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Hi You,

When I founded UpBuild back in 2015, my motivations were pretty self-centered. There's really no other way to put it. I wanted to find a workplace where I could do the work I really wanted to do in just the way I wanted to do it. I wanted to build the happiest work-life I could. In the absence of any organization that could give me what I wanted, I had little choice but to start working on building one for myself.

But almost right away, I realized this project was going to be bigger than me. I started referring to "us" and "we" almost right away in my emails and I quickly changed my goal from building a place where I would be happy to work to building a place where others (people like me with similar motivations and passions) could work and be incredibly happy.

Fast forward nearly three years and things are going better than I ever could have imagined. Earlier this year, UpBuild was awarded the title of "Happiest Company of 2017" by TINYpulse. In this edition of our newsletter, we'll share more about that, highlight a great non-technical post from our blog, and reflect on some recent industry news.

Until next time,

Mike Arnesen
Founder/CEO/Geek-at-Large at UpBuild

We're TINYpulse's Happiest Company of 2017!

Getting this award (yeah, we got a physical award!) is an incredible honor.

I still remember working to get buy-in to use TINYpulse (a tool for monitoring team happiness and culture) at the job I had before founding UpBuild. Rand Fishkin had spoken about the tool in his "SEO Tools Shootout" at SEMpdx's SearchFest 2013 and I was dying to try it out after that.

When I started UpBuild in 2015, I wasn't sure about a lot of things, but I was sure that I was going to use TINYpulse. We started using it almost right away. I even tried to get our first bookkeeper to fill out Pulses. Years later (I really can't believe it's almost been three years), I'm blown away that we've earned this recognition from them.

I'm incredibly grateful to the team that's made this possible, the experiences and perspectives we've all brought to the table, and the lessons we've learned along the way. I'm also just plain excited to have some external validation that we're doing the right things and progressing in the direction that we've set for ourselves. There's always room to improve and do better; this is still just the beginning.

Read our full post here.

Nothing Beats a Londoner

At UpBuild, we can get pretty technical with our blog posts (shocking, I know) so I always enjoy seeing the scales tip the other way. Our non-technical blog posts might not be the long-tail keyword traffic drivers that our technical posts are (like, "Can you have GA and GTM on your site at the same time?") but they're always such great reads. As a prime example, take Ashley's latest — Why We Love “Nothing Beats a Londoner”. If you'd like to be entertained and inspired with your hot beverage of choice in hand, you should definitely check out the ad and the post!

Rand Fishkin is Moving On

As mentioned above, Rand Fishkin of Moz fame is a large part of why UpBuild uses TINYpulse today. Well, Rand is in the industry spotlight this week as he announced his departure from Moz. His expectedly-transparent blog post is absolutely worth reading.

I think I can speak for all of us in saying that everyone at UpBuild has benefited in huge ways from Rand's work and knowledge sharing. Speaking personally, Rand has been someone I've looked up to for years and, honestly, is probably one of the first role models who got me seriously thinking about my entrepreneurship. Getting to know Rand better over the last few years has been incredible. He took the time to sit down with me and share some wisdom at SMX Advanced 2015 just about a month after I founded UpBuild. Sure, his advice was helpful but what was most impactful was just that he was willing to take the time and that he was supportive. If someone that I had spent all of my early career looking up to was so supportive and willing to help, maybe that meant that this crazy leap of faith would actually work out.

The thing is, I don't think my anecdote is all that unique. Rand is just that type of person; one who's created thousands of similar stories that people can tell. For many, I'm sure reading Rand's "exit post" will strike a chord. For my part, I'm rooting for Rand with everything I've got and I can't wait to see what comes out of Sparktoro.

Check out My Last Day at Moz. My First Day at Sparktoro.

Until next time. Thanks for reading!

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