Marketing in 2020 didn’t come with a rule book. Yet, it showed how adaptable, savvy, and strong-minded we could be—even under pressures never felt before. Marketers took a challenging situation and figured out how to maneuver their way through it, meeting their customers in their new state and even taking social stands.

We’ve lived through marketing change, and the future is bright. Here’s what we learned, how we adapted and innovated, and what’s next.

What Changed in Marketing in 2020

Marketers taking on more responsibilities

Being a marketer means a lot more than getting leads. In 2020, we learned that marketers are the voice of the company—and that voice can make or break a brand during tumultuous times. The marketing role has become more important than ever, more than just creating brand campaigns. Brands need to be part of the conversation, whether that’s a pandemic or social injustice.

Marketers also need to be adaptable with things like content production, even without being able to organize product shoots and work in-person with their teams. This past year, where some hit the brakes on their content production, savvy brands had a trick up their sleeve.

As online content consumption doubled, brands leveraged user-generated content to continue their content output. With UGC, they didn’t need product shoots, models, or even an entire content team to help them put it together. The content created by their fans and customers is repurposed for the right marketing channels.

The role of User-Generated Content Specialist will need to be filled by experienced marketers who have tapped into UGC’s potential. These marketers will focus on incentivizing customers to create UGC and showing employees how they can make company-friendly EGC as well. As UGC continues to dominate engagement, conversions, and brand loyalty, this role will become more and more important in the future.

Rapid evolution and adoption of technology

Industries are evolving, either being created out of necessity or through new consumer behavior. A new wave of telecommunication has soared, as 20 times more participants used video conferencing within three months. Disney+ launched with the goal of acquiring 60-90 million customers by 2024 and they reached 73 million subscribers just one year after launching.

While many languished, certain industries grew faster than they could have predicted, and as the dust settles, certain businesses have hit consumer gold becoming a part of our daily routines. Nowhere is this more apparent than in platforms and technologies supporting work, connection, and communications. Companies have now figured out how to work from home effectively and they don’t see a huge rush to get back to the office.

Facebook announced they’d keep staff working remotely through June 2021, Salesforce is keeping employees remote until at least August 2021, and Shopify told employees to work from home indefinitely. For marketers, these trends mean that traditional methods of location-based outreach such as office phone numbers, IP address range targeting and tracking, direct mail, and regional events may continue to be challenging.

More online shopping, increased emphasis on trust

In 2019, Shopify hit a record for Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending with $2.9+ billion in worldwide sales. With 2020’s economic uncertainty, the question of how Black Friday and Cyber Monday would go was on every business’ mind. It turns out—it would go extremely well. Shopify hit a new record, $5.1 billion over the 2020 Black Friday and Cyber Monday holidays.

eCommerce, of course, was already on the rise and more consumers are purchasing online, but prefer to buy from trusted brands. As Mckinsey reports, people have a preference for brands they trust, and they’ll happily fill their online carts.

Social media more than just publishing

Sixty-nine percent of businesses surveyed by Hootsuite found that social media helped them prepare for COVID-19’s impact on business disruption by maintaining customer and audience relationships. While social media use was already increasing, COVID-19 accelerated the trends.

Marketers now use social media to understand where their customers are in the ever changing buying landscape, to adjust their tone, and further cultivate relationships with their audience as they humanize their brands through UGC and EGC.

Employee-generated content and employee advocacy provide a look behind the lens and brand messages are re-shared up to 24 times more when distributed by employees and get eight times more engagement than content shared by the brand. This year has strengthened the bond that social media can create between a brand and its consumers.

Adapting to Change

Adaptability has always been an essential requirement for success in marketing and in business. We’ve witnessed that brands can adapt faster by listening to their customers and earning the trust of their users. User-generated content is more important than ever because it helps brands show that they are in touch by highlighting the authentic voices of their audience.

Over the last year, we continued to innovate and evolve TINT’s leading enterprise UGC platform to provide marketers an infinite stream of high quality curated authentic content,  create hyper-personalized engaging experiences, and make it easier than ever to drive social commerce conversions with UGC. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Visual Search

This year we launched industry-first visual search UGC technology. In the world of social and UGC, there are massive volumes of content being created every day – and we give our customers the ability to search and uncover the perfect visually similar content every time. Visual Search is a testament to the power of the TINT AI backend by Filestack.

UGC Studio

We also launched UGC Studio to help marketers collect assets and build a library of UGC to customize and repurpose, streamlining social content workflows. Smart management makes it easy to store, organize, search, customize, edit and repurpose owned and earned content. Marketers also use UGC Studio in place of expensive and time-consuming design programs to make edits, crop, enhance, apply filters, and turn visual assets into ads for any social network at scale.

Virtual Events

Providing social walls and user engagement for conferences and events has always been a big part of who we are and by March it was clear that the world was changing. We released TINT Virtual Events just in time to help power virtual conferences, events, and graduations around the world with solutions to create immersive experiences designed with audience engagement in mind.

Future of Marketing

To connect with customers in what they are thinking, feeling, and experiencing will continue to be essential in the new year and UGC is at the core for driving higher engagement and conversions. Once a week on the Future of Marketing, we curate the most relevant trends, resources, and strategies in user-generated content for effective marketing – subscribe here.

At TINT, we’ve been behind-the-scenes with marketers and executives as they navigated the unknowns of 2020. There was a lot to learn and we got to watch as everyone listened and adapted goals—all while experiencing the first (and hopefully only) pandemic of our lifetimes. And, we’re grateful to have been able to help by powering UGC around the globe.

We believe that the most compelling story that a brand can tell, is one that the brands users, influencers, customers and employees tell. We pride ourselves as a platform that brands trust to tell this story of authenticity. We are very grateful to our customers, partners and our wonderful team.

Together, we’re pushing forward to a brighter future and we’re here to help you grow engagement, conversions, and brand loyalty with the power of UGC – schedule a demo here.

The post 2020 Marketing Year in Review appeared first on TINT.

Before you chassé into the gifs, here are some RuPaul’s Drag Race social media factiods.

For the uninitiated, RuPaul’s Drag Race is the hit television phenomenon where drag queens from around the nation (and now Canada) compete to be crowned America’s next drag superstar. Queens have participated in acting, sewing, singing, and performance challenges for 11 seasons. The series has been nominated for 23 Emmys (and won 9), five Critic’s Choice awards (one win), and a variety of other awards including the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Reality Program.

Drag Race has consistently leveraged social media to support content across platforms. Since the very first season, RPDR has included social calls to action and hashtags in every episode. This has contributed to the meteoric rise in popularity that is reflected in their reach.  The series started on LOGO, a Viacom-owned LGBTQ+ niche cable channel, but made the move to VH1 (also owned by Viacom).

This year alone, brand-created Drag Race video content has generated 73.1 million views on Youtube and over 47.5 million views on Facebook. (Tubular Insights)

The franchise inspired an endless sea of user generated content. The #rupaulsdragrace tag on Instagram features over 2 million posts. An exploration of the top content finds the vast majority of it to be memes, gifs, and other UGC.

Whether you’re new to the series or you can remember the soft focus camera filters of the early seasons, we know you’ll love these relatable gifs.

When you look up and realize you’ve spent three hours reading through analytics.

When Snapchat opens to your front facing camera.  

When you have to “Sexy Up” the Loyalty Program

When you’re asked to start supporting a new social platform.

Keeping calm when your industry is experiencing a media storm.

When that persistent troll disses you and you’re just not in the mood.

When the intern uses a slang word you don’t know.

When a customer leaves a bad review.

Walking out on Friday after scheduling all your weekend postings.

When your teammate switches to Paid Search or another “flavor” of digital marketing.

When you coworker always gets the perfect Insta picture.

When your competition posts something questionable and you take screencaps before they delete it.

When a customer keeps cutting you off on messenger or Intercom because they think you’re a chat bot.

When you’re asked to explain social re-targeting to the team.

When lead generation is slow for the quarter.

When your new goals are announced.

When you’ve spent the afternoon fighting with your automation software.

When they suggest you’re spending too much on social ads.

When two of your competitors are throwing shade on Twitter.

When your “filler” post has awesome engagement.

When your manager gives you free reign to drive traffic.

When your friends, family, and significant other think you just play on Facebook all day.

And that’s the T.

We hope you enjoyed our relatable drag gifs for social media marketers. Did you relate to these gifs? Did we miss your favorite queens? Share this blog and add your favorite glamazon.

The post Relatable Drag Gifs for Social Media Marketers appeared first on TINT.

