Jamie Baxter, CEO Of Qwick – A DotCom Magazine Exclusive Interview

Jamie Baxter
Jamie Baxter, CEO Of Qwick

Jamie Baxter is the CEO of Qwick. Jamie is a thought leader, influencer, visionary, and successful entrepreneur. Jamie provides the leadership and energy that has inspired the creation of Qwick. Jamie Baxter joins other leading CEOs and Founders taking part in our Leader Roundtable Interview Series. The DotCom Magazine editorial team has recently awarded Qwick with our Impact Company of 2019 award. We are delighted to have Jamie join us for our Leader Roundtable Interview and our popular “speed round” as well.

Qwick
Qwick is an on-demand food and beverage staffing marketplace

Jamie, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day for this interview about your company, leadership, and entrepreneurship.

1. What is the “elevator pitch” for Qwick?

Qwick is an on-demand food and beverage staffing marketplace. We connect hotels, catering companies, event venues and restaurants with the staff they need to fill shifts in real-time. We help bartenders, servers, cooks, and dish washers earn the money they need to provide for their families by connecting them with shifts with complete freedom and flexibility to choose when and where they want to work.

2. What is the key to your company’s success?

Qwick’s success is due to the amazing team that we have built and focusing on truly helping our business partners and the professionals on our platform.

3. Many of our readers are just starting to build a company. What advice can you give entrepreneurs just starting out with a new venture?

Think big, start small, and scale up. It is much better to start very lean and experiment with a bunch of things to figure out what works than to build

Think big, start small, and scale up

something huge before you know if anyone will buy what you are building. We believe in moving fast and breaking things – it is the best way to learn and early stage companies need to focus mostly on learning over anything else.

4. For other entrepreneurs seeking to build a business as successful as yours, what advice can you give them when times get a little challenging?

They call it the entrepreneur roller coaster for a reason – there are going to be a lot of ups and downs. Remember that everyone else has had these challenges as well and you need to push through. When people look back at what you have built it will look like it was always up and to the right, but in truth there were a lot of peaks and valleys.

5. How important is the commitment to client satisfaction at Qwick, and how do you make sure your customers will become raving fans of your company?

If you don’t have client satisfaction, you don’t have a business. We pride ourselves on customer success beyond just client satisfaction – we need to help our clients be successful in their business as a whole, not just satisfied with the service we provided them. By aligning our interest in them succeeding we can truly build the best raving fans of Qwick.

6. In today’s fast changing business environment, how do you stay abreast of things?

There is too much information for any one person to consume these days which is why you have to surround yourself with really smart people that can help keep up to speed on what is going on. This includes your employees, investors, advisors, business partners, and anyone else you can recruit to be part of your success. It takes a village to build a company, start finding your tribe as soon as possible.

7. What is your “Why”? Why do you get up in the morning, and how do you keep yourself at peak performance to lead Qwick?

I love building products and I love building teams. That is at the heart of why I love building Qwick. I also truly love changing people’s lives and helping them earn the money they need to feed their kids and keep the lights on at home. We are changing the way people work and making the world a better place.

8. Can you recommend a book that has had an influence in your career? How did it influence you?

The Orange Revolution by Chester Elton – this book embodies the leadership style that I believe in and has helped me convey that to many of the leaders in my current and past teams.

9. When communicating with your staff, can you tell us the most important thing you do so that they are able to carry out the objectives that you set forth at Qwick?

Communication is all about being transparent and to the point. The better you can align people through clear communication and help everyone get on the same page as to the “why” you are doing something, the easier it is for everyone to know the “how”.

10. Can you explain what leadership means to you?

Leadership is about surrounding yourself with the best and brightest people that are smarter and better than you in the areas they are working on. You then need to empower them to perform their role, give them the resources they need, clear out any roadblocks, then get out of the way and cheer them on!

Leadership
Leadership is about surrounding yourself with the best and brightest people that are smarter and better than you in the areas they are working on

We would like to have some fun and do a “speed round” with you! We will ask you ten more questions that we want you to answer in just one to three words only.

Here you go!

1. In three words or less, what makes a successful CEO?
Leadership, Engagement, Reliability

2. Describe your business in one word?
Staffing-marketplace

3. Describe your customers in one word?
Amazing

4. What one attribute do you look for when hiring an employee?
Making sure they are going to be a good fit with the company culture.

5. What is the one word you want your customers to say about your company?
Helpful

6. In three words or less, describe your passion?
Building teams

7. In three words or less, describe what it takes to be successful?
Revenue, Traction, Capital

8. In three words or less, describe your first year in business at Qwick?
Lean, Pivot, Growth

9. In three words or less, describe how running a successful company has changed you?
Humble, Appreciative, Responsible

10. What is the one word that you believe has the most power in the English language?
Love

Jamie Baxter, thank you so much for sitting down with us for our DotCom Magazine Leader Roundtable Interview Series. We very much appreciate the time you spent helping our readers learn more about what it takes to be a leader. We wish you, your family, and of course Qwick, nothing but the best. Thanks again!

Jamie Baxter, CEO of Qwick, The Leader Roundtable Interview Series