Operating Principles at Upflow

Upflow is a profitable company, and we intend to stay nimble as we keep growing. In a world where AI lets a small team do what used to take a much larger one, that combination comes down to one thing: talent density.

After years of building Upflow, we’ve learned that talent density isn’t only about hiring brilliant people. It’s about brilliant people sharing the same way of working. When everyone agrees on what good looks like (how we own things, how fast we move, how we talk to each other), you don’t need layers of process to keep a team aligned. That shared way of working is what we call our Operating Principles.

In this article, we’ll walk through each of them, what they look like day to day, and how they shape the way we hire, onboard, and grow our team.

What we mean by operating principles

Operating principles are the core tenets describing how we work best. They highlight the behaviors we care about most, the ones we don’t negotiate on.

By design, they are meant to be polarizing. Some people will read them and immediately recognize themselves. Others won’t, and that’s completely fine. Upflow is probably not the place where they would be happy and thrive, and it’s healthier for everyone to find that out before day one rather than after. If you’re considering joining us, read what follows as the rules of the game, written down.

We made our values explicit from Upflow’s earliest days. In 2022, after the team grew fourfold in less than a year, we refreshed them with a group of team members representative of the whole company, around one question: what behaviors should Upflow most encourage, value, reward, and care about as it scales? The five principles below are the result. Four years later, they still describe how we work.

OP1: We radically own our duties

We give people trust and a safe space to do the job themselves, with great autonomy. The other side of that deal is ultimate ownership: when something is yours, it’s yours, from the first plan to the follow-up nobody asked for, including when it fails, wherever you sit in the team.

What it looks like day to day. When someone spots a problem, they don’t just flag it and move on. They come with a recommendation: here’s what’s broken, here’s what I suggest, here’s what I need from you. When a project they drive slips, they’re the first to say so and explain what they’re changing, not the last to find out.

The balance we strike. Ownership doesn’t mean doing everything alone. Owning a project includes explaining its goals, making a plan simple enough for others to relate to, and involving the people around it so they can contribute.

We do:

• Explain the goals and reasons behind the projects we own
• Make a simple plan others can relate to
• Empower the people around us and keep communication flowing
• Always come up with a recommendation
• Follow up, and take ownership of our failures

We don’t:

• Push responsibility onto someone else
• Let things fall through the cracks
• Complain about challenges or setbacks instead of tackling them
• Get lost in tasks and prioritize poorly

OP2: We work in small batches, with the long term in mind

We believe looking forward and deciding quickly are compatible. We act today with tomorrow in mind: we build processes and adopt best-in-class tools and practices early, and we draw inspiration from companies three to five years ahead of us. At the same time, we stay nimble. We experiment, start with an MVP, look for quick wins, and apply the 80/20 rule, while backing our decisions with data.

What it looks like day to day. A new process goes live when it covers most cases, not all of them. Before deciding, we ask whether the decision is easy to reverse. If it is, we decide simply and fast. If it isn’t, we look for a way to make it reversible, and only then do proper due diligence. And when someone brings a recommendation, the bar isn’t “is this perfect?” but “do I see any reason this would harm us or move us backwards?” If the answer is no, it’s a go.

The balance we strike. Small batches without the long term give you quick fixes that won’t scale. The long term without small batches gives you projects that never ship. We hold both, and when something we shipped fast starts to creak, we don’t stick with it for too long.

We do:

• Look forward and anticipate challenges
• Learn from companies three to five years ahead of us
• Move forward once 20% of the work brings 80% of the answer
• Back decisions with data and feedback
• Time-box brainstorming
• Decide fast on reversible decisions, and take the time on the ones that aren’t

We don’t find excuses for things that don’t work:

• Stick for too long with a solution that will scale poorly
• Miss the predictable pitfalls
• Shoot for the moon with a v1
• Wait for things to be perfect before moving forward
• Block a project for reasons that aren’t on the critical path

OP3: We act with intelligence and master our craft

We bring our experience and expertise to the table and expect each individual to raise the bar of the team. We produce quality work in everything we do and act with proactive curiosity. We keep improving to remain best in class, searching for the right answer to a problem and being almost fanatical about validating that we have it. We know occasional failure is part of the process, but we course-correct quickly and don’t repeat the same mistakes.

What it looks like day to day. The same standard applies to a two-line email and to a board-level analysis. When something breaks twice, we fix the system rather than the symptom. When a teammate knows something we don’t, we learn it from them, and once we’ve checked we can’t find an answer ourselves, we ask. We sell our product on the value it brings to merchants (that’s what we call our customers), not on promises. And we’re never afraid of hiring people smarter than ourselves: that’s what talent density is about.

