Hootsuite's 13th Birthday - Fireside Q&A

It’s December already—what a year! As 2021 comes to a close and we inch towards 2022, I had the pleasure of sitting down with our Employee Connectedness and Events Manager, Torey Gilmore to celebrate Hootsuite’s 13th birthday (the big day was in November) and chat about our journey thus far and what we’re looking forward to in the New Year. 

Torey: I’ve heard you speak about how much you love the culture that Hootsuite has built. What are a few aspects of that that are truly your favorite?

Tom: Well, I’ve been here now for a year and a few months. When I think back to what really attracted me to the company, it was the culture and the competence of the people that I met as I worked my way through the interview process. Even though it was all done virtually, I could sense the pride and belief that everyone had in the brand, in the product, and in the space—and the potential of what we could become; I really loved that. I love taking all the collective learnings and wisdom from the past and getting focused on the future. We have a great foundation to do that here.

Torey: Absolutely. The number 13 is a very weighted number. We know it’s lucky for some and unlucky for others. I think we can all agree that it’s a very awkward stage of life. What were you like at 13?

Tom: At thirteen… I was just as awkward as you would expect. At thirteen, you still have your future in front of you—it’s kind of endless, when you think of what you can imagine and what you can become. I was quite convinced at thirteen that I was going to be a professional basketball player and that was going to be how I made a living. We had a height chart on the wall, so I could see what my growth would need to be to get to 6’10 which was my objective at thirteen—to be a 6 foot 10 shooting guard in the NBA. I didn’t quite get there.

It’s really interesting to think about Hootsuite turning thirteen, because there’s not very many software companies that actually make it to thirteen. We emerge out of being a startup and being an initial idea into being a real functioning company. Hootsuite is a company that has all of its future in front of us. We’ve proven ourselves as the pioneer in our space—but where we go is wide open in front of us, and we can dream big and we can go big. It’s a super exciting time to be at Hootsuite.

Torey: This past year at Hootsuite has been huge. What is one initiative that has really gotten you fired up? 

Tom: Where do I start? There’s been a lot of change happening, but that’s what it means to be in software and SaaS—you’re constantly organizing and launching initiatives, acquiring, and doing the things you need to do in order to play to win. We’ve done a ton of hiring, and I’m super proud of the additions to our leadership team that we’ve brought in this year. Getting really aligned, embracing, and bringing to life our guiding principles has been really important to me. It’s important that we don’t just have a foundation that we’re standing on top of, but that we’re clear about what we stand for and we take the time to talk about that, share and celebrate real life examples. To me, that’s the way you build a culture. We’re a 1200 person company right now and we’re getting really clear on what we stand for, and making this a part of our culture. I’m really proud of what we’ve done this year to get that started. We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ve started, and that’s exciting.

Torey: Hootsuite and the tech industry in general is always growing at such a rapid pace. Where do you think we’ll be in the next 13 years? I think that’ll be 2034—that even sounds weird to say.

Tom: It’s hard to really envision—my brain doesn’t go out past more than 24-36 months, so it’s really hard to visualize a future that’s thirteen years out. There are fundamentals that we exist and work within that will still be fundamentals. I think if we go into the future, we’ll see that our values and guiding principles will stand, maybe with some modernization along the way. I believe that our branding and the principles of who we are as a company and how we help businesses and organizations connect with their customers will still be at the core of what we do. However, how we connect and where we connect is what will evolve with technology. The geographies and boundaries that exist today will hopefully be gone, so it’s more seamless, easier, and more global. I’m excited to see what happens—I hope I’m still around to actually see what that looks like in thirteen years.

Torey: So, you’re saying there’s going to be an HQ in space.

Tom: I think interplanetary commerce will be a thing in thirteen years, for sure. It’s happening right in front of us. I think some of the boundaries—the physical boundaries that we exist in today and that we have to conform to today will be gone, and there will be more opportunities to do more interesting things.

Thank you Torey, for taking the time to sit down and chat. Happy 13th birthday Hootsuite! It’s been so inspirational to see our Owls continue to live out our guiding principles this past year. I'm incredibly proud of everything we’ve accomplished so far, and I’m very excited to see what 2022 has in store for our peeps and our company.