That Time I Hired the Next Sheryl Sandberg

Before I write anything else, I have to say this: It has been difficult to think about business – or anything else this week – in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling last Friday.??

We are trying to get by through an unconscionable chapter in our country’s history… Writing is a form of therapy, and I’m trying to move forward…?

But we have a long and difficult road ahead of us… And must remain relentlessly focused on restoring the gains we've lost, protecting the one's we haven't, and marching hard towards making even more progress in the United States of America...

On that note, I wanted to focus my column on something uplifting this week: one of the best hires I ever was fortunate enough to make as a CMO.

Hiring is hard – but especially in marketing where there is that “X-factor” and level of subjectivity that one must consider in the decision-making process. The same reason why?so few B2B tech startup CMOs keep their jobs for more than a year or two?applies to virtually every marketing hire, regardless of the role they're applying for, and their years of experience.

To protect the innocent from being associated with moi, I won’t call out this person by name, but I hope she’ll know who she is, and that reading this column (if she has the time for it!) will bring even a small amount of joy to her day.

*

The Marketing Generalist

I am starting Part 1 of a [who knows how many parts series on hiring great marketers] with the very first person I ever hired, a marketing manager (a generalist) at a very early-stage startup.

Starting from a baseline of zero, the marketing team was just me. Once we began to gain some market traction, the CEO authorized me to bring on my first hire. And with very little budget allocated for marketing people and programs, it would have to be someone young and hungry.

My goal was to bring on someone who would be competent to manage a variety of tasks – a “Jack or Jill of all trades” – with a primary focus on work that would help us fill the top of the funnel with qualified leads.?

An applicant crossed my desk who was two years out of college, and whose sole professional experience was as an entry-level marketing coordinator within a giant marketing department at a top 5 management consulting firm.?

Having started my own career doing menial tasks for two years at a global bank – I immediately could relate to this individual who wanted to join a startup where she could make a big impact -- quality health insurance, matching 401k, and stability be damned!

When the candidate came in, I was immediately impressed. She had exhaustively studied the company. It was clear that she had consumed every publicly available piece of content about us and knew the company and our market opportunity inside and out.?

She came in for her interview with a binder containing a portfolio of her work. She explained each project in the binder to me, her objectives, and the results she achieved for her incumbent employer.

She had a clear and passionate rationale for wanting to leave a large established company for our small, risky venture, and made it clear that she understood what it would mean in terms of working “startup hours” versus “banker’s hours.”

The morning after the interview, I received a FedEx package from the candidate with a thank you note paperclipped to a large, bound, and very thoughtful marketing plan for the company.?

She never gave me the opportunity to ask her for an assignment, for a “30 – 60 – 90-day plan,” or to discuss any other next steps. No, she preempted me and delivered more than I ever would have asked any junior candidate for.

We typically had every candidate come in and do a presentation to the entire team (the mere 10 of us or whatnot) as their last step, regardless of the seniority of the role, but I wanted to move decisively to hire her. Surely someone would snatch her up if we didn’t move fast. My CEO gave me the green light to make an offer, pending a reference check.

I asked for 3 references, so she gave me 6.??

I called the first one on the list – an imposing managing director at a large firm she had interned for in college. The call was quick. The person was all business and didn’t mince her words about the candidate: “She is phenomenal.??Uh, come again, what do you guys do???Marketing technology blah blah what to what?... It doesn’t matter. If she wants to work for you, you’d be lucky to have her at your company.” Click.

We brought the candidate aboard and she hit the ground running a thousand miles an hour. The quality of everything she produced was impeccable. Every project was delivered ahead of schedule.?

She took on the work of 5 individuals at a larger company, maybe 10 – producing top of funnel thought leadership content, mid- and down-funnel sales enablement content,?designing?research and best practices reports herself (wow), running our email marketing campaigns, measuring and reporting on program results, keeping our ever-expanding library of digital and physical marketing assets well organized (who does?that?!). I can go on and on.

At a company team offsite, I said, “You know, you are going to be the next Sheryl Sandberg.” She smiled humbly and said thank you, but that I was being too kind.

