BLIB #11 - Tony Cappaert, COO & Co-Founder, Contactually

My first job was as a stock boy at a grocery store in rural Michigan. The store was your typical local supermarket, but it also happened to be connected to a meat processing plant. So here I was, at 15 years old, stocking shelves, bagging groceries, and helping people process and pack their slaughtered meat.
-- Tony Cappaert, 2016.

Tony Cappaert is not your average beer-drinking business leader. He's a graduate of MIT, a Microsoft Alumni, and a Co-Founder of one of D.C.'s hottest startups: Contactually. After he graduated from college Tony spent a few years working in Seattle as a Product Manager for Microsoft. He then made the cross-country trek to Washington, D.C. where he worked for a non-profit. After working at the non-profit for about a year he made the decision to go in an entirely new direction and start a business. It was at this time that Tony met his co-founders Zvi Band and Jeff Carbonella and embarked on a journey to build email management software which would eventually be used by people around the world. The Contactually co-founders have been at it for over five and a half years, and with almost 75 employees, the company continues to push full speed ahead. Tony lives in the Columbia Heights - a Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., he has a dog named Tucker (who hangs out at Contactually's office on a regular basis), and he and his wife are expecting a baby in July. 

The Bar:

Tony and I originally planned on meeting at Jackpot (4), but because of how noisy that bar can be we made a game-time decision to move our BLIB to Lost and Found (4).  The first thing that I noticed about Lost and Found is that it has the look and feel of a dive bar, but it's a dive bar with a very solid draft beer selection. Lost and Found's extensive beer menu contains detailed information on each beer that they serve. The menu displays the beer's name, the brewery that brewed the beer, the location of the brewery, what style of beer it is, and how big of a pour you should expect. The menu is great for people who pay attention to the minutiae of beer and breweries. Tony enjoys going to bars where he can hang out with friends and drink really good beer. He tries real hard to avoid locations that are too open and too noisy. In addition to Lost and Found being one of Tony's favorite spots he also likes going to Meridian Pint since they have lots of good beers on tap and because it's close to his home. He recommends Glen's Garden Market as a being another great spot for beer drinkers. Tony filled us in on a little secret about Glen's Garden Market: They have four dollar pints available and they also have an enclosed area with picnic tables where you can drink your pint(s). When Tony is on the West Coast his favorite beer drinking spot is Toronado in San Francisco, which he called "a beer lover's paradise." He described Toronado as being similar to ChurchKey but not as upscale and with a vibe that is much more relaxed. Tony enjoys going to local breweries like DC Brau, Atlas Brewing, Right Proper, and Hellbender Brewing. He impressed with Hellbender's setup and mentioned that their brewery feels like a bunch friends got together, rented a warehouse, and started brewing beer there. I'd trust Tony's opinion when it comes to breweries as he has visited close to 100 breweries across the United States. Just like a few other BLIB'ers, one of Tony's favorite breweries of all time is is Russian River Brewing Co. in Santa Rosa, CA.

The Beer:

When it comes to beer Tony is generally a fan of IPA's and hoppy beers. Some of his favorite beers include Russian River's Pliny the Elder and Victory Brewing's Hop Devil. Tony has also gotten into the practice of mixing Dogfish Head beers whenever he goes to their brewpub. For example, Tony will blend their 60 Minute IPA and their 120 Minute IPA to create a makeshift 90 Minute IPA or he'll mix a 60 Minute IPA with Dogfish Head's Punkin Ale to create an IPA/Pumpkin beer blend. It's kind of like the old concept of mixing Guiness and Bass to make a Black and Tan, but with with much better beer. In college, Tony tended to drink Natural Ice but he does remember drinking good beer in his senior year. There's a bar in Boston called The Lower Depths (4) and he specifically remembers ordering a Wells Banana Bread Beer (80) for his now wife, and then promising her to drink the beer if she didn't like it (she didn't like it, so he drank it). When we talked about overrated beers and breweries, Tony told me that he thought that Sam Adams may be a little bit overrated. He tends to follow beer news and enjoys trying local or smaller breweries. Beers that are currently in his fridge at home right now include Victory Hop Devil and Funky Buddha which is an Imperial Stout brewed with maple and bourbon. Tony also specifically called out Great Divide Brewery and told me that he went through a phase in life where he was drinking a lot a Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA. When it came time to order beers Tony grabbed an Anderson Valley IPA and I ordered Victory's Gose. We noted a large number of Maryland and Virginia beers on the menu including beers from RAR and Jailbreak. For our second-round Tony had me order his beer. I ordered him a pint of Jailbreaks Infinite Amber and I ordered myself a North Coast Sidamo.

The Business Leader:

Tony has had the opportunity to lead Contactually through several different stages of the company's existence. He started the company and remembers when there were just three co-founders building and selling a product. He has remained with the company as it has grown, scaled, and become a highly regarded product. When Tony and I talked about his current challenges he explained that empowering the Contactually team has become one of his biggest challenges and a challenge that has become more important than execution. This change in mindset also includes developing his own leadership skillset and figuring out how to delegate effectively. He calls out a first-round article that he read recently which he thinks aligns with how he approaches his role at the company. Tony explained that he needs to be focusing on the very important goals where there is a high likelihood that they will not be met. He notes that he should be delegating highly important yet very likely to succeed goals to others. When it comes to what Tony needs from the universe right now he stated that he would like to know how he can better leverage his time and the time of the people that he works with to be successful. Time continues to be recurring theme that we hear about from many of the business leaders we BLIB with. Tony also noted that he would like to hire a great VP of Client Success. Another thing that Tony said he needs from the universe (and his team) is strong pushback on any one functional area. Now that he and his co-founders have executives to support them, they need to be able to lean on their executive team's experience and expertise, but also be able to incorporate that experience and expertise into ideas that he and his co-founders have. When it comes to advice for other business leaders, Tony had two pieces of advice for two different types of business leaders. First, Tony had some advice for business leaders who are working for small, early-stage companies. He says that when you're an early stage business leader, you have to understand that getting shit done trumps everything. Execution is the boss. When it comes to business leaders with later-stage companies or companies that are in the process of scaling, business leaders need to recognize that there's much less that they can personally do to impact the company, so they need to focus on being able to issue clear priorities/direction and remove any roadblocks that the people they're leader are running into. The most recent book that Tony read is The Internet is My Religion, which he highly recommends.

Thanks so much to Tony Cappaert for participating this week. Join us next week when we'll chat with Navin Ganeshan, Chief Product Officer of Zubie.