Keep It Simple, Make It Bold: How Bolt Rewrote the Rules of Employer Branding

Kadi Poll (Bolt): It’s really a mix of all three.

Bolt as a brand has always been bold and straightforward. The culture matches that fast-moving, ownership-driven, and all about the freedom to execute.

And personally, I’m a simple girl from a tiny village in Estonia. I want to talk to people like people. Honest, human. I want to create things that feel real, with a bit of risk, a bit of rawness. I think when we’re upfront from the beginning, we save time and energy for everyone: the company and the candidate. And get to the good stuff faster.

Kadi: Oh boy, yes — a few years ago I shared a personal story on LinkedIn about my grandpa waiting for me at a train station. That post actually got me the job at Bolt. They reached out saying, "We need someone to tell these kinds of grandpa-style stories — but about our employees." So technically, my grandpa got me into tech and helped me become the first employer branding person at Bolt.

The grandma campaign came much later, when we needed to hire 100+ engineers and raise awareness as a tech company among some pretty big fish in the sea. I mean — how do you stand out when you’re up against tech giants? We needed something truly unique.

We started by interviewing our engineers. And during one of those chats, someone said, "My job is so clear, even my grandma gets it." That was the moment.

The creative magic came from Liisa Ennuste, our brand team’s creative director. She conducted the interviews, wrote the scripts, and led the whole concept. I was involved from the employer branding side as the client, but I can’t take any creative credit (and definitely neither can my grandpa 😄).

I think it worked because it was different and human. Everyone gets the "grandma" reference. It was sweet, funny and instantly relatable. So often, people try to overcomplicate things when speaking to engineers. But sometimes, the most effective stories aren’t loud or technical, they just have to make you feel something.

Kadi: Before Bolt, I worked in the entertainment industry — doing social media, videography, PR, and marketing. I often had to make something newsworthy out of nothing.

At Bolt, I’ve been lucky. The culture gives you real freedom — to take ownership, try weird ideas, fail fast, and just see what happens. If it works, great. If not, you try again. That open-mindedness has definitely expanded how I think creatively.

The story with the "day as an engineer’s dog" video was exactly that. Everyone was doing "a day in the life of an engineer," so we thought — what if we flipped it and showed a day in the life of their dog instead? I mean, we’d already used their grandmas… so what was left? 😄 The idea was simple: dogs don’t lie. So they’d tell the story in the most honest way possible.

And the screaming seagull story actually came from one of our LinkedIn ambassadors. He suggested that we all post a photo of a screaming seagull on one Friday morning. The idea behind it was simple but powerful — if we can post something that silly and unexpected, then we’ve broken the mental barrier of "what's okay to share" on LinkedIn. We often overthink everything: when to post, what hook is good enough, how much space to leave between sentences, what visual to use… it can get exhausting. But after that post, everything else felt easier. Around 40 ambassadors actually posted it. I nearly fell off my chair 😄 It showed just how willing people were to support each other and let go of overthinking.

So yeah, it’s a mix: the experience I gained early on, the freedom at Bolt, and the amazing people I get to collaborate with. But if I had to name my favourite creative trick — I just look at what competitors or everyone else are doing… and then do the opposite.

Kadi: One of our core values at Bolt is "Be frugal" — we consider the impact of every resource we spend. It’s not about cutting corners, it’s about being intentional and solving problems in the simplest, most effective way.

That’s exactly how we approached our employee advocacy program. We didn’t start with a big launch or expensive software. We started scrappy — a private Slack group for community, Google Sheets for tracking, and a Confluence page as our internal hub. Nothing fancy. Just a lightweight system and a small group of motivated people.

We’re big believers in keeping things simple for as long as they work. If a Google Sheet or a Slack group gets the job done, why complicate it? Especially at Bolt, where people already juggle multiple tools.

For me, the real question is always: Does this new system actually solve a problem, or are we just adding layers because it feels more "official"? If the simple setup is still delivering results, there’s no reason to over-engineer it.

Of course, if things grow — like if we go to 150+ — that’s when we step back and reassess. Will a tool save us time, improve clarity, or help scale without adding unnecessary overhead?

Start scrappy, prove it works, and scale with purpose — not just because it looks good on paper.

Kadi: I’d share three pieces of advice — the same framework we use at Bolt to stay focused.

First, define your end point. You need to be clear on where your responsibility starts and stops. At Bolt, we’ve decided that employer branding ends at the apply button. Everything before that — awareness, interest, consideration — is ours to own. After that, we support, but we don’t lead. That kind of clarity sets boundaries, prevents burnout, and helps you say no to all the "nice-to-have" ideas that don’t serve your real goal.

Second, know your funnel.
Different problems need different strategies. What works for awareness might not work for interest — and what drives interest won’t fix a drop-off at application. So don't copy your competitor’s campaign just because it looks cool. They might be solving a completely different problem. Diagnose your funnel first, and fix your actual challenge — not someone else’s.

Third, focus on ROI.
Most of us in employer branding have more passion than budget — and that’s okay. You don’t need to say yes to every shiny idea. Test it. Measure it. Tweak it. And if it doesn’t work? Drop it. No guilt. No shame. Just move on and try something else.

So in short: get clear, stay focused, and be brutally honest about what’s working and what’s not.