Fiesta Tech Trek 2019

Confetti-filled eggs, parades, concerts, chicken-on-a-stick, and a bloody siege on a run-down church. What does one of the notorious battles of the 1800’s and a two-week party have in common? Let’s talk San Antonio Fiesta!

In 1836, the Battle of the Alamo was one of the most infamous skirmishes of the Texas Revolution. There were over 800 casualties. The participants were folk heroes like Davy Crockett, James Bowie, and Santa Ana. The battle of the Alamo was a significant step in the formation of the Republic of Texas.

In 1891, the residents of San Antonio banded together to host a small parade and party (fiesta) to celebrate the memory of the Heroes of the Alamo. The Texas State Historic Association describes participants throwing colorful flowers at each other and adorning their floats with bouquets. This tradition grew into the much beloved Battle of Flowers Parade.

Flash forward 183 years and Fiesta has blossomed into a two-week party that features hundreds of activities raising money for over 100 nonprofits across greater San Antonio. There are parties for charities, educational institutions, industry, and businesses. But until two years ago, there was not a centralized party for Tech. Enter the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce to lead the charge and launch the Tech Trek.

The San Antonio Tech District is anchored by Houston Street. The Tech Trek is a half-mile stroll with over a dozen local tech companies, including TINT, hosting open houses. It is an opportunity for us to celebrate our growing technology scene and build community among the thousands of employees who travel to the city center daily.

TINT and Filestack are proud to be part of the Scaleworks activation for the third annual Fiesta Tech Trek. We’ll have pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread), free Highwheel Beer, snacks, and swag.

Will you be in San Antonio on April 23? RSVP for free here or email events@tintup.com to let us know you’re coming. Use #saTechTrek on Twitter or Instagram to share content with other Trekkers. 

Not in San Antonio? Check out the TINT display feed that will be curating and displaying content at 5 stops on the Tech Trek.

Can’t make it this year? Fiesta Dates are already scheduled through 2028. Hope to see you next year!

The post Fiesta Tech Trek 2019 appeared first on TINT.

Each month, TINT gives employees $100 as part of the Self-Improvement Program. This stipend supports any monthly goal focused on bettering ourselves. We believe that we play a significant role in empowering employees to continuously improve themselves. So whether it be daily reading, exercise, or other health and wellness goal, giving our employees the opportunity to improve physically, mentally, or emotionally, can create a powerful impact to their overall wellbeing.

During the month of March, we decided to mix it up and create 4 teams: #one, #dos, #trois, and #vier. The team that posts their assigned hashtag and the #marchSI hashtag the most via our “self-improvement” Slack channel would win. (Spoiler alert: #dos won!)

The #marchSI TINT was displayed on a screen in the TINT HQ office during the entire month of March. With each employee setting new monthly self-improvement goals, it was a fun way to share our goals and progress. It equally encouraged us to continually inspire each other through teamwork and reminded us to embody our company culture.

Countless studies have shown that companies with higher levels of employee engagement have higher levels of employee satisfaction and productivity. The hardest part of generating organic employee-generated content (EGC) is the lack of participation in employees, despite EGC achieving 8x more engagement than content shared by the company. However, as with all of us who share exciting experiences on social media, satisfied employees will do the same. This, in turn, creates valuable, authentic EGC.

We previously released a 4-part blog series on employee-generated content that you can read below:
1. Assess your employee advocacy
2. Launch your employee advocacy strategy
3. How you organization benefits from employee advocacy
4. Get content for your employee advocacy campaign

Success at TINT can be credited to the employees and how satisfied we are as a company. Schedule a demo to learn more about how TINT can help you leverage your EGC to improve employee engagement, productivity, and retention.

The post How TINT Uses TINT appeared first on TINT.

Tim Sae Koo: I close the phone, and I said to my co-founders, “Guys, that was the last no, what can we do?” And the only idea that we could come up with together was to add a zero to all the prices and essentially 10x our price overnight.

———————————————————-

Casey Franco: From Bryant Street Studios this is How TINT was Made. I’m Casey Franco. And on today’s show we’re talking with Tim Sae Koo, the founder and CEO of TINT about how the founders took an almost bankrupt startup and turned it around to become one of the most successful marketing technology companies in the world.

One of the problems with Social Media Marketing is that the content is silo’d on the social media sites. To see tweets, you have to go to Twitter. To see Instagram posts, you have to go on Instagram. But five years ago three college students at the University of Southern California had an idea that almost no one had pursued yet to humanize marketing by allowing brands to use authentic social media content created by real people. So instead of tediously creating lots of marketing material brands could now easily reuse the best content from customers on their web sites, signage, social media ads, and email newsletters.

Not only are some of the most recognizable brands in the world using TINT like Nestlé, Krispy Kreme, Atlantis The Palm, Dubai, and Stanford University but all of these advanced marketing tasks and reusing this content can be done in just five minutes. But TINT didn’t just magically appear before the founders of TINT found global success. The first product they tried to create actually failed.

Tim Sae Koo: We were actually working on a different product. Before that it was called Hypemarks.

One of my entrepreneurship classes while I was at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Casey Franco: When you were younger did you want to be an entrepreneur what was your goal when you were younger.

Tim Sae Koo: That’s funny, the story I share with my friends and anybody who asks is that when I was about five years old my mother, I remember I was in the back seat and she was driving and she turned around during a stoplight and was asking me, “Hey what do you want to be when you grow up?” You know the classic mother/son question they would ask.

And I remember I had two answers for her I said either a hotel manager or the first Asian-American president of the United States.

So after she asked me why do you want to be a hotel manager and I was telling her she was the happiest when she took us on vacations at hotels and I wanted to own one or manage one to essentially hook her up.

But when she quickly said, “Hey don’t worry too much [about her] and to focus on more so helping others or solving challenges for others,” it started to lead me to explore the world of politics. And so you know elementary school came, middle school came, high school came I was participating in running for student government all those years up to the point where I was our senior year high school president of Arcadia California.

Casey Franco: Wow, Mr. President!

Tim Sae Koo: Exactly!

Casey Franco: So now we’re back to USC you’re in this class and you’ve got this idea. What kind of made you say this was the idea you want to pursue and like how did you actually make the decision. I mean you just didn’t go get a job.

Tim Sae Koo: Right. So the class project was for one semester come up with an idea and take it as far as you could and because you were kind of like limited on time to actually like perfect an idea how I thought about it was you know what did I enjoy that time I enjoyed the Internet. Social media had just started becoming more popular and I was like I want to do something with social media with the Internet and we’ll figure something out and what came about it was Hypemarks.

And essentially it was more of a consumer Web application. You go onto this Web site and the idea is that you would have this bookmarking collection of all these link articles, videos, photos, memes whatever you like around the Internet and be able to categorize it inside our web application.

And then the only difference between us and other you know bookmark companies out there at that time was that you were going to connect your Facebook and Twitter and we would just suck in all the content, all the links, the videos that you have already shared on Facebook and Twitter and be able to automatically have this library of content that you can start to organize.

Casey Franco: And so were you working on this by yourself? What was the team like?

Right. So at this moment I was actually working on it all by myself. And so I quickly realized I needed to have some help to help me figure out how to start to build the platform. And so naturally I needed to start to design what it would look like. And my ex-girlfriend at that time was a designer, maybe you can see where this is going.

Tim Sae Koo: And at that time she would come up with some mockups or wire frames and I absolutely loved it and kept asking her for more and more help. And then naturally I started to work with her. And then after that I needed to find some developers and the two stories I can share real quickly here is of the two co-founders we still work with today.

So the first one, it was a Thursday afternoon and I was in my student government office doing my work and then a random student comes in and asks if we can plant more trees. And I said “No” and it would be like, “How can we can I petition to plant more trees?”

Tim Sae Koo: Then we talked about it and in the end I had this itch on my back to ask her if she knew any developers. And she said “I do, my boyfriend is a developer.

Casey Franco: She wanted to plant trees and you just wanted to find a developer!

Tim Sae Koo: Ha, Exactly. So she introduces me to him. And seven years later fast forward, we’re still working together.

Casey Franco: That’s awesome!

Tim Sae Koo: And the other person, I found him through a job posting ad to the university computer science center. And you know I had done this multiple times already and I was just like I want to do this one more time.

