When Tom first arrived two team members told him they probably wouldn’t come to the office the next day because they’re predicting snow. Tom, a former Israeli Naval officer, looked up at the skies and saw nothing but blue skies.
The next day, when Tom woke up, all he saw was white. A blanket of snow-covered New York, each snowflake reminding him \u201cyou\u2019re not in Tel Aviv anymore.\u201d
Tom shared with us why he agreed to help start<\/a> the New York office and what he learned from the process.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ads.png\")
New Place, New Beginning<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\nWhen a scaling company’s customers are mostly abroad, they reach a point when they need to have an office in the same time zone as their customers. That being said, how can you successfully open an office on the other side of the world? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You start by considering a few questions.
Your company is growing, and so are your customers. You’re projecting to keep this pace but<\/gwmw> how do you calculate if and when to open an office abroad?
You’ve decided it\u2019s time to open a new office but<\/gwmw> how do you choose where to open it?
Creating an office overseas is incredibly exciting but<\/gwmw> equally difficult. It requires a certain type of person but<\/gwmw> how do you know who that is?<\/gwmw><\/gwmw><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/dsfaafs.png\")
Opening an office abroad comes with a lot of hard questions <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nA change in location also comes with a change in cultural norms. How do manage the cultural gap between the two countries? Once you do that, you then have to prevent there being two different cultures in the two offices. Your offices might be on different continents, but if you aren’t careful, they might feel like they’re on different planets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, there is one big question that can’t go unanswered: “How do you recruit employees in a new country?\u201d Long before Tom boarded the plane to New York, he carried these questions with him everywhere he went. He shared with us how he tried to answer each question and which ones monday.com<\/a> are still struggling with.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTheir Next Big Move<\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\nWhen Eran and Roy started to think about opening an office overseas each one of these questions weighed on them. The decision to open a foreign office stemmed from the Customer Experience KPI to maintain an under 10-minute response time for support requests. As their account numbers increased, the time difference made keeping that KPI more difficult. In addition, the sales team had to meet with American customers during their working hours which led to the team working odd hours. Working solely in different time zones wasn’t scalable, so it was no longer a question if to open a new office but where. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Uncovering the New World<\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\nThe founders wanted the new office to be convenient to get to from Tel Aviv because they were planning on visiting it regularly. They wanted a location that team members would be excited to relocate while improving their quality of life. The founders also associated the indescribable excitement in the air of NYC with the monday.com<\/a> making the city feel like home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now they needed to decide whom to send to New York. Tom was part of the company for a while before opening the New York office. He lived and breathed its culture and was the Head of Customer Experience which needed a presence in the United States. He was also in the right stage of life; it was just him and his now-wife Michal, nothing was holding them down. This made him the perfect candidate to pack up monday.com<\/a> culture and bring it to New York. <\/p>\n\n\n\nChicken or The Egg?<\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\nTom views the question \u201cDo you work on your culture or recruit employees first\u201d the same as \u201cwhat came first – the chicken or the egg?\u201d The right people create the right culture and the right culture attracts the right people. However, Tom had a secret weapon from the start, remote team members<\/strong> who joined the New York office. Their willingness to move cross country to New York is what Tom credits the New York office\u2019s success .<\/gwmw> Forming an office around Tom, Aron, Matt and the remote team members the founders loved the co-founders confident the office was in good hands.
As for creating monday.com<\/a>\u2019s American culture, Tom and the team figured they would just hire the right people and mission accomplished. There were a few issues with this assumption: In Israel, monday.com<\/a> is a relatively big fish in a minuscule pond. In New York, monday.com<\/a> is a small fish in an ocean. This led to the New York office being overwhelmed with irrelevant CVs. When a relevant talent did come in for an interview, they only saw a handful of people in a small office, not a hundred people in the Israeli office. They also learned along the way that their recruitment process was too Israeli for Americans and required localization.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBuilt for Success <\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\nTom was helped with every part of building the New York office from<\/gwmw> the team to the literal office space. Head of Operations Ouriel Weisz, Head of Finance Kfir Lippman, and Recruitment Manager Chen Hindy filled out the endless paperwork. Operations Project Manager<\/a> Guy Shriki<\/gwmw> flew back and forth to transform a co-working<\/gwmw> space into a monday.com<\/a> office that reflects the Tel Aviv office. Not only that, Guy even set up computers, desks, chairs, and left instructions for everything from a power failure to a jammed printer. <\/p>\n\n\n\nNot Everything That Glitters Is Gold <\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\nYet for Tom, everything was still new, from the snow to living out of a suitcase in an Airbnb in the beginning. He worked by day and saw apartments and how expensive NYC rent is by night. For two months, Tom slept on a mattress waiting for Michal to arrive not wanting to decorate without her. Starting a new office is exciting and glamorous but only some of the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Same Same (But Different)<\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\nIsraelis and Americans have a lot in common, but they\u2019re also different in many ways. It\u2019s a bit like McDonald’s in two countries, you might think they\u2019re the same, but if you take a closer look, there are subtle difference. In Israel, and especially in startups, people often work long hours. In New York, six o’clock comes, and you leave work, but Tom didn\u2019t know this. What he did know is that he hired a bunch of new team members and it was too early to judge their performance. At first, seeing everyone leave the second the clock struck six made him concerned he<\/gwmw> wasn\u2019t motivating the team or giving them enough work. Tom quickly realized that it didn’t matter when team members went home but<\/gwmw> how dedicated they are. Moreover, he realized that the Israeli expectation that you work long hours didn’t reflect levels of productivity. The New York team like the Israeli team is dedicated to the company around the clock and get the job done whenever wherever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/sdf.png\")
An Impromptu Selfie from the New York Office<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nmonday.com<\/a> believes that those dedicated people make their culture and so it\u2019s the people who connect the two offices. Therefore, just like no two people are the same, the two offices aren\u2019t identical. Instead, the company focuses on what the offices have in common and how they complement each other. For example, the Sales and CX teams were gradually recruited in New York, and so they naturally ended up sitting next to one another. This led to more cross-team collaboration. Now, the Tel Aviv office is going to have the teams sit together as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also try to fill the cultural gap with an exchange program, where they send team members from the States to Israel and vice versa as business needs evolve. The exchange program allows both sides to match faces with names and absorb each office’s culture. It’s essential that team members meet where possible. Every time team members return to New York from Tel Aviv leadership immediately felt the impact the exchange had both on productivity and their excitement about being a part of monday.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.startupforstartup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/c.png\")
New York team members Ruchita De and Erin Lueck enjoying the Tel Aviv \u201cmassage room\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nNext in New York <\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
You start by considering a few questions.
