A spotlight on Browserbase
Where you can work hard while having fun
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Hiring is challenging for both sides. Employers want to find the best candidates: smart, effective people who can get important work done. Candidates want to find the best companies: growing, successful businesses who will achieve impactful missions.
There are many questions you could answer to help you make the right decision during this process. Questions like: “Is this going to be the right fit?” and “What is the long-term outcome of this going to be?” A lot of people try to answer these questions and drive their decision-making based on logic. People try to optimize for the most _logically correct_ choice. Like a diligent investor, they try to make the decision using their brain.
This all makes sense. At least on paper. But once you try to actually make a decision this way—you have probably attempted!—you start to realize that something seems to be missing.
It turns out that choosing where to work is a product of both logic AND largely influenced by an emotional connection. An emotional connection to the work. To the people. To the mission. To the “vibe.”
The emotional side can be hard to make sense of: it is tough to describe with words and has a quality without a name to it. But at the end of the day, what the emotional side represents can be summarized as a “vibe.” A feeling you get when you think about the opportunity to work with/for a person.
And so when we talk to companies about hiring, and when we talk to candidates about where they want to work, we try to unpack from people “what vibe are they after?”
It is pretty obvious in talking to people when they are leaving out “feelings” from their process. Fast forward 6 months and you ask them how their new role is working out and a lot of the time you hear a version of: “It all sounded like a good idea but it ended up not being the right fit.”
It is also obvious when the opposite is true: when companies and people make logical decisions while incorporating a “vibe check” into their process. The result is under-ratedly magical—there is nothing quite like taking on an ambitious mission alongside people you actually like (and trust).
It’s a really really simple, obvious idea—work with people you actually like—but it so often gets overlooked. Working with people you enjoy spending time with makes the highs higher and the lows bearable. And startups, even the most successful ones, have highs and yes plenty of lows.
And so this essay exists for two reasons: 1) to remind you to “consider the vibes” before making a career decision and 2) to shine light on a company that’s seemingly prioritizing and crushing the people side of the equation.
And that’s Browserbase. Browserbase powers web browsing capabilities for AI agents and applications. With their headless browser infrastructure, developers can build features that interact with websites, fill out forms, and replicate user actions. They reached $1M+ ARR in less than 10 months last year, raised $67.5m from top venture capital firms, and are continuing to grow quickly.
But we are not here to talk about their product or numbers. You can check those out here and here and here. We are focused on the “Vibe.” We wanted to know what it is actually like to work at Browserbase?
And as we spent more time with the company, we became specifically curious about: Why is it that every team member we spoke with could not stop raving about their culture?
All that and more below. Thanks again to the Browserbase team for sharing behind-the-scenes details with us.
At the end of the day, startups come down to people. People build companies. People break companies. People make the difference. And to make a not particularly controversial idea explicit: people are not machines. Yes, people can (and often want to) work hard. Get stuff done. Etc. But they also want to have fun. To enjoy their lives.
The team at Browserbase does not see those two ideas—working hard and enjoying life—in opposition.
People at Browserbase seem to work very hard while having lots of fun. We may even venture to say that it would be impossible to get a large group of people together to work extremely hard for a long-period of time (like they do at Browserbase) if they were not enjoying their journey.
Well how is this possible? How can you get people to enjoy themselves while working an extremely demanding job?
The simple answer is to create an environment where people can be themselves and authentically connect with one another.
Paul, CEO and founder of Browserbase, cares deeply about creating a great culture:
“I always describe Browserbase as an emotionally vulnerable company. The most common issue that challenges rapidly scaling startups is team dynamics. I've spent a lot of time as the founder focusing on how we can learn to work really well together. That's resulted in a really tight knit, high trust culture.”
This approach enables people to actually connect with one another: to be their true selves and enjoy spending time with one another.
A lot of this time ends up being productive work. People spend a lot of time working. Shipping features. Talking to customers. Selling to prospects. Building.
“You know, this is an opt-in work-hard culture, so the core hours are 10am to 5pm, but everybody kinda does what they need to do to get stuff done. Everyone's always coming out with new stuff. They're pushing it. They're going for it. I think that in general at Browserbase we are all-in people. If you are considering being that, then I don't think there's any better place really.”
“With everyone working in the office together, we also get together for discussions/brainstorming sessions daily, so that everyone knows what's happening and can provide their perspective on decisions.”
But some of the time is designed to be space. Not for OKRs. Not for analysis. But space for connection. Space to just be yourself and get to know one another.
“We were in Napa for our first ever offsite. We took a few different cars over and had an hour or so to spare before heading to lunch. To everyone else's surprise, the first group took the liberty of starting an 11am whiskey tasting - it didn't matter that not everyone drank (including myself!), the laughs as we arrived at that first stop set the tone for the fun ahead. We spent the whole weekend exploring vineyards, playing games, eating well and and enjoying each other's company.”
“Shortly after joining, Browserbase was turning 1 year old. The team organized the Browserbase Olympics, which consisted on a few weeks long series of games that got everyone together to enjoy some time off work. Some of the games included going through a circuit of challenges in pairs, one person blindfolded and the other one guiding them, making paper planes in a minute and seeing whose plane flies furthest, and other fun games. We all had a great time!”
