Organizational Culture at a Tech Startup

The organizational culture at Boxcar is very interesting given how small and young the company is. Since Boxcar is an app, the primary goal of the company is growth; 98% of the work I am doing as an intern involves getting the company’s name out there so that more people will download the app and give us more business. This goal makes everyone at Boxcar incredibly motivated. Since the company is so young and we are not entirely sure what direction it will go in, everyone is working as though we are on the ground floor of Uber, for instance. It makes the working environment both exciting and inspiring. There is an expectation that everyone here is excited and invested in the work, giving the workplace a young and fun energy that I really enjoy being around.

Since the company is so small, the division and organization of work is not as defined or segregated. While there are employees in formal positions (CEO, Director of Customer Success, etc.) the interns are never formally assigned to a certain person or department. We go wherever we are told so that we can learn as much as we can. We had very little formal training, so we pick up everything on the spot. I find that it is best to act as a sponge when working at Boxcar; absorb as much information as possible. One day this week I shadowed our CEO at a municipal meeting and the next day I designed a new flyer for a neighboring town that the company is looking to work with. The ways in which people communicate are fairly informal too. The company’s leadership is looking to foster an open and positive working environment, so there are very few formal walls or barriers when it comes to communication within Boxcar. However, since the company is so small, almost all decisions are finalized by the CEO. Since we all work so closely together, there is no reason for major and defined delegation when it comes to decision making. Therefore, the CEO has final approval over new designs within the app and municipal meetings, for instance. Overall, the organizational culture of Boxcar is something that I am not entirely familiar with, but I am looking forward to learning and experiencing more at the company as the summer continues.

One thought on “Organizational Culture at a Tech Startup

  • ksoderlu

    Sounds like a pretty collaborative environment. So even though there is not formal hierarchy in regards to the way in which assignments are handed out, communication flows, day-to-day work plays out, etc. – in the end, there is hierarchy in that the CEO approves all decisions. Will be interesting to see, as you continue, if there are some decisions (related to specific issues, actions, etc.) for which the CEO is more involved than just the final approval.; if there are times or issues when the leadership exerts its influence more than others.

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