Your company is growing, and so are your customers. You’re projecting to keep this
You’ve decided it\u2019s time to open a new
Creating an office overseas is incredibly
A change in location also comes with a change in cultural norms. How do manage the cultural gap between the two countries? Once you do that, you then have to prevent there being two different cultures in the two offices. Your offices might be on different continents, but if you aren’t careful, they might feel like they’re on different planets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Eran and Roy started to think about opening an office overseas each one of these questions weighed on them. The decision to open a foreign office stemmed from the Customer Experience KPI to maintain an under 10-minute response time for support requests. As their account numbers increased, the time difference made keeping that KPI more difficult. In addition, the sales team had to meet with American customers during their working hours which led to the team working odd hours. Working solely in different time zones wasn’t scalable, so it was no longer a question if to open a new office but where. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The founders wanted the new office to be convenient to get to from Tel Aviv because they were planning on visiting it regularly. They wanted a location that team members would be excited to relocate while improving their quality of life. The founders also associated the indescribable excitement in the air of NYC with the monday.com<\/a> making the city feel like home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tom views the question \u201cDo you work on your culture or recruit employees first\u201d the same as \u201cwhat came first – the chicken or the egg?\u201d The right people create the right culture and the right culture attracts the right people. However, Tom had a secret weapon from the start, remote team members<\/strong> who joined the New York office. Their willingness to move cross country to New York is what Tom credits the New York office\u2019s success Tom was helped with every part of building the New York office Yet for Tom, everything was still new, from the snow to living out of a suitcase in an Airbnb in the beginning. He worked by day and saw apartments and how expensive NYC rent is by night. For two months, Tom slept on a mattress waiting for Michal to arrive not wanting to decorate without her. Starting a new office is exciting and glamorous but only some of the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Israelis and Americans have a lot in common, but they\u2019re also different in many ways. It\u2019s a bit like McDonald’s in two countries, you might think they\u2019re the same, but if you take a closer look, there are subtle difference. In Israel, and especially in startups, people often work long hours. In New York, six o’clock comes, and you leave work, but Tom didn\u2019t know this. What he did know is that he hired a bunch of new team members and it was too early to judge their performance. At first, seeing everyone leave the second the clock struck six made him monday.com<\/a> believes that those dedicated people make their culture and so it\u2019s the people who connect the two offices. Therefore, just like no two people are the same, the two offices aren\u2019t identical. Instead, the company focuses on what the offices have in common and how they complement each other. For example, the Sales and CX teams were gradually recruited in New York, and so they naturally ended up sitting next to one another. This led to more cross-team collaboration. Now, the Tel Aviv office is going to have the teams sit together as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, there is one big question that can’t go unanswered: “How do you recruit employees in a new country?\u201d Long before Tom boarded the plane to New York, he carried these questions with him everywhere he went. He shared with us how he tried to answer each question and which ones monday.com<\/a> are still struggling with.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTheir Next Big Move<\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\nUncovering the New World<\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Now they needed to decide whom to send to New York. Tom was part of the company for a while before opening the New York office. He lived and breathed its culture and was the Head of Customer Experience which needed a presence in the United States. He was also in the right stage of life; it was just him and his now-wife Michal, nothing was holding them down. This made him the perfect candidate to pack up monday.com<\/a> culture and bring it to New York. <\/p>\n\n\n\nChicken or The Egg?<\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
As for creating monday.com<\/a>\u2019s American culture, Tom and the team figured they would just hire the right people and mission accomplished. There were a few issues with this assumption: In Israel, monday.com<\/a> is a relatively big fish in a minuscule pond. In New York, monday.com<\/a> is a small fish in an ocean. This led to the New York office being overwhelmed with irrelevant CVs. When a relevant talent did come in for an interview, they only saw a handful of people in a small office, not a hundred people in the Israeli office. They also learned along the way that their recruitment process was too Israeli for Americans and required localization.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBuilt for Success <\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\nNot Everything That Glitters Is Gold <\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\nSame Same (But Different)<\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
They also try to fill the cultural gap with an exchange program, where they send team members from the States to Israel and vice versa as business needs evolve. The exchange program allows both sides to match faces with names and absorb each office’s culture. It’s essential that team members meet where possible. Every time team members return to New York from Tel Aviv leadership immediately felt the impact the exchange had both on productivity and their excitement about being a part of monday.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nNext in New York <\/em><\/strong>
<\/h4>\n\n\n\n