What do we mean we say “company culture”?
For some employees, it means virtual happy hours. For others, charitable contributions to important causes that reflect the company mission’s statement. It can be a high standard of delivering the best work. Or it can simply be “fun.”
“I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s true,” Controller Moses Djibinian at FabFitFun said.
Company culture is not just for morale; it has a real impact on employee performance. Like Ross, employees who respond positively when asked about company culture have higher upticks in productivity, engagement and creativity.
Nine professionals from nine hiring tech companies told us how company culture impacts their professional growth. The results lend to interesting projects with cutting-edge technology like AI and natural language processing (NLP), friendly and supportive team members, impactful influence on their communities and more.
What FitFabFun does: FabFitFun’s subscription service allows customers to discover new products and brands each season. Their mission is to inspire women to lead happier and healthier lives.
Describe FitFabFun’s culture in one word: “Fun. I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s true,” Controller Moses Djibinian said.
What “company culture” means at FitFabFun: “I have fun at work and with my team; we hang out together and build together,” Djibinian said. “We'll be in a meeting with the BI and operations teams having intense discussions about revenue and inventory and then grab lunch together or drinks after work. It comes down to the people. If you have the right people working together with the right attitude and dedication, and truly collaborating in an objective way, magical things can happen.
“During COVID-19, the whole company has managed to work just as well together even while remote. We’re still having fun in our Zoom meetings by doing pioneer work but laughing along the way. My team has a virtual weekly cooking club and Friday night happy hour. It’s the people that make the culture. As a leader, I try to put in the right foundation and hire the best mix of people that can flourish and grow collaboratively. I’m inspired by the diversity of our team. We’ve created a culture where open-mindedness meets positive motivation.”
We’ve created a culture where open-mindedness meets positive motivation.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
“I joined FabFitFun as the assistant controller in April 2018, and was recently promoted to controller,” Djibinian said. “Through that time, the company grew from 250 to 600 employees and my team went from nine to 20.
“It gives me great pride to step back and observe the progress and results coming from our team and the organization as a whole. I couldn't have grown personally if it wasn’t for my team and all the smart, talented people I work alongside. I have grown not only in responsibilities but in perspective as well. I have a better understanding of how an efficient and effective business functions, from warehouse operations to the HR onboarding process. I’m able to see the various pieces of our company come together like a perfect puzzle.”
What Scorpion does: Scorpion helps legal, healthcare and home service businesses build their online presence through digital marketing. In the past three years, they’ve seen 246 percent revenue growth.
Describe Scorpion’s company culture in one word. “Collaborative,” Regional Vice President of Sales Jason Ross said.
I have experienced overwhelming professional growth over the past 11 months.”
What “company culture” means at Scorpion: “A culture is how people behave,” Ross said. “If you have a culture of hard work, the employees will demonstrate behaviors of hard work. At Scorpion, every department is connected through the same goals. We have weekly meetings with the heads of different departments to share best practices and give updates on performance. I have never worked at a company where every department was so inextricably linked.
“Even though Scorpion has grown immensely over the past few years, we have maintained an intimate environment of support and collaboration. It isn’t uncommon for a sales professional to meet with a post-sales professional to create a comprehensive marketing strategy for a potential client. At Scorpion, we truly want every interaction we have with a prospect to be intentional and memorable. We encourage collaboration with our prospects all well as our clients.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
“I have experienced overwhelming professional growth over the past 11 months,” Ross said. “I learned to become more vulnerable as a leader. I have been reinvigorated with a passion for training and coaching. I have learned to actively listen. When employees feel heard and they feel appreciated, they are far more open to receiving feedback. I thank my team daily for pushing me to become the best version of myself so, in turn, I can inspire them to showcase their talents, gifts and their greatness.”
What Weedmaps does: Weedmaps’ software infrastructure allows consumers to purchase cannabis online where it’s legally available. Now in its second decade as a company, their mission continues to be to power a transparent and global cannabis economy, Vice President of Quality Engineering Viktoriya Chaplytska said.
Describe Weedmaps’ company culture in one word. “Caring,” Chaplytska said.
