Building a Business in the Shadow of a Giant

Wistia, DuckDuckGo,Quip… what do we all share in common? Wistia is a video hosting service that people pay for when they could use YouTube for free. DuckDuckGo is a search engine in a world where search is literally synonymous with Google. Quip is launching up against the might and ubiquity of Google Docs. We’re all companies that were built in the looming shadow of Google’s behemoth giant, that by all logic should’ve been stomped out and crushed like the tiny worms we were. But we’re not only surviving, we’re thriving. In fact, we have a secret to share—some of the biggest opportunities today live within stumbling distance of the monsters of tech. Since most fear to tread in this arena, few companies dare to play in these billion-dollar markets. Interestingly, YouTube, a company that some might consider our greatest nemesis, has actually been our greatest protector and closest friend. It’s the boogeyman that scares away competition, and the tidal wave that lifts all of our boats, carrying us higher and farther than we could’ve possibly gone on our own.

“Interestingly, YouTube, a company that some might consider our greatest nemesis, has actually been our greatest protector and closest friend.”

### YouTube set the price at free YouTube made $4 billion last year and didn’t turn a profit. It has virtually unlimited access to capital as a subsidiary of Google, and its massive scale means that it can offer the best price on Earth—free. We’ve heard it a million times: “Why would I pay for Wistia when I can use YouTube to host my videos for free?” With YouTube, you get an unlimited number of videos and unlimited bandwidth 100% free, and that’s pretty insane. Free is very, very hard to compete with. At Wistia, with the high price of video hosting and bandwidth, we weren’t able to offer a rival free plan until we’d been in business for six long years, built up a solid base of customers to grow from, and refined a reliable revenue engine. Competing with free has been one of our biggest challenges—but it’s also been a blessing in disguise. With a $0 service, YouTube has totally eradicated the competition and made video hosting look like a very unappealing market for prospective entrants. The video giant has given us the time and space we’ve needed to focus on building a solid business for the long term. #### Email has been an interesting parallel market While Gmail is free to use, you can only send out a single email to 500 recipients max. Most companies need more recipients than that, so an entire industry was born to take care of those businesses’ needs—email marketing. From MailChimp to Constant Contact to AWeber, there are tons of options for email marketers, each offering its own mix of features and pricing. These companies have built their businesses without having to worry about an 800-lb gorilla obliterating the market with a completely free service. This sounds really great for the companies in this market, but it actually amounts to a daily struggle. Because there’s no unlimited free option available, what’s resulted is a highly competitive market in which it’s very difficult to stand out. The barrier to entry is lower, so new entrants join every day, each eager to lop off part of your business and make it their own. ### YouTube defined performance baselines The YouTube experience has become so ubiquitous that people take its technology for granted. It’s easy to forget that YouTube is a modern technological marvel, and that pre-YouTube, we had to sit around and wait for RealPlayer to load to watch video on the web. RealPlayer was super fun. Oh wait. YouTube has established an incredibly high standard for performance. Thanks to their model, super fast playback and upload speeds are what people have come to expect from online video. Offer anything less, and people get frustrated quickly, as they’re so used to YouTube’s user experience that any buffering or queuing feels agonizingly slow. This may sound trite, but this engineering marvel has made the table stakes for the video hosting industry incredibly high. We’re forced to keep step with YouTube’s legion of thousands, when we’re only a small team of 10 engineers. We need 24-7 vigilance to maintain system reliability and uptime. Yet, while that’s created hard work for us, we’re actually grateful to YouTube for doing the hardest work of all. They’ve pushed the web forward and made it an amazing place for video. At Wistia, we couldn’t have pulled that off by ourselves, and trying might have led to our demise.

“They’ve pushed the web forward and made it an amazing place for video.”

