Forbes, Remote Culture and Authenticity

The Odetta Boost: Forbes, Remote Culture and Authenticity

Dear Reader, One week ago, we saw that Odetta has been recognized as #21 Best Employer in America in the Startup category by Forbes in 2021. I wondered how on earth they found out about Odetta: we have remained outside of the press, mostly because we are bootstrapped but also because we like being under the radar. But it turns out the Forbes ranking is based on internet data. The list was compiled by evaluating 2,500 American businesses based on employer reputation, employee satisfaction, and growth. Forbes data crunchers reviewed articles, blogs, and social media posts pertaining to each employer, assessed employee satisfaction, evaluating online reviews, as well as growth, examining the organizations’ website traffic and headcounts over a two-year period. For us to rank so highly means that our people are really happy and they express that happiness online.  I am skeptical of business rankings in general, but for Odetta to rank at all shows that company culture and identity can be built remotely while still being organic. We hired a team of 300 Odettians around the world without having met anyone in person (besides our first hire who I had met in Pakistan in 2017). That Odetta could rank higher than icons like Zoom, AllBirds or Airtable in terms of cultural identity—without raising a single dollar—shows that if you create a space for people to be their authentic selves, this authenticity seeps into a company’s soul. So I wonder if deeply connecting with ourselves paves the way for better leadership. What if a flexible work model designed around each person's needs is what helps us all bring our unique magic to the team? As we sink deeper into this commitment to build a place for women to access remote work and be their authentic selves, we realize that we have so much left to do. Katharine   Monthly Spotlight: Data Tooling and Bounce Rates At Odetta, we use numerous data enrichment and validation tools to help our clients get the best results. In the process of getting ground truth data from our clients, across many different sectors and geographies, we realized that there are some magic combinations for data tooling. For instance, using SalesQL to collect emails and ZeroBounce to validate emails seems to be a perfect combination. Lusha is excellent for phone numbers. We will be sharing our blog shortly, and feel free to reach out if you would like us to help evaluate what tools should be used by your sales and marketing teams.  Talk to Account Manager Customer Spotlight: Sabot Family Companies “Odetta team can take little direction and turn it into something great.” —Kayla Anzalone, Sabot Family Companies  Founder Lesson Learned: The Puzzle Pieces Will All Fit Together During my MBA, we were prepared to rule the world. As many of us entered the workforce, we realized that we needed to be humbled by the world first. I went to Stanford with the very clear intention of starting something similar to Odetta, but it took me many years to get there. Along the way, I almost gave up, wondering if I would ever bring to life what was inside of me. When I got the idea for Odetta, I was living in New York in the first home I had ever decorated as if I might stay awhile. I felt like maybe it was too late in the game to move to the Middle East to start a company. I was proud of the life I had built. However, I knew deep down that I had to start the company, and that even if it failed, it was better than not starting the company. In the first year of Odetta, I realized that things happened as they should. I needed to have learned sales to effortlessly trust myself in growing Odetta. I needed to have a bad boss to know what a good one might be. I needed to have felt the ego of a failed company to know I wanted to build this one differently. Odettian Applicant Quote "I believe, if I am provided a perfectly diverse environment where women are not looked down upon to and aren't considered a disgrace, I can not just outperform myself but also could fulfill my life long dream of imparting whatever knowledge I have to others like me who are burning to learn and grow and show their worth to everyone." Quote of the Month “Look to your soul. You probably don't know, but your soul knows. Enthusiasm is the key: if you feel this spark in your heart, you know that you are in the right path. That said, it is better to confront your demons than to do something that is just OK, and waste your life doing it.”—Paulo Coelho Copyright © 2021 Odetta, Inc., All rights reserved. San Francisco, CA Receive our newsletters directly in your inbox subscribe