A first ops hire, and hours back every week
How Dispatch founder Kevin gains back hours of crucial focus time each week, thanks to the support of his fractional hire from Hello Generalist.
- Candidates sourced and screened
- 5
- Senior ops hire, ever
- 1st
- Of hours back for Kevin, every week
- 10s
About Dispatch
Dispatch is building the modern replacement for the hospital call light. Through a tablet, patients get their non-medical needs met faster, improving patient satisfaction and reducing the burden on nursing staff.
Challenge
Lack of ops experience, limited bandwidth, and few connections for potential hires.
As the founding CEO of a bootstrapped startup, Kevin Davis was used to doing a lot with very little. He wore many hats on any given day, which meant he was often stretched too thin in the wrong directions. Caught in the weeds of day-to-day operations, he couldn’t think strategically about expansion, product vision, and delivering on product promises.
We’re not just dealing with software at Dispatch. We have physical tablets that are embedded into hospital units. So if a tablet stops working, needs a new battery, or even catches on fire, I have to physically go in to replace them. These moments add up and end up taking a lot of my time.
Kevin Davis · Founder & CEOKevin knew that to make an impact at scale and expand beyond the 7 units he was serving, he’d need a better internal structure: an expert to put processes in place, build better feedback loops, and make sure the product was performing as intended.
He knew the value of fractional work, but he had never hired a senior operations lead and didn’t know how to scope the role, what profile to look for, or how to source the right candidates. Then he came across Hello Generalist in a Slack channel for founders.
Solution
Hello Generalist helped scope, source, and connect Dispatch with 5 potential ops candidates, and find the right hire.
Kevin set up an initial chat so HG could understand his business, his main challenges, and what sort of hire he needed.
Working with HG really helped to clarify my own thinking around what sort of support I needed. Shaina even helped me draft a post to source my own leads on LinkedIn. When I didn’t get the quality I was looking for from the inbound messages, that’s when I knew it made sense to work with HG.
Kevin Davis · Founder & CEOHG scoped an ops role to support existing hospital units, collect more customer feedback, define what success looked like for customers, and give Kevin back time for product, go-to-market strategy, and expansion.
HG sourced 5 candidates, helped Kevin design an interview process with a few video calls and a take-home assignment, and ultimately he hired Harry.
The thing about the HG process that I love was that it just works. The best part about HG is that you get access to great people on a simple-to-use platform and an amazing team that supports you through every step of the fractional hiring process.
Kevin Davis · Founder & CEOResults
Kevin’s fractional hire systemized daily operations, giving him back hours each week to expand and deliver on product promises.
After onboarding Harry Siggins, Dispatch saw an immediate improvement in serving existing customers. Hospitals are seeing more value from the product, staff are more comfortable using the tablets, and the team has a better process for collecting feedback from units.
Harry has also helped Kevin prepare for expansion by taking care of the nitty-gritty research around storage and inventory management.
Hiring Harry has given me time back in my day to actually make sure our customers are happy, fulfill product promises and deliver on features, move our product and eng teams forward, and think about expanding our footprint.
Kevin Davis · Founder & CEOWith Harry handling day-to-day operations, Kevin recouped tens of hours a week for the product roadmap, the engineering team, and supporting sales through long hospital sales cycles.
If you’re in a situation like mine and don’t know how to hire for the role, use HG. You get access to a directory who’ve been vetted and a team that’ll work alongside you to make sure you get the best hire possible for your needs at a cost that works for you. It’s a no-brainer.
Kevin Davis · Founder & CEO