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John Fischer, founder of StickerGiant, hands over the company’s giant ball of stickers to Beth Smith — who uses they/them/theirs pronouns.
Opened in 2000, StickerGiant fabricates personalized stickers and labels. It all started when Fischer and his wife began selling political bumper stickers out of their basement.
Since then StickerGiant has fostered a diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible environment for its employees.
On April 5, Fischer formally announced that Smith would take over as chief executive officer, or CEO.
“This is just a continuation of what I’m trying to do with StickerGiant,” Fischer said, “The company is successful and doing well and we have a fairly unique opportunity to teach and flex the muscle of passing transitioning power so that the company does outlast me when I’m gone.”
Fischer felt like Smith was the right person because they were focused on the same principles, tending to the people (Giants) who work for the company.
This announcement comes shortly after Smith made a post to friends, family and colleges publicly on Facebook. The post revealed Smith’s gender status as non-binary.“I am female-bodied but not particularly female-identified,” Smith said. Smith grew up in a Christian home, with a father who was a “fundamental Christian minister.” Smith had a love for psychology and pursued an undergraduate degree as a means to get out of the house, later seeking a second master’s degree in contemplative psychotherapy from Naropa University to become a therapist.
“I chased that dream until it ran dry, I set up a private practice after I got done, I worked in public health and mental health,” Smith said. “I was a psychiatric crisis clinician for a while, which was an eye-opening experience.”
In the end, Smith missed the problem-solving aspect the business world offers, they said. After a series of jobs that resulted in Smith being laid off, they stumbled upon a posting at StickerGiant.
“I saw John’s ad for director of operations (or) vice president of operations,” Smith said, “Eight months later, I got the job.”
With no prior experience in the label industry, Smith was recruited as chief operating officer, or COO, after a “year-long recruitment effort” Smith said.
“When I was looking for a chief operating officer, I was looking for somebody who was going to bring their heart and their values to the business,” Fischer said, “(Beth) had the right values and ... the right heart. Beth was the right person.”
Smith worked as COO for three-and-a-half years before getting the promotion to CEO.
“She has been tremendously successful, implementing the vision of a good company to work for, utilizing the tools, best practices and leadership tools that we use,” Fischer said.
According to Jesse Freitas, director of marketing at StickerGiant, “Beth is definitely expanding on John’s original vision,” he said. “His core focus has always been to create a good company to work for and Beth has come in and done a fantastic job of already doing that and shown a track record for making it a good place to work ... a better place that’s attracting all the new talent right here in Longmont.”
Even during the pandemic, StickerGiant has successfully nurtured its 112 employees by offering paid time off before the government offered tax credits for them to do so, Smith said.
The company leads the way in the sticker and label business by valuing its employees, a principle both Fischer and Smith share.
“Good companies to work for do everything they can to stick around and stay relevant and stay growing and stay creating opportunities for the existing employees and creating new jobs for people who want to work in a good company,” Fischer said.
“Beth has been leading the way and doing a fantastic job of guiding all this growth and adding people and space and processes and leading that charge so her promotion to CEO was kind of something, I personally saw coming,” Freitas said.
