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One of the coolest Metro Boston ecommerce jobs around!
We are working with GAW Miners in their search for a Director of Ecommerce based in East Longmeadow, MA. In just four short months GAW Miners has become the most recognized supplier of mining hardware to Bitcoin and Crypto-currency miners around the world. Reporting directly to the CEO, GAW Miners seeks a Director of Ecommerce to oversee all aspects of the ecommerce activities of the company.
The Director of Ecommerce will be responsible for managing the growth of GAW Miners’ ecommerce business and building its current leadership position into a dominant one. The new Director will have full P&L responsibility and accountability and will hire, train, manage and lead all personnel. Additionally, the Director of Ecommerce will assist Management in developing strategies for the future of the business and ensure business operations and service delivery are second to none.
The ideal candidate will be …
- Passionate about the GAW Miners Brand and capable of rising to the challenge of making every customer interaction with the company a fabulous experience.
- Well qualified with a degree in engineering or business and at least 5 years’ experience at Director level or above in a similar high growth / high tech environment
- Driven individual who can provide leadership, scalability and stability to the nascent operations group
- Required to interact regularly with customers and possess exceptional people and organizational skills.
The Director of Ecommerce is not expected to have any knowledge of the Crypto-currency, however a background in technology is vital, as is the curiosity to learn and become expert in this emerging field.
HARRY’S COMMENTS: Honestly, I have been avoiding this write up for a couple of days because it required covering so much new ground. The client’s business is new, their industry is new, and this position is brand-new.
The industry involves Bitcoin, the hot new crypto currency which is still shrouded in mystery for most people. The company, Geniuses at Work (GAW), distributes Bitcoin mining equipment, which I had no idea was even possible until these guys called me. Finally, the role of Director of Ecommerce Operations has never existed within GAW, which itself is a brand-new company.
Indeed, there are lots of unknowns here – which is why my research packet for this search includes 2100 words of personal kickoff call notes plus 19 adobe files covering everything from Bitcoin market research to online operations strategies to an expensive consulting report on how ecommerce companies can create high-impact Voice of the Customer programs in their business.
You’ll need every bit of it, too, because the winning candidate will essentially be making a bet on the future of the industry, the company, and the role when they take this job. If you don’t have the stomach for that, you can stop reading now.
Still here? Good for you! Let’s mush on …
When GAW CEO, Josh Garza, first explained to me how Bitcoin works, it reminded me of inmates trading cigarettes in prison. We’ve all seen those old movies where prisoners are doing favors for one another, and in the absence of dollars, the currency becomes cigarettes. Bitcoin operates on a similar principle. Like gold, it’s worth something because people think it’s worth something. Which is why Bitcoin has been called …
“Gold for Nerds.”
There are lots of sharp pencils investing in this space — like Marc Andreessen, whose venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, has backed Bitcoin related companies. Andreessen believes that Bitcoin is in the early stages of mainstreaming today, as it attracts marquee VC’s, who in turn have the ability to attract the most talented entrepreneurs and engineers to operate in these companies.
Andreessen reports that very big companies, including the big companies, online retailers, and major banks have smart people trying to figure out what to do with Bitcoin — because the world needs it. Bitcoin is not susceptible to government regulation and manipulation, which, if you look at a list of 26 Things Investors Are Worried About, is responsible for much of the nervous sentiment in our financial markets.
And the thing is, Bitcoin transactions are infinitely easier to track than cash. Anyone can look at the entire Bitcoin ledger and figure out who owns what, which is why law enforcement and intelligence agencies are likely to end up embracing it.
Still, for Bitcoin traders and miners there are risks …
HOWEVER! All markets fluctuate! Just because there are risks for miners does not mean there are risks for the firms who supply them. Like GAW.
GAW sells the computers that “mint” Bitcoins by solving complex math problems. According to Garza, “Our industry is like the Internet was 20 years ago. If you sold someone a server or a router in 1994, most people wouldn’t appreciate how future oriented the buyer might be. However, if you look at Mary Meeker’s 2014 Internet Trends report, you can see that the number of the coin wallets now exceeds 5 million, and the number of smartphone subscriber growth is still strongest in countries like China, Brazil, Indonesia, and India. All of these countries have a very strong transactional demand for money, which can be expensive or impossible to obtain.”
Maybe that’s why GAW could stand for “Growing like a A Weed.”
Without getting into specifics, GAW’s revenue growth numbers are spectacular. The best I’ve ever seen in a potential client. Traffic is solid, and growing. Average order value looks good, as does the conversion rate. Certainly, the company would like for the new Director of Ecommerce to drive growth through 1.) More targeted SEO / SEM / CSE; 2.) Better online merchandising, and 3.) Improved CRO — but these three things aren’t the most pressing issues for GAW.
For now, EFFICIENCY is a bigger pain point for GAW than top line GROWTH.
Management needs a Director of Ecommerce Operations to reevaluate every aspect of its online business to see where improvements can be made. There’s lots of low hanging fruit here as the firm seeks to improve its infrastructure and processes.
According to Garza …
“Initially, this role will be about blocking and tackling, and professionalizing the business. From a KPI perspective, we want to hit certain targets with regard to our shipping time frames, with everything shipped same day up to certain cutoff time. Obviously, we’d like to maintain certain revenue targets as well.”
“Regarding our current ecommerce platform, we are in the process of migrating to Magento, and although we have not yet identified a good ERP solution, we know we need a good backend, reconciliation, and inventory management system. Additionally, we’d like to implement a scalable reseller program, and we really need a rockstar who understands how to streamline the backend of the business.”
“This is not a situation where somebody is walking into an environment where somebody else set it up. This person can come in and make the system exactly the way they want.”
“Operationally, we need great blocking and tackling and execution; orders received by a certain time, cutoff times met, returns processing managed professionally and to the customer’s satisfaction; open tickets need to be managed appropriately; shipping problems and quality problems need to be dealt with within 24 hours, etc.”
“In addition to growing revenues, we want this Director to bring a dose of Zappos to our business.”
View Harry Joiner’s profile
KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:
- Retail industry and Ecommerce
- Leadership and Business Management
- Technology and High Growth Businesses
- Ecommerce metrics / KPI’s / Balanced Scorecard Management
- Organizational Development to include hiring, training and managing employees of varying backgrounds; assigning responsibilities and enforcing accountability
- P&L Management
- Business Process Management including systems, processes and procedures
- Customer Service management and delivery
- Inventory and Logistics
ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Ecommerce Sales and Operations
- Employee Development and Morale
- Online Sales and the user experience
- P&L Budgeting
- Shipping, Receiving, Warehousing and Logistics
- 24x7x365 Customer Support and Exceptional Customer Service
- Developing and maintaining strong partnerships with vendors
- Contributing to the strategy and tactics for company advertising and marketing
- Implementing and enforcing corporate and financial policies and procedures
Soft Skills
- This position requires a high level of attention to detail, quality, effective verbal and written communication skills along with excellent follow-through and customer service capabilities.
- Must have the ability to effectively communicate and collaborate.
- Must also be able to worked unsupervised, be flexible and react positively to change.
GAW Miners offers an attractive work environment with all the benefits of an emerging technology company including a high quality health insurance plan as well as a generous incentive stock option plan.
UPDATE: THIS SEARCH IS CLOSED.
PS – If you’re thinking about changing jobs this year (through us or anyone else), you might want to check out this post on why even TOP candidates get rejected.
