Growing Culture: How Tomorrow Farms Thrives on Feedback

Despite being less than five years old, Tomorrow Farms has already made a significant impact on the sustainable food movement. But their mission goes beyond revolutionizing food systems—they are equally focused on cultivating a strong workplace culture to ensure lasting growth and positive change. By prioritizing feedback from day one, Tomorrow Farms fosters a culture of alignment and trust where employees can thrive.

Read our interview with Tomorrow Farms to learn how Small Improvements can support your startup from the very beginning and why prioritizing performance is key to sustainable success.

Industry

Food & Beverage

Size

11-50

Location

New York, NY

Website

tomorrowfarms.co

Features Used

What challenges do you run into when thinking through a performance management process at a small or growing company?

The challenge for a growing company is that things are constantly evolving. As we find our footing, strategies continue to pivot, and roles often overlap while we remain a small but mighty team. This means we need tools and processes that are flexible enough to adapt and grow with us. I understand that what works for us as a small company may not suit us as a 500-person company, but it’s crucial to establish baseline processes now that can serve as a foundation as we scale and evolve.

What are your strategies for promoting open feedback and why do you think it is beneficial to instill early on at an organization?

Feedback can be really hard sometimes; both to give and to receive! We encourage employees and managers to show up to their weekly 1:1s with a piece of feedback for one another. Whether it’s recognizing a job well done or offering some constructive criticism, regularly practicing this skill makes it less daunting. Instilling a culture of feedback early on is crucial because it helps to establish trust and accountability from day one. When feedback is not only expected, but encouraged, it’s much easier to embrace.

"Instilling a culture of feedback early on is crucial because it helps to establish trust and accountability from day one"

Why did you choose Small Improvements and how does it support your initiatives?

My favorite thing about Small Improvements is how customizable it is! As a growing company, it’s important for the tools we use to be as flexible as we are. Small Improvements offers a bunch of customizable features that have enabled me to tailor our platform, making it feel more personalized and less corporate. Small Improvements’ feature offering is also very robust; it contained all of the modules that I was used to when using larger platforms.

Speaking of larger platforms….some wouldn’t even talk to me just because we had less than 50 employees! Performance management is important no matter the size of the company and I’m very happy with how Small Improvements has been able to support us.

Is there any advice you would want to offer other People Leads at startup organizations?

Don’t be afraid to keep trying new things! Startups are constantly evolving as people come and go, meaning the culture today might be very different from what it was six months ago. Stay tuned in, embrace feedback, and keep trying new ideas. Not everything will work out, but you’ll always gain valuable insights and grow from the experience!