Join us as we share what we’re learning as we build a company that approaches work from a fresh perspective. We write about workplace culture, our finances, and our business decisions and strategies.
Hi there! This is an out of date post that we’ve kept around for transparency purposes. Learn more about the latest formula and see all the team’s current salaries here . It’s been over 2 years since we first shared our transparent salary formula ; we’ve be
I’ll be the first to admit it: When I first got hooked on the idea of startups, the goal in my mind was monetary. I wanted to be “financially free” so that I could do all the things I wanted to do but was unable to do due to money. So my first startup was a “big idea.” It could change the world (or at least I thought so), and I would be rewarded enormously for what I would do — given time. After trying a few different ways in order to reach the success I had in mind, I realized that I was unh
October was an unusual month for us, numbers-wise, as a result of us moving from 7-day to 30- day trials of Buffer for Business. Here’s more about that and everything else going on at Buffer in our October 2015 investors’ report. Key metrics * 2,841,519 total registered users (+3.0%) * 226,445 monthly active users (+3.0%) * 55,460 average daily active users (+2.0%) * $650,478 monthly recurring revenue (+1.0%) * $7.81M annual recurring revenue (+1.0%) * $2,546,589 cash in bank * 56 team
I was talking with Leo the other day about plans to launch a new Buffer feature when he said something that totally rearranged my mind. He diplomatically opened the conversation with an “If we can…” type statement and I immediately keyed in on the uncertainty I heard in that “if”, asking about alternative dates and plans, the likelihood of this or that. Leo quickly corrected what I had heard: “It’s going to happen. There is no backup plan.” And immediately, my brain calmed. Shifted. Crystalli
For the first time in October, we saw Buffer’s total team members (bootcampers and full time) rise above 60. The Buffer team has more than doubled since our last retreat in Iceland, and we’re always giving thought to how to better cultivate the Buffer culture. As a result, October’s hiring report focuses on some pretty big changes, including asking the whole team to give us a grade each month so we can keep improving. Read on for all the numbers, experiments and changes in hiring this month!
Hi there! This is an out of date post that we’ve kept around for transparency purposes. Go here to view the latest version of this post. When I first started working on Buffer and learning on sites like TechCrunch about the kinds of amazing perks and benefits some startups provide, I thought unlimited vacation time sounded like such a great idea. Giving everyone the opportunity to unplug w
Hi there! This is an out of date post that we’ve kept around for transparency purposes. Go here to view the latest version of this post. What job perk could possibly be better than unlimited paid vacation days? Just picture the perfect work/life balance , the quality time you’d spend with family and friends
I’ve been a college basketball fan for as long as I can remember. Sports teams are like any other organization: They strive to organize individuals to accomplish shared challenges and goals. As a Michigan Wolverines fan, I’m continually inspired by how Michigan’s coach, John Beilein , accomplishes these goals. Beilein is the only active collegia
In the world of weight training, it’s well known that having a partner can lead to seeing gains more quickly. And research has shown that those who switch from training alone to using a personal trainer see many improvements. Similarly, pair programming has been shown to improve quality of code, as well as keep both developers in “flow” state for a more sustained p
Working on making Buffer an inclusive place where all kinds of people feel they belong and thrive is one of my favorite things. It’s a unique time to be working on diversity goals at a tech startup . On the one hand, there is quite a bit of work to do to make the strides we’d all
Of all the things that have been known to keep me awake at night , one of the repeat offenders is thinking of times when I’ve said the totally wrong thing to a person. That embarrassment of putting my foot in my mouth or just rubbing someone the wrong way tends to linger long past the initial moment. Luckily, technology is working on making these sleepless nights a thing of the past! I’m always on the lookout for writing tools [https://blog.buffera
A while back Danielle Morill asked this question on Twitter: How many startups provide a spreadsheet explaining exactly what would happen to your options given several possible outcomes for the company — Danielle Morrill (@DanielleMorrill) May 13, 2015 Explaining equity is something we try to do as best as we can at Buffer, which Joel shared in his reply. A big learning we’ve had as we’ve added team members is that understanding stock options and putting them into context is not very easy.