Before 2005, the web was incredibly hostile to video. You had to download it and watch it locally or stream it with appalling software like RealPlayer or Windows Media Player. Standards were fragmented across browsers, and it was incredibly difficult for developers to build a video experience on the web. YouTube led the charge to use Flash and then HTML5, and it brought the browsers with them. The purchase and subsequent runaway success of YouTube ensured that Google was deeply invested in video. They created open standards and open source technology that benefited every company working in the space. They’ve done nothing short of transform the way people experience the internet—and as that continues, all we need to do is keep up. ### YouTube grew at an unprecedented rate YouTube came out of beta in late 2005 with a $3.5 million seed round, upgraded servers, and increased bandwidth to give the site room to grow. And it did—quickly: by the summer of 2006, it was the fifth most visited site on the internet, with 20 million visitors a month. In 2007, YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire internet did in 2000. Paul Graham of Y Combinator says that billion-dollar startups get made out of hitting 10% growth per week. In parts of summer 2006, YouTube hit an absolutely stunning 75% per week. It was one of the fastest growing websites in the history of the internet. This process was hastened by a late-2005 Nike ad that became YouTube’s first million-hit sensation, and the 2006 partnership deal they struck with NBC. Businesses began uploading their own videos in droves. Even small companies got in on it—more than 20 million people have now viewed this Dollar Shave Club promo. And it was around the time of YouTube’s explosive growth in mid-2006 that Brendan and I launched a little video hosting site for businesses called Wistia. We must have been insane—YouTube was taking the entire market for online video. It didn’t quite make sense then, but looking back, we probably launched at exactly the right time. Wistia couldn’t have made any money before YouTube showed up. Before YouTube, few businesses were privy to the benefits of online video. In transforming the market, YouTube showed everyone around the world the power and potential of this medium, both for cats and for businesses. Being there at the start of the wide, rising tide of online video is what created the opening for Wistia. We had an opportunity to go deeper on one segment of this market and create specialized features that YouTube would never build as a broad-based platform. We produced tools to help businesses use their videos to capture leads and increase signups. We created a learning center and hired video producers to help businesses get better behind the camera. We formed a support team to answer every query that came in.

“We had an opportunity to go deeper on one segment of this market and create specialized features that YouTube would never build as a broad-based platform.”

All along the way, we were bolstered by the growing interest in online video. Whenever someone saw an awesome viral video on YouTube, they’d get inspired to create a video for their own business. Then they’d find us. ### Learning to love the giant Successful companies don’t come entirely out of the sheer will and grit of the entrepreneurs who started them. The truth is that we’re all benefiting from the work of other entrepreneurs and companies—especially those in the markets that are related to our own. What looks like competition often amounts to companies working to grow the market size, so that there’s greater abundance, more wealth, and increased opportunity for everyone. Even though everyone thought we were crazy to compete with YouTube back in 2006, we were always standing on their shoulders rather than going toe-to-toe. But by offering a more flexible and targeted product, designed just as a B2B offering rather than something for everyone on the planet, we’ve grown dramatically. YouTube unlocked the power of online video—they allowed people to upload video from their camcorders and phones and share it with billions of people all over the world. Businesses saw this, knew they could get some use out of it, and began exploring. But while YouTube is focused on pleasing everyone, and doing so in a clean and user-friendly way, we’re just focused on making better tools for businesses using video for marketing, and this has been the key to our success—we’ve taken to take the power that YouTube gave businesses and make it even stronger. Today, online video is becoming a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars. While YouTube is focused on taking the lion’s share of it by disrupting the trillion dollar TV advertising industry, they’ve left a multi-billion dollar industry for business video hosting in their wake. It’s too small for YouTube to bother with, but this small expanding wedge of the pie is the whole reason that Wistia is thriving today. We can prioritize features that YouTube can’t, we can invest in integrations and partnerships which don’t make business sense for them, and we can own our little corner of the online video market by helping businesses get more value from their increasing investment in video.

“It’s too small for YouTube to bother with, but this small expanding wedge of the pie is the whole reason that Wistia is thriving today.”

Just as the canopy layer of trees in a rainforest provides the shelter and protection for the understory layer to thrive, so YouTube’s growth has created the demand and space our core market. So, thanks YouTube. You’re alright with us.

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How ThoughtWorks Recruited Hundreds of Talented Employees Using Video

Steve Jobs once said, “The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world.” Recruiting the right people for your company isn’t easy, but it’s crucial for any business’s development and growth. It takes thoughtful strategizing, countless hours, and plenty of dollars. Luckily, video and marketing automation are empowering companies to focus on high-level planning while their automated systems place the right content in front of the right people at the right time. Adam Monago is the Head of Digital Strategy at ThoughtWorks, an international software consultancy focused on organizations with ambitious missions. With over 3,000 employees and 33 offices around the world, their team is continually improving their recruiting strategy. We spoke with Adam about how ThoughtWorks got started with video marketing, and how they’re now using video and Marketo to attract, identify, and recruit talented and passionate employees. ###### WISTIA: How and why did you get started with video? ###### ADAM: We had been capturing videos of events and talks for years, but never had been intentional about a strategy around the content. About four years ago, we started testing some higher quality explainer videos and began to notice that our product customers started to respond to them. Not long afterwards, we investigated Wistia, because we knew that a YouTube-only strategy would not work for us. For one, many clients blocked YouTube and Vimeo URLs. Another reason was that we wanted to be able to optimize the experience around the videos to increase engagement. Since then, we have started exploring the use of video through many other parts of the business.

