For more content visit http://www.99robots.com Originally presented at NJ Startups Inaugural Event on January 23rd, 2014. Tom went over Next Jump's complete focus on culture and the implications this had for their company. Tom talked about how the company went from over 40% leaving the company and terrible reviews from former employees to virtually having 100% retention or 0% attrition! About the presenter: Tom Fuller joined Next Jump in October 1999 and helped grow the business though the first dot-com bubble to over 150 employees. A few years later, Next Jump survived the dot-com bust however shrunk down to just 4 employees in January of 2002. Tom was part of the 4-person surviving team, becoming one of the founders of the restructured Next Jump. Tom is currently Next Jump’s CIO and Chief of Engineering. He is responsible for all engineering and product development efforts. Tom leads the overarching customer relationship management group and is responsible for Next Jump’s transactional revenue engine. He sets the vision for all product and engineering efforts within the organization. Prior to Next Jump, Tom was AVP of engineering at Deutsche Bank. Tom holds a bachelors degree from The University of Massachusetts Amherst. He currently lives in New York City with his wife Alice and son. About Next Jump: At Next Jump, we believe that people are the center of everything. The best way to create happy, engaged employees is to focus on culture. Our Culture is broken into two components, Personal growth and Helping Others. Everything we do at Next Jump follows this simple mantra: Better Me + Better You = Better Us. By focusing on personal growth we are able to help others – in the end, everyone wins. We design and build products geared towards bettering both employees—starting with our own—and companies, to result in a better world. We provide employee engagement programs, which include a variety of products from a savings and reward site to engagement applications, to Fortune 1000 companies as a platform to achieve this goal.

1. “Everyone has a plan until
they get punched in the
face.” – Mike T

2. CULTURE IS THE STRATEGY
business is building better people
January 23, 2013
tom@nextjump.com
@Thom_Fuller

3. 3
HUMAN CAPITAL ECONOMY your enterprise needs to make people better
AGRICULTURE ECONOMY MANUFACTURING ECONOMY
People are another form of machine
Capital & infrastructure focus
HUMAN CAPITAL ECONOMY
People focus
CONFORMITY
All people to be the same
Treat people like machines
DIVERSITY
Diversity of thought
In knowledge biz, conformity is death

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WHAT WE STAND FOR
To do the LITTLE THINGS that allow others to do the GREAT THINGS they are MEANT TO DO
BETTER
me + you = us
+ =BETTER me BETTER you BETTER us

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EVERYTHING STARTS WITH YOUR CULTURE human capital engineering (HCE)
Hiring Environment1 2 3 Firing

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OUR STORY
TODAY20061994 20021997
NxJ Founded:
College Coupon Books
Corporate + Internet
2008 2011
Survived Dot Com Bust:
4 NxJumpers
HIRING ENGINEERS
NxJ becomes top destination for engineers
FIRING
2010 Turnover skyrockets to 40% as recruiters poach…
Engineers are offered 2-3x salary increase within 1 yr of
employment at NxJ
ENVIRONMENT
2012 Turnover drops to 0% in weeks
Revenue Growth Accelerates…
5 years 25% CAGR to 60% YoY
ENVIRONMENT
How do we grow even faster:
Help people stop making the same mistakes
[Character Imbalance]
+ =

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HIRING
1. College Recruiting
2. Lateral Hiring

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HIRING ENGINEERS: NxJ Tech Recruiting Stats

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COLLEGE RECRUITING many candidates at once, relevant at a later stage
Boston Super SaturdayEvent Schedule
Time Full-Time Engineer Schedule Intern Engineer Schedule
9:45 – 10:00 am Check-In / Breakfast (Reception & Fenway)
10:00 – 10:25 am Super Saturday Kick Off (Fenway)
10:25 – 11:10 am Engineering Skills Test (Assigned Candidate Areas)
11:15 – 12:15 pm Speaker Series 1 – Work Hard (Fenway)
12:25 – 1:25 pm Code Exercise (Assigned Candidate Areas)
1:25 – 2:10 pm Career Fair + Lunch (Reception Area)
2:15 – 2:45 pm Interview 1 (Assigned Candidate Areas) Speaker Series 2 – Play Hard (Fenway)
2:45- 3:15 pm Interview 2 (Assigned Candidate Areas) Break (Fenway)
3:15 – 3:45 pm Speaker Series 2 – Play Hard (Fenway) Interview 1 (Assigned Candidate Areas)
3:45 – 4:15 pm Break (Fenway) Interview 2 (Assigned Candidate Areas)
4:15 – 5:30 pm Team Challenge Kickoff & Exercise (Fenway, Assigned Areas)
5:30 – 6:00 pm Team Presentations (Assigned Areas)
6:00 – 6:30 pm Break (Fenway)
6:30 - 7:00 pm CEO Reception (Fenway)

