How to Scale Remote Work Culture Without Forcing It – With Camilla Booth

Ever had an awkward time at a poorly attended Zoom mixer? It’s practically a rite of passage in remote work culture these days. 

Camilla Booth has felt your pain. Throughout her eight years as VP of People at Coder, she’s hosted everything from paint-and-sips to tarot card readers, but nothing stuck. All the while, Coder was exploding from a team of 20 to nearly 200. Camilla finally settled on an authentic startup culture driven by simplicity, Slack, and strict attention to surveys. Toss in a sprinkle of tinker, plush tacos, and an all-in CEO for a tight-knit team that somehow lives in 15 different countries.

“Meeting people from all over the world has probably been one of the more rewarding parts. I've been able to learn so much from other people because of their experience and culture.” – Camilla Booth

Key Takeaways:

• Don’t tell people what startup culture is; let the vibe emerge organically.
• Social Slack channels are more engaging than disruptive, complicated events.
• Convert skeptical leaders with hard data, and audit your processes more often.
• Kind messages saved from peer recognition channels soothe burns on bad days.
• Engagement rises when people drive the culture, not when leaders spend more money.

Timestamps:

00:15 Meet Coder, Camilla, & Their Fast-Growing Team

01: 32 Going Global & Investing in People

04:35 Organic Culture & the Power of Tinkering

08:15 Slack Channels, After Hours, & Employee Appreciation Week

12:16 The Trial & Error of Virtual Events

18:00 The Importance of Leadership Buy-In: Swaying Skeptics with Data

19:12 At Long Last, Events & Awards That Never Feel Forced

20:31 Knowing When to Pull the Plug

23:30 My Favorite Taco

24:30 Five Tacos to Share

Key Topics Discussed:

Amazing Teams, Una Japundza, Camilla Booth, remote work culture, startup culture, peer recognition, employee engagement

Mentions:

• Website: https://www.coder.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camilla3
• Mentions: https://www.coder.com/careers

Transcript

Una Japundza

Well, welcome everyone to the Amazing Teams podcast. Today I'm so excited to be talking to Camilla Booth, the VP of People at Coder. So instead of me talking about Camilla, Camilla, welcome to the Amazing Teams podcast episode.

Camilla Booth

Hello, well thank you for having me. I'm really excited to talk about this.

Una Japundza

Tell me more about Coder. What do you guys do, and how long have you been there?

Camilla Booth

Yeah, for sure. So Coder is a Series C startup. Our mission is essentially to help enterprise companies with AI governance for agents. I've been at Coder for eight years now, so since 2018. And yeah, I've seen Coder through a ton of growth, from seed stage, you know, around 10 people, all the way to where we’re nearing 200 people.

Una Japundza

And what was your role when you started? Were you in the people function from the start? Did you even have a people function at a small company like that?

Camilla Booth

No. I started as a contractor. My background's in recruiting. And it was just typical startup fashion where we were in the office, and it was like, Hey Camilla, do you know how to do QuickBooks? Or hey, Camilla, can you help us with our HRIS? And my contractor role morphed into a full-time role. And I just feel so lucky that I was able to see the back office of a company and scale that accordingly.

Una Japundza

So now how many employees do you have, and in how many countries?

Camilla Booth

We have probably like 170, maybe 175, with offers accepted and over 15 countries.

Una Japundza

That's amazing, and you were based in Austin, Texas, right? The Taco Capital of the World, of America at least, maybe not the world, but America. Exactly. Okay, well, question for you. So in the last eight years, what has been the most rewarding part of leading the team through all these changes and growth? For you personally.

Camilla Booth

That is such a good question. I think that the most rewarding part is when I see people at the company in person, and they are just so happy to be part of the team, and they thank me for it. I get kind of embarrassed because I'm like, Hey, I didn't do that, I was part of it, but it feels good that people actually love working here.

We have, you know, we've scaled a lot. We've grown tremendously. And I still feel like, even people who have left the company for whatever reason, I'll still keep in touch with them. And I hear Coder's culture is like, unbeat compared to other companies. I still think about the little programs that we put together and the investments that we've made into people. So I feel very, very lucky that I have the job where I can make that change in people's lives.

Una Japundza

What has been the hardest part of leading a global team through the ups and downs of the world?