“We wanted to be able to optimize the experience around the videos to increase engagement.”

###### WISTIA: What are your goals with using video? ###### ADAM: Since we are primarily a professional services business, our product is really our people. We have found that video is the most immediate way to showcase the talented and diverse minds we have working with us. Our primary goals include: - Sharing really ambitious client work. - Highlighting controversial issues going on in the technology industry. - Giving a window into our workplace culture.

 

One of our more successful initiatives has been engaging our community around careers. We’ve explored many different formats, from the more whimsical Between Two Devs series designed for social media, to motion graphics explainers like this one about our Associate Consultant Program, and even this great Women in Tech campaign for Ada Lovelace Day.

“We have found that video is the most immediate way to showcase the talented and diverse minds we have working with us.”

###### WISTIA: What does your video recruiting strategy look like? ###### ADAM: There are a couple of layers to it. In order to separate the best bets from our wider audience, we try to qualify people who are broadly interested in careers first. Because we know many of our recruiting prospects are passive job seekers, we’ll often include a simple check-box on our content items, giving them the option of learning more about what it’s like to work at ThoughtWorks. We’ve found this to be an excellent way to qualify recruiting leads and let us know it’s safe to present them with content that is solidly in the “Careers” arena. We’ve paired many of our key videos that explain our culture with a simple registration form that contains name, email, and this checkbox.
Once we have people segmented in this way, we’re able to then look for some heuristics to help prioritize them for our “sourcing” team (read: those that target people for key roles). This might include people who have GitHub profiles that are active, interesting companies in their work history, or repeated interest in blogs and videos that we publish. Our prioritized lists then allow us to create remarketing segments, which we can then target with Facebook/Twitter video and YouTube pre-roll video that touches on topics such as “A Day In The Life of a ThoughtWorks Developer” (often customized by region).

 

###### WISTIA: Which videos have been the most successful in terms of recruiting? ###### ADAM: Our three most popular videos are about tech consulting at ThoughtWorks, software development careers at ThoughtWorks’ office in Australia, and our Associate Consultant Program [shown below], which is extremely effective at acquiring graduates.

 

The key thing for us is that these videos have attracted very well-aligned hires, and identifying candidates in this way saves thousands of dollars per recruit. To be honest, we haven’t scrutinized conversion rates yet, but we plan to follow them more closely as we scale the program.

“These videos have attracted very well-aligned hires, and identifying candidates in this way saves thousands of dollars per recruit.”

###### WISTIA: What’s next for you? Got any exciting video marketing initiatives on the horizon? ###### ADAM: We’re continuing to look for more ways to maximize the footage we get. We actually have too much content! It’s a good problem to have, but we’re starting to look at more ways we can take longer pieces and segment them down into more “snackable” chunks for viewers that might not have time to watch an hour-long talk. We are also starting to look at providing more formats for our executive clients, who typically don’t get much in the way of entertaining content from the industry. This is going to be an interesting challenge in balancing format with content utility. The Wistia-Marketo integration is going to continue to play a pivotal role for us. Using Wistia and Marketo together allows us to notify the right folks on our team that it’s time to make contact, or even to deliver more relevant content to those viewers on demand. Because our videos hold high value content for customers and potential hires, we want to make sure that we can take action at the right time, when they are most interested in speaking to us.

“Using Wistia and Marketo together allows us to notify the right folks on our team that it’s time to make contact, or even to deliver more relevant content to those viewers on demand.”

---

Over the course of 2015, ThoughtWorks has successfully recruited over 400 applicants using video and marketing automation. Looking ahead, they are eager to build out multi-channel campaigns and further experiment with Timeline Actions. “We’re excited that we were able to do this with some very targeted campaigns, and we’re looking forward to how we can scale it in 2016,” Adam said.

