Member Since 2020
Stride Services
Seattle Area
Russell Benaroya is an entrepreneur with a background in corporate finance and private equity. Prior to becoming a Partner at Stride, Russell was the Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for higi, a population health enablement company that owns the largest national network of health screening stations. In 2017, higi acquired EveryMove where Russell was the co-founder and CEO of the venture backed technology start-up. Prior to EveryMove, Russell was the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Office of REM Medical a multi-state sleep disorders healthcare business that was acquired in September 2009. Prior to REM Medical Russell was an investment professional for the private equity firms Kline Hawkes and Blue Point Capital where he invested in healthcare, technology, and industrial based enterprises. Russell was also an early employee at Overture Services (acquired by Yahoo in 2003), a pioneer in web-based search engine marketing. Russell started his career in New York at Salomon Smith Barney as a Corporate Finance Analyst. Russell received his MBA with highest honors from the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Business. He was awarded the Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Award in 2009. Russell is on the boards of the Seattle Jewish Community Center and an active investor in technology start-ups. He is also an instructor in Healthcare Innovation at the University of Washington and a mentor for TechStars. When not helping other entrepreneurs succeed, he is contemplating life on 24 hour+ ultra trail runs.
Landing your first management position can be as daunting as it is exciting. You may feel pressure from superiors to perform well or wonder how you'll best lead your new employees.
When we become more aware of ourselves, rather than blaming others, we can embrace the next transition with more thoughtful intention.
Sometimes an employee just doesn’t work out within an organization and needs to be let go. Firing an employee is a task that needs to be handled with delicacy and care, and the process can be intimidating for someone who has never been responsible for terminating an employee before.
In a market with hundreds (maybe thousands) of competitors, it becomes more challenging for businesses to make a mark that'll impact the core audience they’re aiming for. This is why it’s so important for a business to develop a strategy that will give them an edge over the rest.
The power of place has the ability to not only uplevel your leadership but also uplevel your life.
Many businesses rely on software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies to help them run their everyday operations. However, with so many specialized vendors, it's easy to lose track of the number — and price tag — of the SaaS providers you're working with. To help, members of Young Entrepreneur Council weighed in on the following question:
Being an entrepreneur and owning your own business is an end goal for most people. It's a thrilling end result -- the fact that you're your own boss, you set your own hours, and remain accountable only to yourself can be a heady mix. Yet, the benefits of the position usually overshadow the more pertinent considerations that would-be entrepreneurs overlook. Although there are significant benefits to being a business owner, there's also a considerable amount of background work that rarely gets highlighted but needs to be done.
Onboarding a new employee is an exciting time for any business. While you're eager to get your new team member up and running on their tasks, you also need to ensure they understand the company culture and will mesh with your organization for the long term. That's why we asked the members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:
The end of this year is right around the corner, and smart business owners will already be setting up plans and goals for the coming first quarter. Planning helps a business take stock of what it's achieved thus far and what it can hope to accomplish in the first quarter of the new year, given its available time and resources.
With the holidays approaching quickly, many are ready to set their “out of office” messages and relax and recharge. It’s important for employers to encourage this balance and promote the use of paid time off around the holidays. However, if everyone takes off at the same time, it may leave you with a skeleton crew and piles of work for when employees return, making for a not-so-happy start to the new year.
Entrepreneurs can be easily distracted. Whether it's new ideas popping into their heads or the demands of their businesses, distractions abound and can easily steal away your focus.
Geographic independence is the idea that you can pursue your professional passion from anywhere in the world and achieve your economic goals while doing so.
There's some merit to the adage of working hard to play hard. With workers devoting their all to a business, especially when it's just getting off the ground, it can be easy for them to lose sight of their need for relaxation. Therefore, it is up to the leaders to intervene and help employees realize that their peace and mental health are just as important as the valuable work they do.
Some entrepreneurs who want to scale their companies and fast-track their growth hire a business coach to help them get there. These professionals often have years of business experience themselves and can help you take your business to new heights with their insights.
With the sheer amount of productivity hacks and life hacks on the market today, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Even with all of these, it can be hard to figure out which ones work and which ones are just myths.
Disagreements and conflicts are inevitable in the workplace. As a leader, it’s your job to mediate any issues between workers so your company culture remains positive and productive. However, this is often easier said than done: It takes a truly empathetic and effective leader to listen to each side and help both parties come to a mutually-beneficial solution.
Focus on unit economics to generate more cash flow and profitability.
The shared agreement dictates the ongoing relationship in a client-service provider dynamic.
It's no surprise that cold calling remains one of the most effective means of getting leads. Unfortunately, people tend to be averse to getting calls out of the blue. Some people even reject unknown numbers to avoid cold calls altogether. Despite this, user engagement with phone calls remains high, and the number of people you connect with increases your chance of success.
Innovation can change how a company does business and significantly improve its bottom line. That is why innovation should be a core value for any organization, and leaders should spare no efforts to encourage their teams to come up with innovative ideas.
Don't let a work-from-home culture act as a platform to lament low productivity.
Stride is a fully managed outsourced back office bookkeeping and accounting services firm. As your "accounting department down the hall", we provide day to day services to professional service, healthcare and technology firms with revenues typically in excess of $1 million annually. The Company was started 15 years ago in and was re-branded as Stride Services in 2018. The Company has 40 employees (who work virtually) and over 100 clients nationally. The expertise of the Company is in the areas of team, process and technology. Our goal is to help businesses move forward faster and our systems are built to allow business owners to focus on growth, not their back office.
Accounting