Camilla Booth

Dude. Yeah, I mean, COVID stands out a lot. We did do a RIF in 2021 and that was probably the hardest part of my career at Coder because it was just something out of our hands, you know. It was just a hard time to look people in the eyes and tell them they no longer have a job. From my HR side of the business, that just comes with the job.

So that was probably my hardest.

Una Japundza

In 2020, the company was about two or three years old, right? When the pandemic hit. How big was the team at the time?

Camilla Booth

Yeah. Probably around 18 or 20.

Una Japundza

Okay. And so now you're going fully remote, whereas previously everyone was in Austin, right? In your office. How did you scale the remote team from 18 to 20 to now, 175-plus? What were some lessons learned? What did you do that failed? What did you do that worked? How did you do that?

Camilla Booth

Okay, so we have what, a half hour? I need a lot of time to talk about the failures. We failed a lot. And you know, in hindsight, I think that's the only way that you can do better. So I'm grateful for that. But yeah, how did we scale? I mean, we were able to get funding, so that really helped us invest in the right tools and the right people.

So we invested a lot into hiring. COVID forced us to become a global company. Prior to COVID, we were in Austin predominantly. We had like one or two people outside. So the talent pool opened and I think when you hire globally, you are building a culture that you can't get if you're only siloed into one location.

Meeting people from all over the world has – that's probably, going back to your other question – that's probably been one of the more rewarding parts is just that I've been able to learn so much from other people because of their experience and their culture. And you don't really get that if you're just in Austin, Texas alone. So scaling was a lot of investment put behind that and hiring the right people.

Una Japundza

When we were preparing for this podcast, you said one thing that resonated with me and stuck with me, which is about keeping the culture organic. Like when people come in, you don't tell them what the culture is. I'm not gonna tell you what it is. Where does that belief and philosophy come from for you? Because it's very unique and I believe it's very empowering. How did you develop that as a way you lead people teams?

Camilla Booth

Yeah. I think if I've just worked at other companies where culture was kind of told to me, This is our culture, I would almost roll my eyes and be like, Says who? Like what are you talking about? And now when I really think about Coder's culture, it feels organic because I feel like it is – I know this is gonna sound cheesy, but – it's like a vibe.

I feel it more when I'm in person because I'm exposed to a lot of people. When we do off-sites or team events, I feel that vibe a lot more. But we do embrace culture that isn't just related to work. So one of the words that we use internally a lot is tinker. Tap into your creative side, build fun apps or agents, or you know, if you're in HR and you want to learn how to code, use your L and D budget for that.

So like we really embrace people stepping out of their role at work to just try to tinker and be exposed to new tools and trends. I think that in return it's proven to have people in a remote culture, even meet people more.

If I'm stuck on, I'm trying to build an agent and I'm stuck on something, I could go to someone in product or engineering that I usually wouldn't meet and get their help and then I give them a taco, we shout them out. I think letting employees just have fun for some of their job and go outside of just their day job, I think that makes people feel seen and valued.

Una Japundza

So when people describe culture to you, is it what you want it to be? Like, Yes, this is exactly what we're trying to build and I'm so happy that it comes through? Or do people experience it entirely differently?

Camilla Booth

Yeah, I mean both. I think the word transparency comes up a lot because we are constantly serving the company and having very open all-hands where – I've clearly been at the company long enough to see that roller coaster ride. We have had really, really amazing quarters and moments and we have also had really scary and not so fun quarters and having employees that have been here two, three, four, five plus years, they've experienced that with me.  

I remember being in rooms where we were like, so are we gonna need to do layoffs? Or we're not getting our bonus this quarter. We have had hard conversations. And I think that that is special at a startup because you can have those open conversations so that transparency is a culture buzzword that I hear a lot, which I agree with. We had one of our culture virtues in Austin was to be weird in a good way. That was just a nod to Austin, it was just like, be authentically yourself. We don't want to hire the carbon copy of Camilla.

I want my team to make up for the things that I don't have and vice versa. I want us to collaborate together from all different viewpoints. I don't want carbon copies of people, which is why I love hiring internationally. I love being able to build a global team.

Una Japundza

What do you do as a team to help those flavors come to life? Are there any all-company things where people get to – besides in 1:1s and team meetings – experience the cultures of the world or in your off sites? How do you bring that melting pot together?

