Recruitment, Selection and Implementation

Current State of Business

I have decreed the business to be named “Buzzkill”. Buzzkill is a high-fidelity earplug distributor that focuses on B2B sales through relevant retailers and music venues. I have registered Buzzkill as an LLC, named “Buzzkill HiFi LLC”. In its current state, it’s a sole proprietorship that maintains business with two music venues.

With this said, I believe this exercise to be most pragmatic by using my current circumstances, and working through how I would handle each scenario, and then project that onto what I believe the scale of what I believe Buzzkill can become.

Recruitment – Looking for Cofounders

One relevant fact is that the company will need to be reincorporated from an LLC to a Corporation, as we anticipate raising equity, maximizing growth, and most importantly for this discussion, issuing shares.

I will discuss Buzzkill in multiple phases – the first is the pre-seed phase. This phase will consist of four founders; where I shall recruit my closest friends, individuals I can trust who carry diverse skill sets that can leverage their unique human and social capital for the initial phases of the company.

The core personnel will naturally be much smaller than my org chart. I, Lance Hillis, will be the Owner Operator. The other three will be a Marketing and Tech Manager, Financial Analyst, and a Sales Manager.  

Owner Operator

As the Owner Operator, I’ll have dozens of duties that I tend to, that expand well outside the breadth of these roles: 

• Product Development – Product and packaging sourcing with manufacturers, graphic design, and supplier sourcing in conjunction with the Marketing and Tech Manager.
• Sales – Working in tandem with the Sales Manager in developing early business-to-business distribution opportunities. 
• Building – Developing a team of founders, employees, suppliers, and advisors.
• Tech Management and Implementation
• Hiring – Having an active role in hiring our initial staff to ensure a rockstar staff, as well as shaping the culture and creating training programs and expectations for each future department.
• Pitching – Looking for capital generation opportunities to expand our sales capabilities. 

Financial Analyst 

The Financial Analyst is my best friend, Nick Adams. His managerial experience throughout his respective jobs, as well as his current role as a Loan Officer for a startup FinTech bank will offer valuable insights into the financial aspects of our company, and will important connections in seeding rounds. He’s also a very motivated individual and someone I can trust. As we build the company, and he becomes full-time we anticipate moving him into a CFO role. He receives a yearly wage of $11,200 to work in a part-time capacity. He will also maintain:

• Bookkeeping – maintaining financial records, taxes, and managing payroll. Overseeing invoices are issued and payments are collected, as well as managing accounts payable and receivable.  
• Financial Oversight – monitoring product development, hiring, and company development plans and providing projections and advising. 
• Investor Financing – Seek opportunities for investment to expand our operational capabilities and develop financial reports in preparation for investment pitching. 

Marketing and Tech Manager

The Tech Manager will be one of my other best friends, Jaksa Gabric. His background in media management, web and graphic design, marketing campaigns, social media management and technical knowledge provide a wealth of skills. As we build the company, and he becomes full-time we anticipate moving him into a CMO role. He receive a yearly wage of $11,200 to work in a part-time capacity on:

• Social Media
• Consult on Product Design
• Website Maintenance
• Ad Campaigns

Sales Manager

The Sales Manager, to no one’s surprise, is another of my best friends, Navi Pooni. His roles as a business consultant, real estate investor, and business professor all bring valuable insight into the team. He’ll receive a yearly wage of $11,200 and a commission structure that gives him early portions of the proceeds to work in a part-time capacity on:

• Developing relationships with retailers and music venue buyers and General Managers
• Creating a pipeline through CRM
• Retail Display Implementation
• Working hand in hand with the CFO on strategy to hit sales goals

We’ll have a fairly heterogeneous group and made up of close friends working with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, as we all have a different expertise and things that we bring to the table. This will allow us to build out our respective departments in our vision. One trait that each of them share is their intense focus. They have an uncommon sense of drive and determination. 

The reason for this structure is that it allows me the opportunity to focus on figuring out my core personnel, while providing a small financial incentive as we work strictly on developing a customer base. Once I’ve determined that they are properly vested, we’ll discuss equity splits and vested partnerships, with the intention of equal equity splits.

Selection – Initial Employees and Testing the Process

As Buzzkill continues to grow, we will naturally require additional employees. 

This led me to creating a sample job post on “Indeed for EmployersLinks to an external site.”, with the realization that there are a number of factors to consider before going with my first instinct, and bringing on additional sales reps to drive growth. As I pushed forward, I also noticed that AI was involved in generating the job description for a “Sales Representative”. I filled in the boxes and submitted the application. 

