Every now and then, a start-up goes into hypergrowth. Kilo Health is the perfect example of this by more than doubling both the revenue and size of the team in 2021, with similar goals for the coming year. Of course, hiring at such a rapid pace means a lot of thinking about how to scale the culture of the company.
This is why we were excited to interview Juste Vižinytė, Chief People Officer at Kilo Health. We asked her about the thinking behind “spoiling the employees” with perks and benefits, why they discarded all rules regarding the working location, and much more!
🔵 Before we get to the exciting growth story, could you please explain what Kilo Health does? What are your most popular products, who are your clients, and where are they located?
Kilo Health is one of the leading digital health and wellness companies in the world. We’re also among the fastest-growing health tech companies in Europe with 500+ employees. Our headquarters are in Lithuania, but we also have offices in Berlin and Kyiv.
We have plenty of well-performing products, from mental health apps to weight management programs. We’re also providing tools to prevent, manage, or treat various health conditions, focusing on developing chronic condition management products.
Some of the most popular products include:
- Klinio – for diabetes management
- Sensa – for mental health and wellness support
- Cardi.Health – for cardiovascular health
- Keto Cycle – for keto-powered nutrition
- DoFasting – for following a healthy intermittent fasting routine
Our largest market is the US, but other English-speaking countries such as the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, also play a significant role. Other important markets for us include Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Middle Eastern, and Scandinavian countries. Anyone who wishes to have a better, healthier lifestyle might be our client.
🔵 Thinking about Kilo Health, the first thing that comes to mind is explosive growth. Could you give some insight into how quickly your business is accelerating?
Both the team and revenues are indeed growing at breakneck speed. We have hired 365 new people in 2021 so far. Next year, we plan to double our revenues, which already means generating a nine-digit revenue in 2022.
🔵 How is the size of the team holding up?
We’re facing hypergrowth. Every week, 4–10 new people join our team, so you can imagine the challenges we have. We put a lot of effort into the first onboarding day so that new hires may experience our culture and meet as many colleagues as possible. Still, the most important factor is how they feel during the first few months.
Additionally, we want to create a supportive, inviting, and challenging environment that keeps people working with us for a long time. That’s why we’re expanding not only the talent acquisition team but also hiring people responsible for motivation and personal development.
We don’t want to simply grow our teams, but to make sure that everyone who already works at Kilo Health is happy and sees meaning in their work and our mission. This is the only way to push Kilo Health to the next level.
🔵 Facing the hypergrowth of the team, have you opened any new offices lately, or have you opted more for a hybrid or remote work approach?
We have surveyed our people and learned that there is no one-size-fits-all option. As a result, everyone now works the way they want – anyone can find a place in the office, but if you prefer, you can work from anywhere in the world. We certainly do not apply strict rules.
One of our core values is ownership, freedom and creativity so each employee can make their own decisions on how and where to work – you do you, as long as the job gets done. Still, we try to make our offices as inviting as possible, so that more people want to come and work from there. We have offices in Vilnius and other Lithuanian cities, as well as spaces in Berlin and Kyiv.
🔵 With the team constantly expanding, high-performing employees should have good options for career growth. Could you share some stories of rising employees inside the company?
We try to help our employees grow by acquiring additional skills and promoting people from within the company. We create authentic leaders because Kilo Health’s culture is unique. Also, it is really valuable to train our existing employees for higher positions because they already know our culture.
An excellent example of this is one of our first teammates Kristina Zalnieraite who joined Kilo Health as a nutrition specialist back in 2018. Today, she is the Head of Nutrition and Wellness with 15 nutrition experts, dietitians and fitness consultants in her team.
Of course, we are always looking for external talents to join the ranks of our leadership team or as senior specialists. This ensures that we broaden our horizons as a company and soak in the best practices from different industries.
🔵 Even among startups, Kilo Health stands out for an extensive list of perks and benefits. Could you highlight some of them?
We just opened our new office, and we can call it Disneyland for our employees – we will have a massage parlour, gym, a bar, and just about anything you need to stay healthy, happy, and inspired. One of the recent must-haves is flexible private health insurance – as a company that works in the wellness industry, it was a no-brainer. We also provide 5 additional days off whenever you need it, workations, and all the learning opportunities you want, among other things.
We don’t think the fridge full of food, a taxi budget, or a game room is a perk. It’s just a part of creating an inviting environment and allowing some time to recharge and rest. We focus on making sure that employees’ ideas are heard, the work is challenging, the teams are inviting, and our people can ambitiously grow together with the company.
🔵 What’s the philosophy behind “spoiling your employees”?
If you love your teams, they will love their work. If you give your heart to your colleagues, they will share theirs.
🔵 If MeetFrank’s monthly leaderboards are any indication, Kilo Health is unquestionably one of the hottest Lithuanian startups to work for in 2021. How much interest in the company do you see among candidates?
We need to headhunt people like everyone else, but I think it is a bit easier for us at this point. We emphasize our culture and hire based on cultural fit and expertise.
We have already reached our yearly employee hiring goal for this year. We have a diverse group of colleagues – from Kyiv or Berlin to the Philippines or the UK. All of them provide Kilo Health with a diverse and global mindset.
🔵 Kilo Health has a particular company culture, amplified by prominent employer branding. In your opinion, what kind of qualities should the person have to fit into the team?
We look for people with a heightened sense of ownership but are also free, positive, straightforward, ambitious, flexible, fast, agile, and have a good sense of humour – those who wish to grow together and push the company to become better.
Check out Kilo.Health’s open positions on MeetFrank:
- Front-End Engineer
- Product Manager
- Content Writer
- Native Advertising Specialist
- SEO Lead
- Fullstack Engineer (PHP/JS)
- PR & Social Media Writer
🔵 And finally, where do you see Kilo Health in the next few years?
Kilo Health was founded to design the most engaging and effective digital lifestyle interventions that lead to a healthier life by preventing, managing, or treating various health conditions. Our vision is to become the No. 1 digital health company in chronic condition management globally with the steady and constant growth we’ve maintained so far.
