7 Key Insights from a Likeable Journey

This morning, my wife Carrie and I announced that we had sold Likeable Media, our social media agency from the past 14 years, to 10Pearls, a global digital transformation technology company with 750 employees. While I can't share details of the deal, I can say that it was for an undisclosed 8-figure sum,  that I have no doubt that 10Pearls and Likeable will take off together in a big way, and that my wife and I are very happy. Today, we are also excited to launch Kerpen Ventures, an investment vehicle focused on women founders, BIPOC founders, and social impact entrepreneurs. I am also going to focus on 2 more businesses of mine, Apprentice and Remembering.Live, while Carrie continues running Likeable, now a part of the 10Pearls family. 

While Carrie continues to lead Likeable, as of today, my only role with the agency is the husband to the CEO. It will be a transition that comes with many mixed emotions, to be sure, but I am looking forward to new opportunities and challenges. In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of reflecting on the lessons learned from my first business, and I'm happy to share them here: 

1) Your team is everything 

My heart is filled with gratitude for our employees over the years. Carrie and I started the company in 2007 after our sponsored wedding, in a 1 bedroom garden apartment in Queens with $500 in the bank, and we've been fortunate to employ over 1,000 employees over the past 15 years. We've helped bring together couples (5 weddings!), created lifelong friendships, and launched many careers. Every company is only as good as its team - for a services company, this is even more true. To our leaders, our managers, and all of our employees, I will be forever grateful.

2) Culture matters 

We spend more of our awake-time at work than anywhere else - so you need to LOVE where you go to work everyday. My proudest professional accomplishment is hitting Crain's Best Places to Work in NYC list 5 years in a row. Many entrepreneurs I know are reluctant to spend money on building culture, as sometimes at first glance it seems to impact the bottom line, and it's hard to quantify the results. For Carrie and me, the results are in creating an atmosphere where people are happy to go to work everyday, where people want to stay, and where people want to recruit their friends to work. Over the years, we spent a lot of money on sending the team to camp, Atlantic City, Miami, and even a cruise, and giving away all sorts of fun perks. I don't regret a penny of those investments. 

3) Your values and brand promise matter, too

Core value and a brand promise make a big difference in building a company. Many small business owners and entrepreneurs are so focused on product, or marketing, or sales, that they neglect this essential work. Our core values of drive, accountability, passion and balance have served us well over the years, serving as a north star in hiring and firing decisions. Our mission of creating a more likeable world reminded us everyday of our "why". Our brand promise of faster service from the smartest in social media with likeability guaranteed served to differentiate us in an increasingly crowded marketplace. It matters less what your core values and brand promise are, and more that you draw a line in the sand, and have both. 

4) Own a word or phrase 

I'll never forget when Verne Harnish, founder of Entrepreneurs Organization and a great friend and mentor, gave us a shoutout for "owning the word Likeable" in one of his speeches. We were someone able to become synonymous with the common word Likeable, and while that's likely in great part due to luck, the lesson is clear: Figure out a word or phrase that best represents who you are as a company at your core, and keep repeating it until you own it. 

5) Build to Sell 

Along with Verne's book, Scaling Up, the most influential book on our journey was John Warrilow's Built to Sell. To be clear, even though we just sold, the book is not about how to sell a company - it's about how to build a company that can potentially be sold. Carrie and I read it, and we loved it, and we were able to build scalable, repeatable, predictable systems that would eventually allow us to actually sell. We also shared it with our leadership teams over the years - again, there is nothing wrong with building a company that could be sold, and from my perspective, it's always better to be more transparent with your team. 

6) Take risks 

Many of our initiatives failed over the years (I'm looking at you, LikeableU!) but we continued to take calculated risks over time. Of course, the biggest risk is no risk at all, and while we had our share of failures, we also had lots of successes, like our content credit system - and if we hadn't had a culture which supported risk-taking, these successes might never have happened. The biggest risk is the risk not taken. 

7) Choose a partner wisely  

I find myself talking to entrepreneurs quite a bit on Clubhouse these days, and I often get asked how to find a business partner. What I say is: It's better to find a partner who you trust than a partner who has a particular skill set. Think: a family member, close friend, or even spouse. For me, my wife Carrie has been the most amazing partner I could have had throughout this journey. I trust her. I respect her. I love her. During the first 7 years of Likeable's history, she helped me execute my vision as my COO. During the last 7 years, I watched in awe as she built and executed her own vision for the company. 

I am grateful to Carrie, and to all of our amazing teammates over the past 14 years. As Likeable continues its work with 10Pearls, I look forward to cheering on from the sidelines, and I hope you can use these insights to build your companies to grow and sell!