Spotlight: Runway
Learn about what it's like to work at Runway.
What is it really like to work at the fastest-growing companies?
We try to answer that question in the Next Play Spotlight. In particular, we try to find under-the-radar companies and highlight what makes them unique. Our hope is that documenting these sorts of behind-the-scenes details (which never make it to press releases) can help you a) discover more interesting opportunities and b) inspire you to think creatively (for your own endeavors).
Spotlight: Runway
This spotlight is on Runway Financial. Thanks to the Runway team for sharing behind-the-scenes details and supporting next play.
Runway is a modern financial platform that lets you easily model, plan, and align your business for everyone on your team. Siqi Chen is the founder/CEO/CFO of Runway. Much of the inspiration behind Runway came from personal experience: “Even as a 4-time CEO and 3-time founder, I've always been insecure about my understanding of the business side of things. I didn't think of myself as a "business person." I didn't even know what contribution margin meant until I was responsible for the metric at Postmates.”
“Fast forward to March 2020, I was just appointed CEO of a company called Sandbox VR. COVID hit, and we immediately had to scramble. Our CFO and I were scenario planning in Excel: what happens if COVID lasts 3 months? 6 months? 2 years? Long story short, we had to lay off most of the company and hibernate. And so that's what we did. About half an hour after I laid myself off, I asked our CFO Akash if there wasn't something better we would have used, because the experience of making copies of spreadsheets and finding bugs in them really sucked. And he told me it's pretty much spreadsheets or ugly enterprise software, that's it.”
“Why hasn't dealing with financials in a company changed at all? In a world where Figma and Notion exist, that seems like an opportunity. And so we started Runway.”
It’s the sort of pain point that anyone who has run a company (or a department or a side project etc.) can surely empathize with: no one really starts a company because they think it’ll be fun spending their day frustratedly clicking through cells trying to get a formula to work. Yet nearly every company, founder, and really every stakeholder associated with the business (from executive to individual contributor) wishes they had a higher fidelity view of “the business side” of things, so they could make more informed decisions.
So Runway, at least to us, is less of a company that needs to wonder whether or not people have these pain points—because we know that they do—it’s more about can this particular team, with this particular culture, and this particular vision…can they deliver on the *correct* set of solutions and execute in the correct way?
We spoke to lots of people from the company to understand: what’s it like to work at Runway? And perhaps more importantly: is this team set up to win?
In talking to people about the style and feeling of working at the company, a common feeling that was pointed out was that people at Runway “give a shit.” There’s a reason “giving a shit” is the team’s number one cultural value.
“Give a shit -- it shows up in all the little details. An intrinsic need to make the product better (found a bug? fix it). A customer has a problem? Whoever is online even if not on the CX team will respond and try to unblock them. The people team planning a company offsite? They make sure it is unique, memorable, and accounts for the various people preferences and backgrounds. Hiring a new candidate? Let's make sure they have enough time and space to ask questions and learn about the company. Give a shit is really hard to teach. It is the fire within each of us to have impact.”
“It almost sounds trite, but people who feel true investment and ownership in their work are rare. We try to honor and leverage that ownership in everything we do, from how we compensate people to how we organize our work.”
“It's all in the details, we care about the experience for our customers and don't shy away from the unknown.”
A lot of this care comes directly from Siqi (their founder/CEO). He cares a lot about helping Runway build the best possible product, but more than that: wants to be the most effective leader possible.
“He deeply cares about the craft in whatever he does: writing stories, the product design, the website design, our sales pitch, our marketing assets, our swag. And it is very contagious. Everyone in the team organically starts to care about it more.”
“I felt empowered to do the nerve-wracking thing of asking our CEO if I could give him some personal feedback. He said yes, we had a more direct and honest conversation than we'd ever had, he adjusted his behavior, and he was extremely appreciative that I'd been confident enough to bring it up. This is true leadership to me.”
“Siqi, like the rest of us, is constantly learning and growing. It's refreshing to be able to have candid conversations and know he approaches these conversations from a place of sincerity in wanting to learn. He's open-minded, kind, and takes feedback seriously. He empowers his team by supporting their goals and providing agency to them to run each of their respective departments. He also has some amazing stories!”
“Siqi is an incredible product visionary and storyteller, and I've learned so much from having worked with him. Despite being extraordinarily busy, he's generous with his time; he's sincere when he tells people that he's only a Slack away. But the thing I admire most about Siqi is that he always does the right thing by employees in the company, even when nobody is watching. A CEO with integrity is the bedrock of a strong company culture, and we're lucky to have Siqi steering the ship.”
It’s not just Siqi, people seem to also really admire the leadership team:
“Extremely experienced, mature, and intentional. My experience with them definitely mirrors their resumes on paper (take a look for yourself). In particular, I really appreciate how our leadership team seems to be one-step ahead–usually if I observe a problem, they’ve already started working on a solution.”
“The leadership team is also extremely transparent, more so than I've ever seen. Every year, we participate in a culture survey with an outside party which includes specific questions about the leadership team. Results are compiled and then shared in full with the team to evaluate what can be done better. I love that we do this and think it's a huge effort in building trust.”