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Striving for Memorable Support

Why is it that you feel like the bees knees when the bartender at your favorite spot remembers your name and preferences? Why does being served something on the house unexpectedly make a restaurant experience feel more special? Why do people enjoy being able to order “the usual”? The warm and fuzzy truth is that deep down we all want to feel cared for, valued, and appreciated. Independent of context, positive service experiences tap into our most human sense of reciprocity—when people do right by us, we notice and are inclined to do right by them. Seemingly small interactions often add up to big changes in opinion, preference, and loyalty. These impulses drive repeat business and referrals, and there’s much to learn from even the most transactional service situations. Let’s shear back some warm fuzziness and take a look at three recurring components of great service: ### Being responsive and anticipatory Growing up I spent most summers as a caddy carrying golf bags. After every shot, it’s a caddy’s job to hustle ahead, mark the distance for the next shot, and note any additional factors like wind or how the ball lies. That’s responsive service. After carrying for the same player once or twice, you start to get a sense of the information they might want and how they typically approach the game. The best caddies anticipate their player’s needs based on knowledge of their skill set, hence anticipatory service. Being responsive is one of the quickest and most noticeable ways to show customers you care. But sometimes, well intentioned responsive support isn’t quite fast enough. Take for example one of everyone’s favorite activities, filing taxes. Nina Olson, our country’s National Taxpayer Advocate (a friendly title within the IRS), told Congress recently that the IRS Customer Service Hotline was only able to answer 37% of taxpayer calls between January 1 and April 13 of this year, with an average wait time of 24 minutes. Ouch. The agency simply cannot keep pace with the deluge of requests stemming from what can only be categorized as an epic fail in customer experience. In defense of the IRS, Congress is far more focused on preventing abuse than funding service improvements—despite the fact that the agency brings in over 90% of revenue needed to run the federal government. Compare that situation to Intuit TurboTax, with its customer-centric model that makes e-filing almost as easy as ordering pizza online. Anticipating the aspects of the tax code that most confuse us, TurboTax masterfully breaks down jargon into a series of digestible questions, even sprinkling in some humor along the way. Same desired outcome, two completely different roads and experiences of getting there. While not without its own recent bumps in customer confidence, TurboTax continues to post strong gains in users and revenue. At Wistia, we know that bandwidth usage isn’t the most intuitive measure. So, in addition to our documentation on how it works, we have a bandwidth predictor tool that provides our best estimate based on average duration of videos and estimated views. ### The “personal touch” Regularly championed, less frequently systematized. The prerequisite for taking personalized customer service to scale is zeroing in on the core aspects of what customers want and expect. Only then can you capitalize on opportunities to innovate, exceed expectations, build affinity, and have fun. Zappos, for example, has nailed what people want when buying shoes online. With automated strategies like intuitive product search, free overnight shipping upgrades and free return shipping, they’ve driven customer happiness to a point where 75% of business comes from repeat buyers. Perhaps most importantly, Zappos has built a company-wide culture of empowering employees to go above and beyond to delight customers and resolve issues. Their brand of service is such a powerful team motivator that the company publishes a Zappos Culture Book—300+ pages of stories from employees and vendors, many of which are about how meaningful it is to provide exceptional support. It’s okay to be vulnerable when providing customer service. Mistakes happen and are best mitigated with honesty and humility. Often the people who become the loudest champions are those who work through frustrating problems with support staff. ### Exceeding expectations A friend of mine recently totaled her car. Major bummer. Having never been in any kind of accident previously, she fully expected the insurance claim to be tedious and headache-inducing. To her surprise it was just the opposite—quick, painless and stress-free. Sure, the claim check was a bit less than she had hoped, but what mattered was the whole thing went smoothly. The three people she spoke with at GEICO actually cared about making sure all of her questions were answered. They were enthusiastic and happy to help. As it happens, GEICO has made a habit of explaining things well to people. When asked in 2013 what single security he would keep and why, Warren Buffett answered, “I would keep GEICO. It goes back to the—62 years ago it changed my life… If I hadn’t gone to GEICO when I was 20 years-old and had a fellow there explain the insurance business to me, my life would be vastly different. So I’d just have to—I’d have to choose GEICO.” I love that he leads with, “they gave me information and help when I needed it,” rather than, “they’ve made me literal Olympic swimming pools full of cash.” Not to put GEICO on a pedestal—there are several auto insurance giants out there with stronger overall rates of customer satisfaction. But in both instances, customer loyalty is driven so much more by personal experience than money. When a person’s expectations are exceeded, they aren’t quick to forget. While it’s impossible for every interaction to leave a lasting impression, it’s empowering to find patterns around what delights people most. What opportunities exist for you to leverage that insight? ### Why focus on service? Support teams are on the front lines of proving to customers that they’ve made an exceptional investment. They are a critical link between product and business development and an essential ingredient in building a positive reputation. They are managers and directors of good vibes. Ever-evolving technology facilitates even greater choice and competition—more often than not, it’s service that turns new customers into committed partners. **How does your support team work to exceed expectations? In what ways do you structure support around anticipated customer needs? How do you use video as a tool in that process?**

