Our DNA
Our Why
Our why is to build a company with a unique Culture, that creates impactful digital products.
Our What
Providing Web Presence Providers with SEO solutions that they resell.
Milestones
June 2012
It's just the Co-Founders Wences & José Miguel, with Roberto in Sales. We acquire our very 1st marketgoo users.
February 2014
Jaime joins the team
Jaime Muñoz
Head of Engineering
March 2014
Larissa joins the team
Larissa Murillo
Head of Marketing
October 2015
David joins the team
David Roch
Head of Product
December 2015
Pedro joins the team
Pedro Parra
Frontend Engineer
June 2017
Diego joins the team
Diego Pascual
Frontend Engineer
March 2018
Earl joins the team
Earl Cruz
Partner Success Manager
May 2018
We enter Phase 2 of our Culture phases
December 2018
Óscar joins the team
Óscar Otero
Product Designer
March 2019
We start shaping our marketgoo Operating System (mOS)
December 2019
We enter Phase 3 of our Culture phases
March 2020
We launch our Self-set Salaries experiment
June 2020
María joins the team
María Blanco
Frontend Engineer
Grisel joins the team
Grisel Matos
Frontend Engineer
October 2020
Miguel joins the team
Miguel Romero
Frontend Engineer
March 2021
Óscar joins the team
Óscar J. Baeza
Backend Engineer
July 2022
Démian joins the team
Démian Freau
Partnerships Manager
August 2022
Sonia joins the team
Sonia Alemany
Product Manager
November 2022
Joan joins the team
Joan Morell
Backend Engineer
January 2023
Oscar joins the team
Oscar Bustos
Frontend Engineer
February 2023
Fernando joins the team
Fernando Puente
Integrator
Elisabeth joins the team
Elisabeth Osuna
Product Designer
March 2023
Luis joins the team
Luis Miguel
Frontend Engineer
Our Values
Proud of What We Do 💪
We take pride in our work and feel rewarded through the challenges we take on and the quality we deliver.
Working on a Dream 💭
We commit to projects that power our freedom and wellbeing.
Reach for the Stars ✨
We aspire to be a high performing group that takes on challenges.
Deep Trust 💙
We fully trust each other to be vulnerable and completely honest (without being jerks).
Our Guiding Principles
Stay Hungry 🍖
Don’t let the good times hypnotize you, don’t forget that you always need to be persistent and seeking improvement and growth.
Always be Learning 🦉
Seek wisdom growth as a team and individually.
Collaborate Effectively 🎼
Communicate & listen, be vulnerable and have empathy. Be passionate about your ideas without being overly attached, embrace simplicity & be proactive.
Strive for Autonomy, Ownership, Humility & Trust 💯
Be a self-starter who adheres to rigorous standards, be open to ‘disagree and commit’, embrace and drive change and accountability.
Influences
Books
Maverick
Ricardo Semler
“The author chronicles a family business: a manufacturing company in 1980’s Brazil, that created an amazing Culture, eliminating bureaucracy and unneeded middle management. This was, and still is, a revolutionary achievement. If your startup’s values include trust and radical honesty, this is your book.
It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work
Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
“The guys from Basecamp know that work should be something beyond a soul crushing time-suck. This no- fluff book guides you on being calmer, more productive and prioritizing your team’s wellbeing while reclaiming your time.”
Traction
Gino Wickman
“Learn from a simple but powerful company operating system that will give your leadership team more focus and enable you to effectively tackle issues and optimize people, processes, execution, management, and communication. We developed our own marketgoo Operating System based on this book.”
People
Tweets
Going fully remote was nice, but the real benefit was in going fully asynchronous. Here are a list of the benefits we've seen at @Gumroad:
— Sahil (@shl) January 29, 2020
A thread 👇🏽
Good communication in a remote team:
— Alex 🌚 (@alexmuench) December 19, 2019
* Write status updates
* Communicate the obvious
* Format your writing effectively
* Confirm decisions to move them forward
* Offer conclusions in long discussions
* Make decisions transparent
* Take initiatives and deliver on your promises
How to thrive as a #remote worker
— Ryan Law (@thinking_slow) January 24, 2020
1/ Be nosy as hell.