The first step would be to consult with an employment lawyer, with the intent of bringing on board an experienced HR Representative. That would be at the forefront of priorities, as they would not only handle executing the hiring process, but also develop a benefits program, including PTO, Mileage Reimbursement, Retirement, and Parental Leave. Additionally, an employee handbook is necessary according to Insperity.comLinks to an external site., an HR outsource firm, or that documentation is needed for performance-based termination. 

Through this, I would look to recruit an HR Representative as our first essential employee. Some of the qualities that I would seek in a HR Rep, inspired by Herrenkohl’s “How To Hire A-Players”, would be experienced associate HR Reps who are within my network (WCU, work, Barton College, Fraternity, etc). Initially, an HR consulting firm, or HR outsource firm could be a good option initially to ensure compliance and professionalism at a lower cost than hiring a full-time HR Rep, or multiple HR Reps, allowing us streamline the hiring process, and to focus our cash flow into our sales and support roles. 

Implementation

From there, I will work with the HR Rep in hiring Sales Representatives. These will be traits based hires, and people who value the opportunity to grow exponentially with Buzzkill. I’ve had a great number of friends who have joined startups, typically working at a reduced wage, for interesting companies that offered opportunities to become a linchpin within the organization. The focus on Sales Representatives are multi-faceted:

• I come from a Sales Background, and can recognize positive performance indicators, personality, and understand their incentives, and I feel that I can immediately find success in recruiting the appropriate individuals for these roles.
• Sales are the driving force for growth within the company. Each Sales Representative will provide positive cash flow at a multiple above what they are paid. Their success drives success and growth in every other aspect of the company as well, as our brand grows with each account they are able to bring on. 
• I can provide a commission-based structure, which is directly tied to their performance, meaning the talent pool is wide.

This approach builds the foundation to fill in the additional support roles outlined in my organizational chart, such as Contract Specialists, Order Fulfillment Representatives, Tech Support and other critical functions that will be necessary to support and grow Buzzkill.

Post Stage A Seeding Phase

Pictured: Post Stage A Seeding Organizational Chart

I’ll also discuss the vision for Buzzkill in the spirit of the former assignments, and with the intent to move our respective Founders into executive roles with equity splits. My intention is to much like Vivek Khuller of Smartix in, “The Founder’s Dilemmas” by Noam Wasserman, and delay an equity split and executive titles as long as possible in order to ensure that each Founder is an appropriate fit or has put in an adequate share of human, social and financial capital, or has demonstrated competency to fit their respective role. 

Following two seeding phases, with $5 million of paid-in capital, we will have 36 employees on payroll, with a permanent headquarters located in Asheville, North Carolina, several contractors such as maintenance, landscaping, legal and accounting, and a number of sales reps scattered across the United States; anticipating a yearly payroll expense of $2,431,000.

C-Suite

The C-Suite is the executive leadership for Buzzkill. They develop the vision and execute the responsibilities as the leaders of their respective departments. This personnel plan assumes that Buzzkill is well developed, and past Stage A funding, creating millions in yearly revenue. These C-Suite employees have claimed their role either through proving their value as early employees in the company during the pre-seed round, or have been brought in as industry experts.

• Lance Hillis (CEO) – The CEO is responsible for all operations and corporate management, drives the vision of the company, develops goals, and is the face of the organization. He or she reports to the stakeholders and board of directors.
  • Salary – $130,000 a year, with 1,200,000 Shares 

• Chief Financial Officer – The Chief Financial Officer oversees all financial activities within the company, such as monitoring cash flow, sales projections, financial reporting, advising on material cost, purchasing needs, compliance, and presenting to the CEO, Board of Directors and other stakeholders within the company.
  • Salary – $104,000 a year, with 1,000,000 Shares

• Chief Operations Officer – The Chief Operations Officer manages both the Sales and Warehouse Team, while driving strategic sales goals, implementation and ensuring operational production/pace meets sales expectations. He or she is also involved in large contractual negotiations.
  • Salary – $119,600 a year, with 1,000,000 Shares – A slight bump in salary relative to the CMO and CFO, as they manage operations and sales teams.

• Chief Marketing Officer – The Chief Marketing Officer manages customer feedback campaigns, gathering data, new product proposals, marketing and advertisement initiatives, ensures relationships with primary and secondary manufacturers, and balancing material expense vs net profit.
  • Salary – $104,000 a year, with 1,000,000 Shares