Think Big Start Small

I recently went one on one with Mark Sawyier. Mark is the co-founder and CEO of Bonfyre, a workplace culture platform designed to build human connections.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth? 

Mark: I’m originally from New York City and came to St. Louis for college at Washington University in 2004 - and never left. I started my first business, an off-campus apartment search site called MovingOffCampus.com, while an undergraduate. Later I founded a small digital marketing agency called Decantery, which is where we incubated Bonfyre. 

Although not a specific moment, I’d say three of my biggest takeaways from my 15+ years as an entrepreneur would be: 

(1) The only thing you know for certain about your business plan is that it’s wrong. Particularly in the beginning, recognize that forecasts are a mix of art and science, with a constant goal of having them become more of the latter. 

(2) The longer you are in business, the more likely you are to be successful. Ensure you build in ample time and financial flexibility to work through the inevitable, unforeseen challenges and “x-factor”. 

(3) Your team is everything. Develop a crystal clear understanding of what you are looking for in each role and invest the time required to effectively develop and screen from a strong candidate pool. At Bonfyre we focus on Patrick Lencioni’s Hungry, Humble, Smart characteristics as a way to inject culture into the interview process. Gather input from others who can help you not only build the right role description, but also ask the right questions. 

Adam: How did you come up with your business idea? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas? 

Mark: Bonfyre began as a social networking application designed to help people connect privately around events like weddings, concerts or conferences. The original concept was based around the idea that while we might not want to create a permanent connection (e.g. “Facebook Friends”) with other attendees, we may still want to be able to communicate with them, share photos, etc. From there, we followed the path of least resistance - focusing next on corporate events and recognizing how events are one of the many ways companies invest in culture and engagement. This led us to the workplace culture platform Bonfyre is today. 

Great ideas often stem from problems.  First and foremost, understand the nature of the problem, how painful it is and if it’s painful enough for someone to use and/or purchase your solution to address it. Recognize that this will lead to a series of hypotheses and treat them that way; investing resources (time and money) into creating ways to validate or disprove and iterate based on the results.

Adam: How did you know your business idea was worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea? 

Mark: One of the key signals for me was that we were narrowing our paths to success (e.g. establishing product/market fit) while achieving corresponding revenue growth (40% YoY for the last 3 years in a row). For Bonfyre, this began with a more narrow, corporate focus within events. Events are just one of the many ways organizations invest in workplace culture and engagement. Over the years we expanded Bonfyre’s capabilities to align with these broader investments that, over time, led us to become a workplace culture platform. 

One of our core values at Bonfyre is “Think Big, Start Small”. This reflects our entrepreneurial mindset and the balance we strike between developing the bigger picture view of an idea with the experimentation required to know if it’s really worth pursuing. You need to consider both, but part of evaluating the viability of an idea is the viability of testing it.  If you don’t have the resources and/or time to do so, even a good idea isn’t worth pursuing. Consider: what is the smallest possible experiment you can run to test your idea? Particularly in the beginning, this is a great way to optimize your limited resources.

Adam: What are the key steps you have taken to grow your business? What advice do you have for others on how to take their businesses to the next level? 

Mark: Raising investor capital has been an important part of Bonfyre’s growth - it has allowed us to build the product, team, and go-to-market strategy. Finding people who have experience and legal knowledge to help you think through key elements like investor rights and preferences, in addition to the size and timing of each funding round, is important. Be sure to set clear milestones that feel achievable in the short-term with built-in flexibility in the event that they aren’t. 

But beyond investors, it’s also important to have employees share in the long-term rewards for short-term risk. Particularly in the early days, it’s difficult for startups to pay full market rate for any position. Stock options are an important way to reward the risk an employee takes by joining the company. Take the time to educate yourself and your employees about stock options - how they work and what they’re worth.

Adam: What are your best tips for your leaders on how to build a great culture?

Mark: Culture is the operating system of the organization and with fewer in-person interactions, it is now much more difficult to build. At the heart of any thriving culture is a human connection with our work and co-workers. In the new work reality, this means transitioning much of what we used to do in-person to build workplace relationships, belonging, and culture to a virtual setting.

As such, it is more important than ever for leaders to be intentional about building workplace relationships. And while there’s no replacement for in-person interaction (including video calls), we strongly encourage leaders to take advantage of the digital environment; to engage with teams in group sharing activities designed to build commonality and belonging. For example, asking teammates to share a photo of their favorite fall activity and allowing them 15 seconds to voice their choice on the next virtual team call, is a very small investment of time that can yield enormous team benefits. Not only do we get to know each other as people, but we smile, laugh and feel connected because we are engaging with our co-workers about non-work topics. 

At Bonfyre, we take this concept a step further. We believe building workplace relationships in a virtual setting requires a separate digital space. Aside from the differentiated user experience (photos/videos vs. instant messaging), what makes the water cooler, break room, or happy hour special above all else? They are physically separated from our work, thereby facilitating non-work interactions with co-workers to happen. This is of course what we’ve built with Bonfyre and we encourage leaders to think about ways they can create and/or accentuate separation between work and team building. 

Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips? 

Mark: In my experience, sales is all about relationships. Taking the time to understand a prospective customer’s problems and co-develop a solution is key to success. Underpromise, overdeliver, and, just as you would with your own team members, be intentional about building the personal relationship. Consider engaging through groups like a Client Advisory Board. This can be a great way to share best practices, insights, and perspectives on the challenges companies face.

Zooming out to a more organizational-level view, and making your sales process as repeatable and scalable as possible is of the utmost importance. There are tons of resources out there on how to build and deliberately move prospects through the sales funnel. I can’t stress enough the importance of Marketing and Sales being aligned to revenue outcomes rather than dividing “top” and “bottom” funnel responsibilities. 

Lastly, I would also pull forward the “Think Big, Start Small” mindset. Your sales and marketing engine is a multi-variable machine; from your messaging, to building an owned audience, to qualifying and closing new customers. Recognize that it will require lots of iteration and experimentation!

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? 

Mark: I’d go back to Patrick Lencioni’s Ideal Team Player model with the primary attributes of Hungry, Humble, and Smart. While there’s of course a lot more to being a good leader than these 3 attributes, we’ve found these to be a valuable filter for helping us hire the right people to join the team (at a leadership level or otherwise).

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams? 

Mark: Staying on the Ideal Team Player model, I see these as core qualities of an effective leader;  the work ethic and grit you need to evolve an idea into a business, the humility you need to stay curious and learn/listen to others, and the empathy you need to build workplace relationships and a sense of belonging. Modeling these qualities and behaviors can have a great impact on a team.

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders? 

Mark: Summarizing some of the themes we’ve covered here: plan out flexibility for unforeseen challenges, take every opportunity to test and experiment and be intentional about your relationships.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received? 

Mark: The only thing you know for sure about your business plan is that it’s wrong.