Remote work can obscure the "big picture" view of your company, so read every public doc, spreadsheet, email and Slack thread. Leave unsolicited opinions in areas that interest you, or where you can add value.
Glossary
Chuletón Based
Chuleton is a large steak. We say we run on chuletón-based technology, an inside joke about how the offer of a delicious feast once propelled our Devs to massively overdeliver.
Somos la p**** pero no tenemos ni p*** idea
Translates into something like “We are f****ing great, but we are clueless”. We say it a lot because it’s important to be both humble and confident – and for us to know when to be which.
Watch Pennies
We’ve never believed in spending ‘just because we can’. We are a lean team with plenty of resources that we choose to invest wisely.
Expectante
During every quarterly meeting, we each say a word that describes how we feel at that moment, coming into the meeting. A lot of us have said ‘expectante’ (expectant) and even after 6 years, at least one person always chooses that word.
Are we there yet?
This is a phrase we use to remind ourselves how far we’ve come, and also the journey we still have left to travel – have we arrived?
What Could Go Wrong?
No matter how great things are going, we need to understand and prepare ourselves for a worst case scenario. Sometimes when we’re discussing a move or project, we dedicate time to forecasting unfavourable scenarios.
WTLY?
A long time ago, a young and naive Yaye (our CRO) shared an article to our learning channel without explaining why he thought it was valuable or useful, and the burns came swiftly and mercilessly in the form of What’s the Learning Yaye?
mOS - marketgoo operating system
Remote-First
Where we Work
Office
We are 100% remote! We currently have no office, but once upon a time we did have one in Madrid. In total we had 4 different office locations.
From home
Many people work from home. We have a budget to outfit your home office. Please get a good chair and a good desk.
From coffee shops
Some of us choose to work from coffee shops or other third spaces. When you’re on cafe wifi, please be mindful of security.
From a coworking space
A few of us enjoy working from a coworking space and the opportunity it provides to network and be part of a community. We offer a €200/month for this setup.
Onboarding
As a new Gooer, you’ll be provided with 2 checklists that you should review and complete. Additionally, in the Culture section of our Notion workspace, you’ll see there are all the tools you need to set up (and how to access them) an explanation on how we do things at marketgoo, and a Who’s Who section so you can put a face to the people you’ll be communicating with!
Meetings
Meetings held on a fixed basis in the calendar and compulsory for team members to attend are the Quarterly and Annual Meeting Pulse, and for the Leadership Team, the Bi-Weekly Meeting Pulse. These follow a strict Agenda that is shared beforehand, and is available on the mOS section of our Notion workspace.
Meetings held on an spontaneous basis as consequence of daily work needs should observe the following:
- Duration: Meetings shouldn't take longer than 30'. Always be very strict to extend meetings from this duration if you are the organizer but also to accept them as an attendee. If you need a 60' meeting, think of a 45' one.
- Number of attendees: Take care when including more than 3/4 people per meeting and always be very strict to call team members into a meeting. Note that a 10 people 60' meeting is not a 1 hour meeting, it is a 10 hour meeting.
- Frequency: Beware of regular meetings piling up, taking too much of your week's time and blocking you for doing value/focused work.
- Availability: Embrace an office hours concept. Set up a fixed and short space of time per day/week to be called into meetings and block the rest for your own work/goals.
- Agenda: Always include an agenda for anyone to be able to understand if they attend the meeting or not. Team members are encouraged to not accept meetings that doesn't have a clear agenda, including: what is this meeting about, why should the meeting take place, agenda and what to bring.
- To schedule the meeting, use the shared calendar. Don't ask team members directly on Slack, it's inefficient!
