Mindera
Crafting software with love
Mindera is a Portuguese software development company - now based in Porto, Portugal and Leicester, UK, and also with offices in US, India, Brazil and Romania - with no traditional hierarchy, distributed decision-making, and radical transparency. Software Engineering Applications, including Web and Mobile, are at the core of what Mindera does - partnering with clients, to understand their product and deliver high performance, resilient and scalable software systems that create an impact in their users and businesses across the world.
Mindera started with the dream of five friends – Paul Evans, Bruno Lopes, Guilherme Almeida, José Fonseca and Sofia Reis. They aspired to create a workplace where the team held more importance than the individual. Their vision was to build a workplace where decisions are made by those impacted most and where people have the autonomy to try out new things, and that embraced lessons learned from failures as integral to the collective growth and success.
Mindera has become that workplace. Since its founding in 2014, the company has rapidly scaled to over 1100 “Minders” (their term for members) today. Despite their rapid growth, not a single middle manager can be found in the firm. They operate as a truly flat, self-managed, non-hierarchical organisation.
Perhaps the best way to capture the unique quirky, human culture of Mindera is to quote from its “about us” story, which starts with socks. Not just any socks, but Paul Smith socks …
“Our story begins in March 2014, with Paul Evans. He was wearing a pair of Paul Smith socks when he realised it was the right time for him to move on from his job.
Paul has never been someone who can simply switch off and now his head was brimming with thoughts. He was 46. He and his wife, Hetal Kurji-Evans, had just bought a new house for their two young children, Rani and Max. It was a really important time.
Paul sat in the shed of his new home’s garden. He thought to himself: “what do I do next?” He realised he had two options: he could take another corporate job or start a new company. One day, surrounded by laughs and a table full of pizza, the conversation between Paul and his four friends — Bruno Lopes, Guilherme Almeida, José Fonseca, and Sofia Reis — turned to the future and how they could all build something amazing together.
Their goal was simple: to work together in a happy place, one not driven by cash but by getting things done right every day.
The seeds were sown for Mindera. But the friends needed clients for the dream to become a reality.
A little while later, Paul was waiting for a flight at an airport. An old friend passed him on the way to the loo. Paul asked: “will you be my first client?”
Then, the beautiful sound of two words: “of course.”
With that, we had our first client.
The founders were based in Portugal and the UK, so it was natural for Mindera’s first offices to be in those countries.
The US business came online in 2015, followed by the UK in 2016, India in 2017, Romania in 2021 and Brazil in 2022.
Dreams aren’t meant to stop. They’re meant to be bigger, to catch all the things that make you smile and inspire you to turn them into a reality.
Part of our dreams has been to create an environment where the team is more important than the individual. To build a place where decisions are made by those impacted most and people have the autonomy to try out new things. A place where the lessons learnt from failures are seen as part of our growth and success.
And what about those Paul Smith socks? Paul never wore them again. He left it to the past and let his dreams guide him into a happier future where with socks or barefoot, our DNA will always remain the same. We’ll be a team of people who care about each other and enjoy working together.”
Mindera is a fascinating business, defined by its culture, captured in its Company Handbook, and also in its purpose, vision, mission and values:
- Purpose: We’re humans. We learn, grow, and have fun working together
- Vision: We are human, we work together, we change
- We are human – We act like humans, we talk like humans, and we think like humans. And we call out anyone who does the opposite.
- We work together – We insist on working collaboratively. No rockstars. No departments. The whole team owns the whole project, together.
- We change – Nothing is sacred. From our habits to our rituals to our environment. Change is a natural part of human life, and we prefer to embrace it.
- Mission: We craft software with people we love.
- Values: Care, autonomy, collaboration and agility.
- Care – We care about each other and our work
- Autonomy – We trust people to make things happen
- Collaboration – We work together as a team
- Agility – We change and deliver great work
Mindera wanted to create an organisation built around the principles of autonomy, self-management, and collaboration.
“We don’t have job titles,” says Pedro Teixeira, who describes his role as “human engineer” at the company. “Instead of wading through layers of approval and ticking boxes, everyone at Mindera is encouraged to make decisions with the support of mentors and collaborators, not commanders.
Teixeira says this approach makes the business move faster and be more agile. There is no dependence on levels of employees, but on a group of people ready and willing to make things happen. “Our ‘Minders’—how we lovingly refer to employees—like being treated like adults and value our collaborative way of working that values trust over control,” he says.
Mindera still has roles, but they are just a guide. There is also a strong people function that discusses where their employees are, how to support their growth, and who they need to recruit.
“We wanted a model that would give us the flexibility to explore human capabilities outside of a job title,” explains Teixeira. “Without job descriptions, we find people are more likely to take on more responsibility, are able to contribute to other parts of the business, try new things and have new experiences that a long and prescriptive list of responsibilities and expectations simply wouldn’t allow.”
Clear communication across the business, alongside a culture of continuous learning means progression in the company is more about contribution, rather than climbing a corporate ladder.
That said, this method of work is clearly not for everyone. “We choose people carefully,” admits Teixeira, “bringing them in if they align with our principles, have the right technical skills, and can add value to the organisation. If we meet someone we think can add value to Mindera, we bring them on board even if there is not a clear role for them, as that expertise will help grow the business in the long term.”