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The Evolution of Interactive Video: A Chat with HapYak

Many companies are starting to discover the benefits of integrating video with marketing automation tools. Like video and email, it’s a win for both sides. Videos help you gather all sorts of impactful data to pump into your automation platform of choice, and marketing automation tools can help you quickly pinpoint and reach your most captive audience. HapYak, an interactive video platform, is using events within their videos to generate leads and gather useful information from their viewers—lead intelligence. By integrating video into their automation platform, their small-but-scrappy sales team can identify their best prospects and nurture them efficiently. We spoke with Cass Sapir, the Customer Success Director at HapYak, about the power of video marketing and the benefits of incorporating interactions within the video player. ### The case for interactive video For companies hoping to generate leads and collect meaningful data for marketing automation purposes, interactive video is a no-brainer. Viewers who are immersed in your video content are perfectly primed to enter their emails or answer quick, low-pressure questions that result in valuable marketing insight. If your video is longer than 90 seconds (for example, an educational video in your support docs), brief interactive elements can actually encourage engagement. “It’s the same effect as having a playlist,” Cass said. “Those lightweight interactions can reset your viewer’s attention, or even reward them for paying attention. When you place interactions in your videos, what was once a monologue becomes a dialogue. In essence, you’re making conversation.”

“When you place interactions in your videos, what was once a monologue becomes a dialogue.”

Getting started with interactive video can be intimidating. That’s why HapYak addressed some of the most common fears in this blog post. ### Anticipating interaction “Our customers have typically used video for a couple of years and thought, ‘there has to be something more,’” Cass said. Cass went on to explain an interesting trend that he’s observed. “Companies typically start by slapping interactive elements on top of existing videos after they’re produced. Then they move toward producing videos with specific interactive elements in mind.” In other words, companies are beginning to base production decisions on when and how the interactive events will come into play. In the following video example by HapYak, they explain the benefits of adding a simple chaptering tool.

“We didn’t invent this evolution of video marketing, but we’ve definitely noticed the shift in our customers,” Cass said. ### Timing isn’t everything By paying careful attention to the implementation of interactive elements in your videos, you can not only create a seamless experience for your audience, but also increase conversion rates. #### Turnstile data At Wistia, we’ve looked into the data surrounding the placement of our Turnstile email collector. In a nutshell, we found that required Turnstiles 20-30% of the way through your video or 60-70% through your video have the highest conversion rates. It’s clear that the timing of the event (in this case, an email collector) is important, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle.

PRODUCT TIP

Add email collectors directly within your Wistia videos!

#### A human touch We’ve also found that appealing to your viewers with a human touch can make a huge difference when asking for information. For example, it turns out that our audience was far more inclined to take a quick survey after our team performed the Hustle.

 

This experiment often comes to mind when we’re asking our audience to provide any type of information. #### Promising results HapYak is constantly experimenting with different ways to integrate interactive elements. “When we conducted some preliminary research in May 2014, the submission rate across all quizzes, surveys, and polls was roughly 65%,” Cass reported. “It’s really exciting.” If you’re interested in learning more about HapYak’s specific findings, check out their blog post. ### Improving marketing automation When it comes to video and marketing automation, HapYak is continually improving upon their process. Currently, they’re combining video with marketing automation to alert their inside sales team when prospects have indicated strong interest. When viewers click on particular interactive elements and calls to action, a real-time notification is sent to sales. The next step for Cass and his team is to take advantage of email automation. In this case, they will be using the same interactive elements to trigger email messages to prospects. The goal here is to provide timely and relevant follow up to leads, so that when they are contacted by a member of the sales team, they are even more receptive and prepared. By building low-pressure interactive elements into their videos, HapYak has gone one step further in gleaning helpful information about their prospects and delivering meaningful content in return.

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Score Leads with Video

Learn how video can directly impact your lead scoring and qualifying.

