Joel Gascoigne

@joelgascoigne · Co-founder/CEO, Buffer

Thanks so much @kzograf, I’m so excited about the new path we’re on now with the acquisition of Respondly! Great question. There’s a great team focused within Buffer on making Respond awesome and a key part of that is customer development to understand what people need the most. We’ve already heard a number of times that customers would like support for more channels, and it’s amazing to hear you ask for it too. It’s definitely in our plans. I’m also very excited to follow closely the evolution of Facebook Messenger as an awesome customer service channel, and perhaps that’s something we can think about integrating too.

8 share tweet・a year ago

Ab Ed

@abkaumi · i am a college student

@kzograf @joelgascoigne Did you know that regular people are getting paid from $250 to $750 for a few minutes of their time just by recording their voice in a computer?You can make that money online just by using your voice even if you are complete beginner.Check this out here:https://tr.im/kfc

Ali

@asmiler

@joelgascoigne I wanted to ask; over the years which is your favourite city that you have worked from? and why?

@joelgascoigne · Co-founder/CEO, Buffer

@asmiler this is so hard to answer Ali! I'm not sure I can say say just one city - there are so many good ones and every city is different. I've also been lucky to live in many different places. I absolutely loved spending 4 months in Hawaii earlier this year. And I'm writing this from New York City, I'm coming up to almost 5 months here now and have enjoyed it too. Completely contrasting of course. I love the outdoors and the weather and how easy it is to be healthy in Hawaii. I enjoyed actually having a hobby (I surfed 3-4 times a week). I really like the energy and ambition of New York and the incredible food here. I lived in Hong Kong for 6 months, that was incredible too.

4 share tweet・a year ago

Ab Ed

@abkaumi · i am a college student

@asmiler @joelgascoigne Did you know that regular people are getting paid from $250 to $750 for a few minutes of their time just by recording their voice in a computer?You can make that money online just by using your voice even if you are complete beginner.Check this out here:https://tr.im/kfc

Adhi

@adhiwie · Designer

@joelgascoigne Hello Joel, I am always in awe with the value and culture at Buffer. How could you come up with the idea of implementing such culture in the early days of Buffer and how to make the employees at Buffer understand the culture? Thanks!

@joelgascoigne · Co-founder/CEO, Buffer

@adhiwie Great question, thanks Adhi. I didn't know what culture and values were when I started Buffer. It's something that I learned about over time. A lot of things have happened like that for me - I think there's a right time for everything. There are many books I've read and they've not sunk in or resonated with me. Many of those same books I read later and they became books that changed my life. When we hit around 9 or 10 people at Buffer, I started to experience first-hand the impact of team dynamics. It was only then that I started to learn about company culture and tried to read as much as I could and watch presentations about it. By that point, a few parts of the culture had started to become clear: transparency, a focus on self-improvement, etc. But we hadn't put this in to words. It was right around then that I watched an interview that Tony Hsieh from Zappos had. I can't remember exactly which one it was, but he was asked by the interviewer: if you could go back and start Zappos again, what would you do differently? He said that they had waited until they were more than 100 people before they put values into words and documented their company culture. If he were to start again, he'd do that from day 1. Zappos was the key company we looked up to for having such a strong company culture, so we had no choice: we had to put our values into words as soon as possible. After we did so, it really moved us from the company culture being ad-hoc and left to fate, to us deliberately shaping it.

12 share tweet・a year ago

Courtney Seiter

@courtneyseiter · Content Crafter, Buffer

@joelgascoigne @adhiwie Here's a look at the history of Buffer's values, including a link to that Tony Hseih talk! https://open.buffer.com/creating...

June Swatzell

@june_swatzell

@joelgascoigne @adhiwie I just started using buffer, very easy and dependable.

upvote share tweet・9 months ago

Amanda Tessier

@amanda_tessier · Marketer at Altisource

Happy Monday, Joel. Glad to see you're doing this. What surprises you about the experience of leading a successful startup team? Also, what are your top 3 travel recommendations? You certainly have experience living all over the world!

@joelgascoigne · Co-founder/CEO, Buffer

@amanda_tessier great to see you here Amanda! I think one surprise is how big we can grow and still need to grow more. We're 70 people now and if you'd told me a few years ago we'd be that many people I would have dismissed it. Every single person in the team is awesome and completely necessary and not only that, we have another 20 roles we're looking for people to join us to help us to do better! (feels like I've naturally come to a place where I should plug that we're hiring: http://buffer.com/journey). Another surprise is how necessary structure is when you grow beyond a certain point, and how hard it is to get structure right. We've tried a lot of different things and we keep going with our efforts there. Top 3 travel recommendations: Tokyo (it's just so different to any other place in the world), Sydney (it's beautiful, check out the walk from Bondi to Coogee) and Iceland (a gem I didn't really know about until this year, so many awesome things to do there).

