10Pines: Building a Company Without Bosses or Secrets

This blog post is part of 80+ case studies of progressive organizations we created for the ZeroDX awards 2025. These organizations embody the principles of RenDanHeYi in their work structures:

• Zero Distance to customer: Decision what to build is based on insights from the marketplace

• Autonomy: Small teams with full decision-making autonomy enable speed in execution

• Shared Rewards: Everyone in the micro-enterprise participates in its financial success.

From the beginning, 10Pines designed its practices around principles that closely resemble key elements of the RenDanHeYi model. Customer proximity is embedded into its structure. The same team that develops software also handles sales, interfaces directly with the client, and takes responsibility for delivery. There is no handoff or middle layer. Each team tracks its own financials and prepares a profit and loss statement, which it shares transparently withthe entire company. Teams are accountable for both technical excellence and business outcomes. This structure reinforces zero distance to the customer by ensuring that those closest to the user have the authority and tools to act on insights.

The company’s horizontal structure is central to how it operates. There are no bosses. Work is organized through circles focused on areas such as recruitment, finance, infrastructure, and company culture. Each circle is autonomous and open. Participation is voluntary and based on interest or expertise. Roles are fluid and defined by involvement rather than hierarchy. Circles function as shared management spaces where decisions are made by consent, not consensus or vote. “It sounds crazy to think that nobody tells what to do to anyone,” Jorge said, “but it is the extreme trust that leads us to be responsible.” This deep cultural trust reflects the logic of micro-enterprise thinking, where small teams act with accountability and initiative inside a broader organizational framework.

Transparency underpins the entire operating model. All company financials, including salaries, are open to every employee. Monthly roots meetings serve as the strategic backbone of the company. Here, fixed metrics such as billing, margin, and project rotations are reviewed, and any employee can raise or contribute to decisions. Discussionsthat require further exploration are handed off to temporary or stable working groups. These decentralized, participatory practices create a shared sense of ownership and continuous alignment across teams.

But access to information is not enough. To make self-management work, 10Pines invests heavily in training andshared understanding. Regular workshops explain how to read a balance sheet, interpret project margins, orunderstand cost structures. “You can open the numbers, but if you don’t explain them, it’s the same,” said Jorge. This commitment to financial literacy enables every employee to make informed decisions and participate meaningfully in business matters.

This sense of ownership extends to profit. At the end of each fiscal year, 50 percent of company profit is distributedamong all employees. The distribution formula, refined over time, is based on time in the company, hours worked, and seniority. Performance metrics are deliberately excluded. The model encourages people to align around collective outcomes, not compete as individuals. “It’s not equal, but we try to make it fair,” Jorge explained. The practice ties individual rewards to shared results and reinforces the company's belief in internal equity over external incentives.

The same philosophy applies to salaries. There are two types of increases: inflation-based, which are applied universally, and growth-based, which are reviewed three times a year. Employees prepare their own raise proposals, using feedback and self-reflection supported by mentors known as gardeners. Each employee chooses a gardener, often more than one, usually more experienced colleagues whoprovide guidance and help frame salary discussions. “Since we don’t have bosses, you have to ask yourself for araise,” Jorge said. These proposals are reviewed by a rotating peer group and then submitted to the widerorganization for consent. The result is a system of peer accountability that balances autonomy with fairness and transparency.

Hiring follows a similar participatory logic. The process includes an initial conversation, a technical challenge, a review interview, and a final group interview. That last step may involve 30 or more people. The candidate gets a real look inside the company, and the team gets to decide whether they see a future colleague. This method, practiced since the company's early days, has led to remarkably low turnover. Only four people have ever been dismissed. Hiring is not a matter of approval from the top but a collective agreement rooted in shared responsibility.

To support ongoing participation in daily matters, 10Pines uses an internal crowdfunding system. Each employee has a small monthly budget they can use individually or combine with others to act on ideas. Whether that means changing the office coffee supplier, buying a new bread machine, or improving the workplace in other ways, initiative isopen to all. This reinforces the belief that any individual can shape their environment without needing permission.

As the company has grown, it has continued to evolve its practices while staying rooted in its values. When the team passed 50 people, the founders noticed that cultural coherence was weakening. In response, they introduced thegardener role, formalized onboarding, and began using structured tools like Loomio to manage proposals. They also started holding an annual retreat to revisit company goals and address long-term challenges. This rhythm of ongoing reflection and adaptation supports a dynamic equilibrium that keeps the organization evolving without losing its foundation.

Remote work introduced further complexity. Much of 10Pines’ early culture was built around physical space, through daily interactions, rituals, and informal dialogue. In response, the team created a virtual onboarding experience, moved key rituals online, and redefined the office as a space for connection rather than control. Hybrid models and regular check-ins help rebuild the cohesion that once came naturally. The company continues to adapt with care, focusing notjust on efficiency, but on preserving shared meaning.

As 10Pines approaches 100 people, it is once again asking what sustainable growth looks like. There is active discussion about whether expansion should take the form of scale or replication. Rather than bring more people into a single system, the company is exploring possibilities like creating spin-offs or shared ventures with aligned partners.“We want to grow, but only if we take care of the culture,” Jorge said. This logic echoes a key concern in RenDanHeYi environments: maintaining coherence, autonomy, and mutual value creation as the organization grows.

The company has also expanded its focus on diversity and inclusion. A dedicated committee now leads initiatives that include internal workshops, recruitment efforts aimed at underrepresented groups, and the development of respectfulcommunication protocols. Projects are also selected with an eye toward social value. The company has worked on tools that support health access, anti-racism education, and digital inclusion. These efforts reflect a broader view of purpose that connects commercial work with collective wellbeing.

Underlying every policy and practice is a belief in people. Technical excellence and long-term client relationships matter, but not at the expense of culture. The company maintains a flexible schedule, lets people track their own hours,and uses an hourly-based compensation model tied to actual work performed. Fridays are often reserved for internal talks, training, or collective projects. This time, free from client work, reinforces learning, experimentation, and connection.

For 10Pines, self-management is not a destination. It is a shared practice grounded in care, clarity, and continuouslearning. The company has developed ways of working that mirror many of the principles seen in RenDanHeYi: decentralization, shared rewards, customer proximity, and the integration of individual growth with organizational purpose. What 10Pines offers is not a set of answers, but a living example of what becomes possible when people are trusted from the start, when work is organized around autonomy, and when value creation, like learning, is truly collective.