And at that moment this e-mail came back and said hey I would like to work with you. And at this time there was many people who did that. And you know many times it would be people who were just faking it. But I was like alright I’ll meet up with this guy. Turned out he’s a great guy. Turned out that we both loved boba milk tea at that time, so we grabbed a lot of that. Turned out both of us love In and Out at that time, so we both grabbed a lot of that and just got us to really bond and get to know each a lot more.

Casey Franco: So then when you’re finished school, was it a difficult conversation with your families to say you’ve just spent four years at the university and you’re just not going to get a job.

Tim Sae Koo: Yeah I remember this conversation very distinctly we were at Denny’s and I was having some pancake for dinner and my mom brought me to dinner because she was asking me, “So are you going to find a job yet,” because we had just finished school and I was like, “No I’m not and I’m going to go try this thing out that I started in this classroom project and I got some money for it and I’m going to see how far I can take it. And I’m excited about it.”

And the adviser at the accelerator had told me, “What is there to lose? There’s always a job waiting.” So at that moment I told her, and you could see maybe a little like irk or annoyance from her, but acceptance afterwards.

Casey Franco: That’s got to be a tough conversation to hear. So at what point does Hypemarks become TINT?

Tim Sae Koo: So we had finished the accelerator. We had raised some money around $350,000 at that time for Hypemarks and we were trying to work on it and then we had essentially 18 months of runway to build something and create something to then try and raise more money. So we had a time against us.

And then at that time there were so many consumer applications out. The new saying was the one million users to raise a lot of money had ballooned to around 10 million users. And so we were a consumer application and we needed to raise money because we weren’t going to make any money during this time frame. Okay. So we had 18 months and 10 million users to go for.

So we’re like, “We got this.” And we launch into the public fully in like May of 2012 and within two months we were like well we have like 5,000 users right now. We need to either figure something out that’s going to just balloon us to like million or millions of users or we’re going to have to pivot. So that’s when we decided to pivot into something else.

Casey Franco: Were there any brands that were using you at that point? Like why did you decide to just switch it like that and make it more brand focused.

Tim Sae Koo: So we had about 5000 users. And when we made the decision to have to pivot I was like OK maybe, maybe we can start to talk to our users right now and ask what do they like about the technology that maybe I can get them to pay for it. If I can get people to start paying for it. We might be able survive.

I went to some of the users and at that time we actually were luckily capturing and exciting some of these brands that were using our technology and I found their email in our database and I emailed them asking very simply, “Hey what do you like about our technology and what part of it would you potentially pay for?” And so we got some responses back.

The first one was from a celebrity management agency and mentioned that, “Hey we like your aggregation technology but we don’t like that it’s living on your website. We want it to live on our website and we have this celebrity that we’re trying to launch a new website for. And we could actually use this technology for that. But I don’t want all the other bells and whistles that you have. I just want that core technology. Can you can you do this for us?”

Casey Franco: Do you remember who the celebrity was?

Tim Sae Koo: It was 90s R&B celebrity Toni Braxton.

Casey Franco: You started to see the brands and you’re like “OK this is the place and we can make money”. Is it a simple transition from Hypemarks to TINT?

Tim Sae Koo: Yeah when I got the opportunity I told my team and my team was absolute yes. So we said let’s rethink how we can potentially build this for other celebrities at that time. We were just thinking about celebrities, we weren’t thinking about brands or anything like that. And we were like OK let’s literally strip everything away and restart.

And so we restarted and that’s when we had to you know figure out what our new name was. I remember that was one of the first things we w ere thinking about what will we call our new company.

Casey Franco: So where does TINT come from?

Tim Sae Koo: Yes so we were sitting around a roundtable and we were like OK whatever we do we want it 4 letters now. And we wanted it so that no one can mispronounce it or misspell it. Because at that time it was Hypemarks, and what the heck was Hypemarks. Everyone if anything kept saying Hype(r)marks and it was like nails on a chalkboard. So we’re like OK listen let’s work with themes here.

And we stumbled upon a theme of colors, and then hues of color. And then we landed on this one word, TINT. And I was like ha that has a little ring to it. It’s abstract enough but simple enough, 4 letters and we were thinking maybe we can change the story to be like you, “TINT your website, you add a TINT to your website to make it look cooler like you tint your windows on your car to make you cooler. Maybe it is a correlation there. And so we ran with it.

Casey Franco: So at this point you mentioned you have 18 months of runway $350,000. Now you’ve just pivoted. How much time do you have left to make it successful before you’re just out of money?

Tim Sae Koo: So at that moment we had about maybe 11 or 12 months left after that 18 months. We spent six months already. And the race was against the clock and we had to either go raise more money or figure out how to make enough money to survive. So you know we started to look at ways to monetize the application while we looked for more celebrity management agencies and brands. And so we started looking for partnership opportunities and distribution opportunities and we found one that was very very helpful.

It’s a website builder and essentially I thought, “What if we can attach our TINT product to their builder so that when someone is just about to purchase the website and they don’t know what to put on there put their social media within it.

And so I pitched them they really liked it and we got instant distribution to millions of users overnight. This was December 11th 2012.

Casey Franco: Millions of users overnight! Are you rich? How does it change your financial state?

Tim Sae Koo: We weren’t millionaires and billionaires as we had hoped. But what it absolutely helped us do was build the confidence that we actually had something valuable for other users and other customers to use. So we started seeing a lot of websites pick this up and use it and put us on their home page, put us on there on their second page, and we were like, “Oh my god they’re dedicating so much real estate to our product. That feels amazing.”

So at that time we hadn’t even started charging because we were more so worried if we had built something helpful for people to use. And so at that time we were maybe around eight months of runway left and this was now in January of 2013 where I’m like, “Alright we either have to go start charging or we have to go raise some money.”

Tim Sae Koo: So I was like I don’t know how to charge you money right now. So I think I know how to raise money because I raised a little money before. Let’s go try to raise some money. So we’re thinking OK maybe we need about maybe a million or two million dollars and it will drag us out. Give us time for another maybe 12 to 18 months and we’re going to figure this out.

We’re going to learn to sell and grow this. And so I have found about 14 different investors to go talk with and within about a month and a half, all 14 had said no. And when the last NO came in through the call, I closed the phone and I said to my co-founders, “That was the last no. What can we do?”

And the only idea that we had come up with together was to add a zero to all the price pages. And essentially 10x our price overnight.

Casey Franco: So overnight you just 10x your prices?

Tim Sae Koo: Just 10x our prices.

Casey Franco: So you can’t raise money, you 10x your prices. You’re either going out of business or people stay. So what happens.

Tim Sae Koo: So we at that moment when the last NO came in and we decided to 10x our prices we had about four months of runway left. And so it was time to kick into hyper gear. And I was “XYZ brand, this is who’s using us, this is how much it costs.” Even though in my mind I was like, “I think I’m overcharging you.” But in their mind they aren’t seeing it that way. They need to see it from what value it brings them.

And so slowly but surely we started selling plans for like $500 a month or even a $1000 a month.

And then at least 15-30 clients started purchasing it and within two months after we had made that change we broke-even and at that moment when we broke even that was about $20,000 of expenses a month. And we had just two months of runway left $40,000 in the bank.

Casey Franco: So you go from almost out of business to breaking even with the trajectory to just keep making money. Are you hiring? What’s next?

Tim Sae Koo: So at that moment I was like look we can probably do this because now we have technically infinite runway. So I was like OK let’s see if I can keep replicating this and if I can let’s start to maybe hire somebody.

So I kept selling it we were almost making around $30,000/month a couple of months right after that. And remember when I told you we had launched with that website builder? One of the users liked the product so much that she e-mailed us and asked if she could work with us and sell with us.

And at that moment I was like wow that is awesome serendipity that a user who loves their products so much wants to actually work with us and sell with us. So yes let’s interview you. It worked out. She was our first director of sales. And by the end of the first year up til December of 2013 at that time, we were making around $80,000 a month up to then. So from $0 in the beginning of January 2013 to December 2013 we went from zero to $80,000.

Casey Franco: This all seems like everything’s all happy and everyone is smiling but were there any times in the year that things went wrong. Tell me some of those.

Tim Sae Koo: Yeah, there was something very, very wrong that really hurt myself a lot which was, remember that that ex-girlfriend? I had asked her to work with design. She was still with us working with us and when we broke-even, it was unfortunately a bittersweet moment where that was the day that we decided we wouldn’t be able to stay together and have to break up and part ways. So we lost a co-founder and a girlfriend at that time on the same day in that year.

Let’s just say that the two co-founders that we are still working with today were there with me and I could absolutely just lean on their shoulders and help me through some of the challenging days.

