Hiring Lessons

By Annie Wang

It’s an exciting prospect to bring on a new team member when growing your business. Here is a new, fresh face that’s pledging to join you in the journey of making this dream you’ve carefully curated into a reality that you can both share. But somewhere along the way, you may realize that the person you’ve brought on may not be as good a fit for the company as you’d imagined. For every new founder, this is the stark reality of learning how to hire — learning when it’s working and when it’s not. And what to do when it’s not a good fit. We spoke with CPG founders who shared their experiences — good and bad — on some of their most memorable hiring experiences and what they learned from each instance.

CAROLINE COTTO, COO AT RENEWAL MILL

“Renewal Mill’s first full-time hire was our Director of Operations, Aaron Brown. I was doing all of the sales, marketing, and operations at that time. I knew that if I was going to continue making sales, we needed someone who could be back-of-house, making all the trains run on time. I'd previously hired a lot of interns and taken lots of informational interviews — you never know when you might be looking for someone and it's always great to network. Aaron had reached out to me for an informational interview, and I told him we weren't hiring, but that I'd be happy to make introductions to anyone in my network. But then the next day, our Operations Manager put in her notice. I called Aaron back and said we'd love to have him if he was interested. He's been an incredible asset to the team over the last 2 years.”

“I once hired a brand ambassador to do demos for us at grocery stores all over our home territory of Northern California. This individual had been let go from her previous employer, but we decided to give her a shot. Unfortunately, she was not the right person to put in front of customers as the face of the brand and she caused our other brand ambassador to leave. I learned that even part-time hires need more vet-

ting than I'd anticipated, and that it's always important to

call people's references, which I did not do when assessing this hire. I also should have let this hire go months before I officially did. The lesson learned was if something isn't working, trust your gut and part ways sooner than later.”

KAITLIN MOGENTALE, CEO AT PULP PANTRY

“I hired someone with great experience in finance, figuring I could train them into an operations role and leverage their financial acumen to build our capitalization strategy. I knew that my strengths and interests were in sales & marketing, and wanted to find someone to balance my ideas with a more practical viewpoint. They were great and getting things done that were challenging for me, and it was helpful to have someone heads-down in operations to support growth while being a thought partner in other elements of the business.

“In the end, things didn't work out mainly due to a lack of culture fit. I didn't realize how much that would impact me over the long term, especially because this was a remote employee; I had assumed that culture wouldn't be as great of a factor. But I quickly realized that fit does matter. Sharing

in the values of the company and brand, living those values independently, and communicating with partners

in a way that's on-brand are all critical to success. The lack of this fit was the biggest issue for this specific hire, and would ultimately limit the candidate's potential growth in the company.

I learned that it's really important to build in a trial period

in for any new employee, testing out a 3-6 month period

if possible before transitioning into full-time. In our case, we had a year-long ‘services agreement’ before we would

engage in an employment contract, which made it easy for both parties to walk away when it was no longer a fit. It's something I would look to utilize moving forward.”

SADIE SCHEFFER, CEO AT BREAD SRSLY

“My first hire was a production baker who interned for me for a few weeks before I offered them the position. I was exhausted from working in the kitchen, and needed help making bread so that I could work on the business (and, you know, sleep). This was my first time as a manager, and the learning curve was painful for everyone. I am very grateful to my early employees for riding the waves with me as I learned how to be a good leader!”

“Not all hires have worked out for us, however we have tried to refine our hiring processes constantly to incorporate our learnings. Sometimes, that was learning that we had not set clear expectations about the role. Sometimes it was learning that we did not ask for the right experience or skillset. Sometimes buy-in to the company and mission were missing. We try to assess all of these in our hiring process, but of course, we're not perfect, and are always learning.”

CARLEY SHEEHY, FOUNDER & CEO AT GLOBAL GRUB

“Last year, I hired a ‘jack of all trades’ with a go-getter attitude for a specific need. While I appreciated that she was willing to learn anything, this ultimately took longer than hiring someone that had specific experience in what needed to be done. Ultimately, our skillsets were too similar and moving forward, I am focused on hiring teammates that have expertise in specific areas that are different than mine.”

BLAKE GODLOVE, FOUNDER & CEO AT ETERA FOODS

“The first W-2 employee I hired has been my right-hand-woman since I moved to Los Angeles to pursue building The After Bar. This was at a time when I couldn't handle the influx of emails and communications with my contractors as we revved up to launch After Bar. We quickly became close friends, and while it made for a fun work environment, boundaries became blurred, and our productivity lessened. It was uncomfortable but necessary to reset those boundaries. It's much easier to

establish professional boundaries from the beginning of the working relationship rather than have to make the correction down the road.”

“Last year, I hired an individual to join the team to manage operations, including maintaining inventory and demand planning. After visiting our warehouse and discovering that we had no inventory for our best-selling flavor, I found that they not only effectively failed to fulfill any of their responsibilities but had been working for another company in the same industry for nearly the entirety of their year and a half tenure here. While it was a massive blow to my trust in others. The lesson learned is that there must be checks and

balances across your organization, no matter the seniority, so there is never too much power in the hands of one individual.”

MARIA PALACIO, CEO & CO-FOUNDER AT PROGENY COFFEE

“The first person we hired was our Sales Manager. At the moment, I was a full-time mom and entrepreneur in a new city. My only ecosystem was other moms. I found an incredible mom of two girls who had an outstanding resume, but had been at home for a couple of years raising her girls. She was more than qualified for the job, but she was passionate about being part of something impactful while having the flexibility to raise her family.”

“Being a startup, there are many hats that need to be worn, and not everyone is ready to work outside of their job description. We learned to be more clear during hiring, letting people know that their job goes beyond their description. We also learned never to hire too fast out of need and disregard the employee’s fit with the culture of respect we want to build at Progeny Coffee. Now, we are more intentional on hiring based on our values.”

DREW LEDERMAN, CEO AT RESIST NUTRITION

“At the very start of our business, we were advised to focus on SEO, so we hired an SEO agency. When we didn't see results after the first 3 months, we were told SEO takes a while to turn into sales. We waited another 2 months and eventually let them go in favor of doing our SEO ourselves and focusing on the marketing tactics that converted to sales quickly. When the cost doesn't

justify the result, cut your losses early!”

ERICA RANKIN, CEO AT BRO DOUGH

“I hired our first full-time employee this past summer. After 9 weeks, they ended up leaving to work at a large CPG company. I learned to hire an employee based on their goals, values and drive rather than their skills. That employee wasn't fit for a startup environment - which is totally okay, but my goal is to have someone join the team and stick throughout the whole journey.”