“We had an offsite where we focused on revamping our docs. We were locked in for the weekend, yet somehow managed to have the best time doing it. We were writing docs in the sun and the views, had night drives to dinner and Dune movie nights."
“I have noticed that everyone at the company has a good sense of humor. I don't know what that is or how to get that. I think it's a deeper approach and appreciation of life to notice the funny things about it and a privilege to be able to share those moments with other people.”
The mix of the two—serious and unserious time at work—leads to the development of strong, authentic connections:
“I didn't expect everyone to be so cool! Coworkers, yes, but also friends :)”
“I think Browserbase is interesting as a business, but that's not why I would join. The reason why I would join is because of the people who work here. You know, as people say, 'If you show me your friends, I'll show you your future.' I think that the most important thing that we can choose in our working lives and our lives in general is who it is we want to spend our time with. The culture of this place and of the people in it are the personal values I want to hold: being optimistic, believing in people, going after challenges, being dedicated, being transparent, being curious, having a good sense of humor, feeling like you have the license to change things - of going through this adventure with a like-minded group of people.”
“Everyone relies on each other at Browserbase, from what I have seen. The company culture is more so like a family rather than just co-workers.”
And authentic connection can lead to a collaborative, productive environment. It’s hard to work with people you don’t know. Not just because you don’t know their skills, but it’s hard to know how to trust strangers. That’s a major benefit of building that authentic foundation—real relationships. It’s not just more enjoyable. It’s actually more effective for knowing how to collaborate and get things done.
“Everyone is super supportive, coming from a role previous where collaboration was frowned upon, it was extremely nice to have people to help with tasks when youre truly stuck.”
“People are working on their own projects, people are happy to ask each other questions.”
“The culture is hardworking and honest. People really care about doing good work, but they’re also open, collaborative, and down-to-earth.”
“Engineering culture is a passion of mine. When created and fostered with conscious care, I think it's a decisive advantage for attracting the very best engineering talent and delivering the best product at the highest velocity. A foundational value here is creating a high-trust environment that creates safety all for us to be real human beings--the kind that sometimes make mistakes or don't know everything. The sense of safety that can emerge from this leads to authenticity. We disambiguate responsibility and culpability from toxic blame/shame dynamics. We're creating a strong ownership culture. This is a very challenging and hard driving environment and we want to make this as close to an engineering paradise as possible.”
“All your co-workers are going to be awesome and approachable. Don't be shy or afraid to talk to them or ask for help, because if you're working here, everyone else is like you in at least SOME way (usually more than just one way,) and you'll love connecting with the rest of the team, be it to tackle a work project, or something more casual.”
Collaboration can work best when people share a goal or mission. When they understand not just the what to do but also the why and how. This helps you avoid locally optimizing and instead thinking about globally—horizontally—optimal solutions.
At Browserbase, people, no matter the particular role or department, seem to be very bought into the company’s long-term mission:
“AI is going to do work on our behalf. And most of the work we do happens in a web browser. Browserbase powers web browsing capabilities for AI, where AI agents are completing tasks for you. The next billion dollar company will be built on Browserbase. And you have a chance to join us early on as we scale our company from 20 people to 50 in 2025. Growth like this is incredibly rare, and a team like this is even rarer. I hope you can join us!”
“Everyone has a strong desire to make Browserbase all it can be, and we have fun while doing so.”
“I’ve loved being able to pitch design ideas to engineers and have them respond with genuine interest and thoughtful feedback—it feels like everyone’s on the same team, pushing toward the same goal.”
“Come to build the future of the web.”
You have probably worked at companies where your colleagues seem to not really care about what’s going on. You can try all the tactics you want to motivate them but nothing seems to work.
This is not an issue when you get the vibes right—like they seem to have at Browserbase: the people there actually care about the company. They care about the product. The customers. The mission. They also care about the other people who work at the company. This all leads to a “do whatever it takes mindset.”
“Early stage companies like Browserbase reward self-starters, curious minds, and strong communicators. The backlog of features, products, and fixes is endless. You're encouraged to fill any gap so long as you can articulate the business value and customer impact.”
“Hank Taylor, an investor and my former manager, likes to call great early stage hires "hyphen hires". You'll really thrive at Browserbase if you can do two or three things really well. You also should like moving fast and working hard.”
This includes Paul, their CEO:
“Paul is one of the hardest-working CEOs I’ve met—he’s incredibly down-to-earth and always listens with an open mind. He genuinely looks out for the people on his team, sees their potential, and actively advocates for their growth. He’s not just a great leader, but also a technical founder, which makes a huge difference. He understands the challenges the engineering team faces and can jump in to support when needed. It’s rare and inspiring to see that level of involvement and care from a CEO.”
“My third week at Browserbase Open AI released their "operator" product. The team immediately jumped into action to build "open operator", an open source free version of essentially the same thing, using our technologies, built within 24 hours. Watching our engineers engage with every piece of content on Twitter and watching Paul code from the airplane was so exciting. I've never seen such level of energy and speed at a startup.”
If any of the above resonates with you, Browserbase is hiring for nearly every position at their San Francisco Office: GTM (sales, marketing), engineering, brand, and more. You can learn more and apply here.
Thanks for reading! And if you’re looking to see more from next play, you can head over here where you’ll find lots of under-the-radar content and opportunities.