Casey Franco: So how old are you at this point?

Tim Sae Koo: Maybe around twenty three.

Casey Franco: Twenty three. You’re a 23 year old. Your company is making thousands and thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars every month. What are you doing with that money and how do you know what to do with it? What’s your next step here?

Tim Sae Koo: Yeah I was first and foremost looking at our bank account and I was like wow I’ve never seen this much much and it’s amazing. And at that time it was like you know a couple hundred thousand dollars in the bank account but then we were like, look we can either sit on this money or we can use it to see how much we can continually grow. So we’re like OK let’s start to grow the team because we had actual money to start hiring more developers and start hiring more sales people.

And look we might need some support people too. So in January we brought on two people February we brought on another two people and then March and April brought up one person each month. So at that time starting from four people we had all of a sudden build into like 10 people within the first three months of 2014.

Casey Franco: You’re 23 years old managing a team of 10. Did you even know what to do?

With my limited leadership knowledge in a school setting for student government, I never really thought of it like could I manage that. And how do I how do I lead them. It was more so just acting myself. And at that time myself was look we have this opportunity to build something and if something’s working cause it’s growing.

Let’s just have fun and keep seeing what we can do here. So that’s the kind of culture I really started with and started like just instilling with everybody like look we’re here and this is a rare opportunity. Let’s be grateful and humble about it. But let’s not you know take it for granted. And so everybody when it’s time to work get to work and help each other out. And when it’s time to like relax and you know go on life live and enjoy a little bit of time to do so as well. So that was kind of like my management style, ever since the beginning.

Casey Franco: You seem like a down to earth guy and you talk about you know the culture you built. I’ve read lots of things online about the culture. So what was it about you or starting a company that made you focus so much on this culture. Because you know you hear startups all the time that go out of business because co-founders feud or just because people are harassed wherever may be like what what do you do with the culture that keeps people happy in your company.

Tim Sae Koo: So the main reason why I’m so investing cultures especially in the beginning and as we kept growing was probably because like I wanted to have a place that would be like that and now this was my opportunity and almost my responsibility to see if this could work and potentially inspire others and I would say I’m pretty lucky that I haven’t been jaded or haven’t been exposed to other company cultures because this was my first job.

I was you know quite lucky that I might have been ignorantly blind in this case but it also has a positive side of it. I saw it as my opportunity to just do what I wish or think would be a really great environment. And so that’s sort of been my North Star guiding me throughout you know creating culture within the company. And up till today I would say that that’s still one of the main things why people stay in our company and people enjoy their time there.

Casey Franco: What would you say is the most defining part of your company culture that sets you apart?

Tim Sae Koo: So it was in our retreat, our first retreat, in 2014 when we had just brought on you know about five to six people at that time. And when one of the one of the team members was like, “Hey we should come up with some company culture values.” And at that time I was like oh that’s just things on the wall that you paint on it or stickers. What does that actually mean? And when she educated us about it, the co-founders and the other employees were like that makes a lot of sense. These are sort of how we see that these are guiding principles to follow. When you’re lost or you don’t know how to make a decision.

And so I was like absolutely yes, let’s do this. And I think they were looking at me being like, “OK I’m going to come up with all of them.” But naturally because I’ve never done this before and I’ve never been in another company before I was like, “All right so guys what do you guys think we should we should use we should have as a company values.”

That was one of the defining moments of like it was just so natural for me to bring everyone in to participate in creating the foundation of the company. And we came up with our first five core values at that moment and we’ve been following you ever since learning that.

Casey Franco: That’s impressive I give you a lot of credit here. I read a lot about how you’re very transparent. Everyone knows everyone’s salary. Congratulations. I think it’s a pretty big deal.

So at this point, who are some of the big companies that really stood out and helped you grow?

Tim Sae Koo: You know the first big one I remember was Nasdaq out in New York and they had come to us because they we want social content on our big jumbotron in Times Square and were wondering if that was possible. And we’re like yes we can do it. We couldn’t actually really do it at that time. But like yes we can do it. And so we quickly cranked it out and delivered to the customer and they were like, “Wow we like it.” And so they displayed it and we leveraged that and they took a photo and then shared it with us and we were like whoa this is amazing. We realized that our technology now not only could be displayed across many different websites but right in Times Square.

So we think let’s now use this and start convincing other companies and other brands and other organizations out there and we saw slowly but surely we started getting some interest from universities. This one was North Eastern University as one of our earlier educational clients there.

And so that opened up other universities like all around the United States and even in Europe. We had the NBA teams as well utilize our technology we have sports teams like the Dallas Cowboys using our technology and then we still have some celebrities using our technology like Enrique Iglesias.

Casey Franco: So right before the break, we heard how Tim and his growing team have taken their profitable startup global and it seems as if everything is just going to keep on going right. But as you know the bigger company means more responsibility.

Tim Sae Koo: We didn’t even know we would get this big hand. And we got that big. And we’re like, “Wow what else to do here.” And we started thinking like, “Wow maybe there is something that we can really grow here something to take to the next level.” And that helped us realize that we weren’t just a scrappy start up you know in a garage anymore.

We were a company that had you know people that needed the paycheck to live their lives and we were responsible for that. And a lot of customers were relying on are are not technology.

Casey Franco: That’s a lot of responsibility for you to handle. So where are you able get this inspiration to keeping it going?

Tim Sae Koo: The inspiration was mainly along the lines of curiosity. Curiosity to see how far we can take this. And so that was the main driver. And you know, I’ll tell you there was a lot of stress because there was bickering there was questioning challenges confusion people angry at each other and I was trying to put all the fires out and it almost burnt me out very quickly, where you know I was trying to get some work done and then so-and-so would come to me and be like so-and-so was treating me this way and it felt like I was almost a parent sometimes.

And it just kinda showed that I wasn’t ready to start to grow this company so quickly and I didn’t have any management experience to really understand sort of how to manage all of that.

Casey Franco: Was that a time when you had to find other people to help you or how do you get through that?

Tim Sae Koo: So we started actually hiring like older people that were just more experienced, more mature, who had gone through experiences like this and started to naturally evolve our team’s age, but also maturity overall.

Casey Franco: And did you have any bad hires at that point or was there anything that might set you back in that year that you wish you wouldn’t have done?

Tim Sae Koo: So this was in 2015 and you know at this time we were still growing well and actually we hadn’t fired anybody necessarily because we were kind of afraid or even I was just kind of afraid to let people go.

And one of our reasons was like oh because we have so many profits that are getting taxed, let’s go hire more people. We got up to like close to 30 people by the end of 2015 or even like 35 or something like that, so 20 to 35. And I remember one more moment. I was like, “Oh I didn’t 2x or 4x the team this year. I only 1.5x it.”

Casey Franco: So in 2014 you 5x, in 2015 you 1.5x. Does this keep going? At what point do you know plateau or level off if you do.

Tim Sae Koo: So this was now late 2015. We had one and a half X that and at that moment we were like, “Look we either have some serious potential to grow this into something big or we’re just going to sit around and maybe not do anything about it.” And so there was this itch in our back to answer the question. So we were thinking about potentially fundraising again because we wanted to grow even faster. We had done well 2014 did well in 2015. We’re like we can totally do it again.

Casey Franco: What did you want to grow faster to do?

Tim Sae Koo: We want to grow faster so that we can beat out our competitors.

Casey Franco: So then you have to make the decision are your going to fundraise or are we not.

Tim Sae Koo: So we decide to want to fundraise or think about fund raising and we started thinking, “Okay if we’re going to fund raise we need materials ready.” So we started getting it ready.

And during all this time we’re preparing to start to fundraise. In my mind I was like I don’t think we’re ready. I there’s something that doesn’t feel right.

I don’t know what it was. So we had said like OK were we looked at all the numbers we collected all the data we were going to make a case to start fundraising.

And then you know we had a conversation a very deep conversation with some of the members who are stakeholders and we feel like we have enough money to figure this out ourselves.

And I feel that we haven’t proven out how to put $1 into a machine and get $2 out kind of formula that VCs are venture capitalists look for when they want to raise your next round of funding. So then I was saying, “Hey I think we should do it with our own money.”

And so we have a good amount in the bank and decide to just start hiring.

Casey Franco: So instead of fundraising you’re not going to get any more money, now you’re going to spend more money.

Tim Sae Koo: Yes let’s attract and hire people.

