Second, you need to go in with the beginner's mind, using first principles logic of Silicon Valley. You need to want to talk to anybody and everybody, and just learn about who they are, what they're doing, how they do it and why they're doing it. First, you just must have this insatiable desire to learn. Knox: In those early days of a startup, how do you suggest entrepreneurs tackle those unfamiliar challenges?īouton: It starts with outside the box thinking and using a few tactics. I think that's a huge part of startup life-finding somebody who treats it as more than a job. They are people who will treat it as more than a job. They are people who you, in theory, can trust. Those are people who you know intimately and who know you intimately. The other thing I'd say that goes against conventional wisdom is that friends and family are the best hires. They will be the best hire that you ever make. What can I do?" If you can find that type of person, jump and hold onto them for dear life. I'm so fired up about what you guys are doing. I want somebody who's just like, "I will join for anything. Somebody who's focused on title or somebody who's focused on promotion are just huge red flags for me. Not somebody who's done the right things or checked the right boxes, always looking for the next promotion. What I would look for usually is not the resume builder. Our first hire was famously our worst hire, and we had to move on pretty quickly from them. We made so many mistakes, so a lot of what I'm saying today is hindsight 20/ 20 and taking those lessons learned. Knox: If you aren’t looking for someone’s professional experience, how do you find the right mindset and talent?īouton: It's really hard. Initially that meant he started with finance and marketing, while I focused on sales and supply chain. Those are the critical things in finding a successful business partner, as opposed to “he's great at marketing and I'm great at supply chain.” Justin and I complemented each other so it allowed us to be great partners and divide things up. It’s more important to have similar work ethics, similar passions, and similar ways of styles of working. Nothing is rocket science and anything can be learned. It’s just my two cents, but I couldn't disagree more. Knox: With both of you coming from a background on the legal side, how did you divide up what you’d each focus on with Halo Top?īouton: A lot of people get caught up on this about trying to find somebody with complementary skill sets. We thought the product was the best thing since sliced bread and if we just got it out there, it would fly off shelves. I took the leap of faith, and I think both of us naively thought it would be easy. He needed a partner to help raise money and scale the business. As I was getting ready to quit my current law firm, he told me about this healthy ice cream he had made in his kitchen. He was a lawyer as well and we met in a lawyer basketball league of all places. My former business partner, Justin Woolverton, the founder of Halo Top, created the original recipe in his home kitchen.
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