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HIRING: BIGGEST MISTAKE, TOP LESSON LEARNED
LEAN = SUCCESS, FAT = FAILURE
  Startups w/ no resources achieve amazing things
 Then w/ capital + lots of resources almost always fails
LATERAL HIRING IS LIKE DATING Same person interviews date 1, date 2, date 3 (advance only if)
 Trust is most important: buy used car, leave your family with?
 Human beings are the best judge of trust

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FIRING

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FIRING many mistakes made…leading to scathing criticism
Toxic, toxic environment. Backstabbing
individuals that are not doing their
own jobs.
Worst place to work.
Should be called next Lie.
Wouldn’t wish this place on
my worst enemy.
If you want to grow & learn,
go elsewhere.
Save yourself, DO NOT be the
Next to Jump
Extremely long hours –
the reason Next Jump has
trainer & food on
premises is because they
don’t expect you to go
home.

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FIRING: BIGGEST MISTAKE, TOP LESSON LEARNED
EX-EMPLOYEE = #1 ADVERTISEMENT
  Existing employees are biased
 Anyone else doesn’t really know the company
 The ex-employee has been on the inside
 How you fire is a representation of how you treat people
TIMING: <3 MTHS, 3-6 MTHS People leaving within 3 months = min disruption in the org
 However biggest problems in people show up at 3-6 months
 Any decision after 6 months = significant pain firing + lingering pain

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ENVIRONMENT

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ENVIRONMENT: 2 influencers helped us…
Jim Loehr (Coach to world-class tennis, golf, NFL, NBA, Olympic athletes, top CEOs, FBI SWAT, any elite performer)
Growth mindset: People can endlessly upgrade themselves.
Requires deliberate practice.
Simon Sinek (all-time top TEDTalk, author of best seller, keynote speaker)
Humans exist to service other humans – the “universal why”
BETTER me
BETTER you
+ =

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“I will want to win. But the result of the race will not
motivate me. I can honestly say that I am motivated
by improvement, not results. That’s a core principle.”
Mikaela Shiffrin
EVERYTHING IS PRACTICE FOR GETTING BETTER BETTER me

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AT THE END OF YOUR LIFE…WHAT IS SUCCESS?
EXTRINSIC MARKERS OF SUCCESS
more stuff
INTRINSIC MARKERS OF SUCCESS
true wealth
R.I.P.
[YOUR NAME]
 Built billion $ company
 Made millions personally
 Owns 3 houses
 Owns 6 cars
 More stuff…
R.I.P.
[YOUR NAME]
HELPING OTHERS..
BETTER you

18. I DO IT FOR MYSELF…
I train harder
I take feedback differently
I work hard to be my best self
…So that I can take care of others
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MINDSET THAT WINS & SUSTAINS … BETTER me BETTER you+

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HOW WILL THIS FAIL?

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#1 ISSUE: JUDGMENT (MORE THAN SKILLS)
People need to trust your judgment
Then its no longer about hours
2 hours of your time
will be worth more than
40 hours of
someone with poor judgment
* We turned the entire company culture into training ground for leadership

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Mentorship: Talking Partners
• Start daily
• Becomes “co-working”
• Best coaches help people find their “blind
spot” (their repeated error)
Situational Workshops
• Weekly: problems + what they tried
• Train decision making vs “give solutions”
• Counters the “bull horn” effect
TWO PROGRAMS THAT WORKED …
❶
❷

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LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT the next big growth opportunity
Jim Loehr (Coach to world-class tennis, golf, NFL, NBA, Olympic athletes, top CEOs, FBI SWAT, any elite performer)
Character is a muscle.
It can be exercised and strengthened.

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OUR RESULTS THUS FAR…
REVENUE
25% CAGR over last 5 years to 103% YoY
Still accelerating…
LEADERSHIP AWARD
2013 Winner

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WHERE WE’RE EXPERIMENTING
DO THE JOB BEFORE YOU START
ANYONE CAN BECOME A MARINE
Test during interview process:
 Growth mindset [better me] - fixed or growth mindset
 Helping others [better you] - teaching/ giving motivates more learning
 No matter who you hire, the environment is designed so anyone can succeed
 But not everyone will succeed, some will opt-out
NO FIRING POLICY
ALUMNI PROGRAMS
 Except for moral, ethical and criminal
 Security - removed fear of failure
 Development took off: Tough Love Programs
 Boomerang - open-ended job offer to return anytime
 Benefits and perks for having been part of our family
HIRING
FIRING

25. INVEST IN YOUR TEAM AS MUCH AS IN
YOUR PRODUCT FROM DAY 1
25
• It’s a shared dream
• It’s about the journey: concentrate on the steps to success
CLOSING THOUGHT

26. @Thom_Fuller
Contact me:
I will gladly do what I can, to help you achieve
the GREAT things you were meant to do