Welcome to comundo!
Hi there,
Welcome to comundo – and to our culture code.
The purpose of this guide is to share our values, beliefs, and behaviours that define who we are as a team and company. We take our values and culture pretty seriously around here, which is ironic because we’re not that serious (unless it’s something serious, you know?).
It’s written with all current and future employees in mind but the rest of the world is more than welcome to see how we do things. Maybe you can get inspired; maybe you can get some questions answered; or maybe you can share some advice and help us get even better.
Whichever maybe you fall into; read on! We hope you’ll get a good idea about who we are, why we’re here, where we want to go – and just as importantly – how we work, both as a team, and individually.
You might think that much is obvious. Surely we work the same as every other startup? And yes, some of it is the same. But not all of it. After all, we’re not your average startup.
Contents.
01.
Our foundation.
Aka, a little bit of history and our mission and vision.
comundo was founded in 2022 with two clear goals: to create the world's best workplace and to be the world’s biggest contributor to a net-zero planet.
These two goals make up our core. Our purpose, if you will.
We break it down like this.
Vision.
Our long-term goal is to be the world's biggest contributor to a net-zero planet.
Mission.
We’ll get there by providing property owners around the world with the accurate energy data they need to help them achieve their sustainability goals.
And … how are we going to do that? Well, to achieve these admittedly ambitious goals, we need the world’s best workplace. We need talented people. Ambitious people.
And happy people.
How do we get happy people? By installing values that can – and do – have an impact on how we work and our lives outside work.
02.
Our values.
Our values are fundamental to who we are and what we do.
We know, we know; just about every company in the world says that. What makes us different is the focus we’ve placed on them since day one (the first hire we looked for was a People and Culture Lead) and continue to do so.
The ambition we have (see our vision) and the way we work (see our four-day workweek) means that we need to have secure bumpers in place to keep us focused and on track.
It’s more than just keeping Fridays free: It’s about providing a space for learning and development; it’s making a workplace where we feel comfortable and trusted; and it’s acknowledging that our differences are respected and appreciated.
We appreciate it’s not for everyone, but we believe we’ve created a setup that enables us to live the life we want to live provided we respect and follow our values.
Doing good.
It all starts with people. By working together towards the same purpose with respect, integrity, and kindness, we believe we can not only create the world’s best workplace but we can also create a better experience for our customers – and a better world.
This means doing the right thing and thinking holistically when we act and make decisions, from which coffee bean supplier we use to which customers we welcome on board. Every decision we make must be for the greater good (with a vision like ours you know we’ve got to believe in doing good!).
This value seeps into everything we do as a company and has a very real impact on our customers, our product and of course, our team.
Which is a great segue into …
Community.
We see comundo as a community. A place where we support each other, celebrate our wins, and never judge. We believe that you should know where the company is going, how you fit into that narrative and how you help propel it forward, but most of all, we want you to live the life you want to live.
We greet each other every morning and say goodbye when we leave the office. If there’s no more coffee, we brew a new pot. If someone asks for help, we step up when we can. If someone deserves some kudos, we give it. If we mess up, we fess up and we don’t fear the consequences – we all make mistakes.
To have such a safe community, we need to be transparent. This means actively sharing. Knowing as much as we can (and as much as you want to share) helps us make the right decisions – on a personal level, a team level and a business level.
We share anything from cap table, dad jokes, kid troubles and sources of inspiration. Another suitable segue into …
Mastery.
We believe in smarter, not harder. It’s knowing yourself, being in charge of your time and understanding what’s needed to bring value to the company, our customers – and you. We want everyone to be proud of what they do and where they work, so they can be the best – and so can we.
This means offering answers and solutions to the questions and challenges you face but also having the courage to say, “I don’t know.” It’s acting with autonomy in our role. When we see a gap, we make sure that it’s filled. We never think “That's not my problem” – we always take ownership and if we can’t solve it, we do our best to find someone who can. We fuel our competence through rapid feedback with respect for the situation (and who the receiver is) so no one feels overwhelmed.
Ultimately, we want everyone to be proud of what they do and where they work, so they can be the best – and we can too.
03.
How to use our values.
Our values are more than just words written in this document; we use them to guide our decisions. In doubt about something? We ask:
• Does this align with our values?
• Will it create the absolute greatest value for our customers?
• Do I help solve a problem or simply pass it on?
