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On any given workday, you may discover Whatnot workers hawking buying and selling playing cards, attire, or different gadgets on the digital live-shopping app. They’re not slacking on the job or attempting to make lease—they’re really evaluated on whether or not they’ve hung out promoting and shopping for on the app.
“We solely exist to the extent that we offer our prospects a variety of worth,” says cofounder and CEO Grant LaFontaine. “If you wish to construct a customer-centered tradition, it’s a must to really observe by on constructing one and inject it all over the place you presumably can within the group.”
At Whatnot, which launched in 2019, concentrate on the client begins with the hiring course of. “When you interview at Whatnot, someplace alongside your interview pathway, somebody’s going to ask you, ‘Have you ever used the app? What do you concentrate on it? What may very well be improved?’” LaFontaine says. “We wish to see that you simply really use it, you perceive it, and you possibly can suppose by the lens of a buyer.”
Strive earlier than they purchase
As soon as employed, each one of many firm’s greater than 1,000 full-time workers is required to reply buyer assist tickets every quarter, plus promote and purchase on the app. The corporate gives $150 in credit to make purchases and lets workers do their required shopping for and promoting on firm time.
Many firms say they interact in “dogfooding,” a time period derived from the phrase “consuming our personal pet food,” or testing one’s personal merchandise. Enterprise tech giants akin to Microsoft and Cisco have regularly touted the best way they used their very own instruments to drive productivity.
However few firms mandate dogfooding the best way Whatnot does. LaFontaine says no worker can “meet expectations” on their efficiency opinions in the event that they fail to buy and promote on the app and reply buyer queries. LaFontaine has gone stay and offered Pokémon playing cards and toys. Final quarter, he offered some Whatnot swag and donated the proceeds to charity.
LaFontaine says that his personal stints as a vendor have helped him perceive the ache factors some prospects might expertise, akin to the problem of attempting to stay composed on digicam whereas additionally queuing up extra listings—a problem he has inspired his product groups to handle. He notes that when product groups add new options for sellers, they will get fast suggestions to coworkers who’re energy sellers—some workers promote 1000’s of things a month. The shopper service groups who discuss to patrons and sellers are extra fluent in fixing issues as a result of they’ve hands-on expertise within the app.
Tradition-keeping in motion
Whatnot’s strategy seems to be paying off. The corporate says 20 million new accounts had been created final 12 months; the app hosted greater than 500,000 hours of stay exhibits in December 2025, up 186% from a 12 months earlier.
LaFontaine says he has no plans to desert the dogfooding requirement as the corporate scales. Actually, he says, “As you get greater, it’s a must to be extra stringent. It turns into simpler for individuals to cover, and it’s tougher for the tradition to cascade by so many layers.” Certainly, some workers have began to query the coverage, saying that they’re too busy or that they need to be rewarded for doing wonderful work with out participating on the app. “We haven’t wavered,” he says. “And I maintain myself to the identical commonplace. Actually, I need to go stay within the subsequent couple of weeks or I’m going to overlook my deadline.”
I requested LaFontaine how he’d advise CEOs who could be attempting to introduce or reintroduce a buyer focus into their firms. He acknowledges that the duty could be tough for some organizations, however buyer obsession is desk stakes for any enterprise that aspires to excellence. “When you’re going to construct an ideal enterprise, you could have to [focus on customers],” he says. “I might advise individuals to do it sooner relatively than later, construct it all over the place, and take it severely. And it begins with the CEO and the management crew.”
Programming word
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