Working as a Multinational Start-up
One of the great things about working at Exaget is the wide variety of backgrounds of my colleagues. We have nationalities from all over the world: English, Russian, Indian, Italian, Finnish, Singaporean and South African (me!). A benefit of this is that everyone has a different opinion and perspective (and no one shies away from saying so!)
Exaget has two teams, one in the UK, specifically Stratford in London, and the other is in Helsinki, Finland. The London based team is the business team where the CEO (Shankar Meembat) and the business development team reside. The Finnish office comprises the development team.
When you’re a start-up and moving quickly, it’s important to have excellent communication and that can sometimes be difficult, particular when your offices are in two different countries. Fortunately, 2014 presents us with a range of methods of communication including, but not limited to: email, video conferencing (Skype), texting and even ‘snail’ mail.
Whilst having all these different communication methods can be useful, sometimes it can also be a hindrance, meaning that if we have to find a message, sometimes we have to look through four different software products to find it. To combat this, Exaget employs a few different techniques and one of which is a constant Skype feed. This allows both teams to see what everyone else is doing and if we ever need to ask someone something, we just shout at the Skype microphone.
In addition to the organisation problems that can arise from having multiple methods of communication, another problem can be personal. Even with the invention of Skype and video conferencing, there’s a lot that doesn’t get communicated. For example, we don’t see facial expressions well or body language nor is tone or inflection always presented perfectly.
On top of that the business cultures of both countries are different and combined with with mainly communicating via the internet can result in issues. This isn’t great in fast paced, information heavy startups such as Exaget.
However, the world of startups is becoming ever more international and multinational. It’s not something that we can avoid. So instead of sticking your head in the sand it’s important to constantly have your eyes open for new technology that can make worldwide communication more efficient, more effective and most importantly; more natural.
RAIN Summit Review
November 6, 2014
On the 4th November Exaget CEO, Shankar Meembat and Account Manager Matthew Layton attended the Radio and Internet News (RAIN) Summit in London. I caught up with Shankar to see how it went and ask what they found interesting.
So Shankar, how did you find the event?
I really enjoy the Summit, it was a lot of fun. It was great to meet a variety of organisations and people from within the industry from the big players to the small. There was much discussion amongst delegates about new processes and technologies and how these may impact on our current business models.
What was your favourite part?
It’s difficult to say, but I found the panel to be a great experience. Everything said on the panel was very thought provoking and it was interesting to hear other people’s opinions. Also, it’s always good to meet new entrants into the industry, who bring with them skills and experience from their previous work which sometimes is quite different.
Did you learn anything new?
Yes, inevitably you’ll learn something from these kinds of events as often other people are facing the same challenges that we do. You learn that it is possible to approach these hurdles from other perspectives and that there is often more than one way to resolve them
Your final thoughts – will you attend again?
Until you attend something like this, it is difficult to really know your market and quite how big and diverse it is. What’s more it helps to keep a track on changes within the industry, meet suppliers and customers and of course do a bit of networking of my own. It’s great to see the innovation happening within the industry and to see how quickly everything’s moving forwards. I look forward to the event next year and catching up with some people that I have met.