The best leadership advice I received this year is from Kellee Khalil, the founder of Loverly, who shared that founders should treat their employees like they treat their customers.
With his “employees first, customers second” amendment, Brian Bordainick, the founder and CEO of DinnerLab, is bringing Kellee’s advice to life by defining DinnerLab’s sense of community with a familial openness.
DinnerLab prioritizes grittiness, smarts and passion in each new hire and focuses on real life examples to indicate an individual’s performance.
To determine cultural fit, new hires (including interns) are given a test project demonstrating the tight schedule and pressing circumstances they’ll face if brought on the team.
Based on our conversation, and the integral role feedback plays in the startup, it’s clear that DinnerLab doesn’t have a feel good culture. Brian attributes the frankness to DinnerLab’s honest and open communication which led him to confidently state that each person in the organization is vocal about the way he or she feels.
He credits turning the startup into a multi-million dollar business in under three years to the team’s candidness about the direction they should grow and how they execute their goals.
To learn more about DinnerLab’s hiring process and how Brian maintains a familial yet highly productive culture tune into his 33founders episode.