SaaS Startup Team Building Strategies for High-Performing,Asynch Teams

How can we foster a strong culture of positivity and collaboration in an asynchronous environment? Despite hybrid and remote work exploding to the max in the last decade, it already feels like the eternal question.  

It becomes even more of a challenge when the organization reflects a classic startup team structure. Priorities, performance, and growing pains don’t always leave the door open for classic, traditional team building. 

Sustaining motivation and productivity are some of the main goals of building a strong workplace culture at startups. Let’s take a look at how the environment and attitudes may differ. From there, we’ll share some effective SaaS startup team-building strategies. 

What is a startup environment? How is it different?

Startup environments are more flexible and independent than others. However, this doesn’t mean roles are less demanding. It’s meant to support greater agility in performance, problem-solving, risk-taking, and effective collaboration.

Startups do tend to be more team-oriented than other types of organizations. They’re also increasingly asynchronous and not as hierarchical. Everyone is more likely to be consumed by their share, with less oversight. 

Startup team structure

Startups proliferate in a range of industries, from SaaS/tech to marketing, IT, crypto, and insurance. Depending on how they scale, they can eventually have an executive team atop a multi-layered structure.

However, the reality for many smaller startups is that the structure is rather flat. The founder/CEO wears various hats while also serving as the lone oversight for multiple departments.  

This leads to a lot of employees engaging in some serious self-management. On the plus side, being able to take initiative and work independently is essential for a fast-paced, innovative, go-and-get ‘em startup environment. 

But that attitude and drive will only last if they feel responsible to a community, part of a culture, a member of a team.

SaaS startup team-building strategies

The distinct skill sets present at SaaS startups, coupled with the ease of going remote, leave them at a higher risk of being too siloed to form bonds. 

However, the following advice and ideas work for any team that doesn’t have the time or place for trust falls (if they even wanted to do them). They’re also easy to maintain as the team grows, even if they spread out even more as a result.

Respect individual schedules and preferences

Gaming tournaments and virtual cocktail hours are two examples of popular team-building activities for remote workers. But live streaming isn’t always ideal for asynchronous startup employees. 

If team members are expected to execute tasks and make decisions autonomously as part of their roles, they’ll need autonomy here, too. Sometimes it’s a time zone issue, or they simply don’t have the will to go live at 7 pm sharp. Either way, try not to make every team-building effort a live, scheduled event.

Set up a virtual water cooler

This is a chat channel dedicated to casual, off-topic conversation that employees can join at their leisure. This way, they can have live conversations on their terms, when it’s not disrupting their flow.

It’s convenient, accessible, and just makes sense. Pop in and add some hot takes to get a conversation going, if need be. The very idea that off-topic or personal conversations are supported will send the message that rapport and community are a priority. 

Create friendly competition

Startup culture is big on hustle, and some competitiveness isn’t unusual here. Keep it light by hosting a weekly or monthly competition. Team members have a window to enter their submissions instead of attending a live event, like a trivia tournament.

Consider a deck-a-desk contest, where employees decorate their desks according to a theme, seasonal or otherwise. Other spins on costume contests, pet of the month, funniest photo, most interesting dinner, and more leverage both the competitive spirit and lighthearted team bonding.

You can also run polls and accept submissions for paper plate awards and distribute the results in a newsletter.

Introduce peer recognition tools

Weekly top-down recognition can be a big ask at many startups. The secret to success in team-building for organizations like this is a solid commitment to peer-to-peer recognition. 

Peer recognition tools also inspire cross-department praise. This has huge benefits in startup environments. Asynchronous teams become more familiar with the responsibilities and efforts of others, appreciating and relating to one another more.

Gamified recognition that’s a perfect fit for startup culture

HeyTaco is a tool that covers every team-building strategy presented here at once, with gamification for good measure. 

• Drop a virtual taco 🌮 in team chat to acknowledge someone’s wins, help, or ideas. You get to decide who gets one of your tacos and when.
• If you like, create a chat channel dedicated to taco-driven recognition, where team members can share what they’ve achieved or who they appreciate.
• Taco givers and receivers appear on a leaderboard, competing to see who will gain or give the most tacos while climbing levels, earning rewards, unlocking themed avatars, and more.
• Peer recognition becomes part of daily operations. There’s a method and opportunity for connecting that’s scalable, low-risk, pressure-free, fun, and really rewarding.

Make HeyTaco part of your startup’s culture for free.