Originally posted on Adweek by Kyle O’Brien, January 11, 2022.
We Are Rosie recently gained a big financial boost after signing a partnership with Align Capital Partners. The influx of money brought the company to a value of $110 million, and founder and CEO Stephanie Nadi Olson decided to use that extra money to reward her company’s employees.
According to an internal letter obtained by Adweek from Nadi Olson to her employees just before the holiday break, We Are Rosie is rewarding each full-time employee $10,000—the same amount of money she used to start her company four years ago.
We Are Rosie, the flexible talent platform that brings together independent marketers and Fortune 500 brands, is also gifting $5,000 to all part-time team members and $250 to every ‘Rosie’—what the company calls its independent workers—who worked on a client project in 2021.
The gift is Nadi Olson’s way of showing her immense gratitude to her team, knowing she couldn’t have achieved success without them.
The letter starts with Nadi Olson giving thanks to the people who helped build the company with her.
This is the letter to the exceptional people who have trusted me and this company with a piece of their careers. The people who have made sacrifices big and small with the intention of creating access and opportunity for our Rosies, but also access and opportunity for others on this team. The people who have pushed themselves further than they have before, those who have taken on wildly different roles than they’ve held in the past, those that have built this business one brick at a time with me …
You are the people who joined a company without much of a roadmap outside of a desire to literally build an entirely new system of work- one that serves more people, levels the playing field, and hopefully, leaves no one behind. We’ve put Rosies to work on more than 1,500 projects in less than 4 years that have given them a better way to work.
The letter then goes on to explain the partnership with Align Capital Partners and how the infusion of capital will allow the company to scale up, get more people on board, build technology and increase services for its Rosies. Nadi Olson also states that it will help build a foundation for We Are Rosie to be around for the future, and that Align is the right partner for the company because it believes in what the company is about, shares the company’s values and has “no interest in asking us to compromise them in order to grow,” according to the letter.
Then Nadi Olson pulls back the curtain on the generous gift.
I started this business with $10K of savings, a 6-month runway to not take a paycheck (one that turned into 2 years of not taking a check), and a dream that has consistently required me to reconsider what I am capable of as a leader, mother and business woman to achieve our shared goals.
By selling a portion of my ownership of We Are Rosie, I will be able to do the things that are so important to me with all the privilege that I’ve been given—I will be able to support and show love for the people and causes that move my heart … As a show of my gratitude, I will be sending a check for $10,000 to every one of our core team members. This amount is significant to me as it’s the same amount I pulled out of savings to start We Are Rosie less than 4 years ago. It’s the amount of money that ignited this dream and brought all of us, eventually, here together. I am honored to be able to share this amount with each of our core team members.
Nadi Olson added that the company is opening up an opportunity for each of its full-time employees to invest in the future of the company if they so desire.
WE ARE ROSIE EMPLOYEES IN ATLANTA CELEBRATE THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THEIR BONUSES. CREDIT: DAVID KIM, XAPIS MEDIA
She ends the letter with more words of thanks.
Let’s raise a glass to each of you, your loved ones, your support system, your teammates, our Rosies, our clients, our new partners at Align … Here we go, team!