At Modo, we’re working every day to do the most good for the most people by reducing friction in payments. That starts by making better, faster connections between payment systems. But the true driving force behind our purpose is the people doing the work - the ModoNauts who are giving their time and effort to work towards this goal together.

ModoNauts are special people. We truly do believe we can change the world by changing payments. The people who work here are passionate about payments (so much so that we often refer to ourselves as #paymentsgeeks), we are slightly overcommitted to humor, and we aspire to a common set of beliefs.

As we grow the company and add more ModoNauts to the clan, we decided it was time to write down what we aspire to as a company for those to come. We wanted to answer the question “What makes a ModoNaut?” From that exercise came six core beliefs: Accept Challenges, Account for Freedom, Lead through Collaboration, Act on Ideas, Embrace Transparency, and Value People Highest.

After our last ModoWeek, we recognized the outstanding ModoNauts who best exemplify each of these beliefs. We sat down with each of them to help explain each of the beliefs and what those values mean to them. Here’s what they had to say:

Accept Challenges

ModoNauts love a good challenge, and we rarely back down when one is presented to us because we know no other way. Much of the work we’re doing for clients are things that have never been done before, but when we figure out how to solve the problem, we truly are changing the industry.

Account for Freedom

We are given a lot of freedom to choose what we do and how we do it, but with that freedom comes accountability for our actions. Freedom also means we get to live where we want and work when we can. We trust each other to have good judgement in situations.

Lead Through Collaboration

We are a team, and we realize that the things we can do together are greater than anything we would be able to accomplish on our own. But collaboration requires ModoNauts to step up as leaders of projects and initiatives as well as ModoNauts to follow their lead.

Act On Ideas

We’re here because someone acted on a great idea which, as it happens, is not the same idea we’re pursuing now. We will continue to seek out great ideas from all parts of the company, but it doesn’t end there. Ideas require action in order to become truly great.

Embrace Transparency

Being open and direct is the rule, and secrecy is the exception for us ModoNauts. If we have a question, we ask it. If we have an answer, we give it with all the necessary context. This goes for our interactions with clients and investors as well.

Value People Highest

This may be the most important value that ModoNauts have. We are all humans choosing to spend the time that we’re given at Modo. At Modo, we understand that we’re all people who have loved ones that rely on them, have feelings, and deserve respect. We treat our clients and investors with this same respect.

We’re lucky to have a team aspiring to living out these beliefs and reducing friction in the payments industry. It is up to us as a company to spread these beliefs as we grow and live them out for others to see. Be on the lookout for us as we continue our path towards 10X growth and work towards creating interoperability in the cloud across the payments industry.