Camilla Booth

We have playful Slack channels that, you know, in typical fashion, someone will start up a Slack channel, like a food channel, and it'll be buzzing for a few weeks and then it kind of dissolves and then a few weeks later we'll see – right now we have a fun one called Bravoverse with people into the Bravo shows. I don't know if you watch those, but it's really, really funny. I love our Kids of Coder one.

That one is awesome because we're seeing people all over the world raising their kids in a work environment. It's chaotic, but everyone who has kids can experience similar things in different cultures. So I think we lean in on a lot of Slack channels.

And then in person, I would say the unscripted part of our off-site is where cultures come into play. So it's after hours. It's okay, we just did eight hours of sessions. Now you have a free for all. Go have happy hour or dinner with people. And that's when we see a lot of the fun stuff come out. I usually go to my room early on those nights. Yeah. I want people to have fun, but I don't need to know how much fun they're having.

Una Japundza

You're like, I don't wanna see all the details of what's happening.

What are the parts you know, you're trying to always engage all your whole company, right? You're working across time zones, cultures, which is fun and also comes with a lot of challenges. Someone's trying to schedule a call and there's a six hour time difference. Okay, how are we gonna make that happen? What do you own and your people team? What do you own when it comes to employee engagement? And what do people or other leaders in the company organically bring up together? The Slack channel sounds like it's something that employees are like, I'm into the Bravo shows, I'm gonna create a Slack channel.

So what do you guys do that you kind of bring forth, and what do people do on their own that are as important?

Camilla Booth

Yeah, I think this is where HeyTaco has helped us a lot. For engagement we do Employee Appreciation Week and we set the themes ahead of time. We'll do like, Monday is like the Unsung Hero award, Tuesday is the Cross-Functional Support award.

The Sleeper Award, you know, maybe someone you wouldn't expect. And what we'll do is, in those weeks we'll increase people's tacos for the day. So instead of people getting five tacos a day, they'll get 20. And then that's when employees just go off. Like they love it. If you look at our usage chart, it just was so high in that week.

And it was really fun to see what people were shouting people out for. The engagement was really strong. You know, it just felt like it was the best we could do in a remote world without throwing thousands and thousands of dollars at like those happy hour, mixed virtual mixers that are sometimes kind of cheesy because you have to buy all those supplies and then you jump on Zoom and it's awkward. This has just felt so organic.

Una Japundza

When let's say Monday was Unsung Hero Day, so people were shouting out who they believe was the unsung hero, did you do anything at the end to tally up the people that got mentioned the most that day? Or was it like no anyone you believe was the unsung hero, they get to call out and we're not picking anything on top of that?

Camilla Booth

Yeah, we let it just open, you know, we don't want to police it. I don't know the right term for it. We wanted it to – we've only tried that once. We tried it this year and we're bringing it back right after our performance reviews. And I think that's a really healthy time because that's when people are thinking about themselves and others and you know, it's a good time because that's when some promotions or changes happen.

Una Japundza

Mm-hmm.

Camilla Booth

So yeah, we don't want to put too many guardrails around it. I think that's when culture can feel a little bit forced. And then the data after was really cool. I didn't do anything with the data. That is actually a good reminder for me to think about. Maybe we could do something with it. but we did do a little call out on our all-hands. We do a monthly all-hands with the company and we you know, I think we showed screenshots of shout-outs and things like that. Yeah.

Una Japundza

Mm-hmm. What are some other things throughout the year that you do? Any like, this is something that you started early on and you're like, this is way too forced, there's way too much going on? Like in terms of the happy hours and the trivia and all the things that people can participate in. Did you ever do any of those? That sounds like a painful... like, well, yeah, glad I'm not doing it anymore.

Camilla Booth

Yeah. I would say – this is where I'm so happy that I was at an early-stage company where I could do a lot of trial and error. I would equate 2021. So, COVID in my mind started in March for Coder. That's when we had to go remote, and we were hiring a ton. So from March 2020 through all of 2021, it was like the wild, wild west. We were trying every little thing possible. We had a tarot card reader come, we had a paint and sip and paint virtual thing, we did a scavenger hunt in people's homes, like we did a daily coffee morning stand up and it's all similar themes.

