Our company’s name derives from the word “swarm,” meaning to move or gather in a large group. We chose this name for a reason: it represents our long-term objective, which is to build a platform with a strong network effect — aka the Swaarm. But it also sums up how we feel about our team. We want to solve challenges and work towards our goals as a group — and we know that to achieve this we have to keep our core values at the heart of everything we do.
“Having your company values in place and openly communicated across the operation is key for a very simple reason — clarity supports the company’s vision and shapes its cultural impact,” says Alexandru Dumitru, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer. “Every single business decision should be aligned with these values to help boost employee motivation and morale, to provide guidance and security in the workplace, and encourage employee advocacy.”
Keeping our story in mind, Swaarm’s values reflect what the company honors and believes in. “When you start your own business you have the opportunity to shape and define its culture,” says Yogeeta Chainani, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer. “You have an immediate impact on the culture by hiring and leading your first team members, but at the same time, you also carry a huge responsibility to get the culture, the values, and ultimately the DNA of the company right. Your core values are the foundation you eventually build your whole business on.”
Understanding the values at the core of your business is as important as understanding your product. In fact, they will likely inform the decisions you make about everything from new product features to who to hire. Not only do these values inform your mission, but they will also help you achieve it. Yogeeta and Alex had a very clear idea about what kind of a company they wanted to build and what they wanted to achieve when they founded Swaarm:
- We want to be a great employer that empowers its people
- We want to be the best performance marketing and tracking platform for our clients
- We want to become a sustainable business that will lead innovation within the marketing tech space from day one
With those goals in mind, we talked to Alex and Yogeeta about Swaarm’s core values, what they mean to the leadership team, and how they impact the decisions we make. Whether you are looking to work with us, or for us, getting to know the values the Swaarm team abides by will help you understand how we operate and determine whether or not you may be a good fit for our team. So let’s explore.
Our Values
Take Ownership
Accountability is key in every part of our business. From taking responsibility for our work with clients to being held accountable for our actions, we believe people thrive when they are empowered to take ownership of their work. “Micromanagement is not our style,” says Alex. “We believe in hiring the right people and then trusting them to do their jobs well. Great employers attract great people, and you must remember that you hired those people for a reason and then let them do their thing.”
Be Humble
No one is perfect. We all can and will make mistakes — it’s what we do when we make mistakes and what we learn from them that matters. “We value a team player mentality and believe in open and constructive feedback to help our whole team improve,” says Yogeeta. “Each one of us must make an effort to understand each colleague’s contribution to the overall success of Swaarm.” And while each person is empowered to own their successes, as well as mistakes, it’s also important to ask for help from the team when needed. She adds, “We value team members who are not afraid to say ‘I don’t know’ and seek help from others to figure out especially tricky problems. In the end, this makes us all — and our products — better.”
Be Transparent
As with any relationship, open and honest communication is key to success. That’s why Swaarm believes it’s always better to over-communicate than to say too little. From active listening to knowledge-sharing, our team values transparency at every level. “We really make an effort to get every member of the staff on board with our strategies, and make them feel a part of the team’s journey,” Alex says. “When we share knowledge someone is bound to learn something new, and it encourages employees to seek out the right partners and sources of information when they don’t know an answer.”
Go the Extra Mile
To achieve — and maintain — our goal of being the best performance marketing and tracking platform, we all have to go the extra mile. “Whatever question we are asking or whatever problem we need to solve, we will figure it out — no matter what,” says Yogeeta. “Sometimes the journey to those answers can be a sprint or a marathon, but we always have to keep the bigger mission in sight. That’s why it’s also important to keep motivating ourselves and others to always work a little bit harder to be the best. This is how we become a leader and an innovator in our industry.”
Love a Challenge
“If we didn’t love a challenge we would not have founded a start-up,” says Alex — and the ability to embrace a challenge is integral to being a part of the Swaarm team. “Curiosity is key here! A lot of times, we just don’t know the answer to a question yet, and we just have to figure it out together.” When presented with a new challenge, it’s imperative our team members do not shy away from the hard work that goes into finding the answer — but it should also be fun. “Working in a dynamic environment like Swaarm is a lot like solving a puzzle, and our team members have to be able to prioritize what we need to tackle a problem and achieve the overall goal,” adds Alex.
Swaarm with Us
Ultimately, Swaarm aims to provide an empowering and challenging environment where people who are driven to ask the hard questions, solve the toughest challenges, and be a part of a close-knit team can thrive. If that sounds like you, explore our Careers page — we would love the chance to get to know you.