- Be strict on timekeeping and end the meeting with action points and its owner.
Policies
- All employees have 22 working days per worked year in addition to national/local holidays.
- Madrid Holidays are considered “off-days” for most employees regardless of from where there are working. If you want to observe your local holidays, let your team know!
- Due to our Goompleaños policy every employee also has their birthday as an “off-day”.
- If an employee misses a holiday or a Goompleaños due to a compressed working week, they can take a substitute day as time off. Employees who want to take their substitute day must inform their manager and team mates.
- We encourage you to not take more than 2 weeks holiday outside of July and August, when the market and company has less activity. The rest can be spent freely along the year.
- If you need flexibility vacations to match your personal needs, talk with your team manager.
- Talk with you team manager at least 2 months before to fix your dates in the company calendar and adapt the company plans for these dates. If you cannot find such anticipation, then at least 1 week notice is needed.
- Also talk with your teammates to be sure somebody remains in charge of urgencies or unexpected problems during vacations (don’t leave all during the same days).
- Make sure you put your availability online on the marketgoo calendar and that you set yourself “Busy” so no one accidentally books you for a meeting.
- Your vacations are yours. Enjoy and disconnect.
- Turn off your notifications and set up an “I’ll be off email” so any external stakeholder will be warned. If you are needed due to an urgency your manager or team mates can call you.
- Be flexible. Your manager will always try to fulfill your needs, but sometimes it’s not possible due to the team organization.
- You manager and team mates will always try to respect your days off, but let them know how to locate you in case of an emergency.
- Before leaving talk with your teammates and explain to them anything remarkable about your projects. This will minimize the chances of disturbing you during your vacations.
You can take courses, certifications, join professional communities, order books and more with your learning budget. To see the most up to date budget, see the Culture section on our Notion workspace. Travel expenses related to events and courses are paid with the learning budget.
- Everyone in the company has budget to buy a laptop or a combination of laptop and other items (screen, mouse, keyboard…). We encourage you to use a laptop for mobility, so you can bring it to our meetings, retreats …
- New members when hired will be asked about it to have it on the first work day
- Current members in need of a replacement should ask their direct manager and arrange the purchase and delivery with the Team Assistant.
- In general terms the budget is up to 2.000 € (VAT included), but some specific teams have different budgets due the nature of their work.
- This budget can also be used for repairs, improvements or accessories. If your laptop screen is too small for daily work maybe you need an external screen.
- If the budget is not enough for your needs, please talk with your manager and look for a solution together instead of buying something that doesn’t cover your needs. Maybe hardware prices increased and the budget has become obsolete. If this happen we should review the budget policy. Don’t be afraid to ask.
- All team members have a Quarterly meeting travel cap
- Madrid team members: when going to the airport, please take the Metro, carpool, Uber (share when possible) and use the company account. Always keep receipts.
- Team members outside Madrid: Ask the TA for help so we can always get the best price.
- Travel expenses related to events and courses are paid with the learning budget.
- See the most up do date travel caps in the Culture section of our Notion workspace.
We’re currently experimenting with each team member proposing what they think their current salary should be, and making salary revisions based on that. The case is made after pouring over our financials, your own personal needs and situation, market rates, where you’re currently living, among other factors.
Currently it’s in pilot mode, but we feel confident that we will be able to officially implement this model as policy in the future.
- We will speak in English for all internal and external permanent documentation, including one-off projects or pitches/project structure.
- We can interact in English/Spanish in informal messages such as Slack, comments, internal email, etc.
- We will expect new team members to adapt to this configuration, but will not limit our hiring to only Spanish-speakers.
Team Assistant
- The Team Assistant (TA) has a mission to help us be more productive and increase our satisfaction with our workplace, by taking care of miscellaneous tasks for all of us, that help us focus on what’s important and eliminate distractions.