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Ditching Flat: How Structure Helped Us Move Faster

From the beginning, one of the things that made working at Wistia feel really exciting and fun was our flat organizational structure. I felt proud showing off our team dynamic to new employees, because I knew that we approached work in an egalitarian way—there were huge opportunities for individuals to jump in and make a real difference. Flat was startup-y and awesome. Structure was BigCorp-y and boring. As our company grew from 2 to 30 people, I was surprised to see how the strengths of a flat organization turned into our team’s biggest weaknesses. Letting go of our “flat” management style was one of the toughest adjustments that we had to make as we scaled the business. We ended up doing something that I never planned to do—create an organizational chart. And it turned out to be one of the best decisions we made.

“Letting go of our ‘flat’ management style was one of the toughest adjustments that we had to make as we scaled the business.”

By establishing an explicit org structure, we’ve grown from 30 to 60 people while retaining the energy, creativity, and risk-taking that characterized the earliest days at Wistia. ### The flat years: from 2 to 30 My management experience pre-Wistia was comprised of working as a host and busboy at restaurants and commiserating with friends who also hated being told what to do. I found this inexplicably tidy, abandoned alley where no one tells me what to do. From the beginning, we were afraid of creating a company that required rigid management to get work done. That’s why we built Wistia with a totally flat org structure. We didn’t have a defined framework for making decisions. Instead, we focused on giving people autonomy. #### Defining ownership When we were still under 30 people, defining ownership was the key to our progress. For every part of the business, we asked, “Who is responsible for getting this done?” It’s a simple question, but one that’s easy to ignore when there are tons of different projects going on. Everyone wants to help solve the biggest and most important problems. Defining ownership balances responsibility across the organization, so that everyone can move quickly while feeling confident that our bases are covered. Being the owner of a project doesn’t mean others can’t jump in to help. It just means that you are responsible for thinking about and organizing the progress on that part of the business. With individual ownership, our team members were more motivated to move their projects forward faster. Without micromanagement, decision-making bottlenecks opened up, all while the business stayed flat, without the need for managerial overhead. But letting people make their own decisions can be scary. In fact, for the founder of a startup, it’s often terrifying. What if they make mistakes? What if they make the same mistakes I’ve made before? Chances are, they will. But by giving people the authority to make their own mistakes, you also give them the authority to learn from them. Defining clear ownership—instead of having shared ownership—was absolutely key to scaling while we were flat. By entrusting people to own parts of the business from the get-go, people got up to speed very quickly and the business moved much faster. #### When flat breaks down Early on, we were never super explicit about how we made decisions as a company, and that tended to work in our favor. It meant that everyone dabbled in every decision. Anyone could share their two cents on any project, and we were collectively on the lookout for opportunities to improve. This lack of clarity created an insane amount of chaos and allowed us to be more creative. Things were always shifting on a dime and wild ideas showed up at every turn. As we grew, our flatness broke down. And the problem was me. As your company gets bigger, responsibilities get chopped up into smaller pieces. The relationships between areas of ownership become exceedingly complex, which clouds the decision-making process. For us, it became hard to take risks—no one was clear on who was responsible for what. We moved more slowly, and it felt harder to learn and be creative. While people on the team made smaller decisions about their parts of the business, I ultimately acted as a bottleneck for major decisions. We began to realize that by building a company with a flat org structure, we had done the exact opposite of what we had intended. We had centralized all the decision-making, and we were relying on a secret implicit structure to make progress. Every company has a structure. If you don’t explicitly define your structure, then you are left with an implicit one, and that can stifle productivity. We had hoped that being flat would let us move faster and be more creative, but as we grew, we ended up with an unspoken hierarchy that actually slowed down our ability to execute.

“If you don’t explicitly define your structure, then you are left with an implicit one, and that can stifle productivity.”

### Explicit structure: from 30 to 60 I took way too long to realize that an organization is an ever-evolving thing. I associated being flat with our company identity, and that made it hard to change. Flat no longer worked for us, and we needed to evolve beyond it. We drew out an org chart that makes ownership and authority more explicit, and it’s done wonders for us. An org chart is a map of the growing organism that is your company. If you have a clear map, it makes it easier for everyone to know how to navigate communication and decision-making, and feel more comfortable that you’re headed in the right direction. #### Delegating, not centralizing authority Rather than use an org chart to set up a command-and-control management structure, we’ve sought to do the exact opposite. With a flat structure, projects with undefined ownership would default to me—with a stated org structure, every project has a clear owner. Our org structure has teams and managers. Each team in the company has clearly defined roles. If you are making a decision that has an effect on other people on a different team, then it’s your responsibility to get their buy-in. For example, let’s say the creative team is drafting marketing copy. This will impact team members who are working directly on the product. It falls on the creative team to liaise with the product and marketing teams to make sure everyone’s on board. Managers are responsible for making sure that their reports have access to all the resources they need to own certain projects. By delegating responsibilities and authority, managers can empower their teams to move faster with fewer bottlenecks. #### Our structure in action For the launch of our enterprise plan—typically a time when companies opt for a buttoned-up, risk-averse approach—we went with a parade, complete with a waddling penguin. This creative approach was bolstered by our team structure. First, our head of product marketing, Phil Nottingham, decided on certain parameters for the launch video. It needed to generate buzz, it needed to feel relevant to viewers discovering it months from now, and most importantly, it needed to draw attention to the new Enterprise plan. Next, the creative team took the reins and brainstormed tons of ideas. Once they landed on a one-shot parade video, our video producer, Chris Lavigne, began organizing the effort. Defining Chris as the clear owner of the project meant that he could delegate tasks large and small, which all contributed to a successful production.

