#2: "We're Building The Plane In The Air" | Dean Hayward (Instacart)

In our second episode, we chat with Dean Hayward who helps to lead the Brand Partnerships team at Instacart Canada. His team is focused on partnering with Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies to grow their business on the platform via advertising. Instacart is a tech company that is best known for powering eCommerce for some of North America's largest retailers (users can receive same day delivery from the likes of Loblaw, Best Buy and Sephora). Before helping to scale Instacart's advertising business - he had done the same at Amazon Ads Canada for 5 years and held various sales positions at other organizations (i.e. Hershey, Neptune Retail Solutions). He started his career in media planning at Saatchi & Saatchi. When Dean isn't navigating corporate relationships, you can find him navigating the waters of Georgian Bay by boat and enjoying the outdoors with his wife at their cottage.In this episode, we chat with Dean about the misconceptions that exist around advertising sales, the power of networking, Instacart being the "new kid on the block," and Toronto flourishing into an emerging Tech hub.More specifically, Dean shared his thoughts on the following questions:How would you describe what you do to a complete stranger? (5:38)How has the transition been from individual contributor to a manager of people? (8:05)Can you describe what the brand partnerships team contributes to Instacart? (10:44)What moment sparked your interest in marketing/sales? (13:08)Can you walk us through your journey from that moment to present day? (19:05)What filter have you leveraged to make career decisions? (26:18)What are the types of skills that you're looking for in candidates? (30:36)How is the Canadian tech scene shaping up and what types of roles are available here vs. the US? (34:06)Can you debunk some myths that exist around advertising sales? (38:30)Rapid Fire - we put Dean in the hot seat! (41:54)