To hire more people, to try to sell more, and then get more money, and then go hire more, to go sell more. Kind of like this repeatable machine that was obviously painted in my mind. So we’re thinking OK let’s do that. Now an interesting challenge arose at that time though we were about 30 people at the end of 2015 like I mentioned but it’s our current office space at that moment cannot hold all 30 people realistically. And the problem was that there was only one bathroom in that office. 30 people with one bathroom.

So we decided to go look for a new office. We were thinking about why size of office and where do we want it. And we had gone through so many office choices and then landed on one. But the challenge with this one was that it was so nice and it was like perfect like rent and great neighborhood. But as I always says it’s always too good to be true.

The office landlord required a 10 month deposit on the place and it was essentially almost 4-5x our current rent price at that time.

So you can see where this is going trying to go hire more people and move into an office with a fat deposit and a large fixed expense.

And so we started into 2016 like “everything’s great”. We’re moved into a new office where I have this great hiring plan to go execute on and, “We can do it all ourselves because 2014 worked and 2015 worked again…and it started falling down.

Casey Franco: Just like back when you had 2 months of runway left.

Tim Sae Koo: It felt a little like that. Where we were starting the race against time again.

I remember we were doing a speaking opportunity and we had started talking, me and the co-founders, about like, “Oh no there’s a large burn rate happening right now.” Burn rate is when you lose more money than you’re making.

And we maybe have seven months of runway until the bank account was ZERO. And I was like, “Are you kidding me? How is that possible?”

We figured out how to make a million dollars a year the first year of our company. We figured out how to go five times our team. We figured it all out. “How is it that now in seven months everything is just going to start to fall down?”

And I was so scared and even when I think about it, it gives me those chills.

So anyways you know me and the co-founders were like, “OK let’s look at our numbers.” And then it does validate that we have about seven or eight months of runway left.

We’re burning about maybe a $100,000, $150,000, even sometimes $200,000 a month and we had still been hiring people at that time because we had a hiring plan. So then one night on a Sunday night, me and the co-founders, we met up figured out a plan, and the plan forced us to realize that the only way to cut expenses as deeply as we needed upwards of $100,000-$150,000 a month would be to do layoffs.

Casey Franco: And you hadn’t had to let anyone go at this point.

Tim Sae Koo: And we sucked at letting people go if we had to let people go.

And so you can imagine like we had to put all the names on the board and look at everybody’s name and assess very closely and very carefully if we believe that this person was actually someone we needed for the company to add value. To give us a shot at growing and get out of this situation or not.

And so we spent hours debating the whole day’s Sunday debating and at nighttime we figured out the six that we were going to let go.

And we had to now prepare for how we were going to deliver that the very next day.

Casey Franco: So this is just decided in one night.

Tim Sae Koo: Over one whole day on the weekend.

Casey Franco: Oh man.

So the next day you’re at this new office. You just get to go in and tell six people that they don’t have a job anymore? Everything seemed good until then and now it’s just…

Tim Sae Koo: That’s absolutely true. We got in early in the morning we had a text or email the employees that they had to come in a little bit early to talk. And then we had to deliver the news. And when they heard the news they were very confused because we had barely let anybody go before at that time and to me there was always a lot of talk that we were doing really well. So it didn’t make any sense to them. You know we showed them the numbers we showed them what was happening. They realized that we were telling the truth. And so when that was done, now we had to tell the whole team.

Casey Franco: I can’t imagine. That can’t be a good thing either, as someone who didn’t get laid off. Although you’re happy you still have a job, at the same time, now your company is failing.

Tim Sae Koo: Yes. I cannot sleep that Sunday night right before that Monday morning because of how I thought people would react and hate me.

And so when I had to go up to the team and tell them that hey we aren’t doing that well this is happening. If we do not make this change right now, or if we did not make this change right now, we would have seven months of runway left. We would all be out of jobs and everything we had worked and poured our heart and soul into would be burning down to the ground. And so I told them and then realize that a lot of them were very shocked and very scared and sad and a little fearful as well.

Casey Franco: And so after this it’s obviously a tough time for the company, but do things pick up after that?

Tim Sae Koo: You know when they saying, “When things go up, they must come down.” This kept going even more down.

Casey Franco: Oh no.

Tim Sae Koo: It kept going even more down.

And the first problem was morale was at an all time low grade. So I had to spend a lot of my days picking people up telling them what was going on and show them that we can do it while at the same time like doing my own work and try to keep the company alive and flowing.

Essentially it almost was like trying to hold on the airplane control to pick it back up and it was kind of diving downwards.

So that was challenge number one.

Challenge number two decided to come up a few days or weeks after. It decided to show up on my doorstep via email stating that we were infringing on a software patents.

I’m not going to say names. I’m not going to give my opinions on this but essentially we were being potentially litigated for infringing on a patent.

So I had this situation now up here on my doorstep while trying.

To bring the airplane back up at the same time.

Casey Franco: So nothing is going right at this point.

Tim Sae Koo: But that that’s not even the worst, let me tell you. That’s not even the worst.

Casey Franco: Did you fix [the patent issue]?

Tim Sae Koo: Not until we had to figure out all these other things that were happening. So remember that office we had that had 30 people with that one bathroom. When we moved out we had to sublet it to someone else and we sublet it under the premise that they were able to build a new bathroom there. So like, “Sure take it. Do what you want with it. We have the approval from the landlord.”

So they are building a bathroom and spend like $20,000 on it and then all of a sudden I get a phone call saying, “Why is the city not allowing us to to do any more construction. Why is it that they’re telling me that the office is not zone properly for offices.”

And I was like, “Wait what, what’s going on? What are you saying? I have no idea. I’m not a real estate lawyer. I don’t know anything about real estate.

And so quickly realized that our office previous office was not zoned properly that’s why the city was blocking the construction of the new bathroom which then pissed off the subtenant. So much so that they wanted to litigate us for false advertisement on telling them that this was an office space when it was not zoned for offices.

And then I was like, “Please have no more situations come up.” And then another one showed up which was essentially, our expenses were still like flying off the roof. Even though we cut expenses off we had too many expenses of trying to get an office space and I was visually trying to pull the airplane back up.

So you had all these situations start to come around on me. And I remember very clearly that the summer of 2016 the first day of summer in June was when I was smiling. And the very next memory I have was in September when the last day of summer had passed.

Casey Franco: You’re memory had just blanked.

Tim Sae Koo: Just blanked trying to figure out all of these situations.

Casey Franco: So then September when your memory comes back, are you pulling the plane back up?

Tim Sae Koo: Yes. Yes we are starting to pull the plane back.

Casey Franco: And what was the main driver for that? What was the first good thing that happened after that?

Yes so the main things were figuring out all the situations with morale, the “patent infringement” situation, the subtenant situation after I was able to figure that out and that’s the whole story by itself, I was able to focus on growing the company again.

Tim Sae Koo: Being the CEO.

Casey Franco: Focusing on making sales, focusing on making partnerships, focusing on watching our expenses and making sure we’re making money again. And by around the fall of 2016 we were able to be profitable again but in a very small amount that didn’t allow us to truly get out of the woods yet.

Casey Franco: How many employees do you have at this point?

Tim Sae Koo: I would say about 30 from 38.

Casey Franco: So you’re at 30 after the layoffs. But you still have thousands of clients around the world, a couple international offices at this point.

Tim Sae Koo: Correct.

Casey Franco: And [TINT is] making millions a year. What’s next for the company?What’s your your vision for the company to make sure that people are continually growing.

Tim Sae Koo: Yes. So after that whole situation of the summer of 2016 the whole lay off situation. 2016 was just a bad memory.

But you know one thing I remember at the end of 2016 is, at the end of every year I sort of take time to reflect on how the year was done; How I performed, how I did. That specific one, this was only 7-8 months ago, was trying to understand what the heck happened last year.

If there was something or someone trying to tell me something, they definitely did that with all the problems that compounded. So I started to like really think about, what was the lesson learned here? What was the takeaway here? And the main thing that I took away was that out of all these situations that occurred, I’m glad they occurred.

I’m glad they occurred because it forced me to really understand what it takes to build a company. It helped me understand how to like figure things out. It build a lot of confidence in me. But through that through that experience one thing I started to pick up a lot was how to take care of my mental health a lot more. And one of the main practices that I still practice today for the last year year and a half, is a lot of meditation.

And so because I was able to meditate more, reflect more, and think more I was able to see this whole new perspective of, “Look everything needed to happen for a reason. Everything occurred because it needed to teach me something. So what next can we do with this?” And so in the beginning of 2017 I was talking to the co-founders and we were kind of burnt out from 2016. We had already dedicated maybe four or five years by this time to the company and realized OK let’s think about what’s in the future.