Inês Silva

@isss111 · Head of Operations & Growth @ RIPE

@joelgascoigne I've been a long time Buffer's fan and what I'm most excited about is your consistency. Year after year you guys have always delivered top notch content and when everyone thought you had reached the limit of your transparency strategy, you managed to take it one step further. What's your secret? How do you keep challenging yourselves?

@joelgascoigne · Co-founder/CEO, Buffer

@isss111 I think the key is to remember that you can change everything. As we grow, it can be harder to remember that, but it's always true. Earlier this year, we fully embraced experimenting with self-management, and then it didn't quite work out as we expected. We were completely transparent about it, and it was hard to come back and say "we're moving away from some of those ideas", but I think that's the key to continuing to grow. It reminds me of this quote from Jeff Bezos, which is kind of ironic since you asked me about consistency: > People who are right a lot of the time, are people who often change their mind. Consistency of thought is not a particularly positive trait.

16 share tweet・a year ago

Inês Silva

@isss111 · Head of Operations & Growth @ RIPE

@joelgascoigne Thanks Joel for the answer. As you mentioned it should be all about experimenting and learning as much as possible along the way. I know that consistency can mean different things, but in your case, Buffer has been able to be on the top of game year after year, month after month. You may change what you believe or what you do as long as you learn and make the necessary adjustments. That's key in my opinion!

Mike Hammar

@mikehammarceo

@joelgascoigne @isss111 Excellent Joel, love your transparency. Michelle Wetzler of Keen recently wrote about Permission To Fail https://keen.io/blog/13525565797.... This willingness to be open, vulnerable, transparent at the highest levels of an organization is awesome.

@joelgascoigne · Co-founder/CEO, Buffer

@mikehammarceo @isss111 Loved Michelle's post! :)

3 share tweet・a year ago

@svikashk

Howdy, @joelgascoigne! Big fan of both Buffer & how you've built it. I've got 2 questions here: 1. Are there any chances of you and/or the entire Buffer team coming to India? Would love to catch up someday! :D 2. Buffer blog is popularly known for the social media posts and for Buffer's transparency. Is there any chance that you could introduce another category for Product Management? You guys have been taking some amazing decisions. It would be great if you could share your thought process. If not another category, would it be possible for you to write on your personal blog? Thanks a ton for taking the time out to do this. :-)

5 share tweet・a year ago

@joelgascoigne · Co-founder/CEO, Buffer

@svikashk hi Vikash! Thanks for chiming in, awesome questions! :) 1. Yes, I think that's highly possible! In fact, I know @sunils34 visits India from time to time, and others in the team have too (I believe @rdutel also). Now that we're 70 people and have a strong culture of travel within the team (anyone can travel while working anytime), it's hard for even me to keep track of where in the world everyone is. I personally have India high on my list now having traveled to many other places in the world. And who knows, maybe we could do a retreat in India sometime too! The other thing - we're always looking for awesome people to join the team, and I'd love for us to have a presence in India. 2. Love that you asked this - Product is one of my personal passions and key focuses within the team. We have an amazing team of product people (@jimhitch, @marc_rosa, @kymorrow) and we're all planning to write more about product on the Open Blog (http://open.buffer.com). Also - thanks for the nudge for me to write on my personal blog - I plan to get back into a better flow there in 2016!

7 share tweet・a year ago

@svikashk

@joelgascoigne oh wow! So exciting to read this! 😀

Klajdi Turlla

@klajdi_kl · Product Manager, MPAY Albania

@joelgascoigne @svikashk It would be great to hear more about products from you guys.

@svikashk

@joelgascoigne I remember having the opportunity to have a chat with @sunils34 earlier this year. It definitely is one of the highlights of this year for me. I'll make sure to check with @rdutel of his further plans and have an eye on the team's retreat plans. 😁 Oh amazing! Can't wait for it. So glad to hear that you'll soon be writing more on your personal blog. I definitely have missed reading posts by you. 😊

Sunil Sadasivan

@sunils34 · CTO, Buffer

@svikashk It was a ton of fun chatting with you Vikash! :)

Mary Jantsch

@marycjantsch

@svikashk Vikash, hey pal! India is one of my happy places. Where can you find bigger and better mountains? Thanks for asking about the team visiting India, I'd love to make it back very soon. :)