“The leadership team is agile and action-oriented, adapting quickly as we grow and evolve. They're great at making clear, decisive moves while keeping the bigger vision in focus. They excel at empowering the team to take ownership, move fast, and iterate as new data comes in.”
They want everyone at the company to bring this level of care - to work quickly, break through walls, and remain curious:
“Be curious - Things are fast-moving and there are a ton of problems to be solved. Being confident enough to dive in, be curious, and ask questions is the best way to learn.”
“Take ownership - Radical ownership is something that is preached often at Runway. If there's something you want to be done, own it, present it, document it. Feel empowered to take the reins and drive things forward.”
“People who are relentless about overcoming the small frictions that doom communication are disproportionately successful at Runway. That looks like getting past the fear around asking a dumb question, being willing to be disagreeable when it feels like our priorities are misaligned, and pushing yourself to communicate precisely even when lazy communication feels easier. Particularly in a remote company, great communication is vital to keeping everybody on the same page.”
“We have a slack channel where anyone can drop any questions about anything so you're not fumbling around trying to think about who you can ask about this specific thing or where it belongs...it's hard sleuthing through a bunch of documents that might be quickly outdated, so getting in the habit of dropping in an asking some questions is a great way to get up to speed.”
The team at-large feels very committed to the idea of self-improvement. For the past four years, they’ve brought the same independent consultant who “audits” the culture of the company (through surveys and interviews). At this point, the consultant is very familiar with the company - really understands the context and can see where positive changes have been implemented across the company. Everyone wants to be as effective as possible.
It’s this level of openness and care that the team hopes will lead to changing the finance industry. In talking to people, a lot of the motivation for why they joined the company came down to a) the people and b) recognizing that this was such a massive (and frankly obvious for anyone who has used legacy business finance tools) opportunity:
“I deeply resonated with the mission of the Company to make finance more accessible. I had the benefit of being an early Customer of Runway when I was running Finance at a different startup. I saw first hand how using Runway helps companies make better decisions. I loved the product and the team so much that I decided to join the Crew!”
“I joined on day 1 in April 2020 as a consultant to help Runway with their books. I did not come on full time until May 2021. I joined because I was intrigued by Runway's product and how they approached the very real problem that exists in the finance industry. There is a disconnect between how we as finance professionals think about forecasting, planning, and running the business and the way operators or other departments in the company may use financial data. I wanted to drive change in the industry and within the company using my experience and this led me to join Runway full time.”
“Finance is a function that is never going to go away but it's long been siloed, misunderstood and, frankly, intimidating. Runway changes that. We deeply believe that everyone in a given company should understand how their business works. Finance should be accessible and flexible to all, not just to some. If this resonates and you want to work alongside incredibly smart, driven, fun folks who really give a shit about their work and the mission, reach out to us.”
“The design problems and philosophies at Runway are fascinating. We’re building something as powerful and flexible as Excel, but also as intuitive and easy-to-use as Notion… So what are the right abstractions and primitives to expose to the user? The design questions that arise when building what we call “a tool for thought,” which allows users to easily express their thinking in Runway, have been a ton of fun!”
The team is growing quickly -- but they want to make sure that each person who joins is values and mission-aligned.
Their interview process is designed to give the candidate lots of time to talk to people across the company.
“Runway’s interview process was one of the most structured and well-organized I’ve encountered. The team is incredibly thoughtful about assigning specific competencies to each interviewer, ensuring that every area of expertise is thoroughly evaluated. They also place a strong emphasis on assessing cultural fit and values alignment, making sure that every candidate is evaluated holistically throughout the process.”
One reason they try to really align on values and style is because the company is remote-first. Note that when we see remote-first, it means they support remote work but also they have 4 in-person weeks a year (2 offsites, 2 more informal gatherings) + they have co-working spaces in both NYC and SF (where folks come in 2-3 times a week usually but it’s not mandated).
“As a remote company, culture has to be really intentional. It's not something that just happens and I really treasure the culture at Runway. From the beginning, there have daily moments built into our weeks to reinforce a strong culture--Lunch & Learns for personal journeys of ourselves, kudos at every all hands, monthly events.”
Lots of people mention how amazing their offsites have been (both for culture building and also just for fun):
“The biggest culture builder though is our bi-annual offsite. It's part strategy but also part team building. Being remote, it's so, so important to have time to focus on things that are most impactful in person during the few times a year when you can BE in person, and this doesn't always mean the day-to-day work. This means there's a lot of exercises built around feedback, learning styles, inquiry, and fun! It's really great to know and like who you work with.”
“Our first offsite was to Maui, Hawaii in 2022. It was the first time all of us were able to be in the same place (ugh COVID) and was just such a wonderful time. There was a little bit of work talk but it was mostly about bonding with each other and spending time with teammates that we'd only known via Zoom.”
“Hawaii was the first time, of now many, participating in Runway karaoke (ask Siqi for a sampling of My Shot from Hamilton).”
“We've had a lot of fun together over the years -- winery tours, walking around the National Mall, seeing David Copperfield -- but the best individual memory was definitely when we did the Fruit by the Foot challenge.”
Runway is hiring for roles across engineering and go-to-market (which includes a range of positions, for example: account executive, customer experience manager, and growth manager). You can learn more and apply here.