Mada Seghete discusses maintaining culture at Branch, which has grown to 500+ employees across 14 offices in 10 countries with a $4B valuation in 8 years. She emphasizes that culture is expressed through employee and manager actions without supervision. To create culture, companies must start early and iterate on culture as they grow. Companies can use levers like values, hiring, onboarding, awards, celebrations, office space, reviews, and communications to shape culture intentionally. Leaders must stick to values in all situations, like adapting to remote work while maintaining values or conducting layoffs respectfully.

1. Maintaining Culture in
Fast-Changing Companies and
Volatile Markets

2. Mada Seghete
Co-Founder at Branch
Born in Romania
2001 - 2005 Computer Engineering
2005 - 2012 Engineer + Product
2012 Mobile App Designer and Marketer + MBA
2014 Branch Founder
@mada299

3. “Working with Branch has been a dream come true.
It always feels like day one and a place where you
get to learn something new and exciting everyday!”
“People are smart, supportive, always willing to
help and to give feedback for improvement, not
judgement.”
● 500+ people
● 14 offices in 10 countries
● 4B valuation
● 8 years old

4. What is culture?

5. What is culture?
Social events?
Work hours?
Benefits?
Ping Pong table?
Free food?
How happy
employees are?

6. Roundtable or interviews with employees or early employees:

7. Culture
The collective behavior of everybody in the organization.
It's how leaders and managers commit to decisions, qualify
and attract talent, and run a healthy work environment.

8. Culture
Culture is best expressed through the actions of employees
and managers when there's little supervision.

9. Lesson 1: Start early, keep
iterating

10. As you grow, the willingness to change
keeps decreasing
Willingness to change
Size of company
Time

11. How do you create culture?
Early days… Later days…

12. Lesson 2: Be intentional, use
levers

13. Your levers
Values Hiring Onboarding
Shoutouts and awards Your actions Celebrations
Office space Reviews and promos Comms and stories

14. Values

15. Values V5

16. Hiring
Be clear what you look for - deeply tied to
your values
Individual traits: Smart, Driven, Humble,
Collaborative
Interview for skills AND culture
At Branch every person has to go through a
bar raiser interview with someone who has
been here a while and lives our culture

17. Onboarding
Company culture
Build, grow, win together.
Mission
To create a more open, connected,
and relevant digital ecosystem.
Values
Good Judgment | Impact | Ownership| Initiative |
Humility| Communication| Urgency| Grit
Company norms
What’s expected of you at Branch
Spend time on it! It’s one of your biggest
levers for culture
We (the Branch founders) still do
sessions and meet all new employees

18. Your space - customers

19. Your space - ownership

20. Your space - fast iteration

21. Shoutouts, awards, celebrations
Value awards Employee appreciation day

22. Comms and stories

23. Our adventurers
PawPrint
Kindred prints
Kindred app
Dmitri Joins!
Launchpad Class
Branch premium
products
Branch free links
Acquiring Tune
iOS9 and
Universal Links
iOS14/15 and
NativeLink
Discovery
live India
NativeLink
Split tracking
our goals :)
Saas
Discovery

24. Reviews, promotions, firing
● Make sure you incorporate your values and cultural expectations into
the reviews and promotions
● Set clear expectations for every level that include culture and norms

25. Your ultimate tool: actions

26. Lesson 3: Stick to your values

27. Adapting to hard situations while
keeping you values alive matters.

28. How do you maintain your
values in a remote/hybrid
environment?
Big world changes
How do you react to
economic changes while
keeping your values?
Economic downturn
If you have to do layoffs,
how do you do them while
maintaining values?
Layoffs

29. Thank you