Full list of benefits:

For those curious, here is our full list of employment benefits*.

• Fully covered medical (includes mental health coverage), dental, and vision insurance

• Flexible working hours (overlap at least 5 hours with the 9am-5pm work day to allow for meetings)

• Paid time off (3 weeks, in addition to a company-wide standard “low power mode” for the last 2 weeks at the end of the calendar year)

• Paid sick leave

• Remote work flexibility

• Family leave

• Life insurance

• 401 (k)

• Disability benefits

*Applicable for full-time employees only

Cultural Values

• Autonomy

• Rest

• Integrity

• Inclusion

• Connection

• Intentionality

• Reflection

• Empathy

• Excellence

• Growth & Evolution

Autonomy: 

We aim to hire amazing people. If we hire you, we trust that you can and will do your best without us watching over you. We believe that certain business practices are antiquated and rooted in historical control of employees, therefore we offer you choice in when, where, and how you work. 

In practice: 

• Flexible hours: You can choose your working hours, but they must overlap 5 hours with the 9am-5pm EST workday to allow for sufficient opportunities for collaboration.

• Flexible location: You don’t have to come into an office. In most of our roles, we offer fully remote options (some roles are based within specific communities and therefore require in-person engagement).

• Minimal required reporting: Because senior leadership does need to be informed of progress, we do require status updates in our project management software on a regular basis. Other than that, we expect that you are doing the work unless otherwise demonstrated. 

• Minimal meetings: We refrain from holding meetings unless it will ease or enhance collaboration/communication for all people involved in the meeting (not just the person communicating information). Usually, you can just say what you need to in Asana or Slack.

Rest: 

In nature, there is an observable state of exertion and rest that takes place, of day & night, waves rising and falling, and even life & death itself. It must be the case then, that we must also do our best to follow this natural cadence and rhythm in our organization.

In practice: 

• No-meeting days & weeks: On Fridays, we don’t take outside meetings at aīre ventures. On the last week of every month, we conduct a “Planning Week” where we don’t take outside meetings. 

• Sufficient vacation time: 3 weeks with the opportunity to build up more time off in your tenure, in addition to a company-wide standard “low power mode” (no meetings, take time off and handle only what you need to wrap up) for the last 2 weeks at the end of the calendar year.

Integrity: 

in·teg·ri·ty

/inˈteɡrədē/

noun

1. the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness
   "he is known to be a [person] of integrity"

2. the state of being whole and undivided
   "upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty"

(Oxford Dictionary)

We expect both qualities from each other as individuals and from the organization as a whole. 

In Practice: 

• Taking accountability for successes and mistakes: We love to celebrate successes, and we don’t shy away from mistakes. None of us is perfect, and mistakes and missteps are normal, but if they are not admitted, how can we learn from them? Once identified, we create space to discuss both successes and errors openly & set concrete plans for improvement together. 

• Integrating values into systems and practices: As you’ll see throughout our culture description, we aim to not only say what our values are but put them into practice. 

• Regular “Culture Checks” during team meetings: Like anyone else, we do get busy working. However, we set out regular time as a team at least once a month to workshop culture topics and how they manifest in the workplace. 

• Transparent communication: 

  • Sharing about the annual and long term direction of the business ahead of time to all team members on a quarterly basis

  • Seeking consensus about important company decisions from all team members, from hiring to shifts in our business strategy. 

Inclusion: 

We aspire to be REDI (racially equitable, diverse and inclusive) and we consistently measure our practices, both qualitatively and quantitatively, to hold ourselves accountable to this imperative. 

In Practice: 

• Inclusive Hiring: Exercise inclusion in our hiring practices*, acutely aware of potential biases, intentionally seeking people whose cultural and professional backgrounds differ from our own (see our team page)

• Seeking those who are absent: When organizing events, choosing partners, or selecting participants in initiatives, we ask, “Who isn’t at the table?”

• Holding our partners accountable: If we see that our partners are not exercising inclusion in a panel, we ask them to increase diverse representation of the panel or choose not to participate in the initiative. 

• Centering traditionally marginalized perspectives: Before launching initiatives, we conduct listening tours, choosing participants from all backgrounds but specifically centering and elevating those who have felt unheard or excluded in the past. 

• Tracking equity: In the data we collect about participants in our initiatives, we are sure to request social identities to understand who we’re serving, giving a critical eye to who’s absent. We also set up dashboards of data to easily analyze this data

*aīre venture’s policy is to provide equal opportunity to all persons without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, citizenship, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, marital status, veteran status, physical or mental disability, genetics, or other protected classes prohibited by applicable law. Further, we take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and employees are treated during employment without regard to any of these characteristics. We do not tolerate discrimination of any type or form.