What “company culture” means at Weedmaps: “While there is a lot going on in the world right now, one of the most recent examples that comes to mind is our response to the Black Lives Matter movement,” Chaplytska said. “Weedmaps went above and beyond to ensure our actions created an immediate impact. We gave monetary contributions to long-standing partners including the ACLU, NAACP and the Last Prisoner Project; we gave employees a day off so we could connect in the community; we created a built-in feature for listing pages so clients could drive donations to advocacy groups; and we collaborated with Cannaclusive and Almost Consulting to feature Black-owned cannabis businesses on our platform. That level of commitment and care is always at the heart of our company culture.”
Weedmaps went above and beyond to ensure our actions created an immediate impact.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
“I have been with Weedmaps for more than three years and it has been by far the most rewarding experience with regards to personal and professional growth. I learned to see a change as an opportunity to learn something new. I no longer resist the change — I welcome it. I have learned to lead with compassion and empathy, which has made me a better leader. I enjoy guiding and coaching my team through any challenges and providing the right amount of support. I love that I get to innovate and create new experiences as part of my job. The fast-paced and ever-changing industry we operate in ensures I am always challenged.”
What Happy Returns does: Happy Returns gives customers an online return experience with some of their favorite brands. They work with retailers to retain revenue, reduce costs, give shoppers choice and make supply chains sustainable.
Describe Happy Returns’ company culture in one word. “Supportive,” Bracha Mahpari, an office manager, said.
What “company culture” means at Happy Returns: “I remember asking about the culture when I was first hired, and the response I received stuck with me: ‘All teams collaborate well with one another, and everyone has each other’s back,’” Mahpari said. “Three years later, that’s more the case than ever.
“While COVID-19 forced all members of our office to work remotely, we’ve learned to not only keep up our level of productivity but to still be there for one another on a personal level as well. Just like any other challenge we face as a business, we are all in it together.”
Just like any other challenge we face as a business, we are all in it together.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
“I’ve been with the company since August 2017, so I just hit my three-year anniversary,” Mahpari said. “I’m amazed at the company growth I’ve seen in that time. When I started, we had about 35 return bars, where shoppers make in-person returns in under 60 seconds. Today, we have nearly 700. We went from having six retail customers to 75, including Steve Madden, Rothy’s and Everlane. I was employee number nine and now we have 90 employees. We were working out of a food court in Santa Monica Place before moving into an office that had to also serve as one of our return hubs. Now, we have bicoastal hubs and just moved into a much bigger office space. To see this kind of massive growth and success year after year has made me proud to work for a company that is focused on executing its goals, while always taking care of its people.”
What NEXT Trucking does: NEXT Trucking is a shipping logistics company with an end-to-end logistics platform designed to allow shippers and carriers to save time and earn more money. They were recognized on Forbes’ 2019 Next Billion-Dollar Startups list.
Describe NEXT Trucking’s company culture in one word. “Collaborative,” Director of Product Management Ashley Lewis said.
What “company culture” means at NEXT Trucking: “We make an active effort to grow the number of truck drivers actively engaged in our virtual fleet,” Lewis said. “This effort requires intensive collaboration between our product, marketing, technology, sales, finance and operations teams. For example, we have a NEXT Carrier Alliance, which is built out of team members from each department. We regularly meet with our drivers to ensure that we are following through on our core values. The topic of discussion in our last meeting was how to make it easier to upload documents in our mobile app. As one collaborative effort, we were able to come up with a solution that increased document uploads in the app by 24 percent.
We make an active effort to grow the number of truck drivers actively engaged in our virtual fleet.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
“I’ve been with NEXT for nine months and have had the opportunity to develop a comprehensive understanding of the trucking industry, as well as the ability to shift my perspective and better empathize with drivers who face unique challenges as essential workers on the front lines of a pandemic,” Lewis said. “As a product manager, you want to really get to know your users and how you can solve their pain points. I have been able to help our product team brainstorm technical solutions — such as a touchless proof-of-delivery system — that we can potentially put into future production and deliver real value to our drivers.”
What they do: Route allows consumers to view all of their online orders, from any merchant, in one place. Shoppers can keep track of purchases and brands to control their post-purchase consumer experience.
Describe your company culture in one word. “Motivated,” Head of Growth Nick Warner said.
What “company culture” means at Route: “From day one, our leadership team has created a culture around the idea that Route ‘can take over the world,’” Warner said. “The problems we’re solving and the products we’re building have the potential to literally change the face of e-commerce. To make that happen, we only bring on people who align with that mission. Less than 10 percent of applicants even get a first interview at Route. But by maintaining such a high hiring bar, each member of our team is creative, innovative and a complete rockstar in their domain. Every team member is intrinsically motivated to meet and exceed Route’s goals.”
