Get the right people
Aboud began by working on his leadership team. He needed a group of management-level peers that could help him build the right technological infrastructure for the volume Aboud wanted to capture.
“I wanted to assemble what I call the dream team and not just have one opinion but be able to sit around the table with five or six individuals and share everybody’s experience,” Aboud says. “One of the biggest challenges was doing that in South Florida.”
South Florida has a lot of things going for it: It’s got sun, it’s got sandy beaches and now it’s got LeBron James. But one thing it didn’t have in the eyes of Aboud was a wealth of “dot-com” talent.
“Usually these types of organizations, an online company or a dot-com, they are in New York or San Francisco,” Aboud says. “The challenge we had was not only do we need to build the right technology down in South Florida, we had to find the right leadership down in South Florida. I was not willing to compromise, because people did not live here. I knew one of the challenges I had was to relocate great talent down here.”
Aboud was going to have to go out and find these people and sell them on the opportunity that lay before Saveology.
“The challenge is finding those people that work the way you work, the same style, the same aggressiveness and the same 80- or 90-hour workweeks with no fear and just moving forward,” Aboud says. “It’s very difficult to find the C-level person who is willing to get down and dirty and be very aggressive and do the amount of traveling we have to do as a company and go strike the deals.”
The first thing you need to do when you’re looking for an experienced C-level leader is to sell yourself, sell your company and sell the opportunity you’re looking at. If this person is as talented as you want them to be, they’re probably not actively looking for a job.
“A good company does not get rid of a good person,” Aboud says.
Thus, you need to give them a reason to leave what they’ve got and come work for you.
“You’re looking for someone who wants to enrich themselves and is looking for a fast-growth company,” Aboud says. “I targeted those types of individuals, because I felt if I could share with them my passion and my vision and convince them on the business model itself, at that point it wouldn’t be about the current dollar amount or package I was able to put in front of them.
“It was more about, ‘I want to be part of a winning team. I want to be part of a growing team. This is something I want to achieve in my life.’”
So where do you find these people? Start by talking to your friends and peers who know you best. Use them as resources to help you identify potential talent.
“I went to my lawyers and accountants and other financial-related people,” Aboud says. “They’ll know my mentality and they’ll know the way I run a business. They’ll recommend people that they think would fit the culture of this organization. Look at your industry. Look at your network of friends and business relationships and tell them what you’re looking for. The recommendations of friends and business associates go a very long way.”
You’re looking for people who have confidence in their abilities but aren’t so brash that they can’t work as part of a team.
“One thing that discourages me is when I sit down with people and they say, ‘Yeah, I worked for this company and they did $50 million in sales, but I took them to $150 million,” Aboud says. “I doubt that there is any ‘I’ who took a company to $150 million. To me, the answer is, ‘I was part of a great team that took it to $150 million.’”
It’s obviously a lot tougher to find someone with experience and a track record of success than it is to fill an entry-level position.
“You’re not going to be able to sell a bill of goods to these C-level people,” Aboud says. “You have to have a strong business model. You have to have a strong balance sheet. You have to be able to articulate your vision. What you have to do is be ready to fail in making the wrong decision. When I hire people, I don’t have to bat 1.000. I understand that if I do my due diligence and I follow some key points I’ve given myself to follow, I believe I’ll have a high success rate. What I’m looking for are people who have an understanding and comprehension of what we’re trying to accomplish as a company.”
