Joel Gascoigne

I believe that when you extend the same freedoms to your team that you sought for yourself, something powerful happens: you build deep trust and unlock extraordinary commitment. This approach has created our strongest culture and most sustainable results.

I don't see shorter workweeks as a benefit and a way to work less on Buffer. Instead, I see 4-day workweeks as the way we can all work optimally on Buffer, as time away and true renewal enable us to make impactful sustained contributions.

In more recent years, we've operated Buffer with a 4-day workweek. I'm proud to say that in the 5 years we've been working four days a week, we've seen Buffer through a turnaround from decline and back to growth, profitability and new all-time-high ARR.

I've also always encouraged and celebrated side projects. A team with side projects is a win-win: they're great vehicle for personal growth and experiences which benefit Buffer. Buffer started as a side project and I always have projects I'm tinkering on. It'd feel at odds to disallow side projects.

We've always run Buffer with complete transparency for the team on how the company is doing, down to cash we have in the bank and our burn rate. I believe that if the team has all the information, we are always going to better equipped to weather challenges and take advantage of opportunities.

Early on, this was in the form of location independence. I wanted to travel the world and have new experiences as I built Buffer. I could have given myself this benefit without extending it to others, but that didn't feel right to me. So we became a fully remote company, all the way back in 2013.

There are a few beliefs I've followed as I've built Buffer. One of them is that as I attain personal freedoms through the success of Buffer, I aim to extend those same freedoms to the team.

Here are a few examples 🧵 ⬇️

When you extract too much value from a company, by optimizing and streamlining, you tend to shed away the imperfections and uniqueness of a company. This sabotages future growth, because you cut off differentiation the company has, which is a vital ingredient of it's current and future success.

The great companies are the ones that are able to retain a creator and builder mindset, rather than purely being operated and optimized.

"They aren’t a record of my thinking process. They are my thinking process." – Richard Feynman, on his notebooks

For transparency to be a genuine value of an organization, it cannot simply be something you join and benefit from. It requires active participation and contribution. This should stretch everyone. It should feel a little uncomfortable because transparency is not easy, but the benefits are real.

We're now in uncharted territory as a company. We have, by definition, never been here. I'm excited to keep going and see where this leads! That defines this moment perfectly, because I believe that the way we'll discover how far we can take this company is by continuing to uncover our own path.

Each and every person at Buffer played a role in us reaching this new all-time-high ARR milestone. And it makes me very energized to think about what this team, having been through this experience, can build from here.

The team today is largely made up of people who dug in or joined to support Buffer as we worked through our most challenging chapter. 38 of 74 experienced the last all-time-high. 27 joined us during decline. 91% of the team current joined before our recent growth phase that began in January 2024.

From our previous peak, we dropped 20% in ARR over 4 years to a low of $17,879,503 on January 7, 2024. It was a very nerve-racking situation to experience, and it took a monumental effort combining thoughtful strategy and diligent execution to turn it around.

Wow, we did it! We have officially achieved a new all-time-high ARR at Buffer 🎉

Our previous all-time-high was $22,384,598 on February 6, 2020. Today, our ARR stands at $22,395,427.

This milestone has been 5 years in the making for us, it's going to take a little time to sink in for me personally!

Buffer team photo at our 12th company retreat in Antalya, Türkiye

Feeling so much gratitude for this wonderful group of humans as I return from the 12th @buffer.com company retreat in Antalya, Türkiye.

51 weeks of the year, we work together across 49 cities in 21 countries. To get to spend a week in the same place is special, and a vital part of how we operate.

I still find it hard when I'm clouded, but I'm learning to embrace both the clouds and the clear skies. I think both are vital parts of the journey.

Rather than sit at my desk and try to grind it out, I've found there are things I can do to help the clouds lift and clear skies emerge. I'll just get up and go for a walk. Or start writing a journal entry. Pacing around my patio can often bring rapid clarity. Working out can bring clear skies too.

Over the years, I've become a little more aware of when clouds have started to form. I can sense in myself that I'm feeling clouded, and decisions aren't coming as easily.

What I've realized, is that the clouds start to form above me when there is an adjustment to make, or there is a powerful opportunity to be uncovered. In that sense, the clouds are a gift. The clouds represent a powerful breakthrough or an important correction, which will lead to better outcomes.

Clear skies drive strong execution, and with strong velocity you can easily start to go a little off course. This is especially the case when working as a team. As the leader, I see my role as setting a clear direction, and then being involved enough to spot where course corrections are needed.

I've come to believe that these cycles are part of the journey, and that as hard as it can sometimes feel to be clouded and indecisive, there is value in those clouds. And it's better to embrace how I feel and tap into it, than to try to push through.

When the clouds are cleared, I feel in flow and focused and I can give direction to my team. Whenever I am feeling clarity, before long I inevitably hit a new patch of feeling clouded around certain issues or opportunities that newly arise.

My experience as a founder CEO has been that I go through alternating phases of feeling clouded, and then those clouds lifting and clarity around important decisions emerging.

Some of my thoughts and techniques I've arrived at over time to lead effectively while I feel varying levels of clarity:

Thanks mate! Appreciate the support, we're glad to be growing again. 🚀

Thanks Steve!

Thank you Val! It's been a whole team effort to get back to growth. We're excited about what we can do for customers with more resources as we grow, especially since we've retained ownership and can truly go our own path. Appreciate the long term support!

Haha thanks. Been building in public all the way since I started in 2010. You might enjoy my articles over the years, I wrote more in the earlier days but trying to pick it back up: joel.is/articles

I'd say the closest thing we have to a North Star company-wide metric is Monthly Active Users. We're super focused on serving more people with our product (rather than growing through charging more). Top financial metric is revenue per team member, it combines growth with staying a lean team.