Branch started in 2014 with four people. Today, the Silicon Valley-based technology company has 170 employees spread across seven countries.
That kind of rapid growth could have caused Branch’s culture to snap. Instead, the company stands as one of the top-rated employers by employees. In the last two years, Branch has received multiple awards from culture data site Comparably, including awards for creating an environment that supports women and people of color.
Mike Molinet plays a big part in driving Branch’s culture. As COO and co-founder, it’s his role to move the company forward in its mission to solve mobile app growth and discovery. This is not his first venture; after working for a 70,000-person company straight out of college, Molinet realized he’d be happier as an entrepreneur. “I wanted my success to be tied directly to my performance,” he says. “If I work hard enough and do the right things over time, my chances of success would increase. But if I sucked, then my results would ultimately show for it.”
Molinet, 33, went on to launch several other businesses before starting Branch, which provides deep-linking and attribution solutions for mobile marketers. As he’s scaled the company, he’s learned plenty of lessons about how to build a culture that thrives, even as it experiences break-neck growth.
Here are a few.
1. Don’t do something because it’s trendy – do what works for your company
It may be tempting to follow the Silicon Valley trend of creating a “fun” work environment by having Ping-Pong tables, Nerf guns and a kegerator filled with beer. For Molinet and his co-founders, creating that type of environment wasn’t in line with what the company was about. “We take what we do very seriously and we constantly feel an overwhelming amount of responsibility to our customers, our investors, and every employee who’s joined Branch,” he says. “That makes us work hard at ensuring we do everything in our power to make Branch successful. It’s not for everyone, but it means the people who join are the right people because they’re aligned in terms of our culture and values, and they come here to do the best work of their careers.”
Another example is work-from-home policies, which have grown more popular as technology has made it easier for people to work remotely. Branch is not a work-from-home company – instead they expect almost everyone to be in the office daily. “Work-from-home has its benefits, and it works for certain jobs and companies. But our type of work and pace requires us to be constantly collaborating, and that’s so much harder to do if everyone’s working from home. Instead, we’ve chosen to be a work-from-office culture, with exceptions made on a case-by-case basis or for certain roles such as field sales.”
2. Realize that what works now may not work tomorrow
In the early days of Branch, the company had weekly demo sessions on Wednesday evenings, during which they’d order in dinner for everyone and have an employee demo a project he or she was working on. As the company grew, people became busier, and a more diverse workforce meant not everyone could stay for dinner, it became clear an evening demo hour didn’t make sense any more. Molinet and his team moved the event to lunch time for a period, but over time attendance dropped as people became increasingly busier. The leadership team decided to scrap the event altogether and instead do smaller department-level demo hours. “It no longer scaled with the company so rather than holding onto something that didn’t make sense, we adapted,” says Molinet.
3. Broadcast good behavior
Because transparency and alignment are so important at Branch, the company hosts an all-hands meeting once every two weeks to regroup and address important matters. Part of that meeting is devoted to recognizing people who have exemplified company values in the last two weeks. The “why” behind the recognition is important – by sharing concrete examples, employees have a better idea of what success looks like at the company. Beyond that, they host Value Awards at their annual offsite. And in addition to the winners getting awards, they also email every person who was nominated with the nomination language so they can see the recognition from their peers.
4. Identify your cultural stewards and let them help you hire
When Branch was a smaller company, every person who interviewed met with a company founder. As the company grew, that model became unsustainable. Instead, the company formed a committee of employees who had been at the company for at least two years and were seen as good stewards of the culture. Someone from that committee is now in every interview panel to make sure the job candidate aligns with the company’s values. The most important part of that setup is that the values interviewer comes from a different department than the hiring manager (for example, if an engineering manager is hiring an engineer, a marketing person may be assigned to determine if the job candidate is the right fit in terms of values). Branch has found that this sort of screening method prevents the company from hiring the wrong people or overlooking the increasingly important aspect of values alignment.
5. Don’t expect diversity to just happen
Wishing for a more diverse and inclusive environment won’t get you anywhere; it takes deliberate effort on the part of the whole company. At Branch, there’s a diversity and inclusion committee that meets biweekly and has executive-level support, which helps the committee feel empowered to take action. The company also does yearly diversity training and encourages employees to be mindful about being more inclusive.
Setting goals is also hugely important. In 2017, the company found it had fewer female engineers that it had liked and set a goal of having 25% of its engineers to be female; it finished the year at 34% female. “That’s just one thing among many, but there’s so much more that we need to do,” says Molinet. “It’s always a work in progress, and these things are just the start.”
Branch’s Culture Snapshot on Comparably.com
Here’s how Branch stacks up on diversity, compensation and the leadership of its CEO.
