Insight
Podolsky: Startups must hire core technical talent before HR staff
“Don't start by hiring an HR person. No. Hire first technical person. Hire first persons that you can incentivize and make them interested in your project.”
Insight
Podolsky: High employee retention without active company growth stagnates innovation
“HR has two parts, recruitment, retention. Those are the two big Rs. You must always focus on retention and not forget about recruitment. Actually, there should be good balance. Today, looking back, if your company is excellent at retention, you're not getting …”
Disclosure
Podolsky poaches top employees from his existing companies for new ones
“I actually, as I grow my businesses, I've known to poach good people from old company to build a new company.”
Insight
Podolsky: Facilitating Internal Career Pivots Boosts Retention and Productivity
“Sometimes when you have a young company, it won't, a young person may not have decided what they want to do in their lives completely. All of a sudden you get a developer that wants to be a project manager. I've had an accountant who wants to be UX designer. I…”
Disclosure
Podolsky: Companies remain fully bootstrapped with zero outside investor or bank capital
“Our companies are completely bootstrapped. We never go out and ask for money. Investors or banks. We run our companies very lean, and we only invest our own money.”
Disclosure
Podolsky: WiserBrand leadership runs daily 30-minute standups with five minutes per leader
“In one company, every day, 30 minutes, every morning, US time. There are six of us, so that's five minutes each. And we talk only about very important stuff, what's on the table today. And that has been very efficient. That's for the Wiser brand, for consultin…”
Disclosure
Podolsky wrote handwritten thank-you letters to the parents of top managers
“I have a company at that time, two years ago, 80 people, ah, and they have 10 top managers. I've taken 10 pieces of paper, and they wrote a thank you letter to their parents. So I have 10 heads of departments. It was a Christmas party, and for that Christmas p…”
Insight
Podolsky: Strategic Pauses in Negotiations Are More Effective Than Immediate Answers
“When you're negotiating a deal, sometimes taking the pause is very beneficial at the right time. I am usually a very fast person, fast decision person. I give answers straight away, but in negotiations, taking a walk to the balcony and taking the pause sometim…”
Disclosure
WiserBrand employs only two US partners, offshoring the rest to Ukraine
“There is no employees besides two partners in the United States. Everything else is being done out of Ukraine.”
Disclosure
Podolsky: WiserBrand hired its first HR manager at 20 employees
“We've hired HR at 20.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Podolsky reached profitability in three months on a $100 initial investment
“Our first company that we've started, we've invested a hundred dollars each. It was profitable months three.”
Disclosure
Podolsky in-housed development by having hires shadow offshore contractors
“So I started hiring internal developers that were working side by side with that vendor already in my office. And over a period of a year we were bringing on more and more developers in house while reducing our staff with a development vendor. And at some poin…”
