SaaS company creates a leadership culture

Celigo is a SaaS company in the business process automation space. Based in Silicon Valley, Celigo boasted 100 employees and 800 customers before obtaining any venture financing. In 2022, Celigo has 600+ employees (and counting) with locations across the globe.

When your business is growing at hyperspeed, it’s inevitable that things are going to break along the way. After rapidly promoting internal hires to management roles and continually searching for outside hires, it became clear that they were struggling to adapt to a rapidly changing employment market. Celigo desperately needed to create a common set of standards for what good leadership and management looked like. The CEO and executive team saw that under-trained managers and leaders lacked the skills to coach and develop their people—meaning they were at high risk for losing key talent in an ultra-competitive market.

As they look to expand in the coming years, Celigo also needed to get out of fire-fighting mode when it came to leadership development. They wanted to build an evergreen system for professional development that could grow with the business. Something that would make the difference for potential hires by offering a clear path for individual career development and growth during their tenure at Celigo. Failing to invest in their number one resource—their employees—was a surefire way to lose top talent to their competitors.

Through a referral, Celigo’s head of HR heard rave reviews about Refound’s ability to be a true partner when it came to solving complex problems like the one Celigo was facing. Starting with the most urgent need—training for core managers—the work began. Over the following two years, Refound began coaching Celigo’s CEO and members of its executive team, as well as facilitating a series of quarterly offsite workshops to create deep alignment, trust, and accountability among fellow leaders. Simultaneously, Refound implemented PLT training for key managers and top performers across departments to build a culture of ownership and accountability effectively.

Celigo has chosen Refound to be its trusted leadership development partner through this critical phase of its growth. Through coaching, training, and advisory work, Celigo’s leaders are able to have the accountability conversations that most leadership teams avoid, setting a tone for the rest of the organization on how to balance business ambition with giving people the feedback and development they need to grow. They are well positioned to continue to attract and develop top talent as they scale their way to unprecedented success.