Jeff Booth had experience in both selling and building real estate by the time he decided to found a startup that would come to be described as the Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN) of building supplies.
BuildDirect, which enables builders to buy supplies directly from manufacturers at a discount, has been around since 1999. In the mid-2000s, the business took off, growing from $30 million in revenue to $120 million.
Booth overcame many obstacles to establish the e-commerce business, which has broken a lot of new ground in the building supply business. Funders were skeptical, and Booth at first relied on money from friends and family.
“It puts up a big wall and a chip on your shoulder, and that chip on your shoulder becomes, ‘I’m going to do it to prove it to myself and you that I’m right,’” Booth said.
“Then it starts to be successful and everybody tells you how right you are, and at that point you should be worried.”
After selling his house to save the business in 2009, during the height of the financial crisis, Booth realized that he needed to become a different kind of CEO and bring in a more experienced management team if he wanted to raise the company to greater heights.
“It felt really good to be able to come in and save the company and ride away on my white horse,” Booth said of selling his home. “But that’s what kept us in the crisis, rather than building a team that could push the company to the next level.”
While many of the original staff stayed on in new roles, the company began hiring for executive roles in just about every aspect of the business, from finance to merchandising to technology.
Booth said he’s glad he’s no longer “the smartest person in the room.”
“[We looked] for people who could see around corners and build big parts of this organization way better than I could,” he said. “Those people also hold you accountable and debate and challenge you.”
On blaming market conditions | “The housing market started collapsing in 2006, but we didn’t see it because the business was still growing. … The business just went in half overnight. My wife and I had to sell our home to get through it. [But blaming the credit crisis] is the outside looking in. The inside looking out? I caused it. I can’t change the outside world, but taking responsibility for what I can change allows me to change myself.”
Has a work or life challenge taught you a key career lesson? Contact Jen St. Denis at [email protected]
