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Dave Fink is co-founder and CEO of Postie, a direct mail marketing solutions company used by brands like DoorDash, Cole Haan, and Tula Skincare.
How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? Postie is an 8-year-old growth stage company that has achieved quite a bit in a short period. My role has evolved quite a bit as well as we’ve moved through many key stages as a business. As a startup, the most important aspect of my job was to present the problem we were trying to solve, the vision of how we would solve it, and most critically get our initial product to market quickly. My days were filled with building products, structuring business partnerships, and selling to customers. As we matured into a growth stage company with an established product market fit and rapid revenue growth, the daily blend of responsibilities evolved from mostly execution to strategy and empowerment.
One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? I have an obsessive-like focus on a wide range of hobbies…They range from snowboarding, mountain biking, road cycling, surfing, wakesurfing, climbing, and guitar. I’m also an avid reader, consistently consuming over 1,000 pages a month. While publicly I try to keep my personal and professional life a bit separate, within Postie, I find value in using lessons I learn through my hobbies to make connections with our business and regularly use the analogies formally to create training sessions and professional development workshops for our team.
What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on? Building Postie has been my most rewarding professional experience to date. First, the people. I am lucky to have a co-founder who I learn from and challenge in return, who I also consider a true friend. I am 100% confident that any Postie employee you interact with will impress you with their knowledge, professionalism, and desire to add value. Secondly, Postie was launched with a focused mission to reinvent a valuable marketing channel at a critical point for brands. We have remained 100% committed to this goal and help hundreds of brands we love to make better marketing decisions, engage more effectively with their prospects and customers, and have more control over the health of their businesses.
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Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about right now, and why? I am impressed with how brands have become so focused on a people-first approach across their marketing stacks. Those brands that focus on adding value to their customers naturally have an advantage. We are now in a world where a brand has a wide range of opportunities to get to know their customers and turn those insights into meaningful interactions which help build a connection between people and the retailer and connect their marketing and storytelling with the products and services they deliver.
What’s your go-to coffee order? This one’s a layup—a black cup of quality brewed coffee. It may be boring, but there are very few consistent, simple pleasures that deliver so much happiness and contentment. I do one large cup in the morning and one large cup in the afternoon. Every day.
Worst piece of advice you’ve received? I’ve been encouraged many times by well-meaning supporters to believe I can do anything I set my mind to. The key distinction I needed to learn was that may not be true. I may have the capacity and motivation to accomplish different things, but certain things are more achievable than others. In other words, the better advice may have been that I have the capacity to achieve many different things…Building strong teams, delegating responsibility, and empowering people are the keys to success.
What was your favorite retail product when you were 15? I feel emotional just thinking back to that time in my life. Electric guitars—and if I had to pick one it would be an American Fender Stratocaster…I got my first job as a retail sales clerk specifically to save up for a guitar. Using the money I had worked hard to save made the purchase special. You can negotiate with guitar stores and this buying experience taught me so many key strategies I still use. I can vividly remember not getting the price I asked for, walking out of the store, and the salesperson literally chasing me down the street and finally agreeing to my price. It was a scene out of a movie. What an experience for a 15-year-old. It made it fun and added to the satisfaction of the purchase.