Case Study: Founding Head of Publishing for Fintech Comparison Site
Finder US
Results
3M
Keywords in three years
$1.2M MRR
from organic in four years
125
articles per week
75
team members
Employee #3 at Finder US
I was recruited in the fall of 2016 to build the Publishing & Editorial department at Finder. What a ride. I’m grateful to every team member that took a leap of faith to join a motley crew of young, ambitious, talented creators.
We chose to go remote-first in 2016 (well before the pandemic), for a few reasons:
We had to build a team of world-class talent on a startup budget.
I needed to hire at a volume that far outpaced the availability of high-caliber talent in NYC – and our office space.
And I was already remote, building a team from a cabin in the high desert mountains of rural San Diego county.
If I can lead a team from out there, at the end of a dirt road with a cell phone booster, my team should be able to work from anywhere.
Scale, velocity, and structure
Some call this “building the plane as we’re flying it.” With no HR and no recruiter, we were left to create every single piece of the recruiting and onboarding ourselves, choosing to immediately enterprise our work with documented process and steps, knowing that as we brought on mid-level managers we’d be able to scale.
We interviewed hundreds of people, wrote hundreds of job ads, reviewed hundreds of trials and made offers, onboarded employees, and trained trainers. Then came the SOPs and internal documentation to match, expanding a knowledge base of proprietary tactics as fast as we were scaling 100s of tests.
Empowering people
I'm addicted to building ego-less teams that tirelessly look out for their crew mates. By celebrating risks and mistakes, we protect psychological safety and empower the kind of collaboration that drives innovation.
Each employee is committed to growing their skills, and together they create exceptional content that helps guide people through complicated decisions.
In 5 years we:
Held 40 editorial masterclasses teaching SEO and EAT writing.
Sent over 30 of my team members to different conferences around the world, including earning trips to HQ in Australia.
Promoted from within on a timely pace to balance trajectory with long-term business stability. IE. We didn’t promote too fast.
Saw talented individuals grow and move on to places like Nerdwallet, Forbes, PolicyGenius, and more.
Respect > Likability
My former reports will tell you I’m the “best boss they ever had and the hardest boss they ever had”, demonstrated by having high manager ratings and longer-than-average retention of employees on my team, as well as consistently hitting huge goals and fostering strong work ethic.
I’m a driver, a coach, and an empathetic supporter. I have a knack for process and intuition for finding patterns in data.
Team Average Tenure: 3 years
Still going strong
At the end of my tenure, Finder raised a Series A of $35M, had 55 full time employees in publishing, over 50,000 pages on the website, over 1,000+ affiliate partners, and millions of dollars in revenue.
“You've set me such a great example on how to manage and nurture people, stay across an absolute bucketload of detail and also understand the big picture.”
-Senior global editor
“I had almost no SEO experience when I came to Finder, and I wouldn't be where I am if you hadn't taken a chance on me and taken the time to help me learn and grow. You've been an amazing boss and leader over the past couple of years, and I'm grateful to have had you in my corner.”
-Publisher
“I want to thank you for all that you've done for me and for everyone else here. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that you've taught me almost everything I know about online writing and SEO. And it means so, so much that you were able to see enough potential in me to bring me on board as a full-time writer.”
–Staff writer
“I also have to thank you for taking a chance on me. I'm finding it hard to put into words just how much you've taught me about SEO and keyword research, user intent, and EAT over the past four years.”
-Deputy Editor
“You encouraged and took a chance on me. I truly appreciate that and l'm very lucky I was able to hop on board the rocket ship. Your passion and drive to succeed are unmatched, and you also truly care about your crew. It's difficult to find that balance in a leader and you do it so well.”
-Publisher
Recommendations
“You're my favourite leader at Finder. I'm going to miss seeing your competence and brilliant insights.
I can't remember how many times l've turned to people and said, if you want to see how shit is done, how to manage a team of people look at how Dre does it and emulate it.”
–Senior product manager
“Finder owes a great deal of gratitude to everything that you have done over the past 5 years. Such relentless hustle to always drive results. Finder US would look a lot different if you hadn't joined the rocketship.”
-AU Senior Publisher
“Thank you so much for all the help and ideas you shared for automation.”
-Senior Datalytics
“I hope you know that it speaks volumes about you as a person that you've touched us all so deeply with your kindness and vulnerability..”
-Publisher
“There's very few people I know that work as hard as you do.”
“You are and always will be a founding leader of Finder USA. Finder USA would not be where it is today without you. Your work ethic, passion, humility, empathy and care for crew is inspirational. You have given more and carried us through so many things and have lived Finder for the last 5 years. Thank you, Dre. Thank you.”
“as I said a few months ago you have sacrificed a lot over the last few years and thrown your soul into Finder from what I have seen - Finder has been very lucky to have had you in the crew.”
-The C-level homies