Hootsuite's Social Revolution: Manifesto, Principles, and History
Hootsuite's Manifesto embodies core principles, vision, mission, culture, team values, and historical growth. Founded in 2008, Hootsuite grew rapidly, transforming communication via social media and building a passionate, collaborative team focused on meaningful relationships. The journey from a zero-revenue product to hyper-growth reflects a commitment to innovation, humility, respect, and continuous improvement.
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Hootsuites Manifesto #BSU Building a social revolution
This document is a resource for all Hootsuite employees. We give this to each new team member who joins us. Hootsuite s Manifesto contains our core principles, some stories of our history and culture, and a special Peepsbook.
Vision Our vision is to revolutionize communications via social.
Mission Our mission is to transform messages into meaningful relationships.
Our Culture A passionate, egoless team having fun building something bigger than themselves.
Our Team Hardworking Collaborative Resourceful Egoless Innovative
Our Values Passion in all we do Lead with humility Respect the individual Build a better way
History In 2008 Hootsuite was born out of Invoke, a digital marketing agency that Ryan founded in 2000. For the first year, a seven-person team one-third of Invoke grew the zero-revenue product. (You don t need to be a CFO to understand that it was tough to make ends meet.) But by 2009, viral growth and investment led us to spin it out as an independent company. By 2011, we entered hyper growth, and have since gone from 20 to over 600 employees in under 3 years.
Being in hyper growth is kind of like learning to ride a bike down a steep, unpaved hill at breakneck speed: Everything is flashing past you, there are huge bumps along the way, you HAVE to learn as you go, and all the while, it s a pretty thrilling ride.
Indeed, like other great companies before us, we discovered that culture is the gravity of a successful, fast-growing company. It s the constant, steady force that binds us together and keeps us focused and driven. It s what makes people want to come to work every day. It s what makes us stronger than our competitors.
This manifesto makes sure we hit the brakes and take a snapshot of the most important aspects of Hootsuite s culture today. FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE. This manifesto was created as a bottoms-up document. Employees from across the organization were asked to provide input on what they feel.
#BSU is a term that has remained a steady part of our culture throughout our hyper growth. This is why it s a perfect symbol that captures the culture and essence of our company. What is #BSU? This is something that many of our new team members wonder. Some have admitted they even Googled it when they first started.
Yup, B.S.U. is an acronym for blow shit up . In the early days of Hootsuite, the phrase was widely used by Ryan, as a motivational mantra to get people excited about what they were working on: Let s blow shit up! ( Let s build some internet people! was the other phrase he used a lot back then, but didn t stick in the same way.)
Before we knew it, Lets blow shit up! was being used by all departments across the company in emails, chats, parties, even town halls, and by everyone, from the newest intern to our top VPs and executives. And eventually, in true fashion of a social media company, we made into a viral hashtag: #BSU
Why has #BSU lasted so long?
4 Reasons: 1. #BSU is a pillar of our language and culture. 2. It has lots of energy behind it. Like many of us here. 3. It s limitless. There are no limits to how much or how far you can blow shit up. And it applies to all of us who work here. Whether it s an amazing line of code or a new product or marketing campaign, we can all take our own project and blow it up! 4. Finally, blow shit up, is inherently disruptive in nature, just like we are.
#BSU is a pillar of our language & culture
The #BSU spirit is something we all embody internally, so it s also reflected in our company vision: To revolutionize communication via social (we are revolutionaries!)
In the course of researching this document, we asked dozens of people why they love to come to work. There were some very common themes that arose:
#BSU is a pillar of our language & culture
1. High Caliber Teammates At Hootsuite, you get to work with really interesting, smart, open-minded people. They re good at what they do because they re passionate about it.
When I first came in, I was vibrating with excitement. There was just a certain vibe and you could tell everyone wants to be here, and they re good at what they do and care about their jobs. Erin Fitzpatrick Administration Ambassador
2. You are on a steep learning curve. Coming to work is an opportunity to gain invaluable knowledge. By working at Hootsuite you are getting years of career experience at an accelerated rate simply by being part of this unique growth.
