Welcome to the team! We are thrilled to have you on board. At Expanly, we are building The Control Layer for Retail Growth — the bridge between commercial strategy and advertising execution. Our mission is to ensure that growth investment flows to the products that matter most to your business, not just the ones algorithms choose to optimize.
Our framework is simple: Discover where money actually goes. Define what matters to the business. Deliver strategy into execution, every day.
You've joined a company built for the modern, global landscape. We operate on a remote-friendly model, anchored by our headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. This structure is a deliberate choice, designed to empower our teams in the best possible way. We bring our leadership and product development teams together in Helsinki to foster deep, in-person collaboration and innovation. Simultaneously, we build our sales and customer success teams remotely, embedding them in the markets they serve. This approach allows us to be both deeply connected at our core and globally expansive in our reach. No matter your location, our culture is built on trust, providing you with the autonomy and flexibility to do your best work.
This playbook is your guide to navigating Expanly. It is our single source of truth for our culture, processes, and ways of working. Read it, question it, and help us improve it. We build our product iteratively, and we build our company the same way.
I. Our Hybrid Foundation: The "Why" and "How"
A. Our Philosophy: Blending Collaboration and Global Reach
Our decision to operate with a central headquarters in Helsinki, complemented by a global remote team, is a direct extension of our business strategy. We are building a global product for global clients, and our operational model is designed to maximize both deep, collaborative innovation and expansive market presence.
Global Ambition Requires the Best Talent: Our goal is to scale aggressively, first in the Nordics and then globally. To do this, we need the world's best talent. We believe the optimal way to achieve this is through a dual approach:
- A Helsinki Headquarters for Innovation: Our core product and leadership teams are based in our Helsinki HQ. This deliberate co-location is essential for the deep, fast-paced collaboration required to build a category-defining product.
- A Global Remote Team for Market Reach: For our sales and customer success teams, we hire the best talent directly in the markets they serve.
Strategic and Capital Efficient: In the early stages of a SaaS company, every resource matters. Our hybrid model allows us to allocate capital intelligently. We invest in a world-class headquarters to serve as our innovation hub, while avoiding the massive overhead of physical offices in every market. Our employee stock option program ensures you have a direct stake in our collective success.
Deep Focus for Intelligent Work: The problems we solve are complex. Building the Control Layer — a platform that gives clients strategic control over their growth investment — requires deep, uninterrupted focus from our team. Our processes and communication structures are designed to be an "interruption factory" antidote.
B. Our Core Principles in Action
These principles are the foundation of how we work together. They are not just words; they are the basis for our daily decisions.
- Be the Client's Champion: Our success is a direct result of our clients' success. Every decision we make should be weighed against the question: "How does this help our clients win?"
- Driven by Outcomes: We measure success by the impact you make, not the hours you work. We set clear goals and trust you to deliver.
- Ownership is Decision Rights: Our positioning — "Reclaim Decision Rights over growth investment" — applies to you, too. You are the owner of your domain. We provide you with the context and goals, and we trust you with the decision rights to execute.
- Transparency by Default: We use public channels for discussion and document decisions openly to ensure everyone can understand the "why" behind the "what."
C. Communication Principles
- Handbook-First: This playbook is the central repository for all our processes and knowledge. If you have a question, check the handbook first. If the answer isn't here, flag it to your manager so we can add it.
- Asynchronous by Default: We default to communication that does not require an immediate response. Real-time meetings are a valuable resource, used intentionally, not as a default.
II. Working at Expanly: The Lifeblood of Expanly
In a hybrid work environment, effective communication is more crucial than ever. Using the right tool for the job is essential to maintaining our pace and clarity.
A. The Right Tool for the Job
Notion (The Knowledge Base & Customer Hub)
- Purpose: Our long-term memory. The single source of truth for documentation. It also acts as the hub for customer intelligence through synced databases.
- Good for: Company playbooks, team wikis, structured knowledge bases, customer databases (synced from HubSpot), meeting notes, and process documentation.
- Key Habit: Keep pages organized within their team spaces. Update documentation when processes change.
Google Workspace (Collaboration & Working Documents)
- Purpose: Our workspace for collaborative documents, financial models, and presentations.
- Good for: Collaborative editing (Docs), financial models and data analysis (Sheets), presentations (Slides), and shared file storage (Drive).
Slack (The Digital Office)
- Purpose: Informal, real-time conversations and quick social interactions. It's our hallway and our water cooler.
- Good for: Quick questions, urgent alerts, daily standups, and non-work-related chatter (#random).
- Not for: Making decisions, official task assignments, or storing important information.
Linear (The Product Development Engine)
- Purpose: The single source of truth for all product development work — bug tracking, feature development, and the product roadmap.
HubSpot (The Growth Engine & Customer Success Hub)
- Purpose: The single source of truth for all customer-facing activities, including sales, marketing, and customer success.
- Good for: Managing our sales pipeline, tracking deals, logging all communication with prospects and clients. Customer data is synced from HubSpot to Notion for team-wide visibility.
B. Asynchronous by Default: Protecting Time & Focus
- Provide Full Context: Never just say "Hi" in Slack. Write out your full thought with as much context as possible.
- Default to Public Channels: This makes information accessible to everyone and prevents knowledge silos.
