Sit Still: Interview with Allan Jones, Founder and CEO of Bambee

I recently went one on one with Allan Jones, founder and CEO of Bambee.

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? 

Allan: I've been in technology now for 16 years and started as a quality assurance analyst testing the compatibility between software and hardware at a telecommunications company in the early 2000’s at a company called Healio. Early on, I knew that I was a builder, and I came from a long line of entrepreneurs. My parents were entrepreneurs. My grandparents on both sides were entrepreneurs. And I knew that I wanted to do something that allowed me to build my future for myself and create and set my own destiny.

I just didn’t know exactly what form that would take. I just knew that that was one of my ambitions. And, I think in the early days, a few things set me apart, including the fact that I showed up and I worked harder than everybody else around me. I did that because I always found a sense of joy in the work that I was doing. I loved the learning, and I was infinitely curious. I had a level of confidence about my own ability, that I think was orders of magnitude greater than my peers. It wasn’t that I knew everything, but that I could do anything. I've always, really believed that to be true. 

I knew that one of the teams I really wanted to be a part of was product management, which I thought was awesome. It was a team where you could create something from nothing. You could work with designers, work with engineers, and then in 90 days or less create something out of nothing. One day nothing's there, and, then in 90 days, you've got a whole product that can help people improve their lives. Product managers are builders, and I wanted more for myself. I wanted more responsibility, and I ended up getting hired as the head of product at a company called Docstoc, where I was running the product team and ultimately worked with the CEO, and, that company acquired by Intuit.

One of the earliest challenges I had, one of the biggest setbacks is once I had been a successful head of product, I had a lot of confidence. I really thought I could do anything. So, I decided to make the jump and I started my first company. I was 23 years old. I went out and I built Men’s subscription clothing business.

I raised a few million dollars, and I ran that company as CEO and founder from the ages of 23 to 26. Ultimately that company failed. I learned a tremendous amount during that journey. I learned the importance of the relationships you have with your board members. I learned that all capital coming from every investor, isn't going to be helpful.

The trust and relationship you have with the investors and the quality of investors really matters. Though, I was creatively good. I was not yet a seasoned operator. The result of that first business really showed and demonstrated that fact. Um, but I think it all, all went well because after failing in that first company as CEO, I then went on to have a really successful career as the youngest chief marketing officer of a billion-dollar brand at ZipRecruiter, um, where I helped shape that company's future, which ultimately led to that company going public.

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? 

Allan: The best ideas are authentic. The best ideas come from are multi-dimensional in terms of where they come from, in terms of your brain and your story. Bambee is a company that aims to reshape the fabric of employment at America's small businesses. The way we do that is we made it hiring an HR manager, extremely affordable, so that every one of the 5.6 million small businesses that are in the United States can actually afford to hire one and help them shape the cultures inside of their small organizations.

This is now my third stint at an SMB focused technology company. Part of my attraction to small businesses in the first place Is because I come from a long line of small business owners. My dad ran a mini market when I was a kid, my grandmother on my dad's side, ran a clothing store. My grandmother on my mom's side, ran a childcare center.

I grew up watching people kind of print their own money. Shape their own destiny, create their own ideas, pull themselves up by their bootstraps. And then ultimately, when I went into technology, I somehow ended up at these small business focused companies, really not knowing or realizing why I was so attracted to the small business market in the first place.

That is when I came up with the idea for Bambee. It stemmed from a story that I remembered when I was a kid. My dad had to terminate a guy who was working to register at one of our stores when I was a child, and we terminated the guy and the guy ended up suing my parents for wrongful termination.

Now my parents did not have policies in place. My parents did not have an HR manager. My parents did not know that you should write someone up or before you terminated them for the first time. And ultimately they did what they thought was best for the business. And it got them in a lot of trouble. We also could not afford to hire an attorney from our savings.

So, my parents had to go into my college savings account and spend 50% of the money that was in my college savings account in order to be able to afford the attorney for a lawsuit that was actually, that was eventually thrown out.

I was probably 12 years old and realized that small business owners actually needed more support than they had available to them. Ultimately, I learned a bunch in my adult career about what small business owners needed. So, I basically converged the two moments from my childhood. And when I knew things were that were authentic to my story and the skills and experiences that I later had professionally to form the idea of, of what Bambee is today.

