Introduction

As we grow as a company, it’s important that we identify what aspects of our culture have led to our success so far. It’s also important to identify where we see larger numbers potentially impacting our established values, and how larger numbers might warrant new approaches. Ken Sills and Sasha Kucharczyk spent a lot of time identifying culture in the very early days and it paid off heavily, so it’s important we continue to keep that focus. We know our culture will change as we grow, but we want to commit to being intentional about those choices.

This document introduces what we feel our core values at Preteckt are and how we can support them.

Teaching and Learning

From the very beginning, we have hired people based not on raw skill or talent, but on their attitude towards growth. If someone loves learning and can do so quickly, we’ve taken bets on them.

Someone who works at Preteckt is someone who wants to grow. That may come in the form of professional development like continuing course work, going to conferences, or staying up to date on academic papers. It may also come in the form of personal development like learning new sports, hobbies, or languages.

It’s also important to us that people want to share their knowledge. Again, this can come in many forms. It may be as simple as helping someone on a project in a subject you know more about, or it might come in the form of a formal teaching session. We run labs where team members develop a presentation, an interactive code notebook, or a list of resources around a topic and record a video of them teaching that subject. We internally publish as much of our research as we can and use public channels on Slack for development discussions in an attempt to create a repository of knowledge that can teach others about obstacles we’ve overcome. Some members even lead community meetups or volunteer time teaching people how to code or how to be entrepreneurs.

Whatever the case, it’s important to us that our employees spend time both growing and helping others grow, as it helps foster a culture of support, data-driven decisions, communication, and learning to beat obstacles. In order to support this, Preteckt offers a personal development fund to all employees to cover things like courses, conferences, or certifications. We also offer professional growth coaching to all employees to help set and achieve personal and professional goals.

Honesty and Transparency

As such a small company, it’s very important to be able to trust those around you. In our pitch to investors and customers, we sell the fact that “context is king” - understanding a vehicle as a whole is the difference between a fault code and a high-value prediction. The same is true with people - decisions at every level inside the company often affect everyone else and it’s important to us that people understand why that decision was made.

We trust that those around us will be honest. If they feel our decision doesn’t have the data to support the goal we’re trying to accomplish, we hope they’ll tell us. We hope that if we’ve done good work, they’ll let us know. More importantly, we hope that if our work is not up to expectations, they’ll let us know why. It’s not personal. We just want everyone to grow as fast as possible and that requires honest feedback. We’re nice people though, so we are careful to consider each other’s feelings when delivering critical feedback. We’re all about personal growth at Preteckt, and everyone grows faster with constructive feedback.

Above all, we hope that our colleagues are honest with themselves. Personal growth, honesty with others, and general happiness all require honesty with oneself. Preteckt practices this by using a 360-style feedback system, where we come together as a group and give honest feedback about strengths and weaknesses of ourselves, our peers, those we manage, and those who manage us.

As part of a commitment to openness and honesty, Preteckt has decided to adopt transparent, formulaic salaries. We believe transparent salaries promotes a culture of honesty, trust, and doesn’t allow for biases in pay. If you are so inclined, you are welcome to view the salary of anyone working at Preteckt. The goal is that anyone viewing this information can understand the reasons behind a colleague’s salary through the salary formula and accompanying notes. You are also welcome to view internal financial metrics like our current bank balance, accounts receivable, and accounts payables. Just remember that all of that information is open to employees, not to the public. We’re out to win and having outsiders know every detail isn’t in our best interest.

Balance

Those working at Preteckt value balance in one’s life.

Balance in one’s life can take many forms. Whether it be between long-term productivity and short-term sprints, work life and interesting activities outside of work, or your pile of work versus helping out someone else (See our #SOS channel on Slack). Finding the right balance is essential. Getting to the next huge milestone is a marathon, and if we burn out, we lose.

To support balance, Preteckt insists on a “use-it-or-lose-it” vacation policy. Research shows that frequent, small vacations are healthier than infrequent, long vacations. We also shut down for roughly a week at the end of the year to relax and recharge for the new year. Finally, as mentioned in the Learning and Teaching section, we offer growth coaching to all employees to help find that balance.