You know that feeling you get at the end of a productive work week when you and your peers have faced complex problems and banded together to find the best solutions?
HR Business Partner Pia Mulligan experiences that feeling at venture studio Cie — every single week. She explained that the studio, which serves as an innovation lab and accelerator housing several distinct brands, empowers its employees to continuously tackle challenges across a variety of sectors, from gaming to online advertising.
According to Mulligan, this work environment allows team members to learn something new every day, therefore driving individual progress in the process.
“It’s really rewarding to reflect on how much you’ve grown, both professionally and personally, at the end of each week,” she said.
Every week is as busy as the last at Cie, where Mulligan and her peers are currently focused on scaling two of the studio’s startups. And as these businesses grow, she shared, the studio is searching for the right individuals to join its teams; those who “think creatively, embrace ambiguity and see challenges as opportunities.”
Below, Mulligan shares more about Cie’s culture and how it’s reflected in the work she and her teammates accomplish every day.
Describe Cie’s culture in one word. What made you pick that word?
The word I would choose is “rewarding.” I think it’s the most succinct way to describe the feeling you get at the end of each day, week and year working at Cie. Aside from the tangible benefits, which are awesome — we love having a piece of our portfolio startups — we’re lucky to be in the business of problem-solving and get to experience the satisfaction that comes from getting to the answer, or the growth that comes from trying something new and getting closer to the answer. Building multiple startups across various industries means we’re constantly taking in new information and learning new things, and we have the kind of culture and team that supports that.
“Building multiple startups across various industries means we’re constantly taking in new information and learning new things, and we have the kind of culture and team that supports that.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
We’re scaling a couple of our portfolio startups right now, which is something I’ve been heavily involved in on the people side. It’s so exciting and rewarding to be hands-on throughout the process, starting from the business idea and building the actual business to seeing the business thrive. In a general sense, I’ve been able to learn what goes into this process and, more specifically, how to hire the right people for the right teams.
