Terminal49
THE ALL-IN-ONE SHIPMENT AND CONTAINER TRACKING PLATFORM
Industry:
Supply Chain
Stage:
Series A
Team:
International, Semi-Async
HQ:
Berkeley, CA
Investors:
Initialized Capital, Stage2 Capital, Grand Venture Partners, Immad Akhund, James Tamplin, Kyle Vogt, & more
The Challenge
3x Terminal49's Team
Terminal49 is building software to automate global trade. Founder Akshay Dodeja had grown a profitable seed-stage company with concrete impact and enthusiastic users. His core team of 6 was small, but solid. They relied on contractors for short and medium term projects as needed.
Akshay was prepping to raise a Series A. His lean team was maxed out, and he knew they had to grow. Hiring via networks or opportunistically would no longer be sufficient.
No one on his team had direct experience in recruiting. Recognizing the bandwidth and insight required, he tested out partnerships with a few traditional agencies. Several unsuccessful searches later, he realized a different, more integrated approach was necessary.
That's where Sandpiper came in. Our goal was to build the foundation of Terminal49's hiring function and 3x the team. Here's how we did that and much more:
"Sandpiper Talent was instrumental in growing Terminal49 from Seed to Series A. Caitlin brought leadership to crucial efforts that impacted all of our teams: Engineering, Product, Design, GTM, and Ops. In addition to recruiting foundational team members, she created a framework for hiring that kept us organized and made a big impact on our People & Culture initiatives.
Her insight, enthusiasm, and expertise were invaluable. She is fun and easy to work with. I highly recommend Caitlin, and encourage founders and leaders to have a conversation with her."
- Akshay Dodeja
Founder & CEO, Terminal49
Case Study
Timeline
Launch
-
Revamped About Us page and created Careers page reflecting T49's story, values, and mission
-
Created, claimed, or spruced up Terminal49's page on 3rd party sites candidates look to for more info
-
Wrote templates for job descriptions, offer letters, and automated correspondence
-
Recorded and edited video interview questions introduced by members of the team
-
Created interview scripts, scorecards, and evaluation criteria
-
Began hiring for Terminal49's first roadmap priorities
Wrap Up
After a strong growth spurt, Terminal49's next priorities were to focus on doing the work together as a team. We'd hired everyone from engineers with Staff Level experience to their Head of Marketing. The final stage of our work together was to ensure that all processes were clearly documented via Notion and Loom Videos before handing them off to the Chief of Staff.
At Sandpiper, our efforts go far beyond hiring. We equip our clients, leaving each one better able to achieve their future people goals because of the foundation Sandpiper laid.
Foundations
Every new engagement begins with a deep dive into your market, product, and team so we can build true to the core of your company and vision.
-
Learned T49's industry, problems they solved and aspired to, why that matters to customers
-
Got to know every team member 1:1
-
Observed the collaboration baseline: what was vital, what was missing
-
Defined company & team-specific values
-
Reviewed past hiring wins & misses
-
Planned 2022 hiring roadmap
-
Designed scaffolding for T49's interview process & evaluation methods, to be customized by role
-
Selected a hiring tool stack suited to T49's goals, configured set up, and guided the team through onboarding
Fully in Gear
By end of year, we'd honed in on a process that worked for Terminal49. A few of the initial core became team leads. We upskilled the hiring managers and panel members in how to identify what they needed and interview accordingly.
Most importantly, we welcomed new faces across Product, Engineering, and Customer Success.
Next Level
-
Added new roles to the hiring roadmap to achieve 2024 company goals
-
Upskilled managers in how to handle employee 1:1s and provide consistent, actionable feedback
-
Introduced additional scorecard types to assist hiring team members in evaluation
-
Harnessed new candidate pools via premium job boards and niche online communities
-
Created a referrals portal to leverage new hires' expanded networks
-
Improved New Hire Onboarding into a Week 1 Experience including:
-
45m calls with each team lead to learn their part of the business and where to collaborate
-
Regular check-ins with manager and onboarding buddy
-
How We Work guide to provide clarity on remote async work with international collaborators
-
Resources to learn more about the supply chain industry
-
-
Continued hiring across all teams
Offsite
-
Coordinated Terminal49's first international offsite in Sitges, Spain
-
Facilitated workshops to create Company Values and Management Philosophy, Show-and-Tell Sessions to bring different teams onto the same page, and a 24-hour Hackathon that resulted in multiple new features.
-
Managed the private chef, villa staff, shuttle drivers, tours, videographer, restaurants, activities, etc. so the team could all be present in the moment
Testimonials