I think the advice that I would give is to use all the combinations of the strongest, best, and most authentic parts of your story to solve problems that you will know well, intrinsically better than anyone else, and that you will never lose passion for. 

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

Allan: Just to restate again, I was the head of product at a company called Docstoc, and we serviced millions of small businesses looking for HR and legal related content online that they weren't able to find elsewhere, whether, because they didn't have the money or the resources to go get. I had a tremendous amount of experience there and then at ZipRecruiter, I helped build one of the largest job boards in the United States, specifically, a job board that focused on small to medium sized businesses in the country.

My experience at both of those two companies gave me a tremendous amount of insight that the problem that Bambee was aiming to solve was a real one. And one that was happening at scale for millions of small business owners, who were not sure how to solve some of the most complex needs and problems that they had inside of their organizations related to the people that worked for them.

I was able to validate that this company was a good idea at scale through my professional experience, as an executive at two other companies. But I didn't just go and build it. I actually went out and raised a little bit of money and then I tested a variety of different permutations to solve the problem.

I think the one, the best way to validate ideas is to talk to customers, to talk to the people in the space who you think may be benefiting from the problem that you're trying to solve. In the early days we built a beta product, a landing page, and then I took that landing page out to multiple different events and conferences across the country, staffing a booth. Then I pitched this idea repeatedly to small business owners who I thought maybe having the problem. I started pitching the idea before I had built the product. I had priced the product before I had built the product. 

If you have internal experience from previous experiences, that's great. Internal data, putting up a landing page and build a little bit as possible before you invest some in a product that may be going in the wrong direction. Get in front of the people whose problems you're trying to solve and talk to them in earnest by pitching the idea.

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?

Allan: I think step, step one is to invest in performance marketing and marketing initiatives early, invest in the infrastructure that helps you reach as many customers as possible. Whether that be social media, or paid advertisements as early as possible to refine your pricing model so that you know what customers are actually willing to spend and buy. Price your product in a way that makes it a no brainer for your customers, but also makes it margin positive for you as a business Invest in leaders inside of the organization that can help you scale. Because you can't scale these companies yourself. And so even if you're good at a bunch of different things, finding people who are better than you at the function in which they tower over is the secret to scaling. And having this humility to say, listen, I can't do it all. I'm not the best at everything. Who are the people I have to surround myself with, who will make me better as a founder and a CEO, and then go get those people to join your team.

But scale is not possible without a team of people to help support it. Not even the best founders can scale a company themselves. 

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?

Allan: The foundational principle for every leader is confidence, but that's a foundational principle. Confidence is fairly common. And so just having confidence, doesn't make you a good leader, but confidence usually gives you the courage to get up and act against ideas you care about and make decisions that are sometimes difficult.

The characteristics that you need to build on top of the confidence that lead to greatness and leaders are as follows. And there are three: 

Humility: Being completely okay with being wrong, being completely okay with learning on the fly, being completely okay with learning in front of the people, that report to you, not pretending to know everything, having the confidence building on that first foundational principle, having the confidence. To say, wow, I didn't know that. Or ask the questions that help you find an insight, um, that you otherwise may think you should already know. Sometimes CEOs and leaders don't want to ask what they believe to be silly questions in front of their teams, because they think their teams believe they already know that information, but what's blocking you from asking what seems like a silly question is your ego, which is the opposite of humility. And so, humility is the first side of the gate. The second. Is an infinite level of curiosity. Right? Always curious about how you can be better. Actually, I would rephrase that. I would say curiosity and accountability. Curious about the things around you and curious about how you can be better. And remaining accountable to when your ideas don't work or when a decision that you made did not go the way that you had originally planned and cross sharing that learning with the team so that they can fulfill their curiosity.

Accountability: Recognizing what it looks like in the top seat.

Sense of thought optimism: it's easy to become pessimistic when building companies and it's easy to become pessimistic when things don't go your way. It is also easy to just be broadly optimistic to just think that everything will go your way. Thoughtful optimism is something what we practice here at Bambee. It is something that I talk about a lot internally. Which means it isn't that everything will fix Excel. It is that everything is fixable with enough thought and enough time.

Practicing thoughtful optimism puts you in the driver's seat, create solutions where things sometimes feel unsolvable, but with enough time, energy and collaboration with yourself and your peers, all things are possible. 

