The old adage “time is money” never seemed prescient to Cheers CEO Brooks Powell until the end of 2023, when 60-hour work weeks were the norm to keep up with the rapid expansion of his hangover relief supplement business.
As he awaited the arrival of his first child, he was facing internal pressure from his team to hire more staff, but he “wasn’t convinced” that anyone he could hire in the U.S. for less than $100,000 a year was going to relieve the stress.
“It would set a precedent where we’re adding expenses onto the business,” Brooks explained in a recent conversation with BevNET. “I have always defaulted to putting revenue ahead of expenses. That just means that while a business is growing, there will be temporary discomfort.”
Amid rising costs and a tougher investment climate, it’s a particularly challenging time for startups to create a pressure valve for growth. Outsourcing is often seen as a way to reduce expenses, but is it a necessary evil, or just a more efficient approach to saving time and money?
It’s a question which Oceans, a recruitment platform sourcing from Sri Lanka, has been eager to answer. Founded as a recruitment agency for technology startups, the firm has shifted over the last few years to align more closely with CPG, an industry where young brands are more conscious of burn-rates and less reliant on investors to bail them out when they are running low on capital, said Oceans founder and CEO Ian Myers.
“It’s more a mutual partnership,” he said. “[CPG] is a good fit for us in terms of longevity and the customer type because they’re very conscious about costs. Food and beverage is also a low-margin business with high operational complexity, and we have talent that’s uniquely suited to operations.”
Outsourcing is not a new concept. CPG-focused ForceBrands has operated for years as consultants and a recruitment business for startups seeking help finding manufacturing partners and experienced talent.
Oceans is not that different, advocating helping brands succeed by providing experienced talent to create efficiencies in the space. Oceans says it’s reframing offshoring jobs by using its model to source, train and retain its talent base overseas.
Typically, Oceans can fill a position, or “diver,” for between $3,000 to $5,000 per month, a significant cost-savings when compared to similar roles by a U.S.-based applicant. The relationship is a managed service model. Fees paid to Oceans goes towards an employee’s salary and benefits as well as the business operational costs for as long as the diver is employed. After a contract ends or a position is terminated, Oceans continues to pay its divers until a new position is found.
The value proposition is not just saving money but building efficiencies to reduce a founder’s workload.
“Typically, this isn’t: ‘I need to cut costs so I’m laying off all these people and hiring Oceans’,” he said. “These are tasks that weren’t getting done, put on the back burner or a new need, like closing a big account, that suddenly requires all these extra hours that founders don’t have.”
Oceans has found a sweet spot filling this need with its “executive assistant+” (EA+) role who helps founders manage their schedules, coordinate logistics with events like trade shows and ease the day-to-day burden of administrative tasks. They often bring a broader set of expertise to the role as well, recruited from a pool of candidates who have studied abroad and/or worked in operations for larger multinational companies like Unilever or Nestlé, Myers said.
“The EA+ role is so popular among CPG companies because you get a critically-thinking operator who can also help with admin,” he said. “What you get is a real operator as your right hand who can also do your scheduling, your trip planning and logistics as well.”
Outsourcing positions can be polarizing at a time when tariffs have become a touchpoint for reshoring jobs to the U.S.
“The idea of [offshoring] being a stigma is something I pretty heavily push back on,” said Sandro Roco, CEO and founder of Asian-inspired sparkling water brand Sanzo. “Especially when our retail and distribution partners mostly care that we’re executing on our goals – that we’re delivering shipments on-time and in-full.”
Roco, who currently employs one Oceans diver, is in the process of transitioning Sanzo’s labor structure into a “remote/offshore-first mentality.” The emphasis is reducing costs by finding similar or better quality talent.
“There are certain sales and operational functions that can’t be offshored,” he said. “But as we grow, the first question is really going to be: Can this need be met by a remote role?”
Cheers is taking that approach as well. Along with 10 full-time U.S.-based employees, Powell has three Oceans divers and is looking abroad as a source for new hires. By working with Oceans, Powell’s time has been freed up to maintain more relationships and unlock more doors for his business. The value has been necessary for Cheers which has grown in the last three years from zero doors to 30,000, Powell said.
“It’s a force multiplier,” he added. “It’s one plus one equals three.”