Connection: 

Whether with each other as team members or with our partners in community, we recognize that change doesn’t happen in a silo. We try to maximize opportunities for meaningful connection between team members that aren’t obligatory after-work-hours Zoom hangouts. 

In practice: 

• Daily team standups: By seeing each other everyday and asking, “What are you grateful for?” to every team member, you can learn a lot about what’s going on in their lives. 

• Monthly 1:1 cafecito among team members: Given that we’re all remote, we set company time aside to meet up for coffee & tea among all team members.

• Onboarding Lunch: When you join the team, you’ll have lunch with us on the first Friday after your start date so we can get to know you better.

• Randomized 1-1 meetups between team members: Using internal software, we make time for each team member to meet others on a 1-1 basis to form deeper relationships, starting with prompts to help dig to meaningful conversations about who they are. 

Intentionality: 

If we don’t know why we’re doing something, we either won’t start it or we’ll put a pause on it. We believe that without clear intention you won’t have the impact you want. 

In Practice: 

• Getting clarity before we start initiatives: We answer the standard 6 questions – i.e. defining the why, who, when, where, what, and how – before starting anything. 

• Setting annual and quarterly goals: During our team retreat each year, we set annual and quarterly goals for the year to come. These change and shift over time, but serve as a compass for all team members to navigate the many demands on our attention. 

• Data-driven impact: We measure our impact using discrete data points that align with our annual goals. We use tech enabled measurement & visualization tools to better understand how they align with our goals. See our REDI Scorecard site for an example. 

Reflection: 

A bias for action can be good, but it can also lead to reactive behavior. We create space for reflection individually and as a company.

In practice: 

• Planning weeks & month: On the last week of every month, we conduct a “Planning Week” where we eliminate external meetings and create space for reflection and planning. In the first month of the year, we do the same.

• Quarterly goal setting: Every quarter we ask team members to reflect on the prior quarter and set strategic goals for the upcoming quarter. 

• End of the year team retreat: We convene our team at the end of the year (including remote full time employees) to reflect on the year and plan for the year ahead. 

• Mid-year and annual team reviews: While team reviews are not unique to our organization, these checkpoints provide opportunities for each team member to recognize successes and provide feedback for improvement to others on the team. 

• Holding post-mortem meetings after projects end: Any initiative is a huge endeavor, and unless time is made to reflect on both successes and improvements to make, we minimize our opportunities for learning. 

Empathy: 

Empathy is the ability to recognize, understand, and share the thoughts and feelings of another person, and it’s core to our work together and with the people that we serve. 

In practice: 

• Recognizing work load in other team members: We ask team members to report on their responsibilities, but we also realize that things change quickly. A common practice in our team is to note when other team members appear to be taking on too much and offering to redistribute work. 

• Demonstrating care and understanding in times of personal stress: We realize that we all live lives outside of work, and sometimes it can be messy. It’s commonplace to ask if people need anything or offer assistance to one another in our team. We also try to demonstrate care through sending gifts or notes. 

• Designing with empathy: In our initiatives, when we’re creating processes, programs, or products that other people will be using, we follow a procedure that puts the end user and their experience first, not how we think they will interact with us. We often interview and listen to a user’s experience or problems first before we take action. 

Excellence: 

Many of the issues that we’re tackling are systemic and complex in nature. In order to have true systemic impact, it requires excellence from each team member. 

In practice: 

• Aligning personal strengths with job roles: We try to place people within roles in which their natural superpowers shine. While we also challenge each person to grow and try different things, we believe that being in a role that fits with what they like to do and are excellent at is more fulfilling. 

• Consistent feedback: When we’re working together, we each have a strong sense of whether or not the work we’ve produced is meeting the needs of the people that we’re serving. Our barometer is not perfection for the sake of approval, but excellence for the sake of impact. If it’s not there yet, we’re honest about the additional work that’s remaining. 

• Rest Periods: Excellence also requires rest. See our “rest” practices above to understand how we integrate it into the team. 

Growth/Evolution: 

We strive to ensure our organizational platform is more than a job. We endeavour to be a place for psychological safety, individual growth and professional evolution.

In Practice: 

• Hold space at team meetings for building character and awareness: Unless we each have a strong degree of self awareness, we cannot become our best selves. We take time once a quarter to build awareness of self, through things like quizzes, surveys, group reflections, analysis, workshops, and any other creative means. 

• Opportunities for visible leadership: In your tenure, it will be expected that you will lead an initiative or project, likely to be public facing in some way. We want to create opportunities for building your visibility & reputation as a leader. 

• Opportunities to experiment and try something different: If a different role, project, or venture has a serious appeal to you or aligns with your personal development goals, you can bring it up with the leadership and we’ll explore the possibility together with you. Many of our team members have shifted roles several times.