Ben Askins: 'Nail' hiring and the rest falls into place

Ben Askins describes himself as an “accidental entrepreneur”.

After graduating from Warwick University, he was all set to take a traditional career path with an entry role at a shipping underwriter, where he had previously done an internship.

But just before he joined, the company was acquired and his position fell through. It was at this time he met his business partner Chris Donnelly, “who’d known he wanted to be an entrepreneur since the moment he learned to walk”, says Askins.

Together, they set up Verb Brands in 2014, which specialised in digital marketing for companies in the luxury space. The pair worked with clients like Bentley and Bugatti, as well as high-profile hotel chains.

Askins learnt some valuable marketing lessons specific to the luxury space during this time. Their remit was to focus on high-net-worth individuals. Verb Brands created inbound interest through live, experience-led events, rather than relying on typical outbound marketing channels, like emails or cold calls.

Askins exited Verb Brands through a private equity sale at the end of 2021. As part of the transaction, he committed to a two-year earnout period. It was his first exit and he warns founders to be mindful of a possible exit from an early stage and practice due diligence. This might involve keeping things like detailed notes of board meetings and audited financial records.

He also recommends selling while the business is “on the up” and enlisting the services of an M&A advisor.

Askins has since gone on to set up Gaia, a UK-based green technology company that builds online tools for companies within the environmental space. Its two main products are AI-powered Carbon Accounting software and a digital marketplace for selling carbon credits.

When it comes to hiring, Askins has learned some hard-won, practical advice over the years, which he is keen to share. Some of it goes against the grain of normal practice.

He believes that the kind of surprise questions you sometimes hear about at interviews, like ‘can you estimate the number of windows in the world?’, don’t actually help to find good candidates.

It’s much better to let people prepare for exercises, because this reflects life in day-to-day business more closely.

He also encourages leaders to give short-listed candidates a detailed task, which might involve examining the P&L or interviewing colleagues, for example, and paying candidates for their time.

Askins also believes that entrepreneurs should hold their natural traits of optimism and impatience in check when it comes to hiring. It’s better to wait and get the right candidate. The person who is a good cultural fit will share similar values, but be willing to challenge you, he adds.

“Hiring is by far and away the most important part of the business,” says Askins. If you “nail it”, everything else will naturally fall into place.

Such is his deep interest in company culture that he has written a book all about it called My Boss is a Moron: Strategies to Manage Up and Thrive in any Workspace.

Askins believes a big problem is that many people are “accidental managers”, because it was the only way they could secure more status and pay in the organisation. So you can think about recalibrating pay and progression to prevent this from happening.

He’s also found that it is small “niggles” that tend to make people unhappy at work. If you can cut down on things like people being messaged while on holiday, or pay rise discussions being postponed, then morale will improve throughout the organisation and ultimately productivity will improve.

Hiring is “expensive and takes time”, he points out, so it’s a priority to get it right.