BeatRoute Perspectives Part 2: Building a Strong Culture

At BeatRoute, we’ve always believed that building a great product is only half the journey. The other half? Building the kind of team and culture that can take that product to the world. In this article, we reflect on what’s worked for us while scaling a remote-first, outcome-oriented SaaS company from India.

Remote Work: Not a Perk, But a Culture

We’ve embraced remote work not as a compromise, but as a conscious design choice. It aligns deeply with our belief in outcomes over oversight. We don’t believe in supervision for the sake of supervision. What matters is clarity of goals, and the ability to execute on them.

We admired companies like Zapier for pioneering this approach long before it became common. The pandemic gave us an opportunity to commit to it fully.

So far, here’s what has worked:

• Clear work windows so everyone is available at the same time, even while working remotely
• Outcome orientation embedded in team culture
• Tools that simulate the spontaneity of office interactions (e.g., being able to drop into someone’s room to talk)

But we’re also honest about what’s hard: long hours behind a screen without real-world interaction is not always healthy. Human connection matters. We actively find ways to offset this, whether through play, collaboration rituals, or just creating space for casual connection.

Remote-First in the Indian Context

In India, remote work comes with its own challenges:

• Home infrastructure gaps
• Cultural expectations around presence at home
• Blurring of work and personal time

We’ve tackled this by:

• Investing in team members’ setups wherever possible
• Reinforcing the importance of respecting work hours
• Encouraging open communication with families about boundaries

And most importantly, hiring people who own their time and responsibilities, rather than waiting to be told what to do.

Hiring the Core Team: Traits That Matter

We’ve learned to prioritize value alignment over resumes. Skills matter, but they are the starting point. We look for people who:

• Are ambitious and want to grow
• Thrive in team-based environments
• Have a natural instinct to enable others

Leadership at BeatRoute isn’t about individual brilliance. It’s about building teams that solve problems together. Our function heads aren’t just doers; they are enablers, mentors, and co-owners of outcomes.

Building Culture Around Responsibility

Remote teams need structure without rigidity. Here’s what we emphasize:

• Mutual accountability instead of top-down pressure
• Checkpoints and self-review, not micromanagement
• Calling for help early instead of waiting

Everyone knows when their day starts and ends. That helps create space for personal time, which in turn, creates a sustainable work rhythm.

Health and Wellness: An Ongoing Journey

We’re still working on making fitness and wellness a bigger part of our culture. Remote work naturally reduces daily movement. We recognize that and are experimenting with:

• Shared fitness challenges
• Virtual team activities
• Encouraging breaks and healthy routines

Our goal is not just to build a high-performing team, but a healthy and thriving one.

Final Thoughts

Building a company remotely, especially in India, is both a challenge and a huge opportunity. At BeatRoute, we’ve chosen to lean into it fully—not just with policy, but with culture.

We believe:

• The right people, when empowered, do their best work
• Clear expectations and mutual respect drive performance
• Culture is built in daily actions, not handbooks

If you’re a team scaling in a remote-first world, we hope these reflections help. And if you’re someone who resonates with this way of working, we’d love to connect.

Note: The insights are taken from our video BeatRoute Perspectives. This is part 2 of a 2 part series. You can read part 1 here.