We understand that over the last few years working culture has shifted dramatically. We’re big fans of the added flexibility and greater freedom that the new working world brings and recognise that now more than ever, people can make decisions that aren’t pegged to an office location. That’s why remote working has always been an important topic of conversation for our team, and something that our Founders are continually debating and thinking through.
However, there are a few key reasons why we have opted for a hybrid in-office working model at this stage of the Omnea journey, detailed below. It’s a structure that we think will help us build the strongest culture and foundations, while empowering our team with enough freedom and flexibility to do their best work. We suspect it may change in the future (to become more remote/choice-first) but for now, this is where we’ve landed!
In-person interactions result in faster iterations.
By default, remote working naturally has a communication barrier — it’s just that little bit harder to get what you want across. This naturally affects how engineering-heavy teams communicate. For engineers to be as efficient as possible, designs, stories and specifications need to be readily communicated upfront. Until we have the people and systems in place to efficiently and speedily communicate these inputs, it is much faster and easier for us to knowledge-share over the table and ask ad hoc questions as we go.
In order for remote to work well, you need to over-communicate everything.
Over-communication is especially important in the early days when the majority of knowledge exists in only a few peoples minds & there are always new people trying to learn fast! Until the team is larger, and this intimacy and tighter pool of knowledge has been spread out, we feel that the quickest way to get individuals up to speed is to have everyone in the same room... you can literally tap each other on the shoulder to ask a question!
Providing support for more junior members of our team.
In the same vein as above, we want to ensure in these early stages, that all the junior members of our team are properly taken care of and mentored. Everyone should be surrounded by people they can learn from, and this is especially important when you’re early in your career. We have an entirely flat hierarchy and want to encourage natural interaction and learning via osmosis for everyone’s benefit.
A big factor of why people join and then stay at companies is down to the people they are working with.
In our eyes, fully-remote working still has a long way to go when it comes to building a team’s culture from the ground up. Companies have gotten better at this (and we’re also pretty excited by our company-sponsored remote work idea and some of the socials we’re planning!) but we still feel that in the early days, being together in one place a few days a week leads to better team cohesion and culture. Mainly, we’ve realised that everyone joining in these early days is joining to work alongside the current team. Imagine taking the best engineers from each of the best engineering environments in London and putting them in one room — that is literally the team we’re building. These people can get a job wherever they want but they’ve chosen to work together at Omnea. In our view, it would be loss for those people to not bond and learn from each other!
Product ideas and improvements come from organic collaborating, often between people/teams that may not otherwise interact much.
We have seen this countless times in our careers. For example, if a team member complains about a problem, an engineer would see that as an opportunity and be able to help find a solution. Engineers talking to other engineers in an ad-hoc manner also results in new ideas and better ways of doing things. While some of this can be replicated in more formal, remote settings, we firmly believe that it’s much harder in these early stages to plan for these scenarios and have the same kind of energy behind idea-generation. We want to breed an environment where problems and solutions can surface naturally.
Do we have set working hours?
People generally sync up and work similar hours, and certain meetings mean there’s naturally overlap but you can choose your hours too. Some people like starting a bit earlier, and others later (our CTO is a bit of a night owl…) and we don’t run a strict timetable. As an early stage business made up of ambitious people, we definitely work harder than ‘normal’ and sometimes that means working longer hours, e.g. to meet a critical deadline.
Can I choose different days to work in the office?
Team members will be expected to be in the office on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday. There’ll be some weeks people can’t do that and that’s ok! But this is the default at the moment. Monday and Friday are intentionally designated for flexible/remote working, however employees are welcome to come into the office if they prefer.
What’s 25 EP like?
Our favourite highlights include:
- 5 minute walk from Victoria Station
- Concierge Team
- Bike storage, showers (WITH towel service)
- Discounts at neighbouring businesses
- Daily afternoon treats e.g. fresh lemonade or ice cream in the summer & regular members drinks
- Doggy friendly
Where’s the office?
We’re based in Eccleston Yards in Victoria! That’s because we already have people at different sides of London so central is easiest, and Victoria has good transport links. Plus 25 EP is such a great first office for us! We have our own private office in this amazing space - check out their Instagram here
Will these policies change over time?
Yes, definitely! Once people have ramped up, there’ll be more flexibility to be remote. When people are working on things that lend themselves to deep work, there’ll be more flexibility to be remote. And generally over time, we’ll likely become a bit more remote. But for now, in these early days, this is the set up that we think will be most successful.
