“Businesses should be about people having really significant
livelihoods that bring them joy and fulfilment,” says Cyan Ta’eed.
And with fairness and flexibility at the core of her own company
—digital marketplace Envato—Melbourne-based Ta’eed puts that
altruistic philosophy into practice every day. But while working as
a graphic designer 11 years ago, the young creative felt those values
were lacking in her industry. “Back in 2006, I was selling stock
photography online and the photographers would earn about 10
per cent on their sales –that seemed fundamentally wrong to me,”
she says. Inspired to create the kind of company she herself wanted
to work for, Ta’eed and her husband founded Envato–a platform
where creatives can sell their assets for a fair price.
As with many success stories, Envato–now the largest
company of its kind in the world–came from humble beginnings.
“We started out working in my parents’ garage, living in their
basement,” says Ta’eed. “We now have 280 people working at
Envato, most of whom are in Melbourne.” Ta’eed believes ensuring
her employees’ happiness is fundamental to growth and success,
and that flexible work hours should be standard. “Not only for
working mothers, because I believe it has shifted the dial around
inclusion,” says Ta’eed. “Now we’ve got men in part-time roles and
taking primary carer parental leave...it’s not only impactful for the
culture of Envato but also impactful to the partners of [our] staff.”
It’s this type of forward-thinking and inclusive workplace policythat earned Envato the title of one of Australia’s Best Places
To Work in the 2015 BRW Awards.
Despite her significant professional success (Envato turned
over a pre-tax profit of $38.3 million in 2016), Ta’eed is acutely
aware of her privileged position and is driven to give back where
she can. “It is unusual to be a female co-founder in a privately held
tech company of our size,” she notes. “As such I’m uniquely placed
and I feel it is my responsibility to make a positive impact.” Since
2013, she and a group of her Envato colleagues have run an
initiative called New Day Box, where shoeboxes filled with
skincare products and cosmetics are given to women in family
violence crisis at Christmas time. Ta’eed was also recently
appointed an ambassador for The Hunger Project, a role she is
honoured to hold because “they focus on empowering women in the
developing world to come out of poverty and gain independence”.
As for the future of Envato, Ta’eed is committed to her company
becoming the benchmark for diversity in the tech industry, and
also the wider community—“not just because it’s the right thing
to do, but because we will genuinely see more diverse problems
solved by more diverse teams. And that will benefit everyone.”
Bigger and better: “I would like Envato to get further and
further along in the journey that we’re on to be a business with
purpose–and [to see] what that can be, [and] how that can benefit
a community of people.” —SOPHIE GOULOPOULOS“EVERYBODY SHOULD
HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY
TO GO TO WORK DOING
WHAT THEY LOVE”
JUNE 2017 In STYLE 93Women of Style