Don’t y’all have a basketball court?
Whenever I tell people I work at Red Ventures, this is guaranteed to be one of the first questions I get asked. After I tell them that, “yup, we sure do,” I get this inevitable follow-up:
“Do y’all get any work done at that place?”
I usually play it off with a, “we try not to,” but the answer is that we get an astounding amount of work done. They say working here for 6 months is like working anywhere else for 1.5 years. Building websites. Acquiring customers. Market strategizing. Perfecting our sales process. We do a lot.
So yes, you’ll find a basketball court here – and once we break ground on our new building, which we affectionately call RV3, you’ll also find a bowling alley. But, there are some things that you won’t find here.
1. Anyone wearing a tie.
Unless it’s a visitor or a candidate coming for an interview. Other than that, you’re more likely to find flannel, tons of plaid, TOMS, jeans, vests (so many vests) and an array of RV-designed team t-shirts.
Chances are if you wear a tie, a minimum of three people will ask you if you have jury duty.
2. Offices.
Seriously. Ric and Dan (our RV co-founders) are pretty much the only people in our entire corporate headquarters with a legitimate office (and Dan’s doesn’t even really count – it’s basically a meeting room).
Our Senior VPs sit in cubes right next to you. And your desk is inches away from your boss (and your boss’s boss, and their boss). It’s completely open – and that’s intentional. It’s so much easier to collaborate and innovate when the only thing you have to do to share an idea is look up and talk to the people next to you.
Plus that makes the face-sized cookies from our café easier to share.
3. Packed lunches.
We are very spoiled. We have a café with subsidized meals, so you’re looking at $5 for lunch that includes an entrée (sandwich, burger, pizza, salad, pita, wrap etc.), a side (sweet potato/regular fries, caprese salad, fruit, soup, chips, crackers, cookie etc.) and a drink (fountain drink, Gatorade, Propel, Vitamin Water, etc.).
Because we have not one – but two – bistros, it’s kind of hard to bring a packed lunch on a regular basis. Seriously, people challenge themselves to do it. They can’t. The food here is too good. We’ve also got a patio to eat on when the weather is awesome. And because we’re in Charlotte, it’s usually awesome.
4. Bad ideas.
No that doesn’t mean that we are all super geniuses (although we do have a few). It just means we do a lot of brainstorming. Like, a lot. Which means there are no bad ideas. We like to bounce ideas off one another, even if you’re not working on the same team, or even on the same business.
We filter out our best ones, and then get cracking on fleshing it out. Immediately.
5. A rigid trajectory.
A lot of companies have a very strict career path. First this job, then the next position, then the next and so on. But, RV doesn’t like to tell you where you’re going next – we like to figure it out ourselves.
If there’s something you think is missing from RV, just do it. There are a number of us whose jobs didn’t even exist a year ago. We created them because we saw a void that needed to be filled.
That’s the beauty of a company like this – you aren’t boxed in. You get the tools and have the support to explore any opportunity in the company.
6. Dress shoes on the basketball court.
I mean we can’t scuff it up, am I right?
