Why Work With Us?

Know about Netflix? In all probabilities, you do! But do you know about the Netflix culture? Maybe not. In the history of start-ups and up-starts, Netflix has clearly invented the wheel. We do not want to reinvent it. Rather, we want to double down and do it better.

A creative agency moves fast, sometimes multi-tasking becomes the name of the game. There are several client partners and there will always be divergent asks.

Therefore we treat our company as a product. It’s not a rigid thing that exists, it’s a flexible, malleable idea that evolves. We aren’t stuck with what we have, we can create what we want. Just as we improve products through iteration, we iterate on our company too.

We embrace diversity. We’re hybrid. Despite our love for computers, we celebrate people. We celebrate all kinds of backgrounds, all of which inspire our conversations with computer science, education, psychology, design, dog parenting, business, art, literature, biology, and more. Help us building an agency that’s connected, classy, inclusive and flexible. Because our people make us great!

So you must be thinking, we are a fun place. Nope, we are not. We are a fun place to work.

We are a creative agency, helping and enabling brands to market themselves. We are not a social impact company. Our impact is contained to what we do and how we do it.

But it’s easy to write admirable values; it’s harder to walk the talk. Even harder to live them.

SO WHAT DOES NETFLIX SAY?

In their culture and values, Netflix says:

In describing courage: “You question actions inconsistent with our values.” We want everyone to help each other live the values and hold each other responsible for being role models. It is a continuous aspirational stretch.

In describing integrity: “You only say things about fellow employees you say to their face.” This attribute is one of the hardest for new people to believe — and to learn to practice.

At Buffalo Soldiers, we work hard to get people to give each other professional, constructive feedback – up, down and across the organization – on a continual basis.

Leaders demonstrate that we are all fallible and open to feedback. People frequently ask others, “What could I be doing better?” and themselves, “What feedback have I not yet shared?”

We believe we will learn faster and be better if we can make giving and receiving feedback less stressful and a more normal part of work life. Feedback is a continuous part of how we communicate and work with one another versus an occasional formal exercise. We build trust by being selfless in giving feedback to our colleagues, even if it is uncomfortable to do so.

For internal communication, we use Basecamp. Why? Because we share documents internally broadly and systematically. Nearly every document is fully open for anyone to read and comment on, and everything is cross-linked. Memos on each title’s performance, on every strategy decision, on every competitor, and on every product feature test are open for all employees to read.

Our vacation policy is “take vacation.” We don’t have any rules or forms around how many weeks per year. Frankly, we intermix work and personal time quite a bit, doing email at odd hours, taking off a weekday afternoon, etc.

You might think that such freedom would lead to chaos. But we also don’t have a clothing policy, yet no one has come to work naked. The lesson is you don’t need policies for everything. Most people understand the benefits of wearing clothes at work.

We are strict about ethical issues and safety issues. Harassment of employees or trading on insider information are zero tolerance issues, for example. Some information security issues, such as keeping our members’ payment information safe, have strict controls around access.

Remember this if you are at Buffalo Soldiers:

• If you don’t smile, you should not be at Buffalo Soldiers
• If you are a jerk, even if you are a high-performing professional, you won’t be at Buffalo Soldiers