Is Culture the Best Predictor of Success?

In the world of sports, culture is a buzz word that coaches often attribute their success or failure to, yet is one of the hardest aspects of a team to quantify. The 2020 Kansas City Chiefs were one of the lowest payroll teams in the NFL yet emerged as Superbowl champs. The 2022 Anaheim Angels were one of the highest payroll teams in the MLB, yet they didn’t even make the playoffs.  

That holds true for the world of tech as well. We’ve all seen companies that may have had imperfect products but – with a team all rowing together to build, market, sell, and support the development in the right way – became powerhouses in their categories. 

All of us here at CertifID know that our culture is one of the key markers of why our company is so special. Why? Here are five simple reasons.

‍We have a clear mission.‍

All of us at CertifID didn’t just join any tech startup. We joined a tech startup with an important mission. Anyone who has viewed a victim impact video on our website or knows someone who was hit by fraud can appreciate the devastation these crimes inflict. We are united in our efforts to prevent as many people as possible from having to go through this life changing experience. 

‍We show up.

Every day, each team member at CertifID shows up, unified to create a world without wire fraud. We ask a lot of each other. We are energized to build with one another. We hold each other accountable. And we give it our all, because our colleagues and customers count on us.

‍We live our culture every day.

‍Change doesn't happen overnight; the same goes for us here at CertifID. That’s why we codified our culture into eight values that we call PROGRESS. We PROGRESS collectively and individually as we grow, abiding by our core values. These values are embedded into our operational DNA – from daily kudos on slack, to quarterly awards and monthly team happy hours.

‍We’re okay with being different.

‍Early on, we knew CertifID would not be trying to grow at all costs. We wanted to grow in a way that keeps our people together, rowing in the same direction in the journey. And we’re working to impact a corner of the business world that wasn’t previously a focus of investment or tech. 

‍We invest in being people-first.

‍It would have been easier to wait until we were bigger to invest in robust benefits. Instead, we’ve been hard at work over the past few years to create competitive total rewards programs and raise series A. And along the way, we’ve taken the time to share and learn from each other, celebrate wins, and hit the pickleball courts together at our annual employee summit. I’m ready to defend my championship cup at the summit next year!

Time will tell if CertifID will develop into an ongoing powerhouse category leader, but we’re focused on many of the key things to help make that a reality. Our culture and people are the most important of those things; when the culture is aligned, everyone wins. 

Today, we are humbled by the acknowledgment of our team and the recognition as a Built In 2023 Best Places to Work. In the years ahead, we will continue to focus on our people because we know that’s the path to success with our customers and company goals.