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

Allan: One, be extremely clear about what you want out of the leaders that report to you. And do not be shy and do not mince words. The big mistake that people make in leadership is assuming that other leaders must know exactly what they want. Otherwise, those other people wouldn't do leaders and that's categorically untrue some of the best leaders, their skills aren't reading your mind. Their skill is adapting to your mind so long as you share as much about what's in your mind as possible. Then they can tap into their superpowers to adapt, to being able to show up the way that you need them to across the organization.

The other is give them a little bit more than they believe they can take, but always be there to catch them before they fall. The best leaders have excelled in life because they're ambitious. Um, because they have big goals, and they hold themselves to a high standard.

Just giving them what you think is in their job description isn't going be enough to push them and make sure that they're being developed. Giving them a little bit more than they can take so that after their time with you, they can look back and have a sense of accomplishment. Having a sense of feeling accomplished, under their time with you will prove that you are a leader that can lead leaders. Leaders need to be pushed. They need to be held accountable and they need to be shown that they can do even more than what their wildest dreams were. Good leaders help other leaders do that. 

I think the third is letting them know when they're failing. Being a great leader doesn't mean that the person and the leader that you're working with has to remain with you forever. It also doesn't mean they have to stay in the same role forever. Sometimes leadership is letting people know when you have lost faith that they can do the job as it is defined in front of them today in your company or today in the role that they have in your company. Sometimes being a great leader is being clear when you believe someone should be in a different role and that role can sometimes be within your organization or elsewhere.

I think other leaders in my position sometimes think that the hallmark of being a great CEO means that you somehow are able to coach every single executive that works for you to success. But I think that's fallacy.

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

Allan: My advice for managing teams is to not be afraid to be honest. Smart people and smart teams will be able to handle your oversharing period.

What does that mean? It doesn't mean that you should be irresponsible with the amount of transparency that you deliver your teams, but it does mean that the best teams do best with context when the company is doing really well. Share when the company is having a hard time Share when the future may seem uncertain. Share that when the macroeconomic factors happening outside of the company mean that fundraising may be harder than we otherwise thought. Share that, adding that broad context to your teams. Let them be able to absorb that into their psychology. It helps contextualize some of the decisions that may be made inside of the organization throughout those periods. During the COVID pandemic, and right now, during what looks like an impending recession, I have shared a tremendous amount with the broader company, betting on something that I've now proven to be true inside of this organization.

The more I share with my teams broadly, the more they understand the broad decision-making context that we're making in leadership. That's important. I think the other is help people understand the mission and help people understand where you're going. And then do that again and again and again.

People will sometimes be bored in their day-to-day but be in love with the mission. People will sometimes have a tough month hitting their sales target but be in love with the mission. Sometimes people will be held accountable for something they, they did wrong, but they can still remain in love with the mission.

One of the levers you have for retaining top talent is making sure that people remain in love with your company's mission. So that as the normal day to day motions continue inside of the business, people don't leave at every point of friction. I think the last one is strive for urgency and greatness in tandem.

Teams love momentum. If you just let a team kind of sit around, setting their own targets, moving at their own pace, it sometimes works for some organizations, but the best teams love to move towards a target and love to move towards a milestone. At Bambee, we strive for urgency and greatness in tandem.

What does that mean? That means we want to be urgent in everything that we do. We want to move quickly in everything that we do, and we never want to sacrifice greatness. I think conceptually, people understand that applying that on the ground holds really sharp, high-precision, highly effective teams together.

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

The single best piece of advice I ever received was from my dad during a bad breakup, where I had broken up with my partner and I was emotional, and I was not sure about the course of action that I should take. And I was bouncing around all these ideas of what I should do to fix things. I called my dad for some advice. And my dad said in life, whenever you are uncertain about what to do, do nothing, sit still. That advice was probably 15 years ago, but it has been a crown jewel of how I think about executing in leadership ever since. I've taken something that was a piece of advice from my personal life when I was extremely emotional from my dad. And I've applied that to how I think about business. The lesson there is sometimes stillness instead of frenetic energy will bring you the clarity you need to decide. That's the best piece of advice I've ever gotten.

American companies right now are struggling to find their momentum and hit their targets. And employees are struggling to find fulfillment inside of the organizations that they work for since the COVID pandemic. There has been a huge push for people to remain working from home. I think if I were to think about what is broadly true and could benefit employees and business owners alike and entrepreneurs, it is increased the priority level in which you get back in person with the people that you collaborate with to do your best work. That is how our social networks are built.


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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