All of our team members are characterized by one prevailing trait: thoughtfulness. We search for thoughtful individuals because its dual meanings capture everything we’re looking for in team members.

Thoughtfulness can be turned outwards, towards others, from an understanding that one’s blessings and talents are best used in service of those less lucky than themselves. This kind of thoughtfulness underpins everything we do. We’re built on top of the simple idea that luck shouldn’t determine one’s success in life and that it’s our task to build the kind of institutions that fight this. Everything we do from our product sourcing model to how we invest in women to build schools arises from these beliefs. Fulfilling this mission means having an organization staffed with people who will make no compromises in the pursuit of creating real impact.

Thoughtfulness can also be turned inwards, towards our own ideas. We look for thoughtful individuals who are constantly examining their own (and our company’s) assumptions. At our organization we see all truth as provisional and constantly try to discover the ways in which we’re mistaken, frequently changing and fine-tuning our model to adapt to and reflect reality. We want individuals who will continuously question, think, and debate – using their unique viewpoint to help our organization best achieve its mission.

Put simply, because we hire entrepreneurs and treat our team members like it. We firmly believe that the best employees are those using skill sets they’ve developed themselves working towards ends they’ve set and personally believe in. For this reason we generally don’t hire for specific functions or roles. We find talented and passionate people we want to work with and let them carve a niche out within our organization. In this sense our organization is more so shaped and guided by the nature of the people we choose to work with than by some set of top down processes.

Stemming from this is a demanding but flexible work environment. You’ll see people in the office at all hours helping with whatever tasks they think they can personally add value to, knowing that their efforts directly translate into true impact in some of the world’s poorest communities.