Cogsy’s Bori Toth Talks Creating A Calm Company Culture

Learn how Cogsy’s leadership team creates “culture shock” for new team members (the good kind).

Keeping a company’s founding values and culture is challenging, especially if the team is growing rapidly. At Cogsy, we’re intentionally conserving our founding values and culture as we add new people to the team. It can be difficult in a remote work setting—but not impossible.

In this episode, we talk about all things people, including recruiting and onboarding processes. Plus, successful strategies to empower the team as it expands.

Tune in and learn:

What Cogsy’s leadership focuses on to foster its values and culture as it grows
Why Cogsy’s new team members describe the experience as “culture shock”
The process of creating a clear framework for company culture
How can you empower team members to bring their best selves to work

Tune in on: Apple | Spotify | Google

““It's a very exciting challenge right now to make sure that the culture kind of expands, but doesn't change with these new people coming on the team.”
Bori Toth, head of people at Cogsy

About Cogsy

Cogsy is the demand planning tool offering DTC retailers predictable inventory management in an unpredictable world.

With it, get a godlike view of your stock levels, restock needs, incoming purchase orders, and upcoming marketing events. All in one place. Plus, forecast demand with pinpoint accuracy (up to 12 months out) so you can stock up accordingly.

You can even run “what-if” scenarios to identify your best-case, worst-case, and most profitable inventory strategies. That way, you avoid expensive mistakes (like stockouts and excess) that keep you from reaching your revenue goals.

Learn more about Cogsy: Try it free l LinkedIn

The Checkout episode 13 unpacks:

In this episode, we hold an internal conversation about all things people. This includes how you can set up the framework for a calm, people-first culture and empower everyone on the team to do their best work. Here are the highlights:

[3:37]

The big advantage of starting small

At bigger businesses, there tends to be a hierarchy that limits what individual contributors can do and how much they grow.
Working with the right people on a small team encourages you to bring your ideas to an environment that can quickly experiment and pivot based on the results.

[4:44]

Preserving a calm culture

Culture is an entity you need to consciously foster. Otherwise, it builds itself.
At Cogsy, values are the foundation of everything the company does, including what it builds and how the team collaborates.
When Cogsy tripled its headcount in November 2021, the challenge was to grow the team without changing the culture.

[7:37]

What a people-first culture at Cogsy looks like

Cogsy is a fully-remote team with members from all over the world (including Nicaragua, South Africa, and the United States).
People who join Cogsy are amazed at how the practice of “life and family first” doesn’t just exist on the hiring page.
“With us being people-first, we give our people the space to figure out their best way of working that allows them to be their best self.”

[11:37]

Why new team members feel "culture shock"

The new team members say they’re “culture-shocked” by Cogsy’s peaceful remote culture.
Here, the 40-hour work week is a guide, not a requirement. That way, team members can contribute the most impactful things possible while protecting their work-life balance.

[16:13]

Recruiting and onboarding at Cogsy

What candidates hear from Cogsy’s leadership team during the interview process is what they’ll get.
Cogsy doesn’t just hire experts in the field. We intentionally select people who will be a good “culture fit.”
“No one’s gonna look at how many hours you work. All we ask is that once you have your routine worked out, share it.” That way, when we collaborate, we can respect your working hours.

[19:57]

How the Cogsy team brings their best work

Cogsy strives to build a flat team. Meaning, no organizational chart, no direct reporting, and no hierarchy.
“This is a team where everyone is their full self. They can work in a way that allows them to be their best. They have ownership of what they do and visibility of what is happening around the company.”
Keeping the team close and not building walls to hide processes or information fosters acceptance and empowerment.

[25:47]

Our framework: If it's not calm, we need to fix it

“Calm” sums up how the Cogsy team works together
If a process doesn’t feel calm, that’s a process we need to improve so that it does feel calm moving forward.”
“The more time you are here, and you see and live and breathe this culture that we have, the more you become a champion of it.”