Casey Franco: So, what is the future? Well even since this recording quite a bit has happened. TINT is in the process of increasing their team size by 25 percent in the next couple months while also expanding even further in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and Africa.

Forecasts are showing they are on track to hit the coveted $10 million annual revenue in the next couple of years. Not only that they’re about to release a new product and new enterprise features which will make it even easier to display authentic user generated content into every part of the customer journey.

So if you’re a brand looking for a new innovative way to interact and convert customers you should give the folks at TINT a call.

If there is one thing I was most impressed with when talking with Tim, it was in how he and his young team solved some pretty big problems in the past and his approach for continuing that in the future.

Tim Sae Koo: If anything approaching these these challenges a lot more mindfully a lot more intentionally and kind of see every situation that comes our way as an opportunity to learn and just get better at.

Casey Franco: Tim Sae Koo is the co-founder and CEO of TINT. And these days when he’s not at the office he spends his time on mindfulness and traveling the world.

And if you’re ever wandering through the streets of San Francisco and you see a guy wearing a necklace with an owl on it chances are it’s probably Tim. Now out of curiosity after the show I was trying to find out how many Fortune 500 companies had used TINT. And when I was researching I actually discovered that 40% of Fortune 50 companies had actually used TINT for their marketing efforts. Pretty impressive.

I’m Casey Franco from Bryant Street Studios. And thanks so much for listening to How TINT was Made.

The post How TINT was Made – Podcast Transcript appeared first on TINT.

At the end of last year, it was a word that was at the front of our minds at TINT.

Why? Because who doesn’t want to be the best version of themselves?

Instead of trying to improve ourselves individually, though, we joined forces to collectively become better people – and we raised $3,000 for Charity: Water in the process.

(image source)

So how did TINT do it? 

Introducing the Water Challenge

It all started with water.

Teammate Brett came up with the idea of the self-improvement tag and began by trying to come up with a way to encourage people to get themselves to the gym. And, after two extremely successful months in terms of participation and goal completion, decided to ramp things up.

He still wanted to maintain the mission of motivating self-improvement amongst colleagues, but committed to trying a new tactic.

In 2014, Brett decided to encourage the team to do a different thing each month to work towards improving themselves, whether it was a fitness activity or something else entirely.

The program didn’t fully kick off until July 2014, when it started with good intentions but soon became more and more difficult to uphold as schedules clashed and people struggled to find the time to do their bit. At its core, the program was successful, but it needed a kick in the right direction.

Brett considered how they could get interested stirring again and, bringing colleague Daniel on board, came up with the idea of doing it for charity to give people that extra push in the right direction.

Cue the Water Challenge (not its official name, according to Daniel and Brett, but a name that stuck after the challenge took hold).

I challenged our team at @TINT to drink 300 gallons of water in 30 days. If we're successful? We donate $3,000 to @charitywater. Game on

— daniel baldwin (@danielbaldwinco) November 1, 2016

The original goal was to raise money for Charity Water by getting the entire team to drink 300 gallons of water in 30 days. This meant individuals had specific targets every day and had to blast through bottles and bottles of water every week to stay on track.

The problem? People weren’t drinking enough water.

Cue the next stage of the Water Challenge.

To motivate the whole team to get involved, Daniel came up with the idea of people competing against each other – because there’s nothing like a bit of healthy competition to kick you into action, right?

Everyone was still working towards the same goal – to drink 300 gallons of water in order to raise $3,000 for Charity Water – but the challenge evolved into something much more than simply downing enough bottles of water every day.

How the Team Oversaw the Water Challenge

Carrying out a challenge of this scale isn’t an easy task, but the team managed to get organized and figure out a way to make it work for everyone.

1. Communication

To begin with, the water challenge was simply for individuals. There was a Google sheet to track everyone’s contribution as well as the team’s progress, but Brett and Daniel wanted to make more of a team effort out of it.

So, in light of this, the team set up a dedicated Slack channel and social media channels to share progress.

They used the hashtags #NovemberSI and #tintup to document the process and share their results with people outside of the TINT team.

Through these channels, they shared selfies of people drinking water, jokes, and encouraging words to keep the momentum going. Of course, some people were more into it than others, but the number of people who were really into it more than made up for those who weren’t so much.

2. Creative Activities

While the communication encouraged people to continue drinking water and continue working towards their shared goal, it soon became obvious that people weren’t hitting their targets.

To overcome this, the team set up creative activities that were incorporated into the working day to ensure people were constantly drinking water and staying involved.

In one activity, the team posted pictures of water around the office to jolt people’s memories and handed out water cups to keep people on top of the game. In a last-ditch attempt to hit that 300-gallon goal, a bar with water shots was set up where people had to down water shots throughout the day.

Daniel also introduced icing to the proceedings. Usually carried out by college students with a large supply of Smirnoff Ice, icing is where bottles are hidden and, if you find one, you have to get down on one knee and drink the entire thing.

Some rules from the original “Icing” game

Though these activities all helped keep momentum going, Daniel and Brett knew that they’d have to keep on top of everyone and continuously come up with new activities and new motivating methods to get to their goal.

So, What Worked and What Didn’t?

Daniel and Brett both noted that successful self-improvement tasks in the past have included a healthy dose of competition. With the Water Challenge, they wanted to create a competition where the team were working towards the same goal but had a certain amount of motivation to do it.

To highlight the sense of competition, they introduced a kind of “March Madness” (despite it being November), where eight people competed on each side each day to see who would be crowned the water-drinking champion.

The goal? Eight cups of water a day.

The competition became so fierce that, on the last day, Steve, one of our account executives, drank 40 eight-ounce cups of water in order to win.

The Results

The math was simple: 30 people, 30 days. Half a gallon of water per person a day. But somehow we managed to get our math wrong. We only had 28 employees contributing towards this goal, so we lowered our target to 280 gallons. This meant we reached our goal and donated the full amount to Charity: Water!

So happy to see that we not only reached our goal of drinking 300 gallons of water at @TINT but donated $3,000 to @charitywater!

— daniel baldwin (@danielbaldwinco) December 8, 2016

How To Do a Team Challenge The Right Way

If you’re thinking about running a charity challenge amongst your team, there are a few things Daniel and Brett say you should bear in mind.

First of all, prepare to spend a lot of time organizing the challenge. The TINT team began brainstorming a couple of weeks before the start of the challenge and started advertising it when self-improvement month launched in October.

It’s important to talk about it (a LOT) right from the beginning and be hands on with the process as it unfolds. You want to be messaging people, checking in throughout the day, and keeping people accountable to their goals – remember, not only are you working towards self-improvement for your team, but you’re raising money for a good cause.

Most importantly, though, you need to try and find a way to incorporate the challenge into day to day life.

Drinking water is something we do every single day, so making it into a challenge didn’t seem too hard to accomplish. Think about the kinds of activities your team undertake each day or week, and see if there’s a way you can make a simple activity into a challenge or competition to raise money for charity,

Motivation and team morale is key, too, which is why the TINT Slack channel was so important – keeping each other accountable, joking around, and sharing progress is vital if you want your challenge to be successful.

The post TINT Raised $3,000 for Charity Water appeared first on TINT.

“I think the success over the past several years, until the speed bump this year, gave the team the false impression that the tree would effortlessly continue to grow to the sky.” – Allen Morgan, TINT Board Member

Like many of my friends and the Internet say, 2016 sucked. Yes, many beautiful souls left our world, the US political climate is tense as ever, and we all can laugh at the meme below because we resonate with it. But if you can take some time to reflect on this past year, you may be able to weave all the crappy events together into a beautiful lesson.

At the end of every year, I hide out somewhere in San Francisco and spend a few hours reflecting on the past 12 months at TINT. I feel I owe it to my team and myself to commit time to reflect. Without reflection, we cannot understand what happened and piece the past together for the purpose of learning and being more prepared for the future. For us, 2013 was the year that changed everything. 2014 was the year of explosive growth no one expected. 2015 was the year of foundation building. Instead of 2016 being the year of scaling with a purpose that I had predicted 365 days ago, 2016 was indeed the year of awakening at TINT. I suspect 2017 will be the year of intentional growth.