“It’s true that many hands make light work. The biggest task on the day of the parade was to decorate the truck and trailer. So we asked for volunteers to help come in super early and lend a hand. I delegated specific roles to folks that signed up. Head float decorator. Balloon wrangler. GoPro mounter. And with those leaders in place, the rest of the volunteers lent a hand to whoever needed it the most. All of this wouldn’t have been possible without buy-in from the team that this was a worthwhile effort, so for that I’m thankful!” - Chris Lavigne

The video was one of the most ambitious things we’ve ever done, and the entire launch required coordination across product, engineering, design, creative, operations, customer happiness… everyone, actually. What’s inspiring is that rather than ending up with a watered-down compromise, we produced something that we were all super proud of. We announced our plan just before I took off on paternity leave for one month. After the team pulled off the launch, it felt amazing to know that things would motor on for the next month without needing me around at all. ### Future: from 60 to beyond It’s easy to get caught up in buzzwords like “flat.” Sometimes when I tell startup people that Wistia has an org chart, they look back at me totally horrified. What’s important to us at Wistia is that we’re able to do our work effectively. The org structure we have is just the means to an end. To create the org chart, we had to throw out a stale part of our identity, reflect on what really mattered to us, and come up with something new, based on our principles. It was a painful process, but sometimes that’s the only way you can grow.

“We had to throw out a stale part of our identity, reflect on what really mattered to us, and come up with something new, based on our principles.”

Our current structure is working really well today, but it requires a ton of active work to make sure that we’re getting ownership and communication right. As we add more people and the work continues to grow in complexity, the only sure thing we know is that we’ll need to throw everything out and rebuild it all over again. I can’t wait.

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We're Moving… Non Sequitur Fridays

We work at Wistia, but we do other stuff, too. Our content strategist, Alyce, started Non Sequitur Fridays back in 2012, with two goals: showing Wistia’s human side on our site and encouraging more people within the company to write. After watching the series grow over the past few years, and learning some lessons along the way, we’ve decided that these gems deserve a space of their own. ### Why we’re moving As our company grows, we want to make sure our blog maintains its focus, which means giving our video marketing content some breathing room. This doesn’t mean losing sight of the unique experiences and stories our staff has to share. We’re excited to double down on the quality and quantity of our content on the company blog. Our hope is to better serve the people who arrive there for the first time, eager to learn all about optimizing their video marketing efforts. While some newcomers might be surprised and delighted by a post about cold brew, we understand that others could be pretty disoriented. What does this company do again? By honing in on the focus of our blog, we’re helping to better support Wistia’s vision. ### Remembering posts from yesteryear Moving Non Sequitur posts to their own happy home is bittersweet—we’ll miss their charming presence on the blog. To honor their legacy, let’s take a look back at some highlights over the years: 1. Language Matters 2. The Perfect Analogy 3. Arf? Woof ruff grrrrrraar! 4. Now That’s What I’m Taco ‘Bout! 5. The Allure of the Wilderness ### What you have to look forward to Every Friday we’ll feature a new story from a fellow Wistian on nonsequiturfridays.com. From posts on competitive air guitar, to what to do with 237 teacups—our team has it covered. Keep an eye out for new posts on Facebook and Twitter by following #nonsequiturfridays!

 

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Tales of a Cost-Effective Journey

This post is part of our Non Sequitur Fridays series, which will feature a different Wistian’s take on a non-Wistia-related topic each week. It’s like our “employee of the month” but less “of the month”-y. Anders Chen is an engineer at Wistia. This is his first Non Sequitur!

