Nathan Barry Profile picture
Sep 21, 2021 17 tweets 5 min read Read on X
Struggling to connect on your remote team?

We've built a 67 person remote team that loves to work together while driving $29 million in annual revenue.

Here are 8 ideas we use for building a great culture in a distributed team:

💻🌐
1. Create a private team stories podcast.

Everyone has the same get to know you conversations starting from zero. Instead interview them about their life story for a private internal podcast.

The whole team can listen and get a head start on building relationships. Image
2. Build a culture of written, asynchronous communication

This will save so many meetings, avoid people feeling left out if they weren't in the meeting, and protect focused work.

Your team will also be forced to clearly articulate and refine their ideas.
3. Shared “no meeting” days.

Everyone has the same day for focused work each week. Team members can have days that they don’t need to get camera ready (e.g. hair, make-up, etc) if they don’t want to.

At @ConvertKit we do Tuesdays and Fridays, which are wildly productive. Image
4. Ask "What did you get into this weekend?"

Every Monday morning we have a bot that posts to Slack asking people to share a photo (or a few) from the weekend. It's a great way to get to know co-workers on a personal level and see their families, interests, and lives. Image
5. Create an automated email sequence for new team members

Explain how you work, where to find important things (like the joke slack channels), fun facts about team members, explain inside jokes, & more.

It's all automated so you can curate their first 30+ days at the company. Image
6. Host "unsolicited feedback" sessions

This is where a small team (usually 4-8 people) gathers to talk about someone in the hot seat as if they aren't there for 10 min. When it's your turn all you can do is sit & take notes, then you get 5 min to respond.

Here are the prompts: Image
a) What does this person do that you find remarkable? What do you brag about them to other people?

b) If they were up for the promotion of their career in 6 mo, what would you tell them now to give them the best chance of getting it?
c) Assume you're working with this person for the next 10 years. What behavior isn't a big deal now, but will get really annoying or frustrating over that time?

This results in the best compliments, the most constructive feedback, and a culture of direct, candid conversations.
7. Mandatory fun days

With teams feeling burnt out force everyone to take the same day off. That means you don't have to come back to a mountain of slack messages and emails.

Come back & share a photo.

We're doing a 3 day weekend each month through the end of the year.
8. Schedule S'Ups

We use a bot to pick 3 people at random each week for a 30 min catch up / get to know you call.

A triad means you always get a dynamic group from a cross section of the team. This builds relationships and breaks silos across product, eng, ops, growth, etc Image
Don't let anyone tell you company culture is defined by free lunches and ping pong tables.

It's a culture of trust, clear feedback, focused work, meaningful connection, and a shared mission. Image
If you think you'll use some of these tips, share the first tweet to help more companies build intentional cultures:

Also, we're hiring at @ConvertKit. If you want to join a remote-first company (rather than remote-forced) we'd love to have you consider a role with us:

convertkit.com/careers
9. Donate money together

At a team retreat we divided our team into groups of 4 with one goal: give away $10,000 in $100 at a time.

With 50 people on the team that meant each group had to find about 12 charities to support. Then we regrouped to share who we donated to & why.
What followed were the best stories that made for connection points:

Someone donated to education grants because they were first in their family to go to college.

Cancer research because they'd lost a loved one.

Pet rescue because that's where they'd found a best friend.
...and so many more.

$100 isn't that much, so it would be fair to argue the money would be better donated to a single charity, but our main goal was life stories and points of connection.

Give it a try with your team. You'll all get a peek into what your coworkers value & why.

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More from @nathanbarry

Jun 6
Big news: We’re rebranding!

ConvertKit is becoming Kit.

Read on for why it’s more than just a name change…
The creator economy has evolved a lot since ConvertKit began 11 years ago. And we’ve evolved with it.

Our platform has grown far beyond helping creators convert audience members into customers.

We now help you connect, grow, automate, launch, create, earn and so much more.
As Kit, our product philosophy is all about scalability and giving you actionable insights to grow your business.

Each creator business is unique, so the features in your Kit can be tailored just for you.

Besides making improvements to the features you love, we’re doing more…
Read 14 tweets
Apr 18
In the last 7 years, we’ve paid $6.9 million in profit sharing to the ConvertKit team.

While most companies hope to return money to shareholders in a moonshot acquisition, we’ve created a unique model to help our team think like owners.

Here’s how our compensation model works:
Our mission is to help creators earn a living. That’s why ConvertKit exists.

My personal mission extends beyond that—I want everyone in my life to have the opportunity to become financially independent.

That means everyone at ConvertKit should have a path to financial freedom.
VC-backed startups tend to go all in on equity and an exit as the path to financial freedom.

Bootstrapped companies (e.g. MailChimp, Basecamp) don’t give out equity and instead focus on paying high salaries.

Neither model is ideal for team members.
Read 20 tweets
Oct 11, 2023
In 2021, Spotify reached out to buy @ConvertKit for hundreds of millions.

I said no.

Instead we came up with an innovative way to get liquidity for our team:
ConvertKit is an email marketing platform for creators.

I started it in 2013 with a goal to solve my frustrations with other email tools.

When it grew, I figured I’d sell it after a year or two.

Then I fell in love with our product, team, & customers.

I never wanted to sell.
Founders like DHH and Jason from Basecamp said that equity in a private company doesn’t have value if you aren’t going to sell.

I’d learned so much from them and that logic made sense, so once I decided not to sell I didn’t issue equity to the team.
Read 18 tweets
Jul 21, 2023
Becoming a creator will change your life.

Here are 13 tips to make the switch from a consumer to a creator:
Set a Daily “Make Something” Goal

Grab a sticky note and write “make something today--stick it to your computer monitor.

Your goal is simply to make something--anything--every single day.

Set the bar low and make it achievable.

Creation will start to become a habit.
Document What You Make

Start documenting your daily creation.

Post it online with a few sentences about what it means to you.

Was it an idea floating around in your head for months? A mini essay you've been meaning to write? Code that you finally figured out?

Document it.
Read 15 tweets
Jun 23, 2023
I made $37,000 in the first month of selling my ebook.

But I almost made a $10,000+ mistake.

Here’s a lesson on pricing that’ll make you thousands:
In 2012, I launched my first product, The App Design Handbook.

But in a hurry to get the product out the door, I almost made a costly mistake…

It’s a mistake I see entrepreneurs make every single day.
It’s not charging too little for your product.

(Although this is a common mistake as well)

It’s only having one price for your product!
Read 17 tweets
Jun 9, 2023
I’m excited to announce we just acquired @SparkLoopHQ which is going to allow creators to make a living in a totally new way.

Here’s why this acquisition is a game changer for the creator economy: Image
SparkLoop’s Partner Network is the #1 newsletter growth platform.

After building a deep integration, we got so excited about the potential, we decided to bring them into the ConvertKit family to build the largest advertising network for creators.

Here’s why this is so exciting: Image
Traditionally, creators spend money on advertising to grow faster.

But this is inefficient and expensive. You try to get people to click an ad to go to a landing page. Only a few subscribe, and only some subscribers become engaged.

There are two big problems with this: Image
Read 10 tweets

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