The document outlines the mission, vision, culture and values of PandaDoc, a software company that helps sales teams. It discusses: 1) The founders' reasons for starting the company were to learn, make a positive impact, and have fun while delivering value to customers and communities. 2) The company's vision is to build software that helps sales teams look great, save time and close more deals through an efficient document process. 3) The company culture values people who are direct, team players, independent, data-driven, humble, scrappy, resilient and maintain a work-life balance. It also values transparency, ownership and keeping work simple.

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PandaDoc
Mission & Vision
Statement
+
Growth & Culture
Code

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Our reasons
Here are the reasons why we (Mikita and Serge) founded the company:
1. We wanted to learn as much as we can, grow personally, build a career.
2. We wanted to make a positive impact on:
a. People who use our software
b. People who join our company
c. Communities the groups above belong to
3. We wanted to have fun while we’re doing all of the above.
Delivering on the above values is our #1 job. We strive to make the company a
place where you can:
1. Learn a lot and develop professionally.
2. Make a ton of positive impact on customers and co-workers.
3. Have fun and enjoy the work.
Our Vision and Mission
We build software to help sales teams look great, save time and close more
deals.
PandaDoc establishes a clear process for sales documents from the very first
customer pitch, quote, or proposal to a signed contract and money in the bank.

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Our culture
Merriam-Webster defines “culture” as a way of thinking, behaving, and working
that exists in the organization.
When people say that culture at their company sucks, one or both of these
statements are true:
1. They dislike the people they work with
2. They dislike the way the work is done
When people say the culture at their company is amazing, one or both of these
statements are true:
1. They like the people they work with
2. They like the way the work is done
So, we thought... why wouldn’t our team have a short document on who we love
to work with and how we love to work.
That is our culture code. When recruiting, we’re only hiring folks that fit “The
people we love to work with” profile. When setting up a new process, we’ll make
sure it follows “The ways we love to work”.

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Our People
What kinds of people do we love to work with? They are:
· DIRECT AND STRAIGHTFORWARD
· TEAM PLAYERS
· INDEPENDENT, ORGANIZED AND GEEKY
· DATA – DRIVEN
· HUMBLE
· SCRAPPY
· RESILIENT AND HARDWORKING
· ACCOUNTABLE
· T-SHAPED
Let’s dig into this a little bit more:
Like Dislike
Feature: Direct and straightforward Political, indirect
Definitio
n
People that get straight to the
point, say the way things are,
communicate openly about
problems and are not afraid to
deliver the bad news.
People that go around other
people's backs, gossip, etc.
Avoiding arguments and difficult conversations kills companies and careers.
We prefer to talk openly behind closed doors regardless of ranks and say things
the way they are.

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Any startup has problems, every teammate makes mistakes. If we’re not
making mistakes, we’re moving too slow. We (founders) are not afraid to admit
we screwed up. Everyone has blind spots. We play in a team to back-fill for
each other. We’re a team who support and coach each other. Yes, these
coaching sessions could be painful. However, just like in sports, moderate pain
means growth OR no pain no gain.
Like Dislike
Feature: Team Players Mercenaries
Definition Company>Team>Self Self>anything
At a startup, everyone’s actions have a tremendous impact. Every time we put
the customer, the team and the company first, we make a long term investment
that will eventually pay back. And that payback is going to be much greater for
both the individual and PandaDoc as a whole.
Like Dislike
Feature: Independent, organized, geeky Reliant, unorganized, mouthy
Definition Someone who values other’s
time, proactively finds
solutions to individual and
team problems.
Someone who needs constant
attention or hand holding
wasting others time in
unnecessary meetings.