@svikashk

@marycjantsch Wahoo! Do let me know when you plan your trip to India, Mary! 😀 PS. Super sorry about this late reply. 🙈

upvote share tweet・8 months ago

Chris Joyce

@thejoycething · Digital Media Analyst

@joelgascoigne Hi Joel, Apologies if I misquote you on this, in a video about the Buffer team size tripling you said something (to paraphrase) along the lines of hiring the right people if you see someone with the necessary skills and more importantly glows with the Buffer culture. With this in mind, I was curious to know how many people have been head-hunted by buffer, compared to those who have applied through a job listing? I came across someone through my media monitoring, after further observation I suggested to my workplace that we hire that person, before they graduate. The persons skills and what I perceive to be her ethos will be hard to find in another person, and I believe she would be a great fit, so it'll be good to see if she's a good fit before she accepts any offers elsewhere. Keep up the excellent work, Until next time, Chris

5 share tweet・a year ago

@joelgascoigne · Co-founder/CEO, Buffer

@thejoycething amazing question Chris - something I'm thinking a lot about right now. We've had such a strong focus on culture-fit, and we've also been lucky to have created a strong brand around both the product and our company values and culture. As a result, we receive 1,500-2,000 applications per month. Many many people apply to be part of the team and know a massive amount about us before we start talking with them. We've been lucky to find a way to make fully inbound hiring work super well for us, and we've actually struggled a lot with outbound hiring. I think there might only be 1 or 2 people in the team we've hired that way, if even that. I think this might need to change as we progress further, especially if we need to find people with a lot more experience to join the team and be leaders of areas. We're thinking a lot about that challenge, whether to focus on fully on nurturing people or whether to try to hire more senior people. I think right now we're leaning towards building a culture of learning and nurturing leaders.

11 share tweet・a year ago

@svikashk

@joelgascoigne @thejoycething "I think right now we're leaning towards building a culture of learning and nurturing leaders." This sentence sums up why I've followed Buffer since early 2012 continue to love 'em! 😍

Chris Joyce

@thejoycething · Digital Media Analyst

@joelgascoigne Amazing reply Joel, thanks for taking the time to type it out. 😊 I love that your leaning towards finding people who sit well within Buffer's values and culture. I learn through observation, and one of the things I've picked up is that a person with a great ethos, who can learn the necessary skills needed, are always worth more in the long run. To the team, the company and the individuals they have contact with.

Chris Joyce

@thejoycething · Digital Media Analyst

@svikashk Certainly a great way of thinking, and must certainly be awesome when you look at peoples progress and realize that while they've done a lot of great things, you helped them along the way by providing a good atmosphere and amazing people.

Cody Cares

@thecodycares · Positivity Captain @ Splash Media

@thejoycething solid question! @joelgascoigne with there being such a high volume of applicants, I can imagine it is mere patience a candidate must rely on before hearing any feedback. With that being said, is there anything an applicant can do to go beyond the application to show additional value and interest? P.S. Regardless, content knowing "it’s safe and sound here in our inbox."! :)

Ashley Lewis

@ashley_n_lewis · Freelance Graphic Designer

@joelgascoigne Hi Joel, My question is what is the number one thing you look for when considering possible new employees and which one of your 10 Buffer values do you strive to implement the most?

5 share tweet・a year ago

@joelgascoigne · Co-founder/CEO, Buffer

@ashley_n_lewis hi Ashley - thanks for asking a question! The key thing we look for when hiring is, as you've already mentioned, great culture-fit with our values. That is the hardest thing for us to find, and whilst skill/expertise is important, that is something we are less focused on than culture-fit, since we believe that is something that can be taught and practiced, moreso than culture-fit. The way we view the Buffer culture is, we're really looking for people who are already living their lives by these values, and happen to find Buffer which aligns very well with their personal values. It's a red flag for us if, during the first few weeks of someone joining the team, it feels like they are trying too hard to "fit in" with the values, in an unnatural way. Lots more on how we hire in this article: https://open.buffer.com/how-we-h... For myself, I personally strive to work the most on the Choose Positivity and Happiness value. It's one that I feel has made my life immeasurably better, and made me happier. It's one that I think can bring positivity to other people, and one which I feel makes me a better teammate too.

Ashley Lewis

@ashley_n_lewis · Freelance Graphic Designer

@joelgascoigne @ashley_n_lewis Thank you Joel for taking the time to answer my question! I love Buffers values and It's inspiring to see a company that upholds these standards. Keep up the good work Buffer! :)

Junius

@juniusfree

Hi @joelgascoigne How will you spend your time if you've got one hour to solve a user problem/need? Thanks!

4 share tweet・a year ago