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Sweet summer child working at a West Coast tech startup. Why give away swag when you can have your employees buy it? This is how it usually is outside the bubbl

Sweet summer child working at a West Coast tech startup. Why give away swag when you can have your employees buy it? This is how it usually is outside the bubble.

milkytron 3y ago
Idk. I worked for a massive company that is as east coast as they come. We'd still get free swag all the time. Usually for participating in events or coming to talks and stuff. Same thing with the startup I worked for, and the midsize/small company I work for now. From my experience, this is not how it is outside the bubble of SV.
prmoustache 3y ago
Company swag is usually the kind of gear you are wearing while doing stuff that could make you dirty. Lawn mowing, doing house shores, home renovation, fixing a bike or car.... Not something you would willingly spend money on and this is definitely stuff companies give away for free. It seems to be changing a bit now with companies having an environmental committee for all stuff that is made in plastic.
runlaszlorun 3y ago
I worked the occasional temp night shift at an Amazon warehouse shoving boxes around while working on a startup and they gave out a fair amount of swag. One could call them a tech company and therefore in the bubble but this is about as low on the totem pole as you can get. To their credit, they at least had to foresight to realize that free swag is free advertising. Enlightened self-interest if you will.
jmprspret 3y ago
I don't work for a startup I work for a broke company constantly shedding employees and I got a free shirt and a mug..
- denkmoon 3y ago
  Well if they didn't give away free shirts and mugs they might be a little less broke after all.
grogenaut 3y ago
For context I work at a startup that was bought by a megacorp but had a west coast swag mentality for years... the swag I got: - T-shirt, nice water bottle, backpack pins for interviewing (we got them on the swap over) - Hoodie and very nice ~$120 backpack on start - Hoodie at 2 years - Hoodie at holidays every year - T shirt & hoodie at every con I worked - Backpack at 2 years - Team hoodie, 3 t-shirts, or nort face soft shell every year with team logo on it - Yeti coffee cups for each team I founded - Custom yeezies I have around 20 hoodies now, 3 backpacks, 30 shirts. This doesn't include the electronics we got every year. All of this stuff is american apparel (pre-issues) or nicer. From megacorp I got a bad t-shirt and a paper thin targus backpack and the option to buy swag. When I rolled over to acquired startup we got a swag budget to bribe megacorp employees into meetings with us. It worked very well. We'd get Sr VPs in to a room with just a t-shirt for their kids.
Jcampuzano2 3y ago
I don't work on the west coast though I am originally from there. I've worked at 4 companies in Texas in the last 10 or so years ranging from 10s of thousands of employees with international presence down to only 35 employees when I started. Every single one had free coffee and snacks as well as free swag at least once or twice a year. Meaning shirts, sweatshirts, hats etc. Mostly lowish quality if I'm being fair, but my last company would give everybody really high quality stuff like 3-4 times a year.

Sweet summer child working at a West Coast tech startup. Why give away swag when you can have your employees buy it? This is how it usually is outside the bubble.

milkytron 3y ago

Idk. I worked for a massive company that is as east coast as they come. We'd still get free swag all the time. Usually for participating in events or coming to talks and stuff. Same thing with the startup I worked for, and the midsize/small company I work for now. From my experience, this is not how it is outside the bubble of SV.

prmoustache 3y ago

Company swag is usually the kind of gear you are wearing while doing stuff that could make you dirty. Lawn mowing, doing house shores, home renovation, fixing a bike or car.... Not something you would willingly spend money on and this is definitely stuff companies give away for free. It seems to be changing a bit now with companies having an environmental committee for all stuff that is made in plastic.

runlaszlorun 3y ago

I worked the occasional temp night shift at an Amazon warehouse shoving boxes around while working on a startup and they gave out a fair amount of swag. One could call them a tech company and therefore in the bubble but this is about as low on the totem pole as you can get. To their credit, they at least had to foresight to realize that free swag is free advertising. Enlightened self-interest if you will.

jmprspret 3y ago

I don't work for a startup I work for a broke company constantly shedding employees and I got a free shirt and a mug..

denkmoon 3y ago
Well if they didn't give away free shirts and mugs they might be a little less broke after all.

grogenaut 3y ago

For context I work at a startup that was bought by a megacorp but had a west coast swag mentality for years... the swag I got: - T-shirt, nice water bottle, backpack pins for interviewing (we got them on the swap over) - Hoodie and very nice ~$120 backpack on start - Hoodie at 2 years - Hoodie at holidays every year - T shirt & hoodie at every con I worked - Backpack at 2 years - Team hoodie, 3 t-shirts, or nort face soft shell every year with team logo on it - Yeti coffee cups for each team I founded - Custom yeezies I have around 20 hoodies now, 3 backpacks, 30 shirts. This doesn't include the electronics we got every year. All of this stuff is american apparel (pre-issues) or nicer. From megacorp I got a bad t-shirt and a paper thin targus backpack and the option to buy swag. When I rolled over to acquired startup we got a swag budget to bribe megacorp employees into meetings with us. It worked very well. We'd get Sr VPs in to a room with just a t-shirt for their kids.

Jcampuzano2 3y ago

I don't work on the west coast though I am originally from there. I've worked at 4 companies in Texas in the last 10 or so years ranging from 10s of thousands of employees with international presence down to only 35 employees when I started. Every single one had free coffee and snacks as well as free swag at least once or twice a year. Meaning shirts, sweatshirts, hats etc. Mostly lowish quality if I'm being fair, but my last company would give everybody really high quality stuff like 3-4 times a year.