Today, just a few years after that experience, my first hire is SVP of Marketing at one of the hottest startups ever in NYC SaaS (in fact, it’s arguably?the?most successful one to-date). She has played a central role in helping the company scale like mad, acquire an enviable and enormous customer list, raise a mind-blowing amount of equity investment from the world’s most prestigious VCs, and get to a multi-billion-dollar valuation – all in an incredibly short period of time.

So, I stand corrected. Sandberg joined Facebook when it was already a juggernaut. This individual was critical in helping me turn nothing into something big (i.e., wouldn’t have been able to do it without her as my partner), and then moved on to turn nothing into something even bigger as the head marketing honcho herself.

The moral of the story???I’m not sure where to begin, there are so many. But here are a few starting points when it comes to hiring for startup marketing greatness:

1)????Global companies are the perfect training ground for young marketers who are going to make an outsized impact on a startup.?This defies logic a bit, as it is usually?not?the case when it comes to more seasoned marketing execs who flounder when transitioning from large companies to startups. They look great on paper, but their output is anemic when they must roll up their sleeves and get sh*t done. But when it comes to more junior marketing professionals, exposure to “The Big Leagues” early on is a huge advantage. They spend their first years out of school nurtured in a serious environment devoid of foosball, ping pong, and free lunches. They have been mentored by marketers who are at the pinnacle of their game. And when they knock on your door, they are coming to you with tremendous purpose and ambition: they don’t want to spend decades climbing the corporate ladder at a large firm; they want to make a difference and move as fast as they can right now. So, when you see a big name on that short little resume, lean into it.

2)????They go the extra mile (well, the extra hundred miles) during the interview process.?The candidate remains to this day the only person who ever FedExed me a package after an interview. This is a millennial I’m talking about, who kicked it old school, and stood out in a major way. I sure as heck never did that. And I have interviewed countless candidates at this person’s level and even far more senior ones who haven’t bothered to send me a polite thank you email after meeting (immediate cause for DQ). I can't tell you how many haven't bothered to read our blog posts or download our papers (these are people applying to the marketing team; I find that incredibly bizarre, but all too common). The stand-out performers bring it hard as hell during the interview process. Of course, not everyone you hire is going to be like this, and you’ll always have role players who get their jobs done and go home. But the superstars make will their presence and ambition known to you the moment they walk through the door.

3)????Don’t waste a second when it comes to making the offer – and make it great/don’t mess around. When you’ve met a person like this, don’t make them jump through any hoops that aren’t necessary. Let them pass go and collect that $1 billion without subjecting them to your farkakteh “hiring process”!??We’re talking startups here, so use that to your advantage, make exceptions, and act decisively to bring them on board. And of course, don’t cheap out on the offer – make it one that they can’t refuse.?

So many startups (and companies in general) lose in all areas of business because of indecision, analysis paralysis, and being “data-driven” to a fault. So many lose out on great candidates because of conscious and unconscious bias (“how can a 'big company person' work for a small company like ours?”). They lose out because they lowball “newbies” thinking they don’t know exactly what they are worth – and end up losing them over a few thousand bucks. People are your most important asset – so don’t let any of your own foibles (or your company’s) stand in the way of hiring greatness.

I hope this was valuable. And to my first hire if she’s reading this: Thank you again for saying “yes” to me. Watching your growth and success has truly been a gift. Keep on crushing it, and it is with tremendous gratitude that I had the opportunity to have been one of the little people along the way.

About the Author

Jordan Cohen?is a seasoned marketing executive with more than 20 years of experience leading SaaS mar-tech, ad-tech and media companies to industry dominance, VC raises, acquisitions, and IPOs.

As CEO and Founder of?The Fox Hill Group, a marketing management consulting and research firm, he spearheads growth strategies for start-ups ranging from launch phase to scale-ups gearing up for exits. Notable clients include Cordial, What If Media Group, RevTrax (acquired by Neptune Retail Solutions), Delivra (acquired by Redbrick), Campaign Monitor, and Zignal Labs. The Fox Hill Group also advises Private Equity firms and Insitutional Investors on digital marketing and online advertising industry investments and takeovers.

For more information about The Fox Hill Group, please visit:?www.foxhillgrp.com. And reach out to Jordan at?[email protected]?for an initial consultation, just to shoot the sh*t about marketing, life in Startupland, or pretty much anything.