• Does it have a direct, positive impact on our objectives, and key results?
• Does it create the best conditions for our colleagues' wellbeing and their ability to do their best work?
Our values are the backbone of every comundo-related decision we make, whether it’s related directly to our work or that of our colleagues.
We believe that if we all follow this way of working, we can succeed with comundo's vision and mission.
04.
The fundamentals.
Now you’ve got a good idea of who we are, we’ll delve into much more detail about how comundo is structured,
how we work together and how we take care of each other.
Make yourself a cup of something nice; it’s a good read.
The environment.
We’re committed to thinking sustainably as a company and measuring our impact. We have completed a double materiality assessment to define our core sustainability themes and aim to set measurable targets based on our findings. As with everything, this is a journey for us. And one of the many things we have to balance with all of the other important needs and priorities at comundo.
Pay.
We have transparent salary bands to help ensure equality. We’re not able to offer industry-leading compensation, and as a startup there are natural limitations, but we do our best to sit quite well in the market. We pay a five-day salary for our four-day week, and consider the four-day week as part of our compensation.
Development.
Ambition is natural, what’s not so natural is how it’s become inextricably linked to our careers. We want to make sure that you have the chance to progress professionally, but if your ambition lies outside of work, we fully respect that. Impact is more important to us than ladder climbing, and no matter what your career goals are, we want to help you achieve them. That’s why we’ve created a job architecture that, based on our values, enables you to progress as you see fit. We believe in fulfilling your potential, rather than expecting you to climb the stereotypical career ladder.
Hiring.
People are our most important asset. We spend a lot of time recruiting to make sure we find the right people every time, rather than just recruiting the top talent. The best fit not only fits our culture, they add to it. Before making any hiring decisions, we invite the person to a cultural interview to ensure they’re aligned with our values and fully understand that we take our values seriously.
DEI&B.
We can’t be the world’s best workplace if we’re one homogenous group. We need a rich and diverse group of beliefs, minds, and experiences to solve the problems we face as an industry – and society.
We acknowledge the fact that we have a long way to go to become a diverse and inclusive workforce. We’re taking steps to address this, the first of which is being transparent about the fact that we’re not there. Yet.
We are actively working towards implementing equity in our processes, e.g. hiring and parental leave, and are building a strategy for diversity, inclusion and belonging.
Feedback.
We’re big fans of feedback at comundo. We welcome receiving it and encourage giving it to everyone, from our immediate peers to senior leadership – even if it concerns the budget and it's our CEO who is the receiver.
We also give feedback on policies, processes, frameworks, and initiatives to ensure that we are constantly developing, both as individuals and as a business. Everyone has the right to voice their opinion and knows they can do so without fear of repercussion. Psychological safety is paramount.
We’re all responsible for letting people know what kind of feedback we need and how and where we want to receive it.
We help each other grow and develop, even though the conversation may sometimes be a bit difficult. And remember; feedback goes both ways. The importance of listening and learning from others never fades.
How we work.
We operate according to a set of working principles that enable us to work efficiently and effectively, thereby reducing the number of hours we spend working and enabling us to take Fridays off.
We understand what methods are effective, and we recognise the importance of adhering to these principles to maintain our productive habits – even when it gets hard.
Our core working principles are:
We work between the hours 07.30–and 17.00, local time, so we can communicate effectively and across different time zones.
We spend most of our time in the office together with our teammates as we value being face-to-face.
We have intensive focus time before lunch to address our most important tasks.
We reduce everything around meetings; the number of meetings, the number of participants, the length, etc. The fewer meetings, the better.
We take breaks. During the day, during the week and during the year
Friday off.
We all have the same day off during the week, and that's Friday. We’ve earned it. We earn it by being super effective the first four days of the week (if there is a public holiday during the week that falls on a weekday, we work on Fridays).
Holidays.
Breaks are important – not just to recharge but also to spend time with family, friends or yourself, doing what you love.
We offer paid holidays (the amount varies depending on where you’re located – but it’s never below the standard) and unlimited unpaid holidays.
05.
Be yourself.
Above all, we are ourselves when we come to work.
We know that some people might want to keep their lives more private than others, and of course, that’s OK; we’re all different.
We do our very best to create an environment that welcomes differences, understands differences and realises the strength our differences give us as a team, as a company and as a brand.
If you have any questions about this guide, write to us. We will always answer.
