Hopin: The billion-pound company with no office

This 2019 Start-up began with only 6 employees, no office space, and an ecommerce site. Two years later, more 660 members of staff in and an impressive business valuation of £4.13bn – the company is happily still office free and plans to be for the foreseeable future.

This innovative CEO has broken boundaries amid a pandemic and now stands as the UK’s youngest self-made billionaire according to The Sunday Times Rich List 

The entrepreneur’s company is an online events platform called Hopin (https://hopin.com/) which now has more than 5 million users. London based Hopin allows its customers to stream speeches, hold video chats and network remotely. This platform allows customers to stream speeches, hold video chats and network remotely.

Johnny Boufarhat now has a net value of £1.446bn, having normalised the concept of not working in a permanent location. On top of these achievements, Johnny does not have a permanent home either. Boufarhat is used to moving from one rental property to another, running his company completely remotely. This puts into perspective the digital transformation that has happened over the last ten years.

The company like many others had to turn to an online alternative when it came to video conferencing and used the platform Zoom to combat the issue of having meetings during a lockdown.

A remote working model is set in stone at Hopin and Boufarhat has no plans to change it. This is done effectively using cloud-based, collaborative software such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, video-messaging platform Loom, Figma and Notion Company culture is kept intact, being one of the most important aspects of a company. This is done so by a once-a-month group meeting consisting of all 600+ employees designed to be like a TV games show hosted on Hopin. This helps build an inclusive, fun, and interactive team of people. Not to mention a monthly online staff survey to see which areas of working life need improvement.

Ironically, it was only after the successful CEO became seriously immune-suppressed and recovered a year later that he decided to launch the product in the midst of a global pandemic. This is evidence that eCommerce companies are thriving in the current digital age with nothing but exponential growth in sight.

According to our eCommerce salary survey and insights (page 17), only 56% of people agree their current company is meeting expectations. Additionally, we asked people what makes a good company culture? The two most popular cultures came back as, honest and transparent and secondly, proactive management. What stands out the most for you?