What is the number one reason why the best talent joins a tech company? It’s the same reason why many decide to leave a tech company. 

You might’ve already guessed: Company culture.

All of the best tech companies to work for take great care to develop their company culture and company values, which helps attract top talent. 

So, you may be asking: What is a good company culture?

There is a wide variety in the types of company culture, especially in the tech industry beyond Silicon Valley. Company culture generally refers to the set of beliefs, behaviors, and practices that are taught by an organization’s leaders and behaviorally enforced over time to establish shared meaning and norms across the organization. A strong company culture fosters employee engagement, innovation and retention.

When building company culture, you have to have a deep understanding of your values. There is a wide variety of company culture types. Some of the most positive culture examples include a shared mission, vision, and values—which can help create a shared understanding of company culture meaning. 

If you’re looking to build or join a company with an outstanding culture, you don’t need to look far. Leaders are building good work culture examples in the tech industry right here in the unvalley.  

That’s why we asked 12 tech leaders for company culture examples sharing their types of workplace culture. They shared the following best company culture examples. Follow these examples as inspiration for how to build company culture, how to describe company culture, and workplace culture examples.

Read on for good company culture examples, culture statement examples, and words to describe company values that you can use to build your own award-winning company culture.

Best Tech Company Culture Examples:

What makes your company one of the best tech companies to work for?

1) Trust your people

We prioritize and trust the people we work with day in and day out. Our customers allow us to exist, but our employees enable us to serve them successfully. We believe in diversity for diversity’s sake and also for the innovative power it brings to a group. We focus on making work fun and dynamic while creating the best products and services to help our customers.

– Darrian Mikell, Co-Founder / CEO, Qualifi

2) Reflect your values

The Narwal experience is a reflection of our values: We care deeply, We are customer obsessed, We take ownership, We pursue excellence. We are an Employer of Choice because we build authentic and sustainable relationships with our customers, employees, partners and the society at large. We are truly honored to be chosen in this category. This validates our beliefs and inspires us to continue working in this direction.

– Raj Kanuparthi, Founder and CEO, Narwal

3) Rally around your mission

Our mission. Our diagnostic technology has the potential to save millions of lives directly and indirectly. And there’s real feasibility to our approach. Secondly, I would say the level of autonomy everyone is empowered to have to tackle the hard problems.

– Cindy Lopez, Director of People & Culture, Pattern Bioscience

Award-Winning SaaS Corporate Culture Examples:

What is one thing that makes your company culture unique from other SaaS companies?

1) People-oriented culture

I believe Zirtue is a people-oriented company that hires for culture fit first, skills and experience second. By focusing on empathy, full transparency and recognition, our company culture empowers teams to be at their best. At Zirtue, everyone has a direct line of communication with the managerial level and this really fosters a collaborative culture where you can always share honest feedback or celebrate small and big wins.

– Livia Szekely, Senior Product Designer at Zirtue

2) Deeply united by a mission

What is the one thing candidates look for first when joining a company & will leave if not present? Good people.

Now imagine if these good people are: deeply united by a mission to create a circular world, immensely talented in their skillset & strongly guided by values. What is the result? Magic. And a workplace built on excitement, trust and feedback.

Now imagine if you worked here…actually, don’t imagine, just apply. We review every resume. Talk to you soon. 🙂

– Nizar Hasan, Senior Director of Operations at Rheaply

3) Unique product or technology

Interestingly, the uniqueness of MetaCX’s culture stems from the uniqueness of the technology we’re creating. Instead of traditional enterprise software, we’re building a network—the Business Value Network. Because we’re venturing into new territory, there is no business model to repeat and no go-to-market plan to copy. Our culture reflects this by encouraging new ideas, critical thinking, and pushing the boundaries on what is possible.

– Kolby Tallentire, Director of Marketing at MetaCX

4) Bias toward action

At Hubstaff, we strive for a culture of action and completing projects that will move the needle. To do this, we created a remote work environment that celebrates focused work time, no meetings day, and asynchronous communication that allows everyone to be productive on their own time. But it’s not all about being heads-down. Weekly trivia, Slack channels where we can share updates on our families, and annual retreats help us build stronger bonds with our colleagues around the world.

– Jared Brown, CEO at HubStaff

Example Words to Describe Company Values:

What is one word you would use to describe your company culture, and why?

1) Innovation

Innovation is a key part of the OneCause identity and helpfulness is at its core. What’s amazing about putting the spotlight ‘helpfulness’ in our company is that we treat each other with the same consideration we give to the nonprofits and the missions we work with. How can I help you? This is part of our fiber and our daily interactions. We live our helpfulness every day, by working across departments, sharing knowledge, and coming together to deliver seamless experiences for our customers.

– Stephanie Ragozzino, Chief Product Officer at OneCause

2) Motivated

Motivated. We work to make Indiana the innovation capital of the world. Our job is to lift up our Hoosier families and friends by building collaborative communities, providing world-class programming, and investing in high-potential companies. We’re working to be the change we want to see in the world.

– Jacob Schpok, Partner at Elevate Ventures

3) Authentic

Authentic. Our team members are free to bring their whole human selves to the workplace without fear of judgment. Our culture feels safe, supportive, and honest, and that feeling naturally spills over into how we treat our customers, partners, and community. Work is a whole lot easier when you genuinely like the people you work with!

– Robin Lanning, Director of Marketing & Culture at Tactive

4) Lifestyle

Lifestyle. We’re fortunate and grateful to have bootstrapped ourselves to profitability and remain wholly owned by our 3 co-founders. This means we don’t have anyone telling us what to do (or sales targets to make) by when. We can be flexible with our employees to let them work when they are at their peak and also have the confidence to walk when the customer doesn’t fit our “square peg in a square hole” approach to matching opportunities with our ideal customer profile.

– Rick McGlinchey, Co-Founder at PureInsights

5) Learning

I think we’ve developed a culture of learning at Powderkeg. As a small team, continuous learning is really important for us to create a meaningful experience for our members. We advocate for and create opportunities for learning across our community—learning new skills and opportunities, learning from each other, learning about ourselves. Learning, and iterating based on those learnings, is essential to our work building community and amplifying the voices of the members whom we serve.

– Meg Yothment, Head of Community Operations at Powderkeg

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to building an effective company culture. Every company is unique and has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, so it’s up to you to find the best way to create a positive environment for your team members. But if there’s one thing we can say with certainty, it’s this: every leader should strive to create a positive company culture that reflects their mission statement and values.

We hope these insights and company culture examples from the community will help you build an inspiring company culture.

If you are interested in exploring jobs at fast-growing tech companies in the Powderkeg community, be sure to check out our real-time job board for Tech Jobs in areas beyond Silicon Valley.

You can browse all of Powderkeg’s Best Tech Companies to Work for, follow them for insights, or request an introduction to plug into your next big opportunity.