About Names & Faces

The Problem

Human relationships power organizations. But knowing people is hard.

If you’ve ever been part of an organization with more people than you can easily remember where things are changing all the time — new people, new teams, new roles and new initiatives — you will have experienced the awkwardness, frustration and limiting behavior that comes with the territory.

What you’re feeling is a sense of predictable social and functional failure. It is caused by not knowing who is who on your team, not knowing who fits in where or who is responsible for what, not knowing who might be able to help when you need a hand and not having the ability to get in touch with the right person at the right time.

This is a problem experienced by everyone from the CEO to the new joiner in almost every organization on earth of more than 50 people.

The Solution

There’s a simple way to overcome this problem. It involves creating an intuitive, accurate, contextually relevant visual list of your people that provides structure, organizational insight and immediate accessibility in the moments you need it — which is also hard. What we’re building at Names & Faces is the platform to create a list like this for every organization on earth.

Sound crazy?

Is it not astounding that there is no standard way to create a list of people that includes photos and basic details? There are a hundred hacks, but no generally accepted way. At Names & Faces we are creating the world’s definitive directory technology platform.

The white pages was the last purpose built directory any of us used. For the last 20 years directories have been relegated to being no more than bad byproducts of larger company systems: HR systems, IT systems, intranets, social networks and company communication tools. None of these systems were built to be directories. The directory was an afterthought.

Indexing people data

Think of Names & Faces in a similar way to what Google has done for content on the web. Google doesn’t own the content or manage it. Regardless of format, Google simply indexes the websites of millions of different organizations and displays that information in a quickly digestible way that every person on earth uses. It’s faster to find something on a company’s website by asking Google to find it than it is to go to that company’s homepage to find it yourself. This is the case for every website on earth.

Names & Faces is positioned to do a similar thing. Every organization in the world has their people information somewhere: in an HR system, a security system, an excel spreadsheet — the location doesn’t matter. Names & Faces will not be the source of truth. Instead, Names & Faces will index that information regardless of its format or location and will present it in a more intuitive and accessible way than any other system. Like Google, Names & Faces, will become the dedicated directory platform through which people access information about the people in their organizations.

A new category of technology

Names & Faces is not a social network, it is not an HR system, and it’s not a communication tool. It is directory technology — a new type of technology that doesn’t replace any existing tool. Instead it sits as a layer across all existing systems indexing and presenting people data to users through a fast, visual, intuitive interface.

Having immediate access to basic details about the people around us helps address anxieties that have existed since the dawn of man: who is who in this tribe? Who fits in where? Who should I be cautious of? And who might help me thrive?

Why join us

The main reason to consider joining us is for the extraordinary team of people you’ll work alongside on this journey. You’ll be hard pressed to find a better bunch. Here are a few other perks worth noting:

• Head quartered in the US

  We’re a distributed company with teams in Cape Town, London and Palo Alto — where we are headquartered. Being in the heart of Silicon Valley gives us access to an extraordinary ecosystem of clients, investors, advisors and talent.

• Great Investors

  We’re grateful to have some of the world’s leading investors including Accel, Y Combinator, Slack Fund, Elad Gil and David Lieb backing us.

• Stock Options

  Stock options are an important part of our future and we want everyone on our team to be invested in the company's success. We offer all full time employees stock options in the company. Our intention is to build a significant enough business to make those stock options count for us all.

• High trust leave policy

  We run a high trust leave policy. This means we don’t limit your time off. We want you to judge what you feel you need, what is appropriate given your performance and output and the needs of your team and the business.

• Fully remote team

  We run a fully remote team, so where you choose to work from is up to you.

• Growth & Development

  Everyone who joins Names & Faces is here to grow. Being on our team means you'll be surrounded by extraordinary colleagues to learn from and grow alongside. You'll also have access to people at the top of their game in Silicon Valley through our ever expanding network. We'll set up learning sessions with a range of leading thinkers in your field over Zoom or in person should the opportunity come up for you to travel to our Palo Alto office.

  We'll also help support your personal growth by connecting you with an executive coach if you want one and we’ll invest in appropriate training to help you develop in the areas you want to grow.

About Paul Galatis (Founder & CEO)

Paul Galatis is an entrepreneur in the technology space. Prior to Names & Faces, along with his two partners, he worked to build South Africa's most highly awarded e-commerce company, Yuppiechef.com. In 2013, having grown the business to a team of 65 people, Paul sold a piece of his stake in Yuppiechef to a US venture fund and stepped into a non-exec role and in 2015 started Names & Faces.