Scaling Your Startup Without Losing Its Soul with Relinde Boerman | Show notes episode 145 – Women Disrupting Tech

“Time to hire is not a metric that I’m looking at a lot.”

In a startup ecosystem that optimizes for speed, it’s not what you expect to hear from a lead recruiter. But in episode 145 of Women Disrupting Tech, Relinde Boerman, Lead Recruiter at Polarsteps, reveals what it takes to grow a team without diluting the culture that made the company successful in the first place.

Three hiring lessons from our conversation:

• Hiring for values does not reduce diversity.
• Brilliant individuals should never weaken the team.
• Hiring slowly can actually protect culture.ng things wrong. The goal is to invite listeners to rethink how we see and use technology.

Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. Or scroll down for the key moments and insights from the conversation that will help you change your perspective on hiring.

3 Lessons From This Conversation

Culture is often described as the soul of a company. When a startup begins to scale, that soul can come under pressure as new people join. So how can you preserve the culture while growing? That’s the central question in this conversation. Relinde shares three lessons from the hiring process that support PolarSteps’ culture.

Hiring for values does not reduce diversity

Some founders worry that focusing on values will create a homogeneous team. At Polarsteps, the opposite happens. Shared values create the foundation that allows people with different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to collaborate effectively. Values alignment does not limit diversity. It allows diverse teams to work at a high level.

Talent density matters more than individual brilliance

Polarsteps looks for people who raise the bar for the entire team. That also means that even highly talented candidates will not be hired if they would weaken the collective dynamic. Talent density is not about stacking impressive résumés. It is about building a team where every new hire strengthens how the group works together.

Hiring slowly can protect culture

In many startups, speed becomes the dominant recruiting metric. Polarsteps deliberately resists that pressure. Relinde made it clear that they do not optimize for time-to-hire. Taking the time to find the right person protects the culture far better than rushing a decision that introduces the wrong signal into the team.

Together, these lessons reveal something important. Culture does not survive growth by accident. It survives because leaders make deliberate hiring decisions that reinforce the values they want the company to live by.

💬 Know a founder who should hear this perspective? Share this episode with them.

Or scroll down for magical moments, practical takeaways, and my own observations on the conversation that bring these lessons to life.

Highlights and timestamps

Time	Highlight
00:00	Introduction
02:02	Relinde’s Journey to Polarsteps
04:47	The Growth of Polarsteps
07:20	Maintaining Company Culture During Rapid Growth
10:23	The Importance of Values in Recruitment
12:54	Hiring for Culture Fit
15:38	Assessing Cultural Drift
17:54	Defining Company Values
20:05	Embedding Values in the Hiring Process
22:15	Curiosity as a Cultural Element
25:12	Balancing Clarity and Ambiguity in a Fast-Paced Environment
27:58	The Role of Leadership in Culture
30:14	High Impact, Talent Density, and Values
33:10	Navigating Commercial Pressures in Hiring
35:43	Addressing Hiring Mistakes
38:15	The Day at the Office: A Unique Hiring Approach
40:59	Onboarding and Settling In
43:42	Fostering Belonging in a Hybrid Setup
46:51	Career Growth and Internal Mobility
49:23	Hiring a New CEO
52:19	Advice for Female Founders
55:15	Closing Thoughts and Resources

3 Magic Moments In The Episode

It’s easy to talk about hiring philosophy, but what really matters is how it is implemented in day-to-day hiring decisions. In this conversation, three stories show how Polarsteps applies its standards in practice.

The recruiter who was rejected

Relinde’s journey at Polarsteps starts as a candidate who does not get the job. Three years later, she applies again and is hired. The story says something about her persistence, but it also shows how selective Polarsteps is when deciding who joins the team.

A day at the office

One of the most memorable steps in the recruitment process is the ‘Day at the Office.’ Instead of only answering interview questions, candidates spend a full day actually working with the team. It’s a chance to go beyond talk and see how someone really fits in and collaborates when the pressure is off.

The CEO search as moment of truth

Relinde also shares the story of the search for the company’s new CEO, Claire Jones. The search takes so long that it becomes a running joke inside the company. But the team refuses to settle and continues the search until they find the right match. The story perfectly illustrates how serious Polarsteps is about hiring quality, even when the process takes longer than expected.

These stories reveal a consistent pattern. Polarsteps protects its culture through the hiring decisions it makes as the company grows, regardless of the role.

💬 What was your favorite moment from the episode? Let me know in the comments.

Or keep scrolling for practical takeaways if you want to learn more about Polarsteps’ hiring practices.

Practical Takeaways for Founders

It’s easy for hiring conversations to stay on the surface. This one doesn’t. Relinde and I dive deep into how PolarSteps translates its values into how hiring (and onboarding) are done. PolarSteps invested early in a strong People and Culture Team. And Relinde shares three practical learnings that any founder could use.