- The TA is available during standard business hours, Monday to Friday from 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m MADRID time.
- TA will respond to emails and Slack messages within 24 hours or on the next working day.
- If TA is unavailable, they will indicate so on their Slack status and for longer holidays, alert Management.
- Team Members will do their best to ensure they don’t submit tasks that demand urgent (same-hour or same-day) turnover.
- If clarification for a task is necessary, TA will ask for it in his response or request a call. Slack/Skype calls are always planned in advance to avoid any possible interferences.
OKRs (Objective & Key Results)
- At marketgoo, we started out small. As our business and team grows, we are finding new ways of organising ourselves, measuring and optimising our work, and making sure we all know what part we play in the success of our company. OKRs are one of the main ways we do that.
- OKRs are meant to set strategy and goals over a specified amount of time for an organization and teams. At the end of a work period, your OKRs provide a reference to evaluate how well you did in executing your objectives.
- Any initiative has an objective. The goal of setting an objective is to write out what you hope to accomplish such that at a later time you can easily tell if you have reached, or have a clear path to reaching, that objective.
- Assuming your Objectives are well thought through, Key Results are the secret sauce to using OKRs. Key Results are numerically-based expressions of success or progress towards an Objective. To see each Team's OKRs, check the company Scorecard in our Notion workspace and for more granular objectives, see the team’s individual section there as well.
Cadence
Cycles
Bi-Weekly
Quarterly
Yearly
Rituals
Retreats
- Our Semi-Annual retreat is held with all team members present in-person, and usually lasts for a full working week.
- The objective is to present a retrospective of the past Quarter and the planning for the next. It is also a place where we can bond and get to know each other better as a team.
- We usually try to pick destinations within Spain. There is a defined agenda published before the event, and a few standard tracks: Product + Technology, Culture, Business, Executive. Besides that, anyone can propose a talk of their own. We try to improve the NPS of our retreats every year, and make them more inclusive and accommodating each time.
- We know they can be tiring. We’re away from family, friends, and home, “on” all day, perhaps not getting enough sleep. The point of the retreat is for everyone to enjoy it and to rest as well. If you want to skip a meal or an activity, don’t hesitate to!
- You can see all past Quarterly presentations within our Notion workspace.
Our past retreat locations
October 2016
Menorca, Spain
April 2017
Aldán, Spain
October 2017
Xátiva, Spain
April 2018
A Coruña, Spain
October 2018
Cascais, Portugal
April 2019
Aldán, Spain
October 2019
Cádiz, Spain
October 2021
Málaga, Spain
April 2022
Alicante, Spain
Virtual Retreats
- Due to the pandemic, all our retreats are now online. We have developed an internal portal where all team members can see pre-recorded videos for each team's recap of Rocks, OKRs, Wisdom Growth and Team Shoutouts.
- For each video, we leave comments and questions to be addressed at the Live session which includes closing remarks from our General Manager and is moderated by alternating team members.
Phases
- We have defined a set of Company Phases to accompany our journey from Startup to Mature Company. One of the drivers of our Strategy is moving to the next Phases.
- For each Phase, we document what milestone will trigger us to enter that phase, the financial indicators we should have, and the impact being in that phase will have on our Culture and benefits as well as our % of profit sharing.
- To see our Phases and where we are currently at, see the Culture section of our Notion workspace.
Tools
To see more tools used by specific teams, visit their section on our Notion workspace.
Notes on a Culture
Our Founder’s Blog
Our Culture Blog
#GooLife
Recap of some our our past Retreats
Some curated moments
Our B-Reel of day to day happenings!
Interviews
“Sharing your fears and challenges with like-minded people who are also going through something similar is one of the best tools to prevent and overcome burnout and validate assumptions.”
“‘I’m not the owner of the culture,’ marketgoo founder and CEO Wences Garcia says. “It’s the team together that is creating the culture of the company and the values we want to reinforce.'”
