Story
A founder's account
Marcus Hale, founder, investor, speaker, Hale Ventures.
The short version of twenty years, written for the people who are about to start.
I started Northfield with two trucks, a borrowed warehouse and a conviction that a company could tell the truth to its customers and still make payroll. The first three years tested that conviction every month. We kept the trucks and we kept the conviction, and eventually the market noticed both.
Everything since has been an attempt to repeat that pattern on purpose. Buy or build a business with a real product. Put a president in it who is better at the work than I am. Set three standards that are never negotiated. Then get out of the building and let them lead.
I am a believer, and that shapes every number on every page we publish. It does not make us soft. It makes us accountable to something higher than a quarterly call, which is a far more demanding owner.
Marcus Hale
Standards
The three standards
People before margins
Wages, schedules and benefits are decided first, and the business plan is built around them, not the other way around.
Honest books, open doors
Every company in the group shares its numbers with its team each quarter. Secrets about money are where most companies start to rot.
Built to outlast the founder
No company depends on my name, my face or my presence in the room. A company that cannot survive its founder was never really a company.
A business is a long argument about what matters. Settle it early, write it down and let it cost you something.
The table
Home church
Grace Hill Church
Marcus and his family have been members at Grace Hill since 2012. He serves on the finance team and teaches a quarterly class on work and faith.
- Sundays
- 9:30 AM / 11:15 AM
Letter
The quarterly letter
Four pages, four times a year: what the group learned, what it is reading and one question worth sitting with. Unsubscribe any time.