At Ambrook, new hires spend a week on a customer farm, learning their books and daily tasks, and bonding with their colleagues.
Late last fall, a small group of Ambrook teammates headed to northern New England to beta test a new idea: Onboarding Week. The concept was simple—pair a group of new hires with a couple of seasoned company veterans for a week-long visit with an Ambrook customer. We visited Bread & Butter, a diversified livestock and produce farm in Vermont, and got a crash course in picking spinach and balancing books.
Early this summer, we scaled up. This time we sent four groups of new hires to farms in Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, and Vermont for our first official Onboarding Week. Groups spent a week mending fences, harvesting strawberries, tending chickens, and getting their hands dirty. We also dug into each customer’s books, learning firsthand about their daily workflows and helping fix issues with the software.
Of course, in between the farm work and the account work, we managed to carve out some time for team bonding: swimming and firefly viewing, family meals and ice cream excursions. Feedback from the 30+ participants was overwhelmingly positive; it’s clear this was a winning idea, and one we’ll keep doing with each new batch of Ambrook hires. We’ve compiled some of the team’s reflections here, along with some imagery from the farms. Enjoy!
We’re not solving for sheer comfort or ease or monetization. We’re solving a deeply rooted problem in our nation to empower the stewards of our land. They know what works on the field; we can help them crunch the numbers they need to seek more funding, understand their profit, and adjust their operations accordingly.
-Brooke, Partnerships
The sheer amount of manual labor that goes into producing our food — it made me understand why sitting down with the books feels like such a chore. If I could herd animals all day and be outside, the last thing that I’d want to do is sit down and do accounting.
-Laura, Engineering
It was pretty hot outside, and some of the tasks (shoveling, fence-building, moving chicken paddocks, etc.) were physically challenging and not glamorous. Yet, nobody complained, people were excited to be there, and everyone approached our customers with such enthusiasm and gratitude.
-Nolan, Product Operations
I couldn’t stop watching the cows call out to their calves during grazing shifts. Despite being surrounded by dozens of other cows, the calves were able to recognize and respond to their mother’s call. It felt surprisingly human and was a reminder of the strong social bonds that exist within the herd.
-Adnan, Engineering
I think at the simplest level, being able to connect with the team and learn more about everyone’s story, background, and way of engaging with the world was deeply valuable to me. It painted a much deeper picture of people and their preferences and personalities that I will 100% carry into my work across the company at large and in my individual interactions with these folks.
-Ben, Data
Sophisticated farms can have similar SaaS problems as we experience in our work, where data doesn’t flow together and requires manual work or custom solutions to reconcile.
-Tyler, Engineering
They’re not just selling food products, they’re building a community based on land stewardship and reciprocity. They play a really important role in the community (jobs, nursery, food, education, play), and also rely heavily on their community in times of crisis.
-Tamara, Climate Fellow
People (generally, and especially those in Ambrook’s orbit) are multi-dimensional! Our employees and customers alike have such varied lives, interests, stories, etc. Attempting to conjure an image of the ‘average’ farmer is futile, as is that of the average SWE, CX agent, etc.
-Coby, Product Operations
I learned a lot about common cultural norms in other tech companies and the way Ambrook is consciously trying to differentiate in that way. A good example would be the tendency for tech companies to either be engineering/development focused or sales focused, and that Ambrook is deliberately trying to make sure that imbalance does not exist.
-Aryn, Product Operations
It is so important to truly understand the customer’s daily operations and struggles to make Ambrook work for them. This is most easily done by meeting the customers where they are and building that trust. Our team cares so much about Ambrook and our customers, and watching everyone work together cross-functionally felt like magic.
-Crystal, Operations
As a remote employee, having real face time with the team was meaningful too. It’s one thing to know your colleagues on Slack but it’s another to spend a week working alongside them and come away feeling like you can reach out comfortably.
-Shannon, Product Operations
