Company Values

Values only mean something if they change what you actually do. These aren't wall decorations. They're the criteria we use when we hire, promote, and make hard calls.

Privacy is not a feature - it's the product

We exist because marketers and engineers are losing access to the data they built their businesses on. Apple, browsers, and regulators are tightening the noose on third-party tracking. We're not trying to find a workaround. We're building the right infrastructure for a post-cookie world.

That means we don't ship things that compromise user privacy to make a sale easier. We don't frame compliance as a checkbox. And we stay honest about what our tools can and can't do.

In practice: If a prospect asks us to build something that undermines the trust model we're betting on, we say no - even if it costs us the deal.

Be the driver, not the passenger

We want people who see something broken and fix it - regardless of whether it's "their job." Waiting for instructions, escalating every small decision, or completing tasks without thinking about outcomes: none of that fits here.

Being the driver doesn't mean doing everything alone. It means taking ownership of outcomes, not just tasks. If you shipped the integration but the customer can't use it, the job isn't done.

In practice: You notice a help doc is misleading. You don't flag it and move on - you fix it, then flag it.

Speed beats perfection

We're a small team competing with companies that have hundreds of engineers. Our only advantage is moving faster and learning quicker. A shipped imperfect thing beats an unshipped perfect thing every time.

This isn't an excuse for careless work. It means we scope aggressively, ship early, and iterate based on real usage - not assumptions.

In practice: When you're not sure whether to spend one more day polishing or just ship it, you ship it.

Transparency builds trust

We share what's actually happening - with customers, with investors, and with each other. This includes bad news, mistakes, and things we're uncertain about. We publish an open dashboard. We share monthly investor updates. We tell prospects when Hardal isn't the right tool for them.

Internally, transparency means context flows freely. You shouldn't need to ask your manager to understand the company's financial position or strategic direction.

In practice: Write things down. Default to sharing in public Slack channels. If you made a mistake that affected a customer, own it directly.

Curiosity over credentials

We're in a technical space that changes fast. GDPR, iOS, Chrome's Privacy Sandbox, server-side infra - the rules keep shifting. People who are deeply curious about how things work tend to figure it out faster than people who've just done it before somewhere else.

We care more about what you've learned and built than what's on your CV. We hire people who read, ask questions, and update their beliefs when evidence changes.

In practice: Share what you're reading. Ask "why" when you don't understand something. Be the person who brings new ideas into the room.

How we use these values

When we're hiring, we screen for these - not just with interview questions, but by looking at how people actually behave. When we're making hard decisions, we ask which option is most consistent with them. When we give feedback, we connect it back to them.

They're not perfect. If you think we're living up to them poorly in a specific area, say so.