TL;DR: We started as a small team of engineers with great expertise and a specific, friendly culture. This produced quality, which in turn led to fast growth, without advertising or doing sales at all. We wanted to grow, but not at all cost - it was important for us to keep the culture of a small team alive. In a way, we did it. Now we are trying to go global, to advertise, but we want it to reflect the same story, that was originally local and basically a spontaneous employer brand. Not easy. That's why the text is long.

A couple of years ago, after a period of fast growth, we got spooked. We were getting close to having one hundred employees. Culturally, we were still a small team. Most of us were friends, happy and proud for doing a great job on challenging projects for our clients, having fun and feeling great along the way. We didn't have Sales, never needed it -  projects were coming just because we did great on the old ones. The questions on management and support teams meetings were: 

Do you need an overly authentic firefighter when your house is on fire?

Standing out from the crowd, for a crowd

What is authenticity, anyway? What does it even mean when it comes to companies? “Be yourself”. “Stand out from the crowd”. “Liberate yourself from constraints”, etc? We are just an IT company, so we don't do existentialist philosophy. What we do know is you never expect a doctor to be too authentic when treating you, or an overly authentic firefighter when your house is on fire. In some situations, especially in business, you need something expected, someone rule-bound and reliable.

But as an IT company, we do want to stand out. When looking for a client globally, it helps. When recruiting developers, also. When trying to recruit the best ones, seniors, it can prove vital. They see through BS. So, our authenticity needs to be real, not a marketing stunt.  “Standing out” by screaming or being disturbing, “larger than life” or simply fake, won't do any good. 

For us, having no need for sales, defining and building our story started with employer branding. At a corporate party in our backyard, looking at dozens of developers, a couple of us commented: if someone just randomly dropped in, and we asked that person what these people do for a living, they would never have guessed. No two people were alike: appearance, hair, clothes, styles, music taste, conversation topics, the way they danced or didn't. How do you make an ad for all of them? How do you make a company for them? 

Cherishing our corporate childhood

Just as personal authenticity probably has a lot to do with childhood, we can suppose that a company's culture could be probably understood along the same lines. When HOOLOOVOO started, almost a decade ago, it was just a team of several developers, with a CEO and an HR, and it functioned perfectly. Everyone was great at their job and people knew each other well. Nobody was bossing around - all team members had the autonomy and freedom to do their thing, but also great support and true teamwork. If someone had an idea, others would listen. If someone had a problem, any kind of problem - the same. They were dedicated and professional, with delivery at the top level, but also playful. There was no need for strict rules and procedures. They felt at home. They produced quality and had fun while doing it.

Some of these people are still here. When the time came to build a brand around that small team, they had a reflex to preserve the atmosphere. The name HOOLOOVOO came up: a super-intelligent shade of the colour blue from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Seemed both smart and perfectly absurd. Especially as the furniture was all green. From this distance, it seems almost like psychological resistance to becoming a serious corporate entity, as it would feel like betraying the original culture of complete honesty, team play and friendship. Treason of the team's corporate childhood. 

Over the years, HOOLOOVOO tried defining these original values, making them official, integrating them into “our philosophy”, “about us” texts, brand wheels, “pillars”, strategies, recipes, manifests of culture... Not sure how much it helped, but all that time, HOOLOOVOO grew. Developers answered our calls. People left us very, very rarely. We knew we were doing something right. 

Authentic message

We can't tell how many of our candidates and employees really read our “pillars” and strategies. What we do know is that they liked our communication. If we really stand out, we owe a big part of it to our “Matori” campaign from 2017. In Serbian,  “Matori” means “old man”, but it can't be reasonably translated. The expression implies not only experience, but also an authentic personality and respect. It started as a recruitment ad for senior developers, creative and colloquial, saying we need “Matori”, instead of the usual “senior” developers. It was an unconventional way to say we need people with experience, which changed the tone. Instead of using boring, technical and fancy titles and words, we made it frank, friendly and fun. Just as the original HOOLOOVOO was. And we managed to find a perfect model to photograph. 

With senior devs, we hit a bullseye. The campaign got us The Best Digital Campaign award at the regional Kaktus Festival of Integrated Communications, but much more importantly, we had many interviews with devs who had skills, personalities and values that match ours. 

What else would any self-respecting IT company do other than launching a fashion brand?

We had a name, a model, and an award. We hurried to catch our own train. In that situation, what else would any self-respecting IT company do other than launching a fashion brand? 

Brands within brands

Matori hoodies. Another bullseye among both employees and beyond. Not only developers. T-shirts followed, and later a kids' collection, socks... Next to our model and his female counterpart “Matora”, we used employees for our lookbooks. Nobody had to be forced. We had to promise some people they would be models next time. 

What works in love, works in employer branding, too.

This whole story about preserving the roots of growing HOOLOOVOO and Matori may sound like a quest for authenticity. In reality, it was all about matchmaking. We happen to be good at what we do, so we kept getting more projects and we were constantly looking to hire more people. Also, we needed them to be happy, to stay with us long-term. To be believable, to build trust. In other words, what works in love, works in employer branding, too.