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The thing about startups is that there will never be enough resources, enough
information, enough time. That is why it is important that we:
1. Do as much research as possible prior to asking questions.
2. Document complex concepts and processes in order to enable others to
understand them faster.
3. Have an agenda for every meeting and share it in advance.
4. Geek out on tools we use.
Writing complex concepts down and creating agendas helps to improve and
organize your thoughts. When learning new software, process, or anything else
yourself, you usually cut deeper. You get a first-hand understanding and you
develop your unique perception, which is critical. Once you have a foundation,
the collaboration with colleagues will get better.
Like Dislike
Feature: Data-driven Anecdotal
Definition People that back their point of
view with research and data.
People that always rely on
their intuition and argue with
others on this basis.
PandaDoc is a volume business. Intuition is important, it helps us to choose a
direction. However, intuition alone doesn’t help to make wise decisions. It
needs to be backed by data, analysis and research.
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Feature: Humble Entitled
Definition Constantly improving, open to
feedback
Close minded and/or ego-
driven
Fast-paced growth in a huge market means that many of us will become
unqualified for the job at hand at some point of time. That is OK. That is what
makes startups fun. You will get stretched and grow as long as you’re open to it.
Humbleness opens the opportunity to learn and grow with the company.
Entitlement closes one’s mind, makes one unhappy and prevents future
growth.
Like Dislike
Feature: Scrappy Wasteful
Definitio
n
Someone who can figure out
creative ways to add a lot of value
while spending very little of
resources. Someone who treats
the company’s resources as their
own.
Someone who wastes
resources on things that don’t
add value to the business.
Someone who treats the
company’s resources as not
their own.
We’re not afraid to invest as long as there is a chance the return is greater.
However, we always remember that PandaDoc is a startup, which means that
the resources are scarce.
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Feature: Resilient And Hardworking Quitter
Definition Someone who not only
rebounds from failure, but
most importantly learns from
failure.
Someone who is easily
distracted, distraught, or
otherwise intimidated by
failure of any size
In the software business, there is rarely just one solution to a problem.
However, going through all available options typically requires perseverance
and a lot of work. We work hard and always keep trying. We don’t quit. It is only
a real failure if we fail to finish whatever we do.
Like Dislike
Feature: T-Shaped, Curious Narrow, Close-minded
T-Shaped are people who are both generalists (highly skilled at a broad set of
valuable things—the top of the T) and also experts (among the best in their field
within a narrow discipline — the vertical leg of the T).
This recipe is important for our success. We often have to pass on people who
are generalists incapable of getting things done on their own. We also pass on
narrowly focused experts, who don’t want to broaden their horizons. An expert
who is too narrow has difficulty collaborating and therefore will likely be a poor
candidate for cross-functional leadership. A generalist who doesn’t go deep
enough in a single area ends up on the margins, not really contributing as an
individual as well and usually fails to build trust.

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Our Work
How do we love to work?
We:
· ARE ALWAYS LEARNING
· ARE TRANSPARENT
· TAKE OWNERSHIP
· KEEP IT SIMPLE
· HAVE A BIAS TOWARDS ACTION
· TRY NEW THINGS
· EMBRACE THE CHANGE
· MAINTAIN WORK/LIFE BALANCE
Learning
We’re looking to grow and promote everyone joining PandaDoc in the next
couple of years. That is why a constant personal growth is vital.
For Engineers
We’re a software as a service company. What that means for engineers, is that
the more you understand our business and our customers, the more valuable
your contributions will be and the more impact you can make.
We exist to add customer value. And we’re a business with revenue goals. Every
decision, including engineering decisions, should be driven by our customer
needs and business goals. At PandaDoc engineers don’t just write code, they
solve business objectives and help customers. Be T-Shaped.

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For Non-Engineers:Program or be programmed
PandaDoc is a software as a service company. What that means for non-
engineers, is that you have to be technical. You have to know our product and
tools in and out. The more technical you are, the more valuable your business
input is, and the more value you will add to the team and company. Be T-
Shaped.
Our Learning Programs
Words should be supported by action. Therefore, we have a number of
initiatives to embrace learning within our organizations:
Learning from your colleagues
We have amazing people at PandaDoc. They will gladly help you to grow
and get to the next level. Do you want to learn how Sales or Product orgs
function? Just reach out to your colleagues and ask. Pandas love helping
and embrace mentorship. Do you want to mentor someone within the
company? Talk to your manager. We’ll make the time work.
Pairing up with advisors
PandaDoc allocated a significant number of stock options to advisors and
mentors. Every employee within PandaDoc can suggest a mentor/advisor
for self or their team. We’ll do our best to get good advisors on-board as
long as they’re qualified and committed to spend time coaching Panda
up-n-comers.
Consultants and trainings
If you see that there is a knowledge gap we can fill in with an outside
consultant, let us know. Every team has a learning budget, which could
be spent on training and consultants.

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Moving around departmentsand the globe
We want every employee to learn and progress as much as possible. We also
want the PandaDoc journey to be really fun. We have multiple offices around
the globe and want to encourage the cultural exchange. Every department has
a dedicated travel budget. We encourage each individual to visit PandaDoc
offices in different locations. Please talk to your manager if that is something
that interests you.
We also highly encourage moving across departments to learn about the other
wings of the business. Sometimes developers do support, sales helps product
managers, etc.
Books, trainingsand conferences
PandaDoc will buy whatever books you need to get better at your job. There is
also a budget for trainings, master classes and conferences. Bring the ideas to
your manager.
And if you go to a conference or just read a book, help others on your team by
sharing the learnings with them.
Building your personal brand
We want to support every employee in building their own personal brand. Here
are a few ways we can make that happen:
1. Author content that helps others. We’ll help you to have it published in
credible media outlets.
2. Participate in and speak at conferences. We will cover your airfare and
hotel as long as you’re speaking in front of our target buyers or
prospective employees.

