Cool Customer Profile: @Zaarly - Bucking the Status Quo
The San Francisco-based startup Zaarly has been making headlines as of late, and with good reason. Earlier this week, the peer-to-peer real-time e-commerce company was named No. 7 among Fast Company's web/internet industry top 10 most innovative companies, and they recently raised $14 million. We caught up with Zaarly Founder and CMO Eric Koester to find out what keeps the Zaarly team members on their toes, and the benefits of providing them perks.
BetterWorks: Congratulations on Zaarly being named one of the world's most innovative companies! How do you define "innovation"?
Zaarly: It's bucking the status quo -- innovation comes in simple forms (a better process or way to do things) or something much larger (a bold vision and plan). For us, we think that our employees are innovative in lots of ways -- and that all ties into our overall vision and goals to change the way people do business with their neighbors and people in their communities.
BetterWorks: Employees are key to sustaining an innovative culture: How does Zaarly invest in their employees?
Zaarly: The word "culture" is often overused when discussing startup companies -- so I'm not going to say we strive for any sort of culture at Zaarly. But I think we do want to create a place where people want to be, where they want their friends and peers to come work, and somewhere that they are genuinely proud of. We want a place where everyone is the CEO of something in the company -- so we empower people to 'own' something, to change things up, and to take risks. For us, we want people who are do-ers, want to grow in their career and that's how we invest in our people.
BetterWorks: What do you do to build a positive and healthy culture, and encourage employee engagement, at your company?
Zaarly: We try and make our offices a place people want to be whether they are working or not. So that means food, drinks, beer, conversation, and just plain good people. For us, we want a place where people would come and hang out if they didn't work here. And so we've tried to create that environment because it means people enjoy working with each other.
BetterWorks: Why did you decide to give BetterWorks to your employees?
Zaarly: Betterworks is a set of benefits that simply saves employees time. And since having team members all working really hard and needing extra time, it's been a huge win. And people seem to appreciate that Zaarly values their time enough to give them the benefits that Betterworks provides.
BetterWorks: What's the feedback about BetterWorks perks been?
Zaarly: Really positive feedback. Our employees love it and even though we are all working long hours, morale has never been higher.
BetterWorks: What would you say to a CEO who says they see no need to give employees perks?
Zaarly: Hire a recruiter.
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