I was speaking recently with a friend of a friend who wanted to know what my experience was like working at Shadow. She knew that I’d been here for over two and a half years, my first private sector job. It was a fun discussion that made me reflect on how we’ve been able to align our need to be sustainable with our mission and our community’s needs. 

Throughout my career, I had always wanted to do innovative work that brought people together to improve their communities. I’ve felt lucky to find that in my previous jobs in public service and in the labor movement. I wasn’t sure I could find this in the private sector, until I joined Shadow.  I’m proud to be part of a team where everything we do is driven by our purpose: to help people help people. It’s been amazing to see that when you give people the right tools, they’ll go out of their way to help others. We’ve seen that happen in every one of the more than 5000 reunions through Shadow.

Many teams truly desire to live out strong values. But, if doing so doesn’t help their bottom line, those values can be hard to prioritize. At Shadow, our company’s success is totally dependent on our community’s success. We’re only successful when we’re able to foster the kind of community where people help complete strangers reunite with lost dogs. So, it’s easy to hold ourselves accountable for upholding these kinds of values.

Doing that means not only believing our values but being hands-on to take action on them: everyone has to be willing to engage directly with our community and pitch in no matter the task, regardless of seniority or job title. Team leaders have done the jobs of the people they manage. (Yes, that includes people at every level, starting at the top with our founder Cyrus Massoumi leading by example, down to every new hire having to demonstrate they operate the same way.) Being hands-on also means our product leadership talks to our community members every week. We hear first-hand whether we’re building the things that people need. 

In addition to culture within the team, what really drives us is the culture among the awesome Volunteers using the app— dog lovers around the country taking time out of their day to help strangers. Your dedication, desire to help others, and hands-on approach makes Shadow work. Thank you all.