Prioritise talent density over headcount

Scaling a startup often creates pressure to hire quickly. Polarsteps resists that instinct. The focus is not on how many people join the company, but on the impact each new hire brings to the team. A smaller team with strong contributors creates far more momentum than a rapidly expanding team filled with average performers.

Translate values into real interview questions

Values only matter when they influence decisions. At Polarsteps, that means turning big ideas into down-to-earth interview questions. Instead of asking candidates whether they agree with the company’s values, interviewers dig into real stories and situations to see how people actually behave and whether they’ll make the team stronger.

Create a structured onboarding program

Hiring doesn’t end with a signed contract. Especially when you’ve put so much effort into hiring the right resource, it’s important to make sure that new employees land smoothly. Relinde shares how PolarSteps does this through a 30-60-90 day plan, to set clear expectations and provide evaluation milestones for new hires.

These practices helped Polarsteps scale the team from 20 to 100 while preserving the culture. They show that culture is reinforced through deliberate hiring, thoughtful onboarding, and the discipline to prioritise the right people over rapid expansion.

💬 Know a founder who is building a team right now? Share this episode with them.

Or scroll down to discover an inspiring quote and learn about my own takeaways.

The Quote From The Episode

Picture of Relinde Boerman, lead recruiter at Polarsteps wth a quote from episode 145 of the podcast Women Disrupting Tech, titled ‘Scaling Your Startup Without Losing Its Soul with Relinde Boerman.’ The quote says, “Time to hire is not a metric that I'm looking at a lot.”

“Time-to-hire is not a metric that I’m looking at a lot”

Relinde Boerman – Lead recruiter at Polarsteps

Her statement may sound simple, but it captures the philosophy behind how Polarsteps builds its team. Hiring decisions focus on long-term alignment with the team and the culture the company wants to protect as it scales.

3 Things That Changed The Way I Think

Throughout our conversation, Relinde explains how Polarsteps makes concrete decisions while the company grows. A few of those choices challenge my assumptions about how startups should build teams during periods of rapid change.

Using slow periods in business to recalibrate

When the travel world hit pause during the pandemic, Polarsteps didn’t just wait things out. They used the downtime to really think about what kind of team they wanted to build. That reflection turned into a set of values that still shape every hiring choice and day-to-day decision, even as the company keeps growing.

Hiring “overqualified” people for first-of-kind roles

When a company creates a function for the first time, the instinct is often to hire someone who simply fits the current scope. Polarsteps sometimes hires people who are technically overqualified. These individuals set up the function properly from the start and later build the team around them as the company scales.

Curiosity is a functional requirement for scaling

In a fast-growing company, processes rarely stay stable for long. Systems evolve, roles change, and new problems appear constantly. Relinde explains that people who enjoy that environment tend to be curious rather than anxious. Curiosity becomes a practical requirement for anyone working in a company that is still building how it operates.

These ideas reveal a consistent pattern. Polarsteps treats hiring as long-term company building. Quiet moments are used to reflect, first hires are chosen to shape the future of the function, and curiosity is treated as a requirement rather than a nice-to-have. That discipline allows the company to grow while protecting the culture that made it successful in the first place.

Conversations like this remind me that technology is never just about features. It is also about the systems we create and the roles people are expected to play within them.

💬 What changed your thinking as you listened to this episode? I would love to hear from you in the comments.

Coming up on Women Disrupting Tech

50% of people with an acquired brain injury never complete their rehabilitation. This impacts not only their lives, but also the economy.

In episode 146, Faviola Dadis returns to the show to explain why that is and how her new venture, BrainBoostXR, is helping to solve this problem.

We talk about dignity in healthcare, the role of AI and VR in improving outcomes, and what it really takes to design solutions that work for people in real life.

In this clip, Faviola shares how she initially hid her condition, and how that perspective later became a strength in her work as a founder, researcher, and clinician.

Listen to the clip by hitting the play button. And if you want to hear how that perspective translates into building better healthcare solutions, subscribe to Women Disrupting Tech to find the episode in your inbox on 2 April 2026 at 8:00 hours CET.

Until then, as always, keep being awesome.

Dirkjan

Listen to Episode 145 on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen to our conversation on YouTube

About Relinde Boerman

Relinde Boerman is Lead Recruiter at Polarsteps, the fast-growing Amsterdam travel tech company behind the popular travel tracking app used by millions of travelers worldwide. Over the past few years, she has built and professionalized the company’s recruitment function as Polarsteps scaled its team and global reach.

