Celebrating 10 years of Vend - Culture Eats Strategy
I'm stoked to have written the latest in the Vend blogs celebrating 10 years, all about people and culture.
It’s hard to believe that Vend is 10 years old. I’m humbled to be able to contribute this to the series of blogs, this time looking at people and culture.
I remember very well sitting on the floor of our daughter’s room in Kerikeri when Vaughan said to me “I’ve got an idea but we would need to move back to Auckland”. That idea was Vend. And to say that it’s been a wild ride since that conversation would be an understatement. For context, Vaughan and I were married and separated about six years ago. We remain good friends (maybe better friends than when we were married lol). The family has expanded since then with Vaughan’s new partner Zoe, my new partner Simon and various children all joining the new family.
Any partner of a serial entrepreneur out there will recognise the pattern of doing whatever it takes to get the thing off the ground. As Vaughan’s wife, I was at various times partner trainer, sales consultant, QA tester and customer success agent. As partner trainer in the very early buggy days of Vend, I would have three browsers at the ready in case I found a bug in one, and I’d just quickly jump to another one. It certainly taught me to think on my feet.
However, it was my role as “Camp Mother” that stands out for me. Let’s say I was a lot more successful in that role than my others.
We were all clowns and kids on the inside
Initially, when Vaughan said he wanted me to look after People & Culture, I refused. I’d been burnt from many years in corporate HR and didn’t like all the rules and dogma that surrounded it. We tried to find someone who could do it for us, and just couldn’t find anyone who shared our vision, and so with hesitation, I agreed. I needn’t have worried however as it turned out I could pretty much do whatever seemed right, and I knew Vaughan would support me. In short, I found my own little sandpit to play in. They say work should be a playful expression — well, I certainly found mine!
It’s a well-known phenomenon that start-ups take on the culture of their founders. That is one of the reasons I love coaching founders, because their good bits and bad bits inevitably find their way into the culture. I can help them amplify the good bits and reign in the bad bits.
Vaughan’s values of hard work, tenacity and collaboration; and my values of kindness, generosity and humanity all came to bear at Vend. With the creativity and support of Nick Holdsworth and Tara Benedict we were off like a robbers dog. I was also known for my peculiar turn of phrase lol.
Tara always found us a pinata or cash register to smash
Tara always found us a pinata or cash register to smash
So, let me tell you about some of the fun and funny things:
Vend team members are called Venders. They were very nearly called Venditos — thanks to Kirsti Grant and the late Angus Weir for convincing me that Venders was the way to go.
Hiring was and is so important. We always hired for passion. We figured that you needed passion to stick it out at Vend in the early days (it was and continues to be like a roller coaster). We wanted people who were passionate about something, anything really. This led to some amazing job interviews where people would show and tell their passion. At one stage we would ask people for their favourite swear word — probably not the wisest recruitment technique! We encouraged hiring managers to get to know the applicants, even if it meant interviewing over a game of ping pong or over a beer at the pub.
We had so many musicians joining us early on that we had a virtual Vend band, it turns out that writing code and playing music are both creativity expressed differently.
As we scaled, we knew that transparent communication was vital. We had a little monkey called Grommet that we used as a talking stick in the all-hands stand-ups early on. Dempsey, our IT guru, simply taped a microphone on to optimise sound as we went global. In fact, Grommet went through several iterations before eventually retiring from communications back to the dress-up box.
Making quirky videos, like “Wear what you like”. Always ably supported by Nick Holdsworth. Yes, they were fun, but with a serious motive to get some cut through in the competitive talent market. After all, if you want to be the best, you need to hire the best.
The quirky family photo shoots where Kyle’s butt crack first made an appearance (never to be forgotten or unseen).
Why wouldn’t you trust these folk?
Staying up late at night with my daughters sewing Vender of the Month dolls, in a likeness to the recipient. All the way down to the visible butt crack for Kyle. Eventually the sewing of these were outsourced, phew! My creativity was running low.
Spot the fake sewn Vender
The first Xmas party on my parent’s boat, which we outgrew in the space of 12 months. However, for many years, we would go out of our way to find a Xmas party venue around the water — from Nick’s place on Waiheke to Long Bay to the community hall at Huia.
Launching a comprehensive two-week onboarding process to really indoctrinate people into Vend. I found that people often took some time to come around to this new way of doing things. Onboarding took on a complete life of its own from mass lunches on the first day to each new cohort making a unique video. I learnt early on to set the vision for culture initiatives and then let them gain their own momentum.
Wandering around with my chime, aka dinger — (thanks Jordyn I still use the dinger to this day) — for weekly meditation to try to give especially the coders a break from the screen. I am still amazed at how people think they will be more productive working through lunch than having even a 10-minute walk outside and recharging!
Don’t get me wrong, there were challenges too. From the legalities and technicalities of opening offices in new countries to necessary restructures if the numbers aren’t met, to figuring out the right way to have “just enough” structure around a company as it grows to support it and its people, and not stifle innovation, creativity, speed and joy. One of the biggest challenges was trying to figure out how the value of “family” went in with the realities of running a business, especially when having to restructure or resize a business that people have given so much time, energy and love.
This is where the value of humanity is so, so important. I am a fervent supporter that you need to show up at work. Be yourself. Be kind. Don’t hide behind some bullshit policy. Give people the decency of showing up as the fully human you. I believe that I instilled this culture at Vend and am pleased to see it still going.
Venders — year 3.
I left the day-to-day at Vend a few years ago now. I still find it amazing to walk into the office and see the things that I started in a tiny little company many years ago still thriving, adapting, growing, achieving. It’s one of the reasons that if you’re an entrepreneur starting this, you should start thinking about culture early. It’s far easier to set it up right than fix it up when it’s wrong.
A few big thank you’s are in order.
Jordyn Riley was my first hire in P&C, and she is an absolute superstar. The work that lady puts out is constantly inspiring. I leaned on Jordyn for so much and every single time she delivered, and more.
Massive thanks go to Kirsti Grant. Kirsti was responsible for so many excellent hires. They say the no. 1 rule of a start-up is to hire people that are smarter than you and let them get on with it. Kirsti has a knack for searching out the best of the best and her tenacity in getting them on board, which often involved a big pay cut was amazing.
Nick Houldsworth. Culture is like internal marketing and Nick was absolutely vital in building the culture. He was also my unofficial go-to guy should Vaughan be knocked over by a bus! Thanks Nick.
And finally Vaughan. What a ride!
Here is the link for the blog:
https://blog.vaughan.ai/vend10-year-three-culture-eats-strategy-6d9621ba5e96