Walter Hindman—Junkdrop & Charity for Profit

04/21/23 • 60 min

26 year old Walter Hindman tells Tom how he became CEO after losing his job during COVID when his offer was rescinded. Walter tells Tom about Junkdrop Nashville, his junk removal business that gives reusable material to charities. Walter explains why integrity is important to his differentiation. Walter does not give his donors a tax break, but he does show them where their reusable items end up and who they benefit. Walter talks about his dream of growing Junkdrop through franchises. Tom digs into the economics and what stands in the way of scale for Junkdrop. Walter talks about who he hires and how he finds them. He talks about how important having fun is to his business. Walter talks about having to fire people. Walter tells how important earned media like being on the Today show and being written up in the Tennessean has been to his growth. Walter talks about using Google ad words. Tom tells how he felt taken advantage of by another junk removal business. Walter tells about how 1-800-Got-Junk revolutionized the junk business with their simple value—point and it’s gone. Walter has taken that idea and added the charity angle so people can feel good about where the junk goes after it’s picked up. Tom talks about creating a junk removal as a subscription business. Walter talks about why he started his business and how he was able to pick who he’s competing against. He tells how he had no capital when he started and how he coordinated with a local charity and used his own pick-up. Walter talks about hoarder houses and how strange the work can get. Walter tells how obsessed he gets when he loses a bid. Tom compares competitive intelligence to a musician who gets inspiration from other musicians. Tom describes how he was inspired by his old boss who was generous with his time and would talk to anyone who had a business in health tech. Walter closes out by telling us what he wishes he knew when he started the business that he knows now.

Previous Episode

Teja Yenamandra—How you know it's time to raise money

Teja Yenamandra, CEO of gun.io, a staffing and placement firm for software engineers, talks about why he took money after boot strapping his business successfully. Tom and Teja discuss the future of software engineering, automation, and ChatGBT. Teja sees automation being used for invoicing and other parts of running his business, but not for writing code just yet. Tom talks about how insight hasn’t been automated yet.

Teja has been a CEO for ten years, though he’s less than 40. Teja loves working with people and solving problems. Teja describes how business is a canvas for solving problems, and that solving problems and making money are the most fun parts of being a CEO. “People assume I’m smart because I’m a CEO, so I’m challenged less because I have this silly job title,” says Teja. Teja talks about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and how he enjoys it as a domain where nothing is expected other than respecting others. Practicing Jiu Jitsu helps Teja get space away from work to improve his problem solving. Teja talks about how he obsesses about problems even though he knows intellectually that getting away from a problem for a while sometimes helps solve the problem. Tom talks about how meditation helps him when he’s stuck even though he can never quiet his mind. Teja tells Tom what’s the right cycle on which to update his clients about the progress of their engagement and how gun.io prevents surprises and avoids conflict with its clients. Teja discusses the psychology of raises and how no matter how much we’re paid, we get aggravated if we go a year and don’t get a raise. The conversation gets cut off when Teja loses power because of tornado winds in Nashville, but everybody ends up OK.

Next Episode

Amin Haidar-Managing Product Managers

How do you manage and measure product managers? What is the Shape Up methodology and why should you care about it? How do you build a process that creates great products?

These are some of the question Tom asks sales and product management veteran Amin Haidar, a six year veteran of Asurion, one of the largest and most profitable private tech companies in America. Tom first met Amin while he was still in college, working full-time at Healthstream while getting his degree. His intelligence, ambition and work ethic made a great impression on every one in leadership, To, included.

Amin and Tom discuss how the Shape Up methodology works, how to choose what ideas to invest in as a product manager. Amin discusses how Asurion time-boxes work into five week chunks and focuses their teams work on one thing at a time with seven person teams. Amin talks about how avoids client commitments and manages his now timeline, how he manages urgent requests, how he judges the effectiveness of his product managers, and how he gives feedback in the moment. Amin describes product management as the art of creating a process that creates great products. Amin talks about his transition from a start-up to a large mature organization like Asurion. Amin talks about his style as servant leader and when he knows he needs to be directive and what he does to support his reports when that happens. Amin talks about how he encourages his reports to question him how he tries to have no ego with his teams. Amin talks about leadership’s job is to make everyone else successful and how he creates a context for making decisions by keeping things objective as much as he can. Finally, Tom andAmin talk abut the meaning of success and raising kids.