You might think that someone who works at a data company that backs small businesses might have an opinion or two on the bigger ones—and you’d be right. I never thought there would come a day when I’d be so opinionated about Amazon, and it has more to do with Good Girls Revolt being canceled prematurely by Prime.
I’ve learned that SumAll is used by businesses and people all around the world. People who speak different languages, people who sell different products, and people who aren’t even in ecommerce, but still benefit from SumAll’s tools.
When you arrive as a newbie to a company that’s been around for half a decade, you not only have to learn the ropes, but that company’s history. You have to learn all the lingo, too. Once upon a time, I would constantly confuse Shopify with Spotify; now I’m well-versed in SumAll’s legacy while also dropping terms like ROI while drinking coffee. That’s right, I drink coffee now! SumAll’s turned me into a dirt water-guzzler.
But what’s humbling about working here is how our mission is always being discussed. The transparency of what we stand for is remarkable. In our daily meetings, we rehash our goals and what direction we want to keep heading in. We dream big without discussing money, because we were never about money in the first place.
What it takes to support small businesses is a small company. That isn’t to say our size needs to match that of the businesses we serve, but it certainly helps in keeping us grounded. The smallness of our company works because all employees have facetime with one another, and every decision made in other departments I still know about. There’s no cutting corners, vague explanations, or intel that’s kept on a need-to-know basis. If there’s ever something I don’t understand, someone is always willing to explain it to me.
This model has translated to the way we treat our customers. That makes sense—if you’re going to behave a certain way towards one group of people (your customers), it’s not much harder to replicate that behavior towards another group (your employees). The culture at your place of work just has a way of infiltrating your thinking. I suddenly find myself critical of big business to the point of me reassessing where I make my purchases from. From writing these blogs, I understand better the inner-workings of a small business and find myself feeling empathy (empathy! and I’m a Virgo!) towards the missions of these businesses.
Look, I word vomit all over this blog every chance I get, and I hope you’ve gotten a sense of who I am from what I’ve written. The truth is, there are people still out there who are skeptical of what we do—folks who question how we make money (we get funding), the ethics of the data we give out (it’s confidential between us and the user in question), and if we’re as automated as some of the services we provide (you already know me, word vomiting over WordPress).
As always, we welcome questions concerning who we are and what we do. You can find us on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Twitter. 80% of the time, it’s me who will be responding, so come say hi! I’ll always be honest and straight with you, but I can’t guarantee I won’t word vomit all over you.