Scaling a company successfully is no easy feat, particularly when it comes to maintaining a strong culture. After all, what came naturally with a team of 20 often requires a more deliberate and collaborative approach with a team of 200. As companies grow — adding new people, processes, products and even departments — it becomes even more important for their cultures to grow along with them.
We caught up with four local tech companies to learn more about what defines their cultures and what they’ve done to stay true to — and evolve — that culture as they’ve scaled.
Name.com gives people the tools they need to bring great websites to life, offering domain registration and website hosting services suitable for any budget. Lead UI/UX Engineer Jon Liu and Senior Product Manager Angela Daniels explained how their team has become more like a family and how that helps every employee feel empowered to bring their authentic selves to the office.
What are some of the defining qualities of your company culture today?
Liu: One of the best parts about Name.com’s culture is that everyone plays a part in defining it. Our culture is not set in stone or defined by a single person; it has evolved over time to accommodate and reflect the people on our team. Our company culture is more than the free food, the keg or any other perks. It’s about the genuine relationships we’ve formed over the years and the family we’ve grown into over time.
What are some steps you’re taking to stay true to that culture as you grow?
Daniels: We try to make it clear from the job posting to the interview process to the first day at Name that we are not afraid of expressing our authentic selves at work. Employees are encouraged to communicate with people at every level, in every department, to accomplish their goals — and when there’s no bureaucracy getting in the way, it’s easy to build camaraderie with a lot of different people.
We are also great at adapting as our company continues to grow and change. Our core values are at the center of what we do every day, but that doesn’t mean that we limit our thinking about what that means or looks like.
Embracing the “show, don’t tell” philosophy, Engrain delivers interactive real estate software that leverages touchscreen, interactive mapping and data visualization technologies that brings information directly to renters’ and buyers’ fingertips. Chief Operating Officer Melissa Pasquale shed some light on the ways their culture has evolved over the years and why she expects it to continue evolving alongside the company.
What are some of the defining qualities of your company culture today?
Though the company has been around for over 20 years, our culture has changed dramatically. In the last few years, we have grown from a small agency to a now 60-plus employee, product-oriented SaaS company. The people on our team define our culture, and that process has been very organic. At a recent team building event, we defined ourselves as open, nerdy, anti-corporate, punchy and evolving. We love to celebrate people’s differences and promote growth in an individual’s areas of strength. Despite our size, we still maintain an entrepreneurial vibe at Engrain, which leaves room for individual employees to push through significant changes to company culture.
What are some steps you’re taking to stay true to that culture as you grow?
Our office manager is in charge of the Engagement Committee to ensure company events are organized and happening on a consistent basis. Volunteers within various departments help come up with the ideas so it’s always something new and fun. We also have a monthly first-Thursday happy hour which includes company announcements, ice breakers and libations. We try to plan our remote team’s visits to the office around first Thursday, and when they aren’t in town we use a virtual meeting to keep everyone in the loop. In this way, company culture does feel very cohesive and collaborative.
TrackVia’s low-code application platform reduces the burden on overloaded IT departments by enabling people without technical coding skills to build out customized workflow applications. VP of Marketing Londonne Corder gave us a glimpse into the company’s people-driven culture and how they keep it strong as they grow.
What are some of the defining qualities of your company culture today?
At TrackVia, we define our culture by “Ccare,” which stands for customer-focused, collaborative, accountable, results-driven and empowered. We are a transparent, culture-driven company, where employees feel free to bring their ideas to the table. One aspect of this is our all-hands meeting which we hold every month. This gathering is an open forum where we get to hear from each department leader, ask questions and recognize individuals who've gone above and beyond.
What are some steps you’re taking to stay true to that culture as you grow?
We welcome feedback from our employees at any time. Annually, we survey employees to identify areas to improve. As our community grows, our culture committee makes sure we're keeping work morale high with fun bi-yearly company events, monthly happy hours and monthly feedback sessions with the executive team. This month, we're headed to Unser Racing to celebrate our recent growth investment. It's also exciting to see employee-initiated group activities, such as our softball team and whiskey tasting group.
BombBomb helps businesses re-humanize their communications with the power of video messaging, enabling users to record, send and track personalized video messages from a variety of devices and platforms. Director of Talent Management Sandra Martinez explained how regular employee feedback helps shape and evolve the company’s culture — even as they’ve grown beyond Colorado Springs.
What are some of the defining qualities of your company culture today?
BombBomb puts culture first by addressing it from the job interview to the exit interview! To be a success in our environment, you need a commitment to our core values of relationships, flexibility, service, humility and fun. We conduct engagement surveys regularly and track employee NPS quarterly. We have a rotating people team who serve as ambassadors of our culture. We also make sure to address culture and people concerns and to elicit feedback during the recruitment, performance and exit processes.
What are some steps you’re taking to stay true to that culture as you grow?
We do have a few remote employees, as well as employees outside of our headquarters. We make sure we have the technology in place to connect face to face and bring them in regularly to maintain relationships.
