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Next-Gen Startup Values: How Entri Is Doing Things Differently

How to find a non-toxic work culture

What if working for a startup didn’t have to mean 80-hour work weeks and a rollercoaster work environment?

People leave large companies for the excitement of the startup world because they want to see their work move faster, through less bureaucracy. But often that tradeoff comes at a cost of an often volatile work environment.

As more people begin to question the all-or-nothing mentality of working for a growing company, we have to agree with them: there’s more to life than just where you work, but where you work matters.

Here at Entri, we pride ourselves on creating a work culture that we want to work in, no matter what stage our career is at. Through conscious growth and company development, we’ve built a culture here that we’re proud to say is nurturing the growth, not just of our company, but of all of the people who work here at Entri.

Here’s what we live and breathe:

#1 - Over-communicating means less micromanaging

People work best when they’re, well, left alone to do their jobs.

Instead of endless meetings, we use the simple practice of over-communicating to keep everyone in the loop, and keep meetings to a bare minimum.

“We use slack statuses a lot,” says CEO of Entri, Abe Storey. “Even for something small. Like we have a team member who has a new baby, and like he'll set his status to “Bathing Olivia”. We don't micromanage, and the reason we're able to do that is we trust people to get a lot done.”

#2 - Respect is a two-way street

I spoke with Leo, our Director of Product and Engineering about the work culture here at Entri. When I asked him why he worked here, out of all the tech startups he could work at, his answer painted the picture not just of an employer, but of a real relationship built on trust and authenticity.

“They give you so much at Entri, that it makes you want to give back. I have so much going on in my life. I have a baby daughter and I’m building a house. I’m able to do all of these things because of trust. The company trusts the people who work here, and it makes you want to do a really good job to be worthy of that trust.”

At Entri, employees get treated with respect and trust as a default. This is not a culture that requires you to place blind faith in an employer who’s just treating you like a number. Here, you’ll feel that you’re valued, and the desire to reciprocate that value comes naturally.

#3 - Employees get to have lives

All of that trust and transparency means that the team at Entri gets to have lives outside of their jobs. Here, it’s not just something we say, but it’s a set of boundaries that every employee honors for one another.

“Entri's team culture is awesome, we all strive to respect the balance of work and life priorities, from our CEO to the QA Engineer. That's not something you normally find in other startups.

On the engineering side, we are always encouraged to learn new methodologies, new architecture best practices, or just re-write some piece of software that's been bugging us, another thing that we don't find everywhere.”

– Ridai Govinda, Software Engineer @ Entri

#4 - Impact matters more than effort

Part of maintaining the sustainable workload required for all of that work-life balance means working with intention. At Entri, speed is everything, but impact means more than how much time and energy you spend doing something.

“I always pose the question, how can we accomplish as much as possible, as little as possible? And I want to have that mentality. Even if we grow to 150 people, let's have the impact of 400 people.”

– Abe Storey, CEO @ Entri

#5 - We invest in team growth

Real talk: When I, the author of this article, started at Entri, it was as a content marketer writing case studies and quippy blog articles. But when I expressed an interest in sales, Abe gave me an opportunity to grow in a completely new direction.

I was brand new in this field, and I had no reason to expect that someone would give me a chance to shine in a completely different role. But Entri did.

And that’s what working at Entri is like. If you’re willing to show up and do the work, then Entri is willing to take a chance on your growth – they’re willing to invest in your possibilities.

#6 - We make diversity a learning experience

When we think about diversity, we think about making sure we’re hiring people from different cultures and backgrounds – and that’s definitely part of it. But more than just hiring lots of unique people, diversity at Entri means really leaning into what makes us unique individuals, and truly celebrating where we all come from.

Entri is proud to employ people across eight different countries, and is consciously working to bring more women into the company. To help the team learn more about each other, Entri does weekly team trivia sessions.

“We do company trivia every other week roughly, and it's really fun. Sometimes the person making the trivia will put something about their favorite food that people have to guess, or a popular dish in their region, and I think people learn a lot about other cultures through that.”

– Abe Storey, CEO @ Entri

#7 - We care about our work, and our people

Entri was predicated on a visceral pain point for users – at the core of our product is a philosophy that the customer experience matters. It’s created a culture of deep caring, and attracted what I can only describe as a team of deeply technical, and yet deeply connected professionals.

Every single person at Entri has a stake in the customer’s experience as much as they do in the employee’s experience. It’s a culture of connection, of empathy, and of authenticity that is all too rare in the tech startup space.

“What differentiates Entri from other startup companies is that we focus on the end user’s experience over anything else. We want to make it as easy as possible for anyone, from the developer to the small coffee shop owner down the street, to set up their own website easily, securely and quickly.”

– Ryan Guarascia, Senior Frontend Developer @ Entri

#8 - We don’t believe in growth at any cost

Perhaps the most radical philosophy that this company embodies is the one that makes the company seem more human, more sustainable, and like a place non-adrenaline junkies will actually enjoy working: we don’t believe in growth at any cost.

We don’t believe in growth at the cost of a good product.

We don’t believe in growth at the cost of happy users.

And we don’t believe in growth at the cost of happy, healthy team members.

We also think that this compromise is what led so many people to walk away from startup jobs over the last year or two. When people give all they have to their work every single day, at the expense of their health, their relationships, and their happiness, then the company is growing at too high of a cost.

We believe in making intentional investments to grow our company in a way that doesn’t rob our team of their own identities along the way.

”The company culture at Entri is unlike any other I’ve worked with. Everyone is open-minded and ready to take on any challenges that come our way. I am truly honored to be a part of the team, and hope we can change the way that the internet works, one DNS record at a time.”

– Ryan Guarascia, Senior Frontend Developer @ Entri