Good People.

 There are two things that make  a great company.

1. Great people.

2. An environment where those great people can be themselves.

As a startup company it's critical that no one ever says the words “it's not my job”.

Fortunately, with some direction from the folks@hirebetter.com we have come up with a method that really works. Our single most important hire is in place, and amongst the chaos of trying to put together a new venture, without asking, the employee came to me and said: “what can I do to help?”

So now I have good people. It's up to me to foster an environment where they can be fulfilled.

The 20% percent rule

A friend of mine reminded me recently  about his 20% rule.

It's pretty simple. No matter how good a vendor or supplier or in our case an underwriter is, it is bad business to allow them to have more than 20% of our destiny in their hands.

Yes, there are people and companies that are fully aligned with me ––– for the moment. The problem is that as humans are priorities change. People die. People fall on their swords. People get thrown on the bus. People simply  retire.  When that happens, there is a shift in priority, sometimes subtle sometimes radical. Sometimes you can't even see it when it happens.

So, to all of our good carriers, we must tell you we will meet our volume commitments to you; however we do have a 20% rule here. We do need to spread our risks. And we need to publicly state this.