fernandez 

 

“All of our clients want to hire people who have the hottest backgrounds, coming out of the hottest companies, that have scaled the best, and have the best track records. Those aren't always the best people for early stage anymore.” - Anish Shah  

ABOUT RUCKUS

We are growth leaders who recruit your game changers. Visit https://bringruckus.com and connect on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to more episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify Google Podcasts, Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts! 

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