It starts off really strong, like 80% participation and then week by week it dies down to where it's just me and one other person who's just being nice on the call with me. And nothing was sticky. That is actually when we got Hey Taco, was 2021. That was probably the least amount of effort that I had to do. I didn't have to force it down people's throats or schedule meetings to explain how it worked or really put together a ton of resources. It just worked. We installed it. We made its own Slack channel. We call it Thanks. And yeah, people started using it. Then new hires, they would automatically be put in that channel and they would get tacos. So then by the end of the day they wanted to give tacos.

So that was the most organic culture building thing that I think was intentional but at the same time we didn't realize, back in 2021 it was very chaotic and I was just trying to do anything that I thought that can make our culture strong and I wasn't thinking a year to three years ahead because I was so consumed with the world and scaling and you know, I was scared. I was like, I don't know what's going on, am I ever gonna see people at an office?

Una Japundza

Yeah, you're right in the moment.

Camilla Booth

So I was only thinking about right now. And now in hindsight, I don't do that. I only think about how things are gonna scale. And like I all the stuff that I tried, those like, you know, silly little, you know, virtual scavenger hunts and games and all that stuff, it's like good one offs, but something to stay years and years and years and to scale, I think it needs to have simplicity and fun.

If we're talking about culture, I think the emoji thing is like the most genius detail, we talk about it in our job offers, it's in every single – sorry, not job offers, our careers page. So we have on every single job posting, we have a blurb about tacos and it comes up in interviews. People are like, What's the deal with these tacos? We use it all the time.

We also bought plush tacos, and at our in-person events, we'll do a series where we'll – we rented a movie theater at our last off-site, and we had everybody in the seats at a movie theater, we had people on the ground, we're doing a Q&A and asking questions, and whoever got it right, we would throw a taco at them.

That wasn't planned, you guys sold us that idea. That just happened. It was like, well, we use tacos every single day. It's our most-used Slack channel. And that seems like a fun idea. Who doesn't want a plush taco thrown at them, you know? Yeah, it just kinda worked.

Una Japundza

Everyone likes the taco.

What do you think of launching something that required the least amount of effort, but it took off? Is that kind of what changed your belief about, you know what, we should just let things emerge versus trying to force, for the lack of a better word, but you know, like engineer disengagement. Or have you already thought about it before?

Camilla Booth

No, one hundred percent. Like once I discovered that the little events that I was trying to – at the time I had an office coordinator, I was literally taking up 80% of her day, forcing her to come do all this different creative stuff. Once I really took a step back I was like, this is so cheesy.

And I fell into the trap. Every company was doing this. Like it was just so common. Yeah. I just didn't have the time for that once we kind of hit this like other stage of growth. That I was like, people are happy with a good paycheck. We put a lot of effort into building a good comp philosophy, good benefits.

Una Japundza

Of course, it's normal.

Camilla Booth

We pay attention to surveys, engagement surveys specifically. And, you know, let's try to utilize some simplicity. People are busy, they don't want to track a million Slack channels, but if we can home in on one and make it fun, that works. So yeah, in the beginning it was just like, a lot of trial and error.

If and when I do move on from Coder, I know all the things I'm not gonna do and the things that I'm going to do. And I think that is what you should strive for. I think it's okay to accept your failures and learn from them, then move forward and think about those problems differently. So now I think about culture from a scaling perspective versus in the moment.

Una Japundza

Let's say you were starting in your role. Let's say you're mentoring someone starting in your role, what would you tell them? Like, hey like don't do this and do that? How would you...Camilla's philosophy about building culture, how would you summarize it or describe it?

Camilla Booth

Yeah. I would say run away from a company if you don't have a CEO that wants to talk about culture. I think if you don't have the support from the core leadership team or the CEO, all your ideas and budget and everything, it's not going to be taken seriously. So my advice is to really strive to pick a thought partner and a manager that can support you there.

Una Japundza

I have a follow up question on that one. Do you think you can change someone's mindset about culture actually being important? Let's say someone's CEO is not quite there. Do you think it's possible to influence them and show them?

Camilla Booth

Yeah, one hundred percent. I think that's in data. I have used taco reports for a lot of data polls and comparisons. So I've used it to look at trends around attrition. I've used it to look at, you know, we've had people opt into using FMLA for burnout in the past. And you can look at trends and see wow, this person was really active for this entire year, but the last like three months, there's been a major dip. Like, here's the data.

