The story behind Okta’s values

We set our original values when Okta was founded in 2009, in the earliest days of Identity, both in terms of the market and our identity as a company. Our values shaped our company culture from the start, forming the foundation of our company’s future and keeping our customers at the center of our work. Fifteen years later, we’ve refined them to fuel our next chapter of growth, with a continued focus on customers and building and owning the future.

Okta has experienced a lot of growth these last 15 years. We’ve evolved from a company of two founders signing our first customer to a publicly traded global organization to where we are today with over 18,000 customers, nearly 1 billion unique monthly users, and almost 6,000 employees across the world. This growth has required us to reassess our values and ask ourselves, “How do we best guide and align our organization toward our future ambitions?” We brought together teams from across the company to answer this question and refresh our values for the future.

Our refreshed values have familiar notes of what has been foundational for Okta throughout the years. They inform how employees engage with each other and their work, with a heightened focus on security to take us to the next level as “the World’s Identity Company.” So, let’s dive into the values.
 

1. Love our customers.

Loving our customers has always been a differentiator in how we operate. Our customers are at the heart of what we do, and we’re only successful as a company if they are.

As we’ve grown from a tiny startup into a market and thought leader, we’ve maintained our grounding in customer-centricity. You see this value in all of our work, from security updates that better protect our customers to product innovation stemming from customer needs. For further proof, you can turn to our customers’ stories about their love of Okta, including on the Oktane stage. When we say we love our customers, we truly mean it!

2. Always secure. Always on.

This value reflects our ongoing commitment to making every employee an owner of security. It guides our decision-making and our outcomes over the long term. What does this mean for Okta as a company? It means we never jeopardize the security and reliability we promise. It means we aim to eliminate every risk, even if there’s a one-in-a-million chance of materializing. One example of this value is Okta’s Secure Identity Commitment, our long-term commitment to being a leader in the fight against Identity attacks.

How are we doing this? By investing in market-leading products and services, hardening our corporate infrastructure, championing customer best practices, and raising the bar for our industry. Read more about the commitment and the actions we’re taking here. 

3. Build and own it. 

We are committed to creating an environment where employees can be their best selves, inside and outside the workplace. We work to ensure employees can see a direct connection between their effort and results and understand how their work fits into the broader company vision. 

We foster a culture where employees care deeply about the work we do and who we do it with, with a high sense of ownership and accountability for results. As builders and owners, we know that we do our best work as a team. It reminds us not to think like individuals or within the scope of our departments but as a whole.

4. Drive what’s next.

Driving what’s next means we’re always thinking and moving proactively. We never stop evolving, and we never settle for less than excellence. We’re living and working in a fast-changing industry with an increasing number of threats, so we need to be on the offense to move quickly and safeguard against the current and future landscape. 

We keep learning and growing and aren’t afraid to experiment. We move with speed to innovate and live up to our potential. All of this enables our goal to provide the best product and experience to our customers, partners, users, and broader network.

We’re excited to bring these values to life and put them into practice. Okta’s values are at the heart of everything we do, and we strive to have you experience them in every interaction with our team. 

Interested in learning more about Okta or joining our team? Check out open roles here.