This week, SteelEye was recognized as having the Best Company Culture in Harrington Starr's Top 1% Workplace Awards. This special recognition encouraged me to reflect on the milestones we have reached on our journey.
Starting in a small, shared office space in London, SteelEye now has 100 team members across four global offices in London, New York, Braga (Portugal), and Bangalore (India) with over 150 clients globally. I am incredibly proud of what we have built in this short amount of time and believe that our culture has in many ways been the “secret sauce” behind our successes to date. SteelEye's culture offers so much more than a "9 to 5" job. We have worked hard on our culture from day one, and I believe that the combination of three special ingredients is what makes it so unique. These are our 3 Ps - People, Purpose, and Potential - which I reflect on below.
Regards,
Matt Smith
People are fundamental to our culture, and I have learned that it is critical to spend time on finding the right talent - even if it requires more time and resource to find the right fit. Equally, when something isn’t right it is crucial to let people go quickly as the impact of one bad apple, particularly when the company is small, is significant.
We spend a lot of resource and time on nurturing our people and making sure the workplace works for them. For example, since many of our team members have young children, we offer a flexible working model which allows them to balance their work and parental responsibilities.
We also provide private health insurance, discounted gym memberships, healthy office snacks, and an open door for conversation to ensure the mental and physical well-being of our team.
Another key priority for us is setting aside time to have fun together. This has always been at the heart of SteelEye’s culture, and we regularly host socials, team building activities, and even ‘bring your kids to work’ days.
We have always had a clear idea of what we are here to do and why – something we always keep at the forefront. We believe that in order for financial markets to be fair, transparent, and robust, regulatory rules must exist – but meeting those rules does not have to be complex or exceedingly costly. However, when the industry relies on outdated legacy systems to comply with regulations that is exactly what it ends up being. This is why we are on a mission to make it easy for financial firms to accurately and efficiently comply with regulations.
Everyone at SteelEye is passionate about this mission and this is a key aspect of our culture. We love the idea that we are driving positive change, together. Having this clear purpose continues to motivate me and our teams at SteelEye, even when we go through tough times.
Since SteelEye was founded, we have always had a clear idea of where we are going and the growth potential of the firm. We are on an incredibly exciting journey, and this is something that motivates me and everyone at SteelEye. For example, we recently raised $21M in series B funding to accelerate our international expansion which means we have exciting growth plans across all departments of our business.
As is the nature of a start-up, everyone must work hard to help SteelEye reach its potential. However, the journey is exciting and fulfilling which is why many people choose to join or partner with us.
At SteelEye, everyone can be the creator of their own destiny and we will always provide the tools to help our people excel.
Our culture at SteelEye is something we will continue to nurture and maintain as we grow. We have fostered our culture by making sure that we 1) have and invest in the right people, 2) have a mission that those people care about, and 3) are on a journey that people want to be part of. All three of these ingredients are required for acceleration and growth.