Sigma’s Winning Formula: Helpfulness and Velocity Explained by CEO Mike Palmer

At Sigma, our culture thrives on two core principles: helpfulness and velocity. This is the power duo that defines how we work together to innovate, differentiate from our competitors, and help our customers succeed. These values power our growth and shape our distinct approach.

Helpfulness and velocity in action 

We prioritize quick decision-making and rapid execution, ensuring our product evolves continuously. Equally important is our commitment to helpfulness—sharing knowledge and learning within our team. Helpfulness amplifies our collective capabilities, creating a network effect that makes us greater than the sum of our parts. This collaborative spirit boosts individual performance and drives our overall success, as reflected in metrics like net dollar retention and gross retention.

Velocity is about making smart, fast decisions—not rushing to market with half-baked solutions. We move quickly with purpose, ready to pivot based on customer feedback, ensuring we consistently deliver value and stay ahead of the competition. High-performing B2B SaaS companies like Sigma thrive in this environment by delivering constant value and high returns for our customers.

When helpfulness and velocity combine, the results are transformative. New hires at Sigma ramp up quickly, learning from their colleagues to become impactful team members in no time. While helpfulness is about shared knowledge, velocity ensures efficient learning, enabling swift decisions and agile pivots based on real-time feedback.

As an example of these values in action, when the data lead at a global venture capital firm needed a data application fueled by input tables to centralize portfolio companies' quarterly board updates within a week, Sigma’s customer success manager stepped in and made it happen. This is a prime example of how Sigma prioritizes customer needs and delivers results with speed and precision. 

Learning by doing 

We encourage employees to learn, grow, and innovate through the use of our own product. By using Sigma to solve their work problems or achieve their benchmarks, employees gain insights that fuel further innovation. We encourage our teams to "go slow to go fast," leveraging Sigma to advance their goals and adapt to future markets. If the product isn’t a perfect fit for that, it’s good intel for us to have so we can adapt for future markets to sell into. 

Sigma’s products are always evolving. We avoid complacency by striving for constant improvement, driven by customer feedback and data, ensuring we remain relevant in a dynamic market. At Sigma, the question is always: “Is this the most beneficial thing I could have built?”

Failure isn’t the goal. When mistakes happen, we analyze why and ensure we don’t repeat them. At the very least, we ensure we don’t fail twice in the same way. This commitment to learning and improvement is central to our success.

The Sigma Way

Sigma’s culture is a living testament to the power of helpfulness and velocity. These values are not just principles; they are the strategies that drive our business success. By fostering collaboration and prioritizing rapid learning and adaptation, we stay ahead of the curve and deliver exceptional value to our customers. This is the Sigma way—unapologetically innovative and relentlessly user-focused.