{"id":5625,"date":"2018-10-26T23:58:52","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T23:58:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/?p=5625"},"modified":"2019-01-14T22:27:53","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T22:27:53","slug":"how-to-preserve-culture-as-you-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/how-to-preserve-culture-as-you-scale\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Preserve Culture as You Scale: Lessons From Branch COO Mike Molinet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Branch started in 2014 with four people. Today, the Silicon Valley-based technology company has 170 employees spread across seven countries.<\/p>\n

That kind of rapid growth could have caused Branch\u2019s 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<\/a> and people of color<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Branch
Branch COO Mike Molinet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mike Molinet plays a big part in driving Branch\u2019s culture. As COO and co-founder, it\u2019s 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\u2019d be happier as an entrepreneur. \u201cI wanted my success to be tied directly to my performance,\u201d he says. \u201cIf 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Molinet, 33, went on to launch several other businesses before starting Branch, which provides deep-linking and attribution solutions for mobile marketers. As he\u2019s scaled the company, he\u2019s learned plenty of lessons about how to build a culture that thrives, even as it experiences break-neck growth.<\/p>\n

Here are a few.<\/p>\n

1. Don\u2019t do something because it\u2019s trendy \u2013 do what works for your company<\/b><\/p>\n

\"branch1\"It may be tempting to follow the Silicon Valley trend of creating a \u201cfun\u201d 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\u2019t in line with what the company was about. \u201cWe take what we do very seriously and we constantly feel an overwhelming amount of responsibility to our customers, our investors, and every employee who\u2019s joined Branch,\u201d he says. \u201cThat makes us work hard at ensuring we do everything in our power to make Branch successful. It\u2019s not for everyone, but it means the people who join are the right people because they\u2019re aligned in terms of our culture and values, and they come here to do the best work of their careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 instead they expect almost everyone to be in the office daily. \u201cWork-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\u2019s so much harder to do if everyone\u2019s working from home. Instead, we\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a02.\u00a0Realize that what works now may not work tomorrow<\/b><\/p>\n

In the early days of Branch, the company had weekly demo sessions on Wednesday evenings, during which they\u2019d 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\u2019t 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. \u201cIt no longer scaled with the company so rather than holding onto something that didn\u2019t make sense, we adapted,\u201d says Molinet.<\/p>\n

3. Broadcast good behavior<\/b><\/p>\n

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 \u201cwhy\u201d behind the recognition is important \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

4. Identify your cultural stewards and let them help you hire<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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).\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

5. Don\u2019t expect diversity to just happen<\/b><\/p>\n

Wishing for a more diverse and inclusive environment won\u2019t get you anywhere; it takes deliberate effort on the part of the whole company. At Branch, there\u2019s a diversity and inclusion committee that meets biweekly and has executive-level support, which helps the committee feel empowered to take action. \u00a0The company also does yearly diversity training and encourages employees to be mindful about being more inclusive.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cThat\u2019s just one thing among many, but there\u2019s so much more that we need to do,\u201d says Molinet. \u201cIt\u2019s always a work in progress, and these things are just the start.\u201d<\/p>\n

Branch\u2019s Culture Snapshot on Comparably.com<\/b><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how Branch stacks up on diversity, compensation and the leadership of its CEO.<\/p>\n

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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\u2019s 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 … Read full-story <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,3],"tags":[289,95,69,19],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5625"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5642,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5625\/revisions\/5642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}