What do you mean by company-sponsored remote work?
We want to provide a week or so every quarter where people can go and work from abroad together, and Omnea will cover the cost. We might get a floor of a hotel or a large villa. It will be part-offsite, part-normal work, probably with a short holiday tagged onto the end.
Do you have other opinions on remote vs. non-remote working? Or, any tools or applications you think that can support us? We’re always open to improving how we work at Omnea, so please do send these to us claire.w@omnea.co
Why is buying the stuff you need to get your job done so painful? Why does it involve loads of emails, hours wasted, and frustration on every side?
The way businesses buy stuff is completely broken. Whether it’s SaaS, hardware, or contractors, the average B2B purchase takes over 3 months, requires 50+ emails, and involves multiple different stakeholders (IT, Legal, InfoSec, Finance, etc.).
It should not be this way. Omnea is building one platform to handle the entire purchasing process: giving employees an easy place to make requests and automating the necessary approvals for the purchase to be made.
No more interruptions, wasted time or email chasers when you needed the tool a week ago… Get the tools you need to get sh*t done.
Omnea is supported by the two best VCs out there and 10+ of the most renowned Founders of the last decade, who have invested an initial $5m to help us develop our core product, helping how businesses streamline their purchasing processes.
We are now building our ambitious team to go on this journey with us and build one of Europe’s fastest-growing start-ups! Join us on this adventure!
"Being part of the early Omnea team and going after this multi-billion dollar problem space is the ideal opportunity for anyone looking to get in at the very start of something huge. Omnea has every ingredient necessary to build an entirely new category of enterprise SaaS."
"Omnea is a long awaited disruption in a critical problem space. Their focus on quality product design and engineering, combined with a gigantic market opportunity, makes this an amazing career choice"
"Omnea is using some of the most cutting-edge tech in the market to build a scalable product while innovating at the speed their users want. Delighted to be partnering with them and proud to have them using Hasura, on their journey to disrupt and solve a billion dollar problem!"
"If you've ever built a company you know Omnea is solving a critical pain point. This could be an entirely new category in enterprise SaaS."
"Omnea’s vision is as exciting as it is challenging. This is an incredibly unique opportunity for ambitious engineers who want to have an outsized impact at the start of something big"
Why is buying the stuff you need to get your job done so painful? Why does it involve loads of emails, hours wasted, and frustration on every side?
The way businesses buy stuff is completely broken. Whether it’s SaaS, hardware, or contractors, the average B2B purchase takes over 3 months, requires 50+ emails, and involves multiple different stakeholders (IT, Legal, InfoSec, Finance, etc.).
It should not be this way. Omnea is building one platform to handle the entire purchasing process: giving employees an easy place to make requests and automating the necessary approvals for the purchase to be made.
No more interruptions, wasted time or email chasers when you needed the tool a week ago… Get the tools you need to get sh*t done.
Omnea is made up of a small team in pursuit of one mighty goal; to help businesses thrive. Our journey has led us to guide some of Europe's fastest-growing start-ups, working with the best investors and bringing multiple products to the market.
We understand that persistent progress needs a certain kind of mindset. One, that wants to define their career by personally having a direct, visible and meaningful impact on the industry. Nowadays it is easy to swap meaningful and exciting trajectories for elaborate company perks, such as free food and regular sponsored time working abroad.
But at Omnea we want to give you both. All while our focus feeds a culture, where we give you autonomy over your area, create a diverse team with the best peers to learn from and help you work towards goals, that actually excite you.
To ensure that Omnea feels like your business, we are giving early team members equity above the market rate.
Here, we are building in a space that hasn't been disrupted in over 20 years. The opportunities we are creating for some of the most exciting companies out there are vast and of incredibly high quality. If this sounds like you, come and join the ride!
We are carefully thinking about all things that foster a healthy, balanced and fun work-life balance. Although we might not always have the most advanced & out-there company perks, here at Omnea we want to ensure that the environment created and the benefits received contribute to your life in a meaningful way. We find that so many companies nowadays will prioritize fancy perks and work environments over actually taking care of their employees - we want to make sure employee wellbeing actually comes first.
We are hoping you can help us shape the culture and promise to listen to the feedback of our team to expand this list.