The balance we strike. Being sharp and being coachable go together. We expect strong opinions, and we expect them to change when the feedback is good.

We do:

• Produce quality output in any type of work: an email, a dataset, a product, a proposal
• Raise the level of the team by sharing what we know
• Stay curious, level ourselves up, and question the world around us
• Stay coachable and welcome help and feedback
• Think in systems: get to know the details, find the leverage points, test, learn, and adapt
• Ask for help once we’ve checked we couldn’t find the answer ourselves

We don’t:

• Repeat the same mistake
• Do the same thing every day without asking how to make it better
• Fear hiring people smarter than ourselves
• Keep the status quo going when it no longer works
• Wait to be fed new knowledge

OP4: We invest in communication, with transparency and honesty

We strive for honesty and embrace failure: when things aren’t going the right way, we say it, with radical candor (challenging directly and caring personally). We rely on a strong written culture and make no assumptions when we talk to each other. We give each other the gift of feedback every day, and formally through 360 reviews.

We value transparency. We share company numbers internally and make most information accessible to everyone. At the same time, we believe transparency doesn’t need to be radical, or touch every single aspect of the organization, to be useful.

What it looks like day to day. We drop pebbles, not rocks: issues come up early and small, framed with non-violent communication, instead of piling up until they become a crisis. Decisions are written down so that someone who wasn’t in the room can understand them. Meetings are structured. And honesty extends to the people we sell to: we don’t sell what we don’t have, and if another solution fits a prospect better, we tell them.

The balance we strike. Candor and care aren’t opposites. We care personally and challenge directly. What we ban is the passive-aggressive middle ground.

We do:

• Bring up issues quickly, using non-violent communication
• Help others grow through radical candor: care personally, challenge directly
• Make no assumptions when we talk to each other
• Be nice, say hi, and ban passive-aggressive communication
• Write things down and hold structured meetings
• Redirect prospects to a more appropriate solution when there is one

We don’t:

• Wait for a situation to be terrible before speaking up
• Leave things unsaid
• Sell things we don’t have, or mislead a customer for a short-term gain
• Misrepresent Upflow
• Gossip when a difficult situation occurs
• Share someone else’s personal challenges publicly

OP5: We have each other’s back

We believe the Upflow group matters more than the individual, so we are here for one another. We are genuinely interested in every team’s work and output, and we support each other.

What it looks like day to day. When another team is underwater, we offer a hand before being asked. When a teammate goes through a hard moment, we support them. Managers don’t wait for the strongest performers on their team to ask for a raise: they bring it up themselves. And we share lunch and celebrate personal moments, because people who know each other trust each other.

The balance we strike. Having each other’s back isn’t the same as just being nice, or being a family. Avoiding a hard truth to keep the peace is a way of letting someone down.

We do:

• Put “we” before “me”, and Upflow before our own team, in all circumstances
• Give a hand to a teammate who has an issue
• Stay curious about other teams’ work and output
• Share informal moments with the group and celebrate personal moments

We don’t:

• Just be nice: avoid the truth, be insincere or ruinously empathetic
• Dismiss, minimize, or take others’ feedback negatively
• Put our own interest before the group’s
• Wait for the over-performers on our team to ask for a pay raise

How we live by them

Principles only matter if they shape real decisions. Ours show up at three moments of every team member’s journey at Upflow.

Hiring. Every candidate is assessed against our Operating Principles by the hiring team, alongside the skills the role requires. A brilliant candidate who doesn’t share how we work isn’t a fit, for us or for them.

Onboarding. Every new team member goes through a training on our Operating Principles, and I run it myself. It’s where we go beyond what the principles say and explain why we hold them.

Feedback and reviews. Feedback happens continuously, in weekly 1:1s and whenever it’s needed. Once a year, every team member goes through a 360 review built on three performance dimensions, each anchored in our principles: Impact & Results (ownership and small batches), Craft & Excellence (mastering our craft), and Collaboration & Culture (communication and having each other’s back). Those reviews are what document promotions and compensation adjustments. In other words, living by our principles is how you grow at Upflow.

Conclusion

Our Operating Principles aren’t a poster on the wall. They are the shared language that lets a small, dense team move fast without losing each other along the way, and they’ve helped us build a profitable company we’re proud of.

Talent density is built one person at a time. If you read this and recognized yourself, if owning things end to end, moving fast with the long term in mind, and telling each other the truth sounds like how you want to work, we’d love to meet you. Take a look at our open roles and reach out. You’ll find a team that has your back.