The best employer for an ideal employee

Matori was intended to be just a nice photo and a cool message, but its success told us something about him that was much more important. We talked about it a lot and started using the character in internal communication. And once we saw Matori as a colleague and a professional and defined him as a person, we figured it out. All that time, he was an embodiment of our values. He was HOOLOOVOO, but in attitude, style and behaviour, rather than in “pillars”.

Soon, Matori became the basis of our foundations. We knew what we wanted: to become the best IT employer in Serbia. Now we knew for whom we needed to be the best. 

As an imagined ideal employee, Matori served as a starting point for everything we do: advertise, recruit, onboard, communicate, have fun… Support teams finally had a reference point to conceive their activities. Matori. He was there all along.

Matori, Foundations, Framework and the Purpose

He is an experienced, skilled professional, a senior. Independent, fond of his work, loves responsibility. Needs no micromanagement (hates it). Wants to do his job impeccably, to  learn and develop. At work, he needs to feel good and behave naturally, just like at home or in a bar with friends. Basically, he wants to work with friends. 

HOOLOOVOO wants to hire him, make him happy and keep him for a long time. We do it in three ways:

1. We focus on Matori. Basically, we give him what he needs and let him work.
2. We build great teams and give them maximum possible autonomy, support and guidance. That's how Matori likes it. We believe this leads to the best possible results, and our experience proves it. Each of our teams is a copy of the original, small HOOLOOVOO from our corporate childhood, with HOOLOOVOO acting like a Board overseeing the work of teams and making sure they stay in synergy. 
3. We developed a set of values and principles common for all teams and called it HLV Framework. It makes sure all teams have the same feel and nurture the same principles: functioning based on agreement instead of bans and strict procedures, a friendly atmosphere, a common drive for top quality through open communication, coaching, constant improvements and striving for efficiency, and a spirit of respect, cooperation and having fun along the way - with lots of honesty, helping each other and joking, but always respectfully (more on one part of it, here - link)

Not everyone has to be a perfect Matori, of course. Just do your best and be honest about it.

We want good people to kick ass at their job, grow and enjoy

Besides the foundations and the Framework, we do our best to be guided by our brand purpose, which is just a shorter way to say the same: “We want good people to kick ass at their job, grow and enjoy” (we wanted to say “excel”, but it was too boring and therefore inappropriate for HOOLOOVOO).

Authentic voice

Our campaigns, our blog, social media, presence at conferences, everything that embodies our voice, stems from the same source we described above. As a result, people who find HOOLOOVOO interesting are exactly the ones we want to meet, who share our values. The same goes for our clients. You can call it authenticity. In reality, we only want our people to be and feel authentic at work.

The opposite of “bullshit”

Matori became the cornerstone of our ethics. It’s the opposite of “bullshit”. It’s about enjoying freedom and friendship, but also safeguarding it with dedication, quality and care for other people's freedom. In our book, authenticity should not be narcissistic and self-absorbed, as the “be yourself” catchphrase may imply. Especially if you're a company, and a growing one. 

We branded toilets at conferences, supported podcasts that reflect our values of transparency and respect, helped brave new artists…but the key common ingredient was always - “no bullshit”.

And now, we are going global

Year after year,  developers voted us as one of the best places to work in IT in Belgrade. Last year (2023), the moment came - our small team of around 150 decided to diversify. And the moment came - our small team of nearly two hundred enthusiasts decided to diversify. To switch from employer branding to offering our expertise to potential clients globally. 

Sweden: we like the vibe, the relationships, the business culture

We started with the Business Development Strategy, to be sure we know what we are doing for the next couple of years. The point is: we decided to present ourselves to Sweden, where our key clients were from. Simply, we like the vibe, the relationships we built, the business culture. Then we turned that Strategy (an internal document) into a global website. Ths one. Next was the Tech strategy, nothing outlandish about it - we are focusing on Data and AI. 

After that, as per the plan, the first thing we needed was a Sales Department and a Head of Sales. We hit another bullseye and found Djordje (here he is - link).

The same different story

Next was a salesperson in Sweden, to work for us there. Our “Matori” could never work - who'd understand? But luckily, it was never about an invented character. It was about our people, their attitude, frankness and skill. So instead of the “Matori” model, we asked Djordje, our Head of Sales (at the time, recently hired), to get ready…

Matori went “under the hood”

Two pictures. One is our Swedish hiring campaign - we are looking for someone there to help our Sales team stationed here in Serbia. The other picture is the "Matori" campaign from over six years ago. Notice the similarities?

The main character is now Djordje, but Matori is still there, on his shirt. Essentially, only the means of transportation has changed. Matori went “under the hood”, as intended.

The tone was there, too. It was Djordje's first-person testimony about the kind of help he needed, admitting we are practically unknown in Sweden. "Your family and friends might not get it, why you're joining a company from Serbia", the ad said, but we promised an adventure, love and support. 

And the right people answered. More on that - another time. Now we are having booths at conferences, talking about Data and AI. Doing sales, in a friendly, relaxed tone.