# Private, profitable, and people-first, we’re celebrating our 20th birthday. I’m Natalie Nagele, Co-Founder and CEO of Wildbit. AMA!

**URL:** https://gorelay.co/t/private-profitable-and-people-first-we-re-celebrating-our-20th-birthday-i-m-natalie-nagele-co-founder-and-ceo-of-wildbit-ama/501
**Category:** AMAs
**Tags:** culture, team-structures, product-agnostic, positioning, past-guests
**Created:** [November 5, 2020, 1:51pm UTC](https://gorelay.co/t/private-profitable-and-people-first-we-re-celebrating-our-20th-birthday-i-m-natalie-nagele-co-founder-and-ceo-of-wildbit-ama/501 "2020-11-05T13:51:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 19

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### Author: ![natalie](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/gorelay.co/natalie/32/362_2.png) [@natalie](https://gorelay.co/u/natalie)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2020, 7:52pm UTC](https://gorelay.co/t/private-profitable-and-people-first-we-re-celebrating-our-20th-birthday-i-m-natalie-nagele-co-founder-and-ceo-of-wildbit-ama/501/19 "2020-11-12T19:52:33Z")

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> [@Logesh](#):
>
> Hi Natalie,
> 
> Thanks for doing this AMA!
> 
> I would like to understand more on the balance between building a “people-first” business and the “beast” paradox. We always had attempted to build a “people first” business, but at the same time the business itself being the anchor point to execute this makes the beast grow, i guess.
> 
> What are your inputs to balance it? and how do you measure yourself not to cross the line either way and to build as a culture within the organization which is naturally aspirated to high-performance.
> 
> Regards,  
> Logesh G

Hi Logesh! It’s definitely a practice to find the right balance, but if you let the beast anchor you, I feel strongly that you’ll end up with regrets.

We try to remind ourselves that a business is simply a tool that we, as humans, created to support us. We are in control of it, so it should be serving us. We course correct frequently by asking ourselves why we’re making certain decisions. The best example is Conveyor. What ultimately led to shutting it down was how it was making the team feel, not the financial implications on the business.

But I think, honestly, the best way to make sure the beast isn’t in control is to make sure you’ve given yourself guardrails. We have strong values and principles that protect us from falling off the cliff. We make sure our way of working supports a people-first approach.

But we are also a very high-performing team. Justine, our Head of Marketing, once shared with me that she is working harder here at Wildbit working 4 days a week, vs. 5 days a week elsewhere. What we’ve found is that when you prioritize people-first, those folks have the space, support, and passion to be extremely high-functioning and high-producing. We don’t ask folks to care, they care on their own.

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