Making time to go offline is never easy. There’s almost never a “right time” to do it; you might lose opportunities or even business while disconnecting. And yet, if you don’t actively look for ways to disconnect, it’s not very likely to happen by itself. We have all accepted that eating well and exercising [https://
Try to think back to a time when you felt incredibly confident. You instinctively knew you could handle whatever came at you. You were on top of things, making all the right moves. You were in the zone. It’s an amazing feeling, and one that we’d probably all like to have more often. The book The Confidence Code gets right to the point of why this element is so crucial in our lives: “Scholars are co
When people learn about our devotion to transparency at Buffer, there tends to be one big question that looms large. Here’s the gist of it: “Transparency seems like a great policy when things are going great. But what about when they’re not?” Ed Fry summed up this often-asked question quite perfectly during an “Ask Me Anything” session [http://inbound.org/discussion/view/we-make-run-and-grow-buffer-ask-us-anyth
What motivates you to do your best work ? In an ideal world, most of us want more from our jobs than just a paycheck. We want things like work satisfaction, a connection to our coworkers and the opportunity to make a difference. What can give us the kind of feeling
While building Buffer , there have been times when things have started to go a little crazy. It might be being featured in a big blog, seeing lots of tweets about us , or noticing a big influx of signups or upgrades . When this happens, it is very easy for my thoughts to drift off and to start thinking of the big-picture possibilities for us, long into the future. It may
We reached the 50 team members mark in September! This feels like a big milestone and a special moment to reflect on. For me, the most exciting part of this is that 50 people are able to join our journey of working as a fully distributed team, where you choose to live and work from the place which makes you happiest and most productive. We’ve had several examples of teammates moving or traveling to find their happy place, or being able to move easily to help and be with their significant other
I used to work a lot— 60, 80, or even 100 hours a week… I let my work be a big part of how I defined myself. I wore those insane hours like a badge of honor…I loved telling people how “busy” I was…and how much I “had to do”. Sound familiar? Looking back, I realize I used my work to try and fill a void in myself. The problem was that this void was like a black hole. No matter how many hours I worked [https://blog.bufferapp.com/optimal-work-time-how-long-should-we-work-every-day-the-science-of
Hi there! This is an older post that we’ve kept around for transparency but that means that sometimes the information is no longer accurate. Head to our homepage to view our most recent posts. How do people work best together? It’s fun to think about. You may know some things about your own work style and productivity preferences—for example, do you prefer solo or team projects? Being in the middle of many tasks or finishing one before going on to the next? Now, take all those unique factors
Self-management was a bold and unique experience that we’re glad to have tried at Buffer. We learned a lot! Here are some of our self-management lessons as well as our current approach with natural hierarchy. When I got my first job, it never occurred to me that there was more than one way to work. You went to an office, followed directions from a boss for 8-ish hours, and then went home. That’s not quite how Buffer does things. During the time I’ve been lucky enough to be on board, we’ve ex
Buffer hit a new milestone recently, but it wasn’t a metric like annual recurring revenue, total users or cash in the bank. In fact, this one is more of a philosophical milestone: We closed down our office. Now, since our startup operates with a fully distributed team, it might seem a bit odd that we ever had an office to begin with. But for a variety of reasons, many distributed startups still have a physical office: Automattic, GitHub and Basecamp are a few examples. Here’s how we came to
“Perhaps the CEO’s most important operational responsibility is designing and implementing the communication architecture for her company.” — Ben Horowitz Buffer has recently grown to more than 50 people during our fastest 2 months of growth ever. I’ve found that a lot changes when you grow to this size, and any time the team grows quickly. There are a bunch of challenges and it’s also invigorating. It might be the most exciting and toughest phase of build
September was a great month at Buffer! We extended 6 offers for new team members to join us in Buffer’s bootcamp. As a result, we are now more than 50 team members (accounting for both full time team members and bootcampers—you can see the full list over here). September hiring conversations Here’s at look at the September numbers. Our “Total Conversations” are the number of email conversations we have open (we sometime have duplicates), “Customers” are our applicants and “New Conversations”