—-

The quote in the beginning summarizes 2016 at TINT. To give you some context, TINT is a 4-year-old company that saw hilarious, explosive growth in our nascent stage. 90%+ of our business was inbound; we were profiting hundreds of thousands of dollars per month, getting courted by investors, and paying out bonuses like it was Christmas every month. And as they say it, what goes up can just as easily fall down. Due to all this success, we fell under this trap of naively believing “the tree would effortlessly continue to grow to the sky.” Or as Bill Walsh says, we fell victim to the “success disease.”

What does this actually mean? Let me list out a few of the “shake-my-head-I-can’t-believe-this-would-happen” shit we went through not to draw sympathy (I understand it’s all relative), but for the purpose of context and understanding the lessons we took away that will be shared in the end.

The Shitty Situations

• Our TINT 2016 Growth Plan completely missing targets even though we planned for weeks (we swear we had it but we forgot the execution and timing risk of everything) just 3 months in
• Laying off 14% of our workforce in March 2016 due to missing our targets (just writing that produced a heavy sigh)
• Almost taken to court by a company who held a patent we were “infringing on” in summer 2016
• One of our top ex-employees joining a competitor as their CEO in summer 2016
• Realizing our old office we subleased to a new tenant was not properly zoned for tech office usage after 1 month of construction had commenced (the new tenant was not happy to say the least and barely avoided a 3 way lawsuit) in summer 2016
• 3 all-star employees leaving during the middle of all this (no hard feelings and only love for them), further questioning my own confidence in growing the business
• Team morale and confidence at an all time low while I’m trying to put the fires out
• To top it off, we were burning cash that gave us maybe 4 months of runway left

Sigh… but all good!

Again, everything is relative and I am fully aware and grateful that TINT is still in a very lucky place. We got enough backlash “complaining” in our WSJ article so I’m not drawing any sympathy :).

Waking Up

But if anyone were to come up and ask what my Dec 2016 self could have advised my Dec 2015 self to prepare for 2016, I would say “buckle up.” Maybe I would tell him to question if you truly need a long-term large office. But mostly just advise to buckle up and embrace the bumpy journey ahead. Why?

This goes back to what I mentioned with practicing awareness and reflection to weave all your past events into beautiful lessons. Had none of events transpired above, I would never have created our team’s 5 year plan that lays out our company direction that has re-invigorated our team. Without getting slapped silly this year on all sides, our cofounders and I would never have gained the decisive leadership or learned how to say ‘no’ to distractions. If we had not seen our bank account have 4 months of runway left, we never would have realized how much our sales processes and operations could have improved.

Most importantly, the above events was like a obnoxiously rude alarm clock that would not snooze until we woke up. After talking to many of our team members one on one, I noticed the recurring theme that they are now clearly aware this journey is not going to be one bit easy, so cultivate one another and ask the right questions to find your answers. Or like Fritz Maytag, CEO of Anchor Brewing, said, “We’re all in this together, and we don’t know what we’re doing either, so come on and join in!” And I am thankful for that.

Main Summary – what can you take away from this?

If there’s one hope from sharing all this, it’s that you remember to welcome the shitty situations with open arms throughout your journey. There’s a reason it’s happening because you certainly did not plan for them. So wake up, stay aware, embrace it, and reflect afterwards to bring the lesson home.

Isn’t this just another case of Silicon Valley startups glorifying failure?

Sure one can see it that way, but I believe the main difference between that excuse and our story above is our intention in transforming our wounds into wisdom for others. Our DNA culture welcomes the practice of vulnerability, awareness, and reflection so we can listen to what our failures are communicating to us. That way, we can then share what we’ve learned with you for the purpose of inspiring you to achieve your potential.

Onwards and Upwards

As for what I foresee 2017 will be the year of? Intentional growth. Not explosive or unicorn growth. But intentional, organic, realistic, profitable, predictable, planned growth. I believe our journey and story up to today point to that as our path to become a small giant, one that believes in the power of growing a conscious business while being financially responsible.

If any of this resonated with you, feel free to pass this on to someone who may need it. If this sparked some questions or urge to share ideas, I want to connect with you (this path is often less taken and can be lonely at times)! And if this didn’t, thank you for your much appreciated time!

Until next year,

Tim

CEO, TINT

The post 2016 Year in Review for TINT – A look back on the year of Awakening appeared first on TINT.

“What is company culture and how do you start to define it for your startup or organization?”

I ask myself this question often. And I answer it by saying, “A company culture isn’t a list of perks. It’s what people do when their boss isn’t looking. It’s how people make decisions, the norms and habits taken for granted, and invisible relationships that shape our workplace.”

But, how do we define OUR company culture? That’s a harder question.

Greater minds than mine have taken a stab at it. They’ve put together ways of categorizing corporate cultures through surveys and models. Using vocabulary to shine a light on what continues to be an elusive mystery.

Last year Lukas, our PM and go-to person for all miscellaneous knowledge, introduced me to the Schneider Culture Model. In 1999, William Schneider took it upon himself to try to build on previous works to create a model to describe how organizations make decisions.

Schneider Company Culture Model

Schneider’s model divides companies by how they score on two axes, one axis is the “personal vs impersonal”. Are decisions made in a detached and objective way that focuses on the company, or are they personal, taking into account the individuals involved? The other axis is “actuality vs possibility”. Are decisions made with a focus on what we can actually accomplish today, or the possibility of tomorrow?

Based on these two basic ideas, he divides corporate cultures into 4 types:

• Collaboration – “We succeed by working together”
• Control – “We succeed by getting and keeping control”
• Competence – “We succeed by being the best”
• Cultivation – “We succeed by growing people who fulfill our vision”

What I like about this model is that there isn’t a “good” or a “bad” culture. These are all different types of cultures that succeed in different environments. There are examples of Great Places to Work in each of these categories. For example:

• Collaboration – Delta, UPS, Valve
• Control – Proctor and Gamble, Marriot, US Army
• Competence – Microsoft, Citibank, Pixar, Netflix
• Cultivation – 3M, Zappos

Most people would be excited to work at any of these companies, yet they occupy totally different spaces in the model. This is important to note! Especially since it’s easy to get distracted by arguing, “oh, this kind of company culture is better”. Nonsense! Instead, I want to figure out what our company culture is, where we want to be, and then find ways to take us there.

So where does TINT fit in the chart? Last year, I had the company sit down and take a 20 question survey to figure it out. I asked the team, “Where do you think our company is today, and where do you want it to be tomorrow?”. And this year, I did the same thing. Here are the results that I got (You can use the checkboxes to explore the data):

Some initial observations:

• People > Company – We are more people-oriented than company oriented. This makes sense, as the company has produced policies that give employees more flexibility and freedom.
• Possibility > Actuality – We are slightly more possibility oriented than actuality oriented.
• More Actuality in 2016 – Since 2015, there is double the number of people in the “Collaboration” vs “Cultivation” quadrant, suggesting that we have become more focused on the present than the future. This makes sense, as we’ve gone through some harsh realities in the past year making it essential for us to focus on what we can do right now.
• Cultivation – According to the results, we succeed by growing people who fulfill our vision. Not surprising, given that our vision statement is to help our team and customers achieve their potential.
• A Common Future – If you compare the 2 predictions of an ideal future, you will see that the “where do you want to be in the future” has not changed, and that we seek to be in the Cultivation quadrant.

What do I want to do based on these results?

• The Future – From the survey, we see the team expressing a consistent ideal of being more in the cultivation corner. So, let’s figure out how we can uphold what got us there in the first place!
• Self Improvement Program – At TINT, we have a program that’s focused on being the best you can be, where we can expense up to $100 in anything related to self improvement, as long as you complete a monthly challenge. The results from the survey highlight the importance of this program at our company, and it lets me know that I personally need to continue putting effort into participating and encouraging others to participate in the program.
• Advisors – This tells me that I should continue to seek highly skilled advisors to help cultivate our team. Since we’ve brought her on, our sales advisor Bridget has helped us tremendously both with the co-founders management skills and also for our sales process.
• Recruiting and Onboarding – I want to incorporate this framework into our recruiting and onboarding process to tell candidates and new hires what our company culture is and isn’t, and show them how they can contribute. The best way to maintain a culture with new employees is education, and now I have a vocabulary to teach!
• Everyday Spirit and Compassion – How do we make a more spirited and compassionate workplace? And how can we introduce more change within our everyday routines to take us closer to a workplace that cultivates others? These are questions that I now need to focus on.

After doing this exercise, I think it would be even more valuable if other companies joined in to see how they see themselves in terms of culture.

Your Turn

Do you want to do the same experiment for your team?