Or I look at our employee engagement surveys and there's questions that you rate by scale and then there's comments. If I take all the comments and I put it into Claude and I do like a summarized thing, tacos are mentioned so many times. So it's funny you ask that. I have had people in leadership maybe not reject tacos, they maybe just don't understand it. They almost find it to be a little silly. I'm a serious person or, you know, I don't know why I need to embrace it. But when I show them the data, they get it.

And then, I think it's important too, like one thing that I always like to remind managers, remember when you were an IC and all you wanted was for your manager to know what a great job you were doing, but maybe they weren't in the room? If they're not in the room, you feel like, Great, like they're never gonna know I said that amazing thing on the call. Only the CSM saw that. But for the CSM to jump off that call and go into the Taco channel and give you a shout out, your manager sees it.

So I think that is such an incredible organic way to boast about someone great that you worked with without it seeming forced. I think that that helps too. So I have helped change.

Una Japundza

Mm-hmm. And this story that you just shared, it really resonates. I'm like, yeah, I remember wanting my manager to see my good work. I feel like everyone can put themselves in the shoes of like, you just started your career or you just joined a company and you're just hoping that someone thinks you're doing a good job.

Camilla Booth

Recognizes you, yeah. And I think it comes into play in performance review season, too. I encourage people to do lookbacks and you know, if they want data on people, I'm happy to give them another data point we use, I mentioned our offsites when we meet as a company once a year. We do similar to like in The Office, like the Dundies, we like superlatives.

Una Japundza

Mm-hmm.

Camilla Booth

And we have LEGO figurines with bricks as awards. And we always do a Most Tacos Given and Most Tacos Received award. People love that award. We have the stats, last year it was like, so and so gave out, I don't know, it was like a thousand tacos or something crazy.

That is such a cool thing, and it's like, I don't know, it doesn't feel forced. I can't express that enough. It's not feeling forced. So yeah, I do think you can change people's minds about culture. When you look at attrition, you look at stay surveys, you look at all of those things. And if you are, if themes keep popping up, you really need to pay attention to those themes and figure out a way to bottle that up and scale it if it's working.

Una Japundza

So besides like, your CEO needs to think about culture or the leadership team and if not, you can try and change their mind. But if you can't change their mind, like run, don't walk away, right? What are the other things you're like, don't like pay attention to this? Before we get into the tips of like, do this.

Camilla Booth

Yeah. I think I used to love doing a product call. Like, I love a tool. What I used to get in this trap is, the demos would be amazing. I'd be like, my gosh, we need this.

I didn't know I could ask for longer pilots, or I didn't know that I could do as many reference tracks as I wanted so I think my advice would be it may look like a nice, shiny new toy. Do your due diligence. Ask for the reference tracks, ask about pilots, have a good review of the contract and really understand what the terms mean.

Implementation, too. That's been challenging. A tool might say it integrates with your HRIS, but it might only integrate with your HRIS if it's a pro version. Sometimes people selling you these tools, they just want to sell you it. They don't tell you all the intricacies that go beyond purchasing it. So I would say really understand the admin behind it and setting it up.

And then what other advice would I give?

Una Japundza

The negative, like beware of this.

Camilla Booth

Beware. I would...

Yeah, I think once you have implemented something, I would pay close attention to usage and know when to pull the plug. Watch out if things aren't – it's okay if things don't take off immediately. Maybe you need to tweak some of the programming and messaging, and people may not just understand it, but I worry about putting a lot of time and effort into something where the, you know, the ROI is just not there.

So I would pay close attention to usage and feedback.

Una Japundza

I feel like when you're launching things for other people, right? Not just, you're the user and the administrator for some sort of, let's say data tool or whatever. There's the intended way people are using it, and then there's the way that people actually use it. When you see a path through a park that people have just carved in by walking there, even though there's no like cemented path, it's such a good example of, people are gonna walk where they want to walk, not where just the path is. And I feel like the tools can be that way too.

There's the way the people should use it and then there's the way that people actually use it. Sometimes that doesn't match, right? You get the intended effect that's just not what you want necessarily.

