2. Transparency: Reflecting on my 9 years at Vivino.

What is this series?

Big news: after 9 incredible years at Vivino, I'm moving on. I'm deeply grateful for the journey, and proud of the transformation we accomplished together. Reflecting on what made this ride so special, I've gathered eight key cultural principles that helped Vivino thrive, and I'll be sharing them in a series of posts here on LinkedIn. Here’s the second one on Transparency.

When building a company culture rooted in trust, the first pillar I described in the previous post, it's essential to reinforce that trust with consistent and deliberate sharing of information. That ongoing commitment to openness is what I call transparency.

At Vivino, transparency wasn't just a value; it was a regular, practiced behavior embedded in how the company operated. One of the most powerful examples was the way we handled financial information. Every employee, regardless of role or level, had access to detailed P&L updates each month. This level of openness is often associated with early-stage startups, so it came as a surprise to many new hires from more traditional corporate backgrounds.

The most powerful moment of transparency, however, came during the hardest period: our post-Covid pivot. At a time when layoffs and cost-cutting were unavoidable, we made the bold choice to also share our cash position. This wasn't a scare tactic; it was an effort to replace the fog of uncertainty with a clear, concrete understanding. In times of crisis, people tend to imagine worst-case scenarios - in our case, that was the length of the runway and the need for any extra layoffs. By being fully transparent, we took that power away from fear and instead allowed informed decision-making to happen. That honesty didn’t fully erase the difficulty of the situation, but it did support alignment and bring some sense of calm and agency.

Transparency across all business functions was an intentional shared responsibility among executive leaders. Each of us was accountable for facilitating forums and rituals that ensured key information flowed freely across the organization. As head of product development, I felt it was super important to build and keep up a few key practices that made transparency of building the product part of our day-to-day.

One of the most impactful was a weekly product update meeting, hosted alongside breakfast in the office cafeteria. Every Monday morning, each product team would briefly share what they were working on, new insights from user research or technical exploration, or just something they were excited about. It was a casual but powerful way to open the doors of the “product kitchen” and let everyone in the company peek behind the curtain. These sessions helped demystify product work and encouraged organic cross-team and cross-functional connections.

To go even deeper, we added a monthly demo forum, with an open invite to all employees. This gave engineers and designers a platform to present their work directly, showcasing both in-progress and newly launched features. All our PMs also maintained dedicated Slack channels, posting weekly updates on product initiatives, both ongoing projects and those with validated experiment results. It became a simple but reliable way for the whole org to stay informed without having to chase information. Especially during the company's pivotal transformation, when product-led growth levers like launching the Premium subscription or enabling cross-border shipping were crucial, all these transparency drivers became critical. Together, they created visibility and a shared sense of momentum at a time when morale and alignment were shaky. Knowing what was being prioritized and why helped rebuild trust after layoffs and restructuring. 

Another strong example of investing in cultural change was a simple but powerful Slack policy introduced by our then COO, Nicholas Bell . The idea was easy to remember: "get things out of DMs." Slack can be a fantastic tool for transparency and visibility, but only if used well. As the company grew, we saw the opposite start to happen: more private chats, lost context, and unnecessary time spent trying to track things down.

The policy came with a few clear rules: If you're about to message multiple people, start a channel instead, and if possible, a public one. If you add someone new to a DM, take the extra step to turn it into a channel. When someone (even a key stakeholder) asks for information, don’t relay it manually; point them to the right channel if possible. And regularly highlight important channels by promoting them in #general or during town halls. It didn’t take long for these simple rules to shift how we worked. Instead of chasing people or buried threads, information was shared openly and accessibly, saving time and improving clarity for everyone.

So here are a few takeaways to consider:

Transparency isn't just a nice-to-have, it's a key ingredient in building alignment, especially during times of uncertainty.

Whether you're scaling a startup or steering through a pivot, try asking: What critical context should we share with the organisation regularly?

From weekly product breakfasts to Slack hygiene, it's often the simple, repeatable habits that build the deepest trust. If you're leading a team, think about one ritual you can introduce or improve this month to make information more visible and accessible.

Up next: the third pillar, and one that's especially close to my heart. Stay tuned!