What is one piece of career or life advice that you’ve gotten that has stuck with you?

A piece of career advice that has been incredibly helpful to me is: as you get more senior, listen more, talk less. And I think if you’re a hungry overachiever, you may get to a senior position by thinking fast, talking fast, having lots of smart ideas and energy. But then as a leader, if you actually build great, talented teams, it’s incredibly important to create the space for them to feel safe and open up and for you not to jump in too fast and shut down ideation, because they’re often going to defer to the most senior person in the room. So, I have found it’s really important, and it’s how you unlock the best thinking, when you actually allow your teams to contribute and ideate. And candidly, even when it’s not an ideation or a brainstorm and it’s just a discussion, I have found that personally I learn so much more by listening and ingesting it all, and then asking thoughtful, provoking questions to get to the best possible outcome. It really is magic when you’re able to master that restraint. It was a hard one for me on the journey, I had to practice. Because I was definitely that hungry overachiever that was super high energy. So that was fantastic advice. I find when I execute it well, it serves me and the company and the team much better.

What were some of those pivotal moments in your life that got you where you are today or any mentors that helped you get where you are?

I always reflect back to my time at Fresh Direct. I had eight great years there, and the founder and CEO of Fresh Direct, Jason Ackerman was an incredible mentor to me. Not only did I learn a lot from him in terms of the actual business and how he ran the company, he was constantly giving me opportunities to stretch into things that were above what I would have gotten from my resume. I would say one of the most pivotal moments in my career that changed my trajectory and allowed me to have some of the roles I’ve had to date is really when he gave me the opportunity to build and  launch the new on demand grocery division for Fresh Direct. We called it FoodKick by Fresh Direct.

I had the privilege to launch a sister brand that was essentially a new company – with a different target customer, a different mobile app, different merchandising strategy and assortment, different marketing tactics, totally different picking packing operations, and a different logistics strategy – to build it into a hundred million dollar enterprise in three years. I found it to be incredibly rewarding work to see an idea and an insight come to life – building the strategy, the team, the culture and the operations and then watch customers love it and it be so successful. 

The thing I took away from it is really when something is hard, that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be fun. When you get through something that is a challenge, it is often the most rewarding accomplishment that results in the highest engagement and satisfaction. Once you’ve built and you’ve seen kind of the arc of getting through something really hard and climbing that hill, you just perceive challenges differently. Next time, you’ll know there’s a way past it. It doesn’t feel like things are so insurmountable you can’t get beyond them. And I think learning that earlier in your career is very important. 

I’ve told people that I’ve developed and mentored that it’s great to have the leader that’s going to give you the chance but make sure you’re going to do everything it takes to make that person be sure in that bet. The Founder of Fresh Direct took a chance on me, but he knew I was going to run through walls to make sure that that chance was worth it.

I’m sure all leaders experience setbacks or mistakes during their career. Any particular ones that sort of helped you learn a lesson about yourself the way you run the team?

Yeah, I think a really important lesson I had earlier on in my career is that deals must always be fair. If you think you’re getting too good of a deal or a better deal than the other party, it’s just not going to work out in the long run. I personally had an experience when we were building the FoodKick business where a vendor gave us ridiculously good economics on a delivery contract when we were launching the business, and it was significantly more favorable terms than the other players. We leaned in, we built around them, and very quickly they realized they couldn’t deliver at the rates that they had committed in our contract without losing money. They really didn’t understand their own unit economics. We actually partnered and helped them figure it out, and they quickly tried to massively renegotiate terms. So I think this happens with people too, if you ever feel like you’re hiring and you’re getting someone at a deal, they’re going to realize that and that’s going to create an engagement problem and make them just not feel good. So I think in general, whenever I go into any partnership, or any relationship, the deal has to feel fair to both of us. 

When I was moving to New York City in my third year of my career, I had accepted a position at a private equity fund. The week before I’m supposed to start, the head of the private equity fund called me. They had just done a market benchmarking and they were going to increase my comp because they found that all of the analysts were below market. I felt so valued and appreciated even before I started. I knew I could trust him. 

What are some of the traits that you look for or what’s the interview question that you ask to identify those traits?

I am obsessed with building high performing happy teams. I always say it’s about performance but also about being a great team member. And so traits I look for are actually much more character traits. You can have pedigree, you can have experience, but what I find is most critical is actually finding people who are positive, hungry, and humble. As a leader who’s built and grown teams, I have learnt that you can teach people new skills, but it’s much harder to teach people to care. And I have worked with incredibly talented people who either always see the glass half empty, or who are so afraid of failure that it severely holds them back. You can create an environment that facilitates and locks people’s passion, but at the heart, having humble, good people that have a positive attitude and are hungry to learn and win is invaluable. It’s contagious. It fuels innovation and improvement at truly every level of the company. 

Is there a daily habit that helps you stay focused, or something that you do to have fun outside of work?

I have a ritual where the night before I align on my must-dos for the next day. We know as leaders we come in, there are meetings, there are conversations, and the day gets very busy. So I align on what must I accomplish the next day, and I truly leverage my calendar to keep my entire life organized. I’m rigorous about how I leverage communication channels as well, and I let my team know how I use them.

But the most important thing I do has nothing to do with work at all. For my focus and staying healthy and in my best shape to do my job, I have a rigorous Pilates schedule. I go five times a week. But it’s new for me. I started about a year ago and I’m obsessed and I’m amazed at my stress level, endurance and focus. It is more important to me than sleep.

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