I am certain the rest of my life will be better because I worked here. Now I m a part of a community of people who can think outside the box and will probably create the next big thing and that s really cool. Scott Walker Corporate Account Executive
3. Having an Impact Here we have an opportunity to play a huge role in the forming of an entire industry, an entirely new communication channel no different than the TV or radio or email at their emergence. These things shook the world and now social is doing that. You can really make a difference. Whatever you are working on, you can see millions of people using it or see how it has a direct connection to revenue. That s incredibly rewarding.
At Hootsuite there are so many opportunities right now where I know I can have an impact and make the product better. That s why I m here. Helen Park Senior UI/UX Designer
4. Opportunity for growth It s a time of great movement and opportunity the company s hyper growth is creating whole new pockets and paths to delve into without stepping on anyone s toes.
At Hootsuite there are so many opportunities right now where I know I can have an impact and make the product better. That s why I m here. Korey Gannon Talent Advisor
5. A Holistic Life Our quality of life is supported at work. There are things at the office like yoga, fresh juice, organic fruit, dogs, a gym and a nap room not because it s a gimmick or because everyone is doing it, but because we are already people who pursue a healthy lifestyle and work-life balance.
6. Freedom At Hootsuite there is a culture of trust. We are given autonomy to get our work done. No one is monitoring when I take my lunch or punch in...or out. And that s what frees us to go beyond expectations.
Im living a dream as the founder and CEO of Hootsuite. Our product touches billions of people and I m surrounded by an amazing team who loves innovation as much as I do. Ryan Holmes Founder & CEO
The Peepsbook As a Hootsuite employee, we want you to have this Peepsbook to guide you in your journey. What is the Peepsbook? It s a passionate, united expression of What We Do, How We Do It, and most importantly How We #BSU.
We Are Pioneers We never set out to build a product that was going to help a protester in Egypt have a voice; it was really about making a good product to help people it still is. We re proud to be at the forefront of the social revolution, a one-of-its-kind company with top talent in the city. country. globe. In this way, we are pioneers. This all contributes to our shared sense of purpose. Paul Donnelly Principal UX Designer (and one of Hootsuite s first 4 employees)
Being at Hootsuite in the beginning was akin to walking into Vivienne Westwood s SEX shop and witnessing the Sex Pistols learn how to play their first 3 chords. Hootsuite is a special and highly unique experience that we all feel lucky to be a part of. It feels great to be a part of an unprecedented success on such a huge trajectory. We all have this sense we are in the midst of having a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When will we ever experience this again in our lives? Chris Trottier Strategist, Alternative Growth Channels
Who Thrives at Hootsuite? People who like to experiment and always try new things. People who thrive at Hootsuite are passionate, driven, hustlers; entrepreneurial by nature. People who are self-directed and self- motivated. People who never rest until the job is done.
We celebrate our diversity and pride ourselves on it We re hustlers in that we hustle by nature. We just do it. Our focus is on getting it done. Because if you can t ship it, it s irrelevant. We refuse to be cogs in the wheel. We are agile and don t waste time in countless meetings. We are egoless, resourceful, and driven by purpose. We are people who see possibilities over limitations. Beier Cai Director of Technology
We are our own vibrant community of artists, builders, dreamers, and everything else.
What We Do We give customers a voice they didn t have before social media. We can help empower businesses and people to turn messages into meaningful relationships. Hootsuite was perfectly positioned to ride the social wave. We built a product that filled the void faster and better than anyone else. We ve been ahead of the game from the start, learning, reiterating, improving on social media technologies. It s a great place to be. (To top it off, we get to work with cool customers who similarly get the potential of new tools like social and have open minds.) Being in this advantageous position, we ve become an advocate for businesses who want to evolve.
We are part of a revolutionary change in communication. We have the potential to change the way people around the world interact on a large scale.
In this space were the most legit tech company. We re like the Google of social media. Purposeful Work We live and breathe social media. We grew up on it, and it s in our DNA. We know social media inside and out, and we want to share our experiences with others. It s a culture thing, it s a product thing, it s a people thing. We have a strong engineering culture, a real respect for the product and we re not just in it to make some cash and get out. At Hootsuite, we are building something with a purpose: It s a product, a solution, a community, an industry. Mo Zahid Lead Analyst, Online Revenue
