We surveyed employees to get a feel for what it's like to work at Aussie startup UpGuard.
*For My Startup Gig to review your startup, reach out at hello@mystartpgig.com*
Summary
Why work here
Exceptional company culture
Empowering and flexible management style
Collaborative and supportive environment
Ability to contribute to vision regardless of seniority
Venture-backed and profitable
Growth phase, which creates new opportunities and experiences
One of the most successful Australian startups right now
What the office is like
Remote workforce for the most part
Offices in Sydney and Hobart
Work-life balance
‘Great’ across the board
Given global team, some contact outside of 9-5 depending on role
Professional development
Budget available for professional growth
Professional development supported by managers
Employee benefits
Free lunches and coffee
Gym reimbursement
Flexible work arrangements (work-from-home)
4 weeks paid vacation leave
Paid parental leave
401k plan, company-paid health benefits (medical, dental, and vision) for US employees
Company-wide offsites - It was Hawaii in 2022! Check it out here
What does UpGuard do?
UpGuard’s mission is to protect the world’s data. We obsessively seek out elegant, robust ways to enable our customers to find, acknowledge, and remediate cyber risk. With UpGuard, organisations leverage our security expertise and software to automate what were once laborious, spreadsheet-driven processes–whether it's monitoring the attack surface of hundreds of vendors or assessing the security of their own infrastructure. UpGuard is used by some of the world’s largest, fastest growing, and most innovative companies.
Note: section provided by UpGuard
What stage is the company in right now?
UpGuard is venture-backed, profitable and scaling, while still being nimble to see the opportunity ahead of us. We have hundreds of customers around the world, including NYSE, PagerDuty, IAG and Hopin.
Our team has a global footprint with UpGuard people spanning across the Australian Pacific, Americas, India and Europe & UK. We don’t see geographic location as a limiting factor!
UpGuard was recently recognized by Gartner and G2 Crowd, taking #1 in G2’s Third-Party Risk Management quadrant, and recognized by Gartner as a market leader in the Market Guide for Vendor Risk Management report.
Note: section provided by UpGuard
What's the office like?
UpGuard is a remote workforce. So for most of us, we work from home. Hobart and Sydney host our brick and mortar offices. They are collaborative hubs with open-plan layout, the latest technology and super secure (naturally!).
Note: section provided by UpGuard
What's the company culture like?
“The UpGuard culture is centred around the idea of working on something great with equally great people. Most things flow on simply from that idea. People are smart, candid, hardworking and always willing to support one another” - Nathan Clark (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathancjclark/)
“Nobody is perfect, but in my experience UpGuard genuinely tries to live the culture that it aspires to from the CEO down. UpGuard has a level of honesty, integrity, respect and openness that I haven't encountered before, and it works hard to maintain that culture. That in turn helps create a working atmosphere where staff feel able to question and challenge idea” - Anonymous
“Upguard has a very open, transparent and collaborative culture. This allows you to be yourself and work more passionately” Mohammed Moueen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/moueen/)
“I spent my career in large enterprise companies. Working within bureaucracies and processes that are built for the lowest common denominator. This environment caused frustration that nothing useful could be done within a reasonable time period. - Anonymous
When I moved to UpGuard, I could immediately make a difference to the people and the product. My ideas for process and product improvement were given due consideration, and those that would benefit the company were used within a short timeframe. I would encourage anyone who is a thought leader in an environment that stifles progress, to act now, and come work with me at a great company - Steve Harrison (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjhau/)
“Great management and the team culture. For me good management means trusting that I can get my work completed to a high standard and leaving me alone to do it, but also being readily available to help if need be. The culture here is also fantastic, really positive and friendly, and everyone just wants to do their best and help others to do their best.” - Anonymous
Why do you like the challenge of being part of a scaleup company?
“I love learning, building things and watching things grow. Part of me has always been curious about what could be, so I'm glad to be part of something where I can help shape that” - Anonymous
“Because it's an organisation that hasn't reached its peak and is still scaling, you can really see the growth with numbers increasing, and actually see how the work you do has a big impact on the organisation. There is so much that can change within a year and you have to adapt to that change. It is a welcome challenge” Anonymous
“Growth creates opportunity. If you work hard and get results you’re constantly presented with new experiences, challenges and opportunities.” - Nathan Clarkhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nathancjclark/
What's work life-balance like?
“Work life balance is great, we have offices but you can also work from home and we have a lot of fully remote employees. Things are flexible and trust is there from management.” - Anonymous
“I consider it more ‘work-life integration’. I happily work outside typical business hours but balance that with being able to have breakfast with my kids, lunchtime workout sessions or the occasional coffee with a friend.” - Nathan Clark
“You have to be realistic, I work in a global team and we're a smaller company, which means regular contact with people outside of 9-5 hours, so timewise it's demanding. On the other hand UpGuard is very aware of looking after employees and colleagues/peers/managers genuinely care if you're OK so I'm encouraged to make time for myself and my family.” - Anonymous
Do you get much opportunity for personal or professional growth and development?
“The world is your oyster, you just need the initiative to speak up and I'm sure most managers here would support you in some way towards your goals.” - Anonymous
"Yes - we have a budget in place for professional growth where you can take short courses to improve on your skills or learn more about a company related topic to further your own understanding." Anonymous
“There is always an opportunity to go and learn, and bring it back into the team. Although I think it's more fair that I pass on my knowledge and experience to our less experienced staff. Having people with a great wealth of experience in our company, who all will give their time to mentor others, means that overall UpGuard is an incubator for growth and opportunity.” - Steve Harrison https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjhau/
Your pitch: why should someone come work at UpGuard?
“Our business continues to grow faster than our company. We have many projects we’d love to work on. But we lack the people-power to work on them. These projects are often high-impact, exciting and challenging. They offer great growth opportunities for future colleagues. Come and be part of the ride!” - Mike Baukes, CEO and Co-Founder, UpGuard
Want to work at UpGuard? Check out their jobs on our job board here.
For My Startup Gig to review your startup, reach out at hello@mystartpgig.com.
