Hatch caught up with Mikayla, Head of Marketing at Tracksuit to learn more about their approach to employer branding.
What does Tracksuit do?
Mikayla: Tracksuit is beautiful, affordable, always on brand tracking. That’s a lot of buzzwords, but essentially, we survey thousands of consumers every day so marketers and agency leaders can understand how the real world thinks and feels about their brand.
Our big vision is to have brand data in every boardroom around the world, and we want to make it simple so that people like Marketers, CSOs, CMOs, and CFOs can understand the value and impact of brand marketing.
What has your career journey looked like at Tracksuit so far?
Mikayla: After the founders, I joined as employee number two. Now we’ve got 110 people across New Zealand, Australia, the US, and the UK. It's changed a lot in the past three years. I started as the Customer and Marketing Lead, which meant doing everything— product marketing, onboarding, account expansion, creating social content, and even packing Tracksuits for our first 100 customers.
It was brilliant because I got to know the product inside and out, and I understood our customers' pains, fears, and dreams better than anyone. Now, I have a team of 14 across four markets, and I get to focus on how brand growth, demand gen and product marketing come together to build a world-class business. It's fantastic to have a team that’s way smarter than I am in their disciplines and learn how to unlock their potential.
Did the Tracksuit brand have that playful look and feel right from the beginning, or did it evolve over time?
Mikayla: It definitely evolved, but for me, coming from working in consumer businesses, I’ve never had a strong desire to do traditional B2B marketing. No matter the business context, the buyer is still a human, and humans buy with emotion.