Relinde approaches recruitment as a strategic lever for culture and long-term team quality rather than simply a process for filling open roles. One example is Polarsteps’ distinctive “Day at the Office” hiring step, where candidates spend a full day working alongside the team. This allows both sides to experience the collaboration style, expectations, and culture firsthand before a hiring decision is made.

Her work has helped create a hiring process that emphasizes values alignment, talent density, and strong onboarding. The result is a recruitment approach that strengthens both the team and the company culture, reflected in Polarsteps’ exceptionally high Glassdoor rating of 4.9 out of 5.

You can connect with Relinde on LinkedIn.

About Polarsteps

Polarsteps is an Amsterdam-based travel technology company that builds an all-in-one app to help people plan, track, and relive their journeys. Founded in 2015 by a group of passionate travelers and technologists, the company set out to solve a simple problem: how to capture travel experiences in a way that is both effortless and beautiful.

Today, millions of travelers around the world use Polarsteps to plan trips, automatically track their routes on an interactive map, and document their adventures with photos, notes, and stories. The app then transforms these travel memories into shareable digital journeys and even physical “Travel Books” that preserve the experience in a tangible format.

Beyond the product itself, Polarsteps has built a reputation for thoughtful product design and a strong company culture. The team approaches growth deliberately, focusing on talent density, curiosity, and values-driven hiring. As discussed in the episode, that philosophy shapes every stage of the employee journey, from recruitment and onboarding to leadership communication, helping the company scale its team while preserving the culture that attracted millions of travelers to the platform in the first place.

You can learn more about Polarsteps on the website and by following them on Instagram. And if you want to explore if Polarsteps is your place to work, check out the career page.

BTW, Apple recently named Polarsteps one of its most-loved travel apps on the App Store. Download the app via the link on the Polarsteps website.

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Events that Women Disrupting Tech Must-Attend

Some great events take place this spring. Below are three that you definitely want to check out. For a full overview of all events, including links to buy tickets, please check the events page.

Featured Event – Trek XIII – 23-30 May 2026

Trek is the program for founders and funders to learn from—and connect with—Silicon Valley, the epicenter of innovation and technological disruption.

Participating offers a unique insider perspective, lots of fun, and access to the investors behind Dutch successes like Mollie, FLYR, Weaviate, and HackerOne. Previous participants have raised funding in both the U.S. and the Netherlands, found inspiration, and made new friends.

Trek is an activity by DutchTechX, which spun out from DutchTechSF—the Dutch-American entrepreneurial community. Funded by Dutch-American founders, the initiative fosters collaboration between the U.S.

The next edition will take place from May 23–30, 2026. About five spots are still available. DM the organizer, Oliver Binkhorst, or click here for more information. FAQs are available here

Featured Event: Understanding Women’s Health – 24 June 2026

Learn how hormone cycles or perimenopause impact your life, and discover more about conditions like PCOS or Endometriosis at the quarterly Understanding Women’s Health Events hosted by Kasia Pokrop.

Women’s health is a topic near and dear to my heart. Which is why I’m happy to support and attend the events that 3mbrace Health organizes at Equals every quarter.

Men are expressly invited to join. In fact, send me an email if you want to be a women’s health pioneer. More info and tickets can be found here.

Diverse Leaders in Tech Events

If you like being in the know about what is happening in the DEI space, Diverse Leaders in Tech is the place to be.

Every last Thursday of the month, they have monthly in-person meetups for tech people, HR leaders and supporters of diversity to exchange insights, tackle challenges, and take action. It’s a vibrant, safe space where diversity is celebrated.

You can find their events on the website. Joining your first event is free, and the next one is on 25 March.

What I Want To Leave You With

When startups talk about hiring, the conversation often turns to speed. Open roles need to be filled, teams need capacity, and growth creates pressure to move quickly. Relinde offers a different perspective. Hiring is not a race to fill seats. It is one of the most powerful ways a company shapes its future.

Throughout this conversation, one idea becomes clear. Culture is not preserved through slogans or internal presentations. It is preserved through the decisions companies make when they choose who joins the team. Polarsteps shows what that looks like in practice: staying selective, hiring people who strengthen the group, and investing in the systems that help new hires succeed.

That approach requires patience. It also requires clarity about the kind of company you want to build. When those two things are in place, hiring stops being a reactive process and becomes a deliberate way to protect what makes the organisation work.

If you want to hear how Relinde and the Polarsteps team approach hiring while scaling the company, listen to the full conversation with Relinde Boerman on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

A Question for You 🤔

💬 What will you do differently in your hiring after listening to Relinde?

👇 Share your thoughts in the comments. Let’s keep this conversation going and discover new truths.

Scaling Your Startup Without Losing Its Soul with Relinde Boerman | Show notes episode 145

3 Lessons From This Conversation

Hiring for values does not reduce diversity