“I felt we were a success as a company even before we turned a profit. It’s a matter of defining success. Today, we are successful margin-wise but our culture and model was a success even before!”
“The Founder needs to be on top of Culture from the beginning that’s why I also self-style as Head of Culture — I see it linked to our Business Objectives and Values.”
Presentations
Hace 1 año, se unieron al equipo @GriselMatos5 @Marybass @TonoPeleteiro como #juniordevs y han aportado muchísimo🔥. En el video Grisel nos cuenta sobre su experiencia y @jaime_mmp recalca por qué son tan valiosos los juniors para el equipo: https://t.co/PG7kqj7sJ1 #CodeNoobs
— marketgoo (@mktgoo) June 5, 2021
Ya mismo comienza @CodeNoobs, el evento por y para juniors 🔥 Nuestros compañeros @jaime_mmp y @pedroj_parra nos contaron por qué apostamos por los juniors y cómo trabajamos con ellos. No te pierdas el video completo: https://t.co/98Hwkeefov #CodeNoobs #juniordevs pic.twitter.com/CSWLqKNwmO
— marketgoo (@mktgoo) June 5, 2021
El diseño de 5 fases con condiciones y beneficios que tiene @mktgoo les permite tener su visión clara y saber , cuando llegue el momento que los objetivos se están cumpliendo #ESO2019 pic.twitter.com/2KifA7A2eR
— soficalleprieto (@soficalleprieto) December 14, 2019
Me encantan las empresas que organizan el trabajo para que se adapte a la forma de vida del equipo, como los casos de @mktgoo y @minimalismbrand , y no al revés. Nunca dejes que te digan cómo debes gestionar a tu equipo. #ESO2019 pic.twitter.com/i6PZcJYbqx
— Corti 🚀 (@josek_net) December 14, 2019
Somos la ***** pero no tenemos ni **** idea. Gran lema de @wencesg #ESO209 #SinOficina pic.twitter.com/DMQlZ6jkZH
— Santiago Alonso 💬 (@salonsoweb) December 14, 2019
Being a fully-remote company for almost a year now. Two weeks per year we celebrate our team retreats. A week for bonding and reflection. Under lock-down, we are doing a two-day event using @HeySummit We've missed each other but that is not a stopper for us to adapt and progress pic.twitter.com/Q32yJofCVv
— Wences Garcia (@wencesg) April 2, 2020
Hoy deberíamos estar cogiendo aviones para juntarnos todo el equipo en algún lugar del país.
— David Roch (@davidrochg) March 30, 2020
Haremos un retreat virtual desde casa.
Ni un ápice de queja, estamos todos bien y el proyecto también. Ganas de achucharnos fuerte pronto, eso sí. pic.twitter.com/L5at1tx7Ur
Find a company that knows you better than yourself.@mktgoo - "Say no more"
— Earl Cruz (@edgecroix) January 7, 2020
Thanks for the birthday stash 😆 💙#Goolife #remotelife #marketgoo #culture pic.twitter.com/X999xidDRC
As a company founder I’ve lived through years of frustration and feelings of lack of control until I discovered the existence of the Visionary & Integrator roles via @EOSWorldwide.
— Wences Garcia (@wencesg) April 14, 2021
This concept completely changed my working life!
En 2015 vi cómo @peldi explicaba su programa de “profit sharing”. Me parecía que un reparto de beneficios cuando la fase vital de la empresa lo permitiese podría alinear nuestros intereses.
— Wences Garcia (@wencesg) March 3, 2021
2020: hemos repartido un total de 120K EUR en profit sharing en @mktgoo >
Ni somos una startup, ni nos valen la mayoría de vuestras lecciones de tinte generalista, ni creemos que haya que ser gigantes para crear impacto, ni siquiera nos identificamos con un territorio, somos ambiciosos pero humildes, vamos rápido y despacio ...
— Wences Garcia (@wencesg) December 2, 2020