It wasn’t too long ago since I was a college student, desperate for cash. I was fortunate to have 3 part-time jobs that had generally flexible hours during the academic school year. Nonetheless, several frugal habits came out of that experience that still influence the way I spend money today. ### 1. Buying used technology items When it comes to gadgets (e.g. cellphone or a laptop), depreciation can work in your favor. It’s a lot like used vehicles. Laptops that are 1-2 years out from their original release year can be anywhere between 30-70% of the original manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP). Macbooks tend to occupy the higher end of the spectrum, but if you’re like me, owning a personal Macbook is like telling yourself that you’re going to buy a used Tesla Model S someday—it’s simply not happening. My current phone. The last laptop I owned (and retired/sold back on eBay this year) was a Lenovo Thinkpad E420s (MSRP: $700+) that I had acquired for $300 in 2013. I’m currently using a Dell Latitude E6440 that I got second-hand off eBay for $399, while new ones of similar specs go for $1,100. One day, one of my friends starting messaging me on Hangouts, telling me how he got the new Samsung Galaxy S3 and how awesome its unmemorable gimmicks were. He was quite hyped about it, and it would be roughly a year later that I would get up in his face about how I got a “pre-owned” Samsung Galaxy S2 (for $50). It was only this year that I grudgingly retired the Galaxy S2 due to the fact that Sprint was in the process of deactivating the WiMax LTE signal in favor for their new LTE network. I currently use a Motorola G (GSM), bought for $60, that was released in 2013. ### 2. Internet sharing In most cities that don’t have the blessings of Google Fiber, standalone internet packages are not cheap. Near-mandatory equipment rentals and additional service fees can rack up very easily and cause internet to easily cost $40-80/ month, depending on your tolerance for pain. One could easily split the cost up by sharing a wireless point with a neighbor to reduce costs significantly. It was my second summer in Indianapolis and I was working as an intern in one of the big local tech startups. At the time, Indianapolis had some interesting internet service provider zoning agreements, which meant that you only had 2 (realistic) providers to choose from at any point in the city. What made things worse was that both local providers wanted 1-year commitments to get internet service at the promotional rates. When I finished talking to AT&T and BrightHouse, their cheapest standalone plans were going to cost me roughly $45 or $70 a month respectively for their lowest advertised speeds. “Something had to be done,” I thought. I started knocking on my neighbors’ doors asking whether they would be willing to share their wireless connection with me if I offered to pay a designated amount. At first, I was paying $20/month to a fellow neighbor to have access to their wireless point. Later on, as I kept asking around, someone ended up letting me use their connection without cost for the several months I was interning. Your mileage may vary—I had the luck of being in a large condo building at the time. Now, internet is included in the rent that I pay (and I share it with 3 others). ### 3. Cutting my own hair Haircuts can cost anywhere between a meal at McDonalds or Fogo de Chao. My mother had cut my hair growing up, so I never really paid for any of my haircuts back then. Going off to college, I was away from home and I had started letting my hair grow out at first. It was in no time that I looked like I had come out from the 1980s mid-way through my freshman year. As summer rolled around, the hair was becoming more of an annoyance and less of a fashion statement. A friend of mine told me about how he started cutting his own hair with a Wahl haircut kit and how it worked well for him. Per his recommendation, I ordered a kit off Amazon and started doing my own haircuts from that day forward. My own haircuts certainly aren’t perfect like the pros, but it gets the job done. Check out that timeless artistry. ### 4. Buying household items from Craigslist or Goodwill You would be surprised at what you can find for cheap on Craigslist or Goodwill. Craigslist, in particular, works well with the moving in/out seasons in Boston when everyone is trying to get rid of excess stuff. Goodwill (depending on location) occasionally has decent furniture along with other items, such as kitchen appliances and silverware, at a bargain. Goodwill finds (back in Indy when I moved in during the summer of 2012): - Kitchenware (4 different sized plates and 2 sets of silverware) - $3 - Compact computer desk (with drawers) - $20 - Desk Chair - $6 Similarly—with my recent move in Boston: - IKEA Desk - $20; (Store Price: $36 after tax/shipping) - IKEA Leather Chair - $8; (Store Price: $44 after tax/shipping) ### Balance It’s been a fun and cost-effective journey so far. The frugal lifestyle is usually thought of as demanding and possibly very depriving—for one to stay the course. However, even as frugal as I am, I still partake in a luxury or two (namely travel and food), as it helps strike a well-needed balance in my own life. **What’s the most you’ve ever done to save up money?**

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