Page 91 - Entrepreneur-November 2018

Problem Solvers

“I Hired the

Wrong People!”

JUST cofounder Josh Tetrick wanted to build a
disruptive company, so he hired disruptive employees.
Then he got disrupted himself.
by JASON FEIFER

osh Tetrick had never by industry standards. And
run a food company, Tetrick had big ambitions. In
and he considered that creating animal-free versions
an asset. His goal was of staples like eggs, mayon-
to disrupt the food naise, cookie dough, and more,
industry, so he wasn’t he wanted people to rethink
interested in old ways how food is made. So he set up
J of doing things. “If you shop in a Bay Area garage and
had told me when I started the began hiring people he thought
company that one of the keys could make a huge impact—
to success would be hiring peo- experts in data science and
ple who are experts at going high-tech platforms.
out to the Midwest to visit dif- Then came the disastrous
ferent warehousing partners, launch. As his products lost
I would have been like, ‘Shut money, he began examining
the fuck up,’ ” he says. Instead, the causes. There were many.
as he built his startup JUST His company had a terrible
(originally called Hampton manufacturing contract and
Creek), he hired outsiders like had picked the wrong manu-
himself. It seemed to work. facturers and warehouse part-
His first product, an egg-free ners. Its shipping process was
mayonnaise, debuted in 2014 a mess, and so was its supply
at Northern California Whole chain. “Pretty much everything
Foods stores and shortly there- we should have been doing in all he wanted to do was talk there’s a whole bunch of stuff
after was carried by thousands operations we weren’t doing,” about warehousing.” Then I don’t know anything about,”
of Safeways and Walmarts. he says. Tetrick forced himself to step he says. But more than that, he
Demand was high. When CEOs reflect back, back from hiring. Rather than needed to appreciate the limits
Then lids started pop- they often regret that they be in control of every decision, of change. “Everything is not a
ping off. Labels fell off, too. didn’t move faster to fire peo- as he once was, he left his new revolution,” he says now. Some
The packaging was defective, ple who weren’t right for the industry experts to build their things can be reinvented, but
and the product went from a company. Waiting even an own team—filtering for what others are better off embraced.
success to a money-loser. As extra month can drag down an they thought was important, Today, Tetrick says, JUST
Tetrick scrambled, he came to organization. Tetrick under- rather than what he did. is a growing 120-person com-
a hard realization: An entre- stood this. He’d hired smart Operations team mem- pany and is on its way to going
preneur can be too disruptive people, but now he realized bers either caught on or were public. That’ll be the next
for his own good. they were the wrong smart replaced. Contracts were phase of its revolution—all
At the beginning, Tetrick people. So he laid off a few and renegotiated. Supply chains thanks to some very nonrevo-
fit a certain Silicon Valley replaced them with industry were fixed. Losses shrank and lutionary employees. PHOTOGR APH COURTESY OF JUST INC.
archetype—the brash founder vets. “We hired a guy who gave disappeared.
who celebrates inexperience. me the most boring presenta- As he watched this hap- Hear Tetrick on our podcast
There’s a logic to it. If you tion I’ve had in the history of pen, Tetrick reconsidered his Problem Solvers, available
want to rock an industry with all interviews,” Tetrick says. leadership. “I need to be intel- on iTunes or wherever you
fresh ideas, you can’t be bound “But that was great, because ligent enough to know that find podcasts.

26 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / November 2018