Who We Are
Expensify is a company that gets shit done with a small, globally-remote team. So what is our magic formula for success?
One half of the equation is our hiring practices and the other half is our distinctive culture — something that continuously evolves while generating significant results. Our culture is transcribed into what we call the Manifesto, which consists of our values, principles, and guiding philosophies. We not only hold ourselves accountable to our Manifesto, but also anyone who contributes to Expensify.
While there are many important parts to our Manifesto, there are three main pieces that form the foundation of our success:
Life Goals: Live Rich, Have Fun, and Save The World — The most reliable strategy for achieving anything worth mentioning is through the cooperation of a team of hardworking people pursuing shared and complementary goals. We believe a life well-lived is one that pursues all of these goals at the same time, both in the office, and at home.
Two Rules: Get Shit Done and Don’t Ruin It For Everybody Else — Both rules work in tandem to steer us quickly and safely on our journey: Rule #1 is the accelerator, driving us forward quickly, and in the right direction. Rule #2 is the brakes, ensuring we do so as a compassionate community, preventing us from going off the edge.
Core Qualities: Talent, Ambition, and Humility — Most companies focus on what you've done. We care about who you are. We think if you can learn without being taught (and teach what you know), have real tangible goals (with some evidence you're pursuing them), and genuinely appreciate others' ideas (rather than just tolerate them quietly) -- experience will come naturally.
Every pillar of the Manifesto adds up to an internal culture that is inclusive by design. Here are a couple examples of how each pillar delivers upon our goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI):
Life Goals: We’ve worked hard to create a culture that provides employees with the means to achieve their life goals. Whether that’s through our generous Medical and Parental leave options or the ability to work remotely, anywhere, without taking a pay cut.
Two Rules: To keep ourselves open and honest, we conduct a company-wide DEI 360 (a bi-annual feedback tool) to identify any concerns around DEI. Having said that, DEI initiatives can be proposed by any employee at any time or place, which was the case when implementing our mental health support program.
Core Qualities: Hiring people with these qualities ensures our manifesto will be embodied in every action we take. Talent and Ambition are required to take a stance, such as establishing Expensify.org to eliminate global injustice. Humility helps us acknowledge when we do not get things right, e.g. in 2020, we paused launching a new feature, despite dedicating months of time and resources, because the timing was not considerate with the onset of the pandemic.
The Manifesto isn't just about internal culture for its own sake -- that culture produces a team that punches way above its weight class. Here are some examples how these pillars support the direct financial results of the company, all relating to the launch of a major feature: The Expensify Card.
Life Goals: Built into the card is our Karma Points program, which supports Expensify.org’s efforts in enabling others to live their life goals.
Two Rules: The project took only five months to launch, from conception. In just one year, even with the impacts of COVID-19, we had thousands of customers sign up. That’s getting shit done. Our high-trust environment empowers everyone to make their own decisions. This means you don’t need “permission” for every decision made on your project, so long as you keep the team updated and collaborate on important things when you're at a crossroads. In this case, everyone pivoted from other projects (Exhibit 1) to get involved to accelerate the timeline.
Core Qualities: Two teammates proposed a business case that captured our imagination. Notably, these two teammates were from Sales and Ops who spotted an opportunity and went for it. We actually don’t have dedicated R&D or product managers - anyone with ambition can take on that mantle!
Exhibit 1: A graphic showing the agility of our team. Almost the entire company pivoted to release the Expensify Card in record time.
At Expensify, we're passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and you check out our efforts here. For us, inclusion is woven into every best practice at Expensify, which in turn drives tangible results for the business. We leave you with one final example of our inclusive project process. The first episode of our new series LAT Talks, where Expensify’s own Joanie Wang and Puneet Lath interview Trevor Noah about representation, cancel culture, and what it means to be “self made”. The first episode of our new DEI video series, LAT Talks, introduces this integrated ethos. Trevor Noah talks to two of our employees about how representation matters.
Still sounding too good to be true? Join us to experience it for real - check out our open jobs here.
We're thrilled to be recognized as a Great Place to Work, and look forward to continuously upholding our standard of transparency, inclusiveness, and collaboration. Check out our profile here to get a sneak peek of why we were listed as a Great Place to Work!
From San Francisco to Portland and London to Melbourne, we’ve got one hell of a team that just can’t stop growing. We’re collaborators, innovators, friends, and for a month each year, travel buddies. Meet our diverse team of Expensifiers!
