Most people may not have heard about InfoScout. But for those in the market intelligence industry or leading VC firms, it was, and continues to be, a brilliant example of startup B2B innovation and disruption. Acquired in 2017 by Vista Equity Partners and merged with Market Track to form Numerator, the company continues to bring together InfoScout’s original consumer panel business with Market Track’s advertising, promotional and pricing intelligence to deliver the most complete path to purchase insights in the market intelligence industry.
In this video, I speak with Jared Schrieber, the co-founder and CEO of InfoScout about startup culture and growth. InfoScout was an excellent example of both: high growth ranking #59 on the Inc 5000 for 2017 with a 3-year growth rate of 5,600%, and great culture with a 4.8 rating on Glassdoor, and 100% CEO approval ratings. And the positive endorsements from team members showed up in the product ratings, with 5.0 stars on Capterra.
This company is especially close to me as I had the ,honour to succeed Jared and lead the InfoScout team through the merger with Market Track to form Numerator. It was a great experience working with the team prior, during and following the integration, and I hope you pick up some valuable learnings from Jared that you can use in your startup – enjoy!
,What is the background on InfoScout and how you founded it?
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- Learned about the value of data early in career, realizing the importance it can have in shaping an industry.
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- Helped scale a retail data business from zero to $40M. Recognized the gap in consumer data and the opportunity to apply a mobile capability to address it.
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- Co-founded InfoScout with Jon Brelig to incentivize consumers to take pictures of their shopping receipts and share information about their purchases.
,What are some tips and tricks on creating a great growth culture from very early on?
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- Giving a sense of ownership to all employees. Stock options for all employees, irrespective of role with the company.
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- One of the company’s values: “we are all entrepreneurs”. Giving team members the information to empower them to make decisions themselves.
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- “Culture is in charge when the boss isn’t around.”
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- Importance of getting the culture right.
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- Hiring close to the customer.
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- Asking customers who are the best people they’ve worked with and hiring them.
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- Sharing knowledge, core value: “transparent to a fault”
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- Weekly All-Hands web meetings where all updates were shared simultaneously with the whole team wherever they were, not at headquarters first
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- Encouraging and empowering the team with updates, information, and knowledge
,When and how did you go about putting together and instilling Mission, Vision and Values?
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- Aligned on values with Jared’s co-founder, Jon, from the very beginning. Put together Mission and Vision once product-market fit had been established.
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- Values were the way that the team went about their work – internally and with clients – on a daily basis, became a strategic differentiator vs the competitors in the industry.
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- Cohesive, reflect key areas of the business, you know it’s working when team members quote the values when making decisions.
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- Not easy; set your goals high enough so that even if you don’t achieve them, you will have accomplished more than you otherwise thought feasible but not so high that they become a demotivator for being completely unachievable.
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- Litmus test is putting a plan in place that the team can buy into.
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- Core of the goal-setting: leverage free benchmarking data from Tomasz Tunguz, David Skok, and Bessemer Venture Partners about getting to PMF with $1M in revenues, and then triple, triple, triple, double, double to $100M.
,How were you able to attract very strong performers who were a great fit?
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- Following some initial mis-hires, did a course-correct and considered what they needed to change; changed mindset in interviews from why do I want to hire this person to why shouldn’t I hire this person?
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- For every question, determine what is a bad answer and the likelihood that they will come up; put together case studies, present problems with them, get on the whiteboard with them.
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- Identify case of lack of fit and start having those conversations early, leading to offboarding with dignity; remaining team members see focus on performance and fit, as well as how departing team members are treated.
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- Identify situations where individual’s behaviours are detracting from the team’s performance. Be frank, don’t beat around the bush. Blunt but specific, with examples.
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- Two-minute coach: state what you observed and then stop and listen. Understand context and response, work through the impact and how they might handle the situation differently the next time. When you see it say it (in private). ⅓ of the time learn new information that provides additional context.
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- Importance of being non-judgmental, creating a feeling of acceptance and safety. It’s the leader’s fault when the team member doesn’t have the full context and is going down the wrong path.
,Were you always involved in every new hire interview process and what was that conversation like?
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- Engaged in every new hire through to ~120 team members, after which he could stay out of interview processes for certain roles. Interview with the CEO demonstrates value that is placed on every new team member.
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- Known for his “riddle” questions. Probably asked 1,000 times, has a bank of knowledge on what makes for a good response. Looking for the thinking process: do they have flexibility in thinking, can they handle setbacks and failures and recover from them; can they take new information and integrate it to evolve their thinking.
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- Look for EQ in addition to IQ. Importance of bringing people together to get to know one another personally, helping to break down barriers when work issues arise. Team members spending time with one another outside of work, on leisure trips to work together.
,How did you onboard new team members and get them acclimated and trained as quickly as possible?
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- Standardize the onboarding process – InfoScout Academy.
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- Curriculum for all now employees with customization for specific roles. Held for one week every month for all cohorts of new employees, irrespective of role. Importance of sharing business background and context with all team members.
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- Socialization and camaraderie after hours. Welcome to the family!
,What tips would you give to startup CEOs/Founders who want to build a great culture?
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- You as the CEO most embody it, the leadership team has to live it.
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- The CEO has to be prepared to call out leadership team members who stray from the core values. The leadership team has an amplifying effect on propagating the values throughout the organization.
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- Reinforce behaviours with recognition tied to the core values. Visually striking posters of values. “How do you convey that you value those values?” Show that the company’s values are actually valued.
,What do you see as the connection between great culture and growth?
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- Lots of examples of high growth companies that did not have great cultures.
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- There is a symbiosis between great culture and growth. As an entrepreneur, wouldn’t you rather choose to have both? Question about long-term sustainability if you don’t prioritize having a great culture.
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- Your clients and the marketplace end up being windows into your company and team members – your culture will come across, it’s not only internal.
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- Taking the insights he has accumulated over the last 20 years and writing a book – ,The Brand Growth Flywheel – on how winning brands grow.
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- Getting more actively involved in angel investing to pay his learnings forward.