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3. Organize meetups. We encourage employees to use our space to
organize meetups, tech crawls, hackathon and focus groups to network
with the best in class talent and learn from these experiences.
360 Degree Feedback
We conduct a bi-annual 360-degree feedback survey for everyone in the
company to help each team member grow both professionally and personally.
The 360 view provides a balanced feedback mechanism from everyone you
work closely with; which includes managers, direct peers, and peers from other
teams. The benefits of this type of feedback are to promote self-awareness,
increase accountability and most importantly, open dialogue across different
teams.
Transparency
At PandaDoc, financial and product metrics are open to every employee. We’ve
chosen to build a transparent business, even though it imposes certain risks.
Transparency enables every Panda to build a broader view of the business and
allows to learn faster. It empowers us to make better decisions.
Ownership and accountability
At PandaDoc, we take ownership and hold each other accountable. We take all
projects to the finish line. When the result is a failure, we own it. Failures are
phenomenal learning opportunities. When failures have an owner and are
openly talked about, they teach not only the owner, but also everyone within
the company.

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Keeping it simple
PandaDoc is a volume business. PandaDoc is a broadly applicable software
product. The only way for us to remain sane is to keep things simple. That is
also the only way to build a scalable business. When we see a hard to
understand concept, we try to dumb it down or drop it altogether.
Bias towards action
At PandaDoc it is OK to fail. It is not OK to sit still. Move fast. Sometimes, break
things. Try unconventional approaches. Learn. Iterate. Always have a plan “B”.
We value managers that lead by example instead of running endless meetings
because we believe that this is the best way to inspire and excite others.
Embrace the change and challenge the status quo.
We’re at the very beginning of our journey. We’re growing. Our industry and
space change rapidly. Therefore, everything at PandaDoc has to and will
change. Every year (if not quarter) we will emerge into a different company with
different challenges, opportunities, processes, scale, new people, etc. Learn to
embrace that. While at times uncomfortable, change stretches us, advances
our experience and careers.
Not everything we do at PandaDoc is and will be optimal. Therefore, challenging
the status quo is welcomed. We have to always search for ways to improve. That
is what growth is all about.

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Maintain work / life balance
We spend the majority of our time working and that's what connects all of us
together. At the same time we all have families, friends, hobbies, and dreams
outside of the job. We encourage you to dedicate time to your family, friends
and your loved ones. Spend some time on your hobbies. A hobby that’s
completely unrelated to your job allows to switch off and recover. Live a healthy
life, take proper rest. A well-balanced life makes us happy and productive. And
we are proud to be among the highest-rated companies for work-life balance.
Work hard, play hard, rest hard.
We’re long-term focused. Therefore, we do our best not to burn people out. Talk
to your manager if you feel that you’re not learning, making an impact or
having fun. And talk to your manager’s manager if the situation doesn’t get
resolved.

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Our Hiring
Hiring is everyone’s job. People and only people make companies great.
Building a great company depends highly on our continued vigilance in
recruiting/hiring.
If we start adding people to the company who aren’t capable operating as high-
powered, self-directed, decision makers, then lots of the stuff will stop working
and PandaDoc will not be a fun place to be. We have to keep the hiring bar very
high. And we should only hire people we all love to work with.
Who we hire mostly affects the people who are already here. . That is why
recruiting, interviewing and hiring is everyone's job.
Hiring well is the most important thing in the universe. Nothing else comes
close. So when you’re working on hiring—participating in an interview loop or
innovating in the general area of recruiting—everything else is secondary.
How do we choose the right people to hire?
Here are some questions we always ask ourselves when evaluating candidates:
• Would I want this person to be my boss?
• Would I learn a significant amount from this person?
• Will a 4-hour drive to X with this person be fun or torturous?
• What if this person went to work for our competition?

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• Will this person bring something new or missing to PandaDoc?
We’re looking for people stronger than ourselves.
In some ways, hiring lower-powered people is a natural response to having so
much work to get done. In these conditions, hiring someone who is at least
capable seems (in the short term) to be smarter than not hiring anyone at all.
But that’s actually a huge mistake. We can always bring on temporary/contract
help to get us through tough spots, but we should never lower the hiring bar.
We’re aimed to grow. We need to hire superstars to later promote from within.