Camilla Booth

Yeah. Yeah.

One hundred percent I've seen that.

Una Japundza

What are some things that you would recommend to someone or you know, Camilla in 10 years that you would actually want to do when it comes to culture? You're in the proactive, like do this.

Camilla Booth

Yeah, I would definitely survey and stay on top of programs you put in place. So it's very easy to plan through something, set it up, and then just check on it when something's broken. I wouldn't wait till something breaks. I would set reminders and audits of how things are working a lot sooner than you would think.

So if I think about team size, you know, a company that's 25 people, it's much easier to pivot certain implementations, whereas 200 people, it's a lot more challenging. So I would get on top of things faster and that's also based on experience. There were a lot of things that I would set up and then I would only revisit like nine, 10, 12 months down the line. And I'm like, my gosh, no one's even opened this page since February and it's October. Like, what am I doing?

That took me months to set up. So yeah, I would absolutely advise doing that.

Una Japundza

What's your review cycle these days, now that you've learned all those hard lessons? When you put something in, how fast do you review it and rip it out if it's not working? Nice. Yeah? Okay.

Camilla Booth

Say, every three months. I think in quarters. It's so cliche. Even in my personal life, I'll say to my husband, Let's do this next quarter. And he's like, Can you stop? Yeah. It makes sense. It makes sense for me to think in quarters or half-years. So H one and H two.

Una Japundza

He's like, Are we a business plan? Is this a business transaction or what's our next quarter's vacation?

What is your favorite taco you've ever received? Is there one or a few?

Camilla Booth

I think when I got promoted to VP, it was really nice. The kind things people were saying. So that was nice. Yeah, I think when – or I just had my eight-year anniversary come up. That was really special. People say really nice things. You remember that. And one thing I have told a couple of people on my team, I was like, hey, when you're having a really, really bad day, collect those messages that you can save in a Google Drive or whatever drive, so you can go back to it. A lot of that comes in the taco channel.

Like if you get that three-sentence shout out from the CEO that you met like a few times but you did something great, save that. And then when you're having a really shitty day, open that and be like, you know what? I am a badass. I know what I'm doing.

Una Japundza

That's really good advice. We all need to pick me up, right? Everyone gets down on themselves at some point.

Camilla Booth

You need a boost but –

Una Japundza

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right. Well, we always usually end our podcast with the same question, which I actually did not tell you earlier. So you didn't have a chance to prepare, which is not a bad thing. But it is HeyTaco, and you have five tacos to give to someone every single day to appreciate them. So today, who would you like to give your tacos to, and why? And it can be anyone. Doesn't have to be at Coder, it can be anyone in your life that you want to appreciate.

Camilla Booth

Wow.

Yeah.

I wanna give tacos to my recruiting team. In the last year we've doubled the company and each recruiter has about 10 open recs. So if you're listening, yes, they have, we have 30-plus openings at Coder. So if you're listening and in the job market, check out our careers page. I have to do a plug!

Una Japundza

Right now, still.

Una Japundza

Absolutely.

Camilla Booth

They are just so on top of it, and they're such culture champions, and we do a ton of, you know, candidate surveys as well as hiring team, like whoever's involved in the hiring process. We're averaging like a nine out of 10 on almost every survey. So I am so beyond grateful for them, and yeah, so I have four people on that team that I would get my tacos.

And then I think my remaining taco would probably go to my CEO. I know that sounds like I'm sucking up, but like he's a wonderful champion of culture and HeyTaco and HeyTaco existed before he even joined the company, and he embraced it and wanted to keep it and help me grow it. So yeah, he would get my fifth taco.

Una Japundza

Those are some good tacos, and holy cow, 10 open recs per recruiter. Coder.com. Is that the URL?

Camilla Booth

That's pretty wild.

I think it's like coder dash careers. Yeah. Coder dot com dash careers, yeah.

Una Japundza

Coder dash careers, perfect. Perfect. So if you're looking for a new role, check it out. Camilla, thank you so much for being part of this podcast. And also, thank you for building a great culture. You're obviously making a place for 170-plus people and hopefully another 30 or 40 coming up in the next year...love working at...and that just makes life, I think, way more fun. So thank you.

Camilla Booth

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, of course. Thank you for having me. This was a really fun conversation.