- Acknowledge and Set Expectations: A simple emoji reaction is a great way to acknowledge a message.
C. The Art of the Meeting: A Deliberate Choice
Meetings are the most expensive form of communication. We treat them as a deliberate choice, not a default. Every meeting must have a clear owner, agenda, and desired outcome.
D. Our Communication Cadence
- Daily Async Standups (Slack): Each team posts a brief update in their Slack channel by 10:00 local time. Standard format: Yesterday — your key accomplishment; Today — your main focus; Blockers — anything preventing progress (if none, write "None.").
- Weekly Team Syncs (Synchronous): Each functional team has one weekly tactical meeting.
- Weekly "Company Pulse" Meeting (Synchronous): Our one mandatory all-hands meeting, held every Friday. Standard agenda: 1) Key Topics from each department; 2) KPI Snapshot; 3) Open Q&A.
E. Foundational Policies for Global Communication
- Our Official Language is English: All written communication in shared channels (Slack), documentation (Notion, Google Workspace), and internal tools must be in English.
- Our Reference Time Zone is EET/EEST (Helsinki Time).
III. Growth & Development: Our Build-Measure-Learn Cycle
Our entire company operates as a single, integrated learning machine. We build, we measure, and we learn — across product, sales, marketing, and customer success.
A. Product Development: The "Build" Engine (Scrum)
The Product team operates in a lightweight Scrum framework, managed in Linear.
- Sprints: Two-week cycles.
- Linear Board: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, In Progress, Review, Done.
- Key Events: Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-ups (async in Slack #dev-standup), Sprint Review, Retrospective.
B. Marketing & Sales: The "Measure" and "Learn" Frontline
- Hypothesis Testing: Every sales call and marketing campaign is an experiment.
- Data Capture: HubSpot is our lab notebook.
- The Output: Key learnings feed the Lean process.
C. Customer Success: Closing the Learning Loop
Customer Success provides the most crucial feedback: how our product performs with actual, paying users.
- Real-World Validation: HubSpot is our system of record for all customer interactions. Customer data is synced automatically into Notion so the wider team has full visibility.
- The Feedback Loop: Insights from Customer Success flow directly back into the product backlog in Linear.
- The Voice of the Customer Channel (#voice-of-the-customer): A dedicated Slack channel where we share noteworthy feedback — positive testimonials, insightful feature requests and key learnings. Every employee is encouraged to follow this channel.
IV. Daily Life & Practices: Growing Together
Our success is built by our people. We are as intentional about our people operations as we are about our product development.
A. Onboarding: Your First 90 Days at Expanly
- Before Day One: You'll receive all necessary hardware and a personalized onboarding plan. We'll help you get set up on our core systems (Notion, Google Workspace, Slack, etc.).
- Week One: Immersion. Your primary goals are to read this playbook, get familiar with our product strategy, and understand our company goals. You will be assigned a dedicated "Tutor."
- Your 30-60-90 Day Plan: A clear ramp-up plan agreed with your manager during the first week.
B. Feedback & Growth: Continuous Improvement
- Feedback flows in all directions. We encourage direct, constructive, and kind feedback.
- Clear Writing is a Core Skill: The ability to communicate ideas clearly in writing is a core competency.
C. Well-being & Flexibility: Sustaining Our Engine
- Your Work, Your Schedule: Outside of core collaboration meetings, you are the owner of your time.
- Communication Boundaries: We use Slack's "Do Not Disturb" features and respect them.
D. Building Connection: We Are More Than Just Our Work
- Virtual Social Spaces: #random for sharing hobbies, weekend plans, and anything non-work-related.
- Annual Company Retreats: The entire company gets together in person. The company covers all travel, lodging, and primary meal costs.
- Helsinki-Based Collaboration: The office is a hub for strategy sessions and deep project work.
- Remote Team Workshops: Remote-first teams have the budget to organize in-person workshops 1-4 times per year.
- Cross-Functional Summits: Remote team members may be brought to Helsinki for key planning sessions. Company covers all costs.
V. Time Off: Recharging Your Battery
We believe in the importance of taking time off to recharge and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Here are the policies and practices we follow:
A. Vacation Policy
- Annual Vacation: Full-time employees are entitled to 25 days of paid vacation per year.
- Sick Leave: Employees can take up to 10 days of paid sick leave per year.
- Personal Days: Employees can take up to 5 personal days per year for non-vacation-related absences.
B. Requesting Time Off
- Advance Notice: We encourage employees to request time off at least two weeks in advance to ensure smooth planning.
- Approval Process: Time off requests should be submitted to your manager for approval.
C. Remote Work and Work-Life Balance
- Flexible Work Arrangements: Our employees can work from anywhere in the world, with the flexibility to choose their work location.
- Work-Life Balance: We prioritize work-life balance and encourage employees to take time off when needed.
A Living Document
This playbook is a living document. It is not meant to be a static set of rules, but a reflection of our current best thinking on how to operate effectively.
As we grow, we will learn, adapt, and improve. We expect you to challenge the ideas here and contribute to making this playbook (and our company) better. If you see something that is unclear, incorrect, or could be improved, it is your responsibility to raise it.
Welcome to Expanly. Let's get to work.