Drift, headquartered in Boston, is a conversation-driven marketing and sales platform that combines chat, email, video, and automation to remove the friction from business buying. There are over 50,000 businesses that use Drift today to generate more revenue, shrink sales cycles, and make buying easy. The company’s mission is to use conversations to make business buying frictionless, more enjoyable, and more human.
We spoke to Dena Upton, Chief People Officer at Drift, about the company’s plan post-pandemic, their proudest recent achievements, the guiding principles that drive the company, and just what kind of new hire they look for.
How has this pandemic shifted the way your business operates, and how have your people responded to the crisis?
“In early March our founder and CEO, David Cancel, recognized the severity of the pandemic and called for all Drift employees to begin working from home. We were one of the first companies in the Boston area to make that call, and we will continue to work from home until it is safe to return.
While we did not have much of a work from home culture before, the team was able to seamlessly shift to our ‘new normal’ — by relying on tools like Zoom, Slack, and Drift Video. We are fortunate to work in an industry that allows us to do our jobs from home — and that we have a solution that actually can help companies generate more revenue right now. We have actually seen a lot of success and a lot of creativity from our people over the past few weeks when it comes to making the most of this difficult situation.”
What are you most proud of that your company has achieved recently?
“Drift had a very exciting 2019. We almost doubled the size of our team, and are now just about 400 people. In addition, we expanded to our fourth office, opening up in Tampa, Florida with about 30 employees.
In addition, we launched two notable products we’re particularly proud of: Drift Video and Drift Automation. Drift Video has become an integral part of remote work as teams are using it to stay connected and share videos with their prospects and customers. We most recently introduced a Zoom integration and Clips feature, which allows users to make TikTok-like videos.”
How would you describe your workplace culture? What does Drift look for in a new hire?
“Our founders, David Cancel and Elias Torres, have said since day one that a company is 99% people, 1% everything else. So, we have been really intentional about our culture and hiring practices since from the start.
We don’t believe in hiring for ‘cultural fit,’ but we do base much of our hiring on our Leadership Principles; a set of values we created when we started the company. For example, we want our employees to put the customer at the center of everything we do, have a bias for action, and be curious about learning machines.
Drift is solving real business problems and having a tangible impact on our customers’ bottom-line — and we want our employees to be excited and motivated by this prospect.
Drift is also part of the just 2% of VC-backed companies led by Latinx founders, so diversity and inclusion is in our DNA. We strive to maintain a culture of inclusion, respect and trust — and embrace the fact that we’re not all the same. We think that’s what helps us create something extraordinary.”
Are there any guiding principles that your company lives by?
“We have eight Leadership Principles at Drift that guide us in everything we do. These help us in decision making and better connecting with each other and our customers. They are:
- Put the customer at the center of everything you do
- Create a culture of trust and respect
- Practice extreme ownership
- Stay scrappy
- Have a bias for action and deliver daily results
- Seek feedback not consensus
- Push for high standards
- Be a curious learning machine
At Drift we apply these principles to everything we do because it helps us stay aligned and focused on our vision of becoming the new way that businesses buy from businesses. We also believe with these clearly laid out principles, we will be better coworkers to one another and create an environment where everyone can be successful and have the opportunity to do the best work of their career.
What has been the biggest challenge to overcome for Drift, and how did you rise to the occasion?
As we mentioned above, Drift has experienced true hypergrowth. We went from about 25 people to almost 400 and opened four offices in under five years. Scaling this quickly while maintaining the rituals and culture that makes Drift, Drift, has been a challenge — and we’ve surely made some missteps. But, the strength of our leadership, our commitment to our Leadership Principles, and our belief in total transparency and feedback has been instrumental in ensuring we continue to make Drift the best place it can be.”
What are some of the best practices you and your staff do to stay connected, in general and in times of crisis?
“Drift currently has offices in Boston, San Francisco, Tampa and Seattle, so feeling connected as we expand geographically and in terms of headcount, is hugely important.
That’s why we have created rituals that we have followed since the beginning. We start every week with Monday Metrics, an all-company meeting where we reflect on the previous week’s progress and align on our goals for the week ahead. We also share positive customer feedback and inspiration to get the team pumped up. And on Fridays, we end the week with Show & Tell, an all-hands meeting where someone from each team presents something they’ve worked on, with the goal of sharing how this work impacts our customers. Our remote offices join via video and it’s a great way to learn what is going on in all parts of the business and bond with our colleagues. We also have quarterly all-hands meetings (we hosted our most recent one virtually) to celebrate wins and discuss the previous quarter and what we’re focused on for the next.
These traditions have become even more important now that while we’re not physically in the office. Virtual Monday Metrics and Show & Tell have become a highlight of the week. These 350+ person video calls feature pump up music, multiple crazy green-screen backgrounds, guest appearances and more. Chat messages fly back and forth throughout the presentations with words of encouragement and funny messages. Most importantly though, we get to see faces and hear from colleagues who we’re used to seeing in the lunch line or at the water cooler, but who we don’t necessarily work with on a daily basis. This is what’s keeping us close as a team. We have also hosted a number of happy hours, trivia nights, and began a virtual series called “Senior Leadership Team at Home” where we get an inside look at the lives of our leadership team once a week, as other fun ways to keep everyone engaged.”
Would you like to share anything else?
“We are currently offering Drift Video Pro to all teachers, students and non-profit employees for free. Since shelter in place orders went into effect, we’ve seen a sharp uptick in teachers, tutors, and educators using Drift Video to help their students transition to a new distanced learning reality, and we want to make it even easier for them to have access to this tool. We initially built Drift Video for businesses, but the ability to privately share videos and to know who has watched which videos and to be able to message the teacher while watching the video has proven a perfect match for schools too.
You can learn more about this offering here. “