• • What policies and processes at the company reflect your culture quadrant?
  • How dispersed is everyone’s assessment of the organization, and what does it mean?
  • How can these results help the team better express the company’s culture?

Additional Reading

• Culture of Agility Slideshare – More slides on the Schneider Culture Model and how it applies to Agile
• Different Organizational Culture Models (PDF) – A research paper comparing and contrasting various corporate culture models developed over the years
• Making Your Culture Work Slideshare – I like this deck because it has a group exercise at the end where you can do the above, but in a group setting as part of an in-person session.

The post Startup Company Culture: How do you define it? appeared first on TINT.

A company that values fun, authenticity, and aesthetics above all else, it comes as no surprise that TINT—the biggest social media display tool—has an office that feels bright, airy, and original. We were lucky enough to see inside and chatted with People Operations Manager, Jessica Young, about how this workplace got its unique style. Join us as we explore its fresh design below.

The Style

It’s nearly impossible to give only one defining label to TINT’s style. Jessica suggests the term “rus-tech” (a combination of rustic + fun tech looks), but is quick to add in some other suggestions her team came up with. Names like Baller on a Budget and Yard Sale Chic nod to the scrappy origins of this workspace’s furnishings while Warm Red Vibes and Phresh AF speak to the approachable and inimitable qualities of the space.

Balanced between what is comfortable and what is functional, the warm tones and second-hand furnishings are beautiful, but not distracting.

“I wanted this office to feel like someplace you would want to hang out in,” Jessica explains, “It’s like your best friend’s house (your best friend that has a good sense of style)!”

The Design Challenge

This office space is three times the size of their original location. On a shoestring budget and with limited resources, Jessica thought carefully about how she could bring in a large number of designs that would also look great together.

“It ended up being a fun challenge,” she tells us, “it required creativity, patience, flexibility, and resourcefulness.”

The Furniture

With around 10,000 square feet of space, it’s truly incredible that Jessica was able to furnish everything on a budget of about $3,000. She cleverly chose flexible furnishings that could morph depending on what you paired them with, allowing for a versatile range of designs that could be moved if necessary.

She also limited herself to one big ticket item: the sofa in the media room. The rest of the designs are previously owned, less pricey pieces.

When picking out each furnishings, Jessica made sure to consider the purpose they would serve. Some of the furniture is light and easy to move, encouraging you to create your own setting, while other designs are larger and more stationary, setting up a specific type of environment for that area.

The Inspiration

Jessica wanted the style of the office to feel true to who TINT is as a team. She knew she had to strike a balance between bold and reserved, masculine and feminine looks.   

She also put a huge emphasis on collaborative spaces. From seating areas to shared workspaces, each part of the office has at least one gathering place for people to come together. It’s no surprise that at the heart of the office is the communal kitchen and dining space. You can see some of TINT’s amazing community on their Instagram @TINT.

This focus on collaborative areas is a physical reflection of the company’s value—to blend communities and styles.

Personal décor and photography are other ways in which the TINT team has been incorporated into the office’s style. Two private offices that are dedicated to photobooth pictures and a timeline of photographs that represent TINT milestones.

“We found that these elements really help our team connect with the space and make it feel like home,” Jessica tells us.

A few musical instruments can also be found throughout this workplace. A guitar and piano can often be heard during the day, their soft sounds drifting through the office on warm afternoons.

The Private Spaces

Each employee has their own workspace. There, they can hunker down for some solo time when necessary. There’s also a mix of quiet workspaces and small meeting areas.

Although there are only a couple of actual closed-door offices, Jessica and her team have maximized the illusion of solitary spaces with intimate vignettes and quiet corners. 

“I love seeing individual colleagues working in some of the big comfy chairs in our lobby or seeing a meeting take place on the sectional sofas in our media room,” Jessica muses.

Office style should be just as fabulous as any home’s and a workplace should reflect its companies values and employees. TINT is a leading example of both of these design ethos. Jessica Young and her team have done an incredible job creating an aesthetic that fosters community as well as the production of better content for clients. We’re so impressed with this scrappy social media company’s space and hope to see more offices follow suit!

What’s Next? Learn more about TINT on their website here and come visit us! Just drop us an email and we can set it up!

The post Dream Office Tour: TINT’s Fun, “Rus-Tech” Workspace appeared first on TINT.

———

I feel like I want to throw up. I’m anxious as hell. I don’t know if I want to cry or be eternally grateful for what’s about to happen.

The intercom buzz sound rings. “Attention passengers, this is the pilot speaking. We are a few minutes away from landing. Please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their full upright position and your seatbelts are securely fastened.”

The plane lands and the moment of truth is here. I stand up from my seat and never felt more nervous in my life. I grab my luggage and start walking down the aisle. Each step I take, I feel my heart beating louder and louder. Remember that 8-mile song by Eminem? “His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.” That’s pretty much how I felt.

I walk off the plane and walk over to the passenger pickup area. I’ve never met this person who is about to pick me up, but I had good faith. Things could definitely go wrong, but I knew it was worth the risk.

My family member messages me and says she’s inside the terminal looking for me. I start to walk over to the terminal. I then see a bright blue purse from a distance. The same bright blue bag on her profile picture I saw when I found her on facebook. I walked closer and made eye contact with her. We both start smiling and walk faster towards each other. We get closer and start hugging each other. I start crying and hug her tighter. I then back off and start laughing. I said, “I wasn’t supposed to cry.” “I wasn’t supposed to either,” she says.

“Nice to meet you bro,” she says.

I smile and say, “Nice to meet you too sis.”

———

My mom met my father about 27 years ago. They split before I was born and I never met my dad. He lived in Mexico and had green eyes. That was pretty much all I knew.

When I was in high school, I began to wonder more about my dad’s side of the family. My mom mentioned to me that I had two other sisters. I wanted to meet them, but I had no idea where to begin or how to start the search. So I never acted on it. But as I kept getting older, this big question kept haunting me.

Fast forward to September 2015, I was at my mom’s house in the living room. I was watching tv and again this thought came to my head. It just occured to me that maybe I could search for her name on facebook. But I thought to myself, “It can’t be that easy to find her, but it doesn’t hurt to try.” I ran upstairs and start asking my mom questions. I asked her to give me any information she knew about my sisters. She only knew her name, Esmeralda Gallegos, and the city where she was born. I wrote it down and head back downstairs to grab my laptop. I logged into facebook and began the search.

I typed her name and the city where she was born in the search field. 2 results appeared! I thought to myself, “Oh crap, this might be possible.” I started investigating the first profile and looked at her profile picture. I didn’t see a resemblance. I continued to look anyways, searching for pictures of any of her family members that I might resemble. Nothing looked promising. After 10 minutes of stalking the hell out of that profile, I decided to look at the second search result: Esmeralda Gallegos.

I clicked on her profile picture to expand it and didn’t see a resemblance either. I continued to look through her all photos and see if I could resemble anybody in her pictures. I probably looked at over 200 photos, and then I saw a picture with her and a man with green eyes. This man looked like me! I knew I was onto something.

I ran back upstairs to my mom’s room and showed her the picture of this man with green eyes. “Does he look familiar?,” I asked her. She put on her glasses and looked at the picture. “Oh my god. That’s your father.”

I got goosebumps all over my body. I realized that my search was over and I found my sister. I immediately sent her a message on facebook.

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I was so happy and relieved that she was excited as me to meet me. A few days later we set up a time to talk over skype.

Our first skype call started with us just staring at each other. “You look exactly like my father,” she said. We started asking each other questions about our lives. We joked around and mentioned that it felt like a job interview. But after 10 minutes of talking, we felt comfortable with each other and our personalities meshed well together. A lot better than I thought! It also helped we were the same age. We are both 25 years old. It’s almost like my long lost twin!

At the end of the skype call, we agreed that I would fly out in few weeks to meet each other. I bought a ticket and began counting down the days for the big moment.

On the day of the departing flight, I wrapped up my day at work and called an uber to take me to the airport. I started leaving the office and said goodbye to my co-workers. They knew my story and wished me luck on my journey. “Come back alive,” my colleague Jessica jokingly says. I laughed and said, “I hope so too.”

I hopped into the Uber and began a new chapter. I think to myself. “Holy crap. This is actually happening.” I knew that this would be a moment I would never forget.

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The story doesn’t end there. I flew a month later to visit my sisters again and met my dad for the first time in my life. That story is a bit more complicated and unfolding as we speak. Maybe you will read it in a book if I decide to write one?

To be continued….

The post After 25 years of searching, I found my sister on Facebook appeared first on TINT.