When Sarah joined Affirm, her position was a catch-all. \u201cI had the title operations manager, which was a junior person who does everything that needs to be done. That meant working on our operations model\u2026 and stocking coconut water.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
One of Sarah\u2019s many duties was accounting, which she was surprised to find she liked. While Affirm could\u2019ve kept her busy working on whatever was most urgent to the company, they let her follow her passion. \u201cI started to focus more and more on accounting. I got my CPA, and now I do technical accounting at Affirm.\u201d One of the responsibilities Sarah has had the longest is equity administration. She\u2019s seen a lot of changes over the past six years\u2014e.g. she used to scan each person\u2019s option agreement<\/a> by hand and \u201cnow they get an email with confetti<\/a>\u201d\u2014but one thing that has remained constant is the fact that employees need more equity education<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u201cMost employees don\u2019t know about equity. I think the assumption is that because someone signed an offer letter<\/a>, they understand what they are signing up for. But 90% of the time, they don\u2019t,\u201d says Sip, who recently led employee education when Affirm switched its equity program from stock options<\/a> to RSUs<\/a>. \u201cIf I were to advise a company, I\u2019d make equity 101<\/a> something that every employee has to go through as part of onboarding.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n To learn more about how Carta has helped Affirm, download the case study below.<\/p>\r\n [marketo-form form_id=”6781″]<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n When you\u2019re scaling rapidly, it\u2019s vital to recognize and fix inefficient processes as soon as you can. Otherwise, they could compound.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n In Affirm’s early days, Sarah was having to explain things over and over again. Her solution: document everything. \u201cWhen you explain things verbally, people misunderstand, take bad notes, or have to ask 20 times. The earlier you can invest in really thorough, permanent documentation, the better.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n The more employees you add to your company, the more inefficient things that used to be simple and straightforward usually get. Empower your employees to fix issues before they become ingrained in your culture.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n Many companies use tools to help them automate time-consuming processes like payroll, hiring, and prospecting. However, these tools aren\u2019t as useful if you have to keep replacing them as you outgrow their capabilities.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n That\u2019s why Affirm chooses to partner with companies that are able to scale with them as they grow, like Carta. \u201cCarta keeps building stuff we care about because they care about the things we care about. That doesn\u2019t always happen with other software,\u201d Sarah explains. \u201cIt always feels like the people who work at Carta know what we need. They anticipate needs that we don\u2019t even know we\u2019re going to have when we\u2019re a larger company.\u201d<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n
By simply allowing Sarah to focus on accounting, Affirm has kept a good employee for six years and counting\u2014proving that while millennials are known as the \u201cjob-hopping generation<\/a>,\u201d they\u2019re just trying to find a company that\u2019ll give them a reason to stay.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/12\/Group-93.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nTeach your employees about equity<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/12\/affirm-1.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\r\nDownload the case study<\/h3>\r\n
Stamp out inefficiencies quickly<\/h2>\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www-staging.carta.com\/sg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/12\/Group-94.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\r\nFind tools that scale with you as you grow<\/h2>\r\n