From day one, our leadership team has created a culture around the idea that Route ‘can take over the world.’”
What’s the coolest project you've worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
“After stepping into the role, my team and I identified several product constraints and some network inefficiencies that were negatively impacting our user growth,” Warner said. “After launching Route’s growth engine in March, we were able to implement best-in-class technology and some innovative growth loops that led to a five-time increase in app installs and an average of 350,000 monthly active users in three months. Having spent my career scaling mobile apps and consulting for various startups, I’ve picked up a lot of concepts that I’ve wanted to implement but wasn’t able to due to product or management restraints. At Route, I’ve been given an opportunity to refine areas where I know I’ve fallen short in the past and excel in areas that I’ve never ventured before.”
What Convoso does: By incorporating AI technology, Convoso’s multi-channel marketing automation software allows sales reps to boost contact rates and connect call centers to their customer base.
Describe Convoso’s company culture in one word: “Innovative,” Head of Marketing Lisa Leight said.
We’re really excited about our next-gen virtual agent interface that no other platform offers in our industry.”
What “company culture” means at Convoso: “We’re a growing SaaS software company focused on the lead generation contact center market,” Leight said. “We are continually evolving our solutions to help our customers adapt and grow. That propensity to look for creative solutions is found across all departments. It really makes for a stimulating environment. One of our core values is to put customers first — that’s what drives our inspiration and perspective. Our focus on teamwork and individual initiative brings together our talents and creative thinking so we can achieve our goals.”
What’s the coolest project you've worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
“The coolest project so far is a new AI launch,” Leight said. “We’re really excited about our next-gen virtual agent interface that no other platform offers in our industry. We’re knee-deep in plans to take on the transition from engineering after their beta version is ready. I love being on the front lines of new developments that will make a big impact for our customers and for creating a new market.”
What Emotive does: E-commerce brands use Emotive’s mobile messaging platform to send text messages to consumers that encourages engagement. Using AI and human assistance to provide a conversational tone, industries receive a 60 percent response rate.
Describe Emotive’s company culture in one word: “Impassioned,” Kevin Yu, a software engineer, said.
What “company culture” means at Emotive: “Impassioned presents itself through the constant conversations surrounding the improvement of our product and company; even during off hours, the sentiment rarely subsides,” Yu said. “I remember going out to lunch with a member of the sales team and we ended up discussing ways to improve the platform and the alignment of our customers’ expectations with our product roadmap. The drive people have for their work speaks for itself.”
The drive people have for their work speaks for itself.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
“The projects I’m currently involved in are related to increasing the speed and deliverability of our text messaging service and optimizing our functionality for handling user opt-ins in bulk,” Yu said. “With the first project, we implemented a clever database schema to handle Twilio messaging services for each of our brands and their respective customers, which will drastically improve our text messaging throughput. With the second project, with the new logic to optimize for database transactions and the help of parallel processing using Celery, we expect to see a speed increase of at least five times what we have currently.”
What Anagram does: Anagram is an online insurance assistant that helps healthcare providers and patients access their out-of-network healthcare benefits and claims. Providers are able to accept all insurance plans regardless of network status, which has resulted in a lesser need to call insurance companies and a drop in claim denials, according to the company’s website.
Describe Anagram’s culture in one word: “Collaborative,” Content Marketing Manager Connor McGann said.
What “company culture” means at Anagram: “The coronavirus hit hard as it echoed across the eye care landscape,” McGann said. “That didn’t stop us from identifying ways Anagram could help — even as we began working from home.
“We rapidly coalesced around a free offering to help eye care providers understand their finances as the pandemic disrupted revenue. Our blog pivoted to educating providers on the best ways to navigate this crisis. And additional offerings like our road to recovery webinar continue to help those providers.”
The coronavirus didn’t stop us from identifying ways Anagram could help — even as we began working from home.”
How have you grown professionally in your current role?
“I started this job knowing little about eye care, nothing about out-of-network benefits and even less about the coronavirus,” McGann said. “I’m no essential or frontline worker. But my audience consists of healthcare heroes, and the fact I am able to provide them with information to help them navigate this crisis — and learn so much in the process — is nothing short of inspiring.”
