To our community

Our team has been grieving and processing the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade and countless other black victims of police violence.

Like all of you, we abhor racism in its moments of explicit violence, and also the white supremacy that is subconscious, implicit, unspoken, and programmed into our American society. Our company’s first value is that “our secret ingredient is people” – a value violated by racism in any form.

Black Lives Matter and the violence towards them must stop. As a collection of individuals, as a business, and as an employer, we wield a small bit of power to create the change we all want to see. We have made space as a team to reflect over the last week on our duty for action and influence in dismantling the structural racism that is right now woven into the fabric of society and business.

As a company, we are dedicated to work supporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) to empower the historically oppressed. These are important practices we have begun and are committed to but are nowhere near mastering. We’re dedicated to practicing a structured hiring process designed to eliminate bias in candidate selection. Myself and our leadership team are accountable to our internal DEI Council, and we are governed by our Integrity Board. We are committed to supporting employee resource groups for People of Color and Allies, which in part educate their members and the company to enable anti-racism. We’ve committed to formally educate our employees on eliminating racial bias through trainings, as well as creating programs and resources for continued self-education.

We are far from our goals in black representation on the team and in leadership. This week has been a wake-up call, too. We have work to do. We hold ourselves accountable to this work, and while this is the first time you may be hearing from us about it, it won’t be the last. We have planned to state our goals and initiatives more formally and in practical detail over the coming months.

This is not about us, though we make ourselves available to other companies and individuals who are curious about what steps they can take to shape a company they can be proud of.

• Scott Norton, Co-Founder & CEO