Syrup Culture

How Syrup Grew from 14 to 50 Employees in a Year

Dana Laufer
Dana Laufer
Jul 17, 2024
5 minutes to read

When I joined Syrup a year ago as the Director of People and Talent, I was employee number 14. This month, we’re celebrating a significant milestone: our team has grown to 50!

Reflecting on this incredible journey, I’m filled with a mix of pride, gratitude, and excitement for the future. This past year has been a whirlwind of strategic planning, relentless execution, and countless learning moments.

As we celebrate our growth, I want to share the insights and strategies that got us here — and why we’re positioned perfectly to help apparel and footwear brands improve their inventory efficiency for years to come.

The Strategy Behind Our One-Year, 257% Growth

1. Embrace Remote Hiring

One of the pivotal decisions that fueled our growth was embracing remote work. By hiring remotely, we opened up a global talent pool, allowing us to bring in the best people regardless of their location. This approach not only expanded our reach but also brought diverse perspectives and experiences to our team. However, it wasn’t without its challenges.

We had to navigate varying market rates, hiring laws, and cultural expectations. Staying organized was key. We developed comprehensive documentation to ensure consistency and compliance. Carta and Deel were helpful resources that I would recommend to anyone in a similar position.

Today, Syrupers span 13 time zones, providing the global coverage we need to deliver outstanding service to our customers at any time of day.

2. Root Hiring Activities in Our Values

From the outset, we committed to building a team that embodies our core values. This meant not just looking for candidates who could do the job, but those who would thrive in our culture. It’s about finding people who are a culture add, not just a culture fit.

There are tangible benefits to value-oriented hiring: 87% of US respondents said they would not work for a company with misaligned values and an increase in values alignment can have the same impact on retention as a 40% salary increase.

Of course, hiring with this level of scrutiny can slow down the process. Executive alignment on the importance of our values helped reinforce that the speed trade-off was absolutely worth it. We’re building a company that can stand the test of time, and the bedrock of that foundation is our values.

3. Build Clear Alignment in Interview and Onboarding Processes

From the beginning, we placed a strong emphasis on role clarity and alignment. This clarity translated into a more structured interview process, with clear documentation and shared practices.

Our engineering interview process deserves a special callout, since it is the place we invested the most TLC. The most meaningful decision we made was to incorporate upfront, standardized technical interviews, which are helpful in minimizing bias. And it also allowed us to make informed decisions earlier in the flow, a key accelerant of our overall timeline.

Onboarding also featured as a critical component of our strategy. We recognized that it wasn’t just about getting new hires up to speed with their work; it was also about immersing them in our culture, values, and way of operating. We purposefully emphasized mental health and well-being — a supportive environment is crucial for long-term success.

We first identified the core onboarding activities that are shared across roles. Getting these right was key in ensuring we fostered a shared experience for all team members. We then layered in role-specific onboarding activities, ranging from the mundane (guides for team-specific Notion pages) to the critical (user-based access to our code base).

Reflecting Back and Looking Ahead

While our growth has undoubtedly been a success, If I could go back, I would focus on getting alignment from the team earlier in the process. In the push to scale quickly, we sometimes didn’t allocate enough time to set up structures that would support sustainable growth.

Another key lesson is the importance of asking for help. Our People team was a team of two for most of this growth! We realized that seeking support from other departments and external resources was essential.

As we continue to grow, we remain dedicated to fostering a dynamic and inclusive workplace that encourages creativity and collaboration, always in support of delivering fantastic outcomes for our customers. By embracing remote hiring, rooting our processes in our values, and focusing on structured onboarding, we’ve been able to scale effectively while maintaining that customer devotion. Here’s to another year of growth and success!

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