Under the Hood: Introducing Saul

You know that feeling when someone is talking and you don’t want them to stop? You are captivated, entertained and amused? That’s how I felt when I had to run out of our first interview with Saul to get a phone call — it sucked to have to leave. Fortunately he was good enough to come back for a second interview, then a trial-by-fire “build a plan in two hours and sell it to us” interview, and finally a fourth due-diligence interview with some trusted FreshBooks advisors. Apparently it’s no easy feat to get a job here at FreshBooks.

Luckily Saul Colt had the stamina and the character to endure all of that and join the FreshBooks team, and he’s been working hard behind the scenes with us since early December. You can learn more about Saul here, but a blurb that short doesn’t do Saul justice.

If you’re expecting someone loud and gregarious, don’t write him off. He’s the kind of guy you find on the wings at a cocktail party, and once you tune into his wit and creativity, you’ll want to hang out with him for the whole night.

I don’t have kids, but I can only imagine how hard it is to drop them off for that first day of school — you have to entrust your children to a teacher, someone to shape and mould them. That’s a little bit of the trepidation that crept in during our recent hire. We set out to find someone who could join our team and spend more time with our customers than we do. It’s not an easy role to hire for, but that’s what we felt we needed to do — enter Saul.

From a career standpoint, Saul is the man who brought Zipcar to Canada and made it their most successful international market entry, and during the process he re-wrote the book on how they enter markets and work core elements of their promotions. He’s also the man who built and sold his own comic book company. And he’s the man whose imagination is more active than a hummingbird’s wings.

As you can see, it’s not hard to talk about Saul. He’s a warm and genuine guy, and if you get a chance to meet him, whether virtually or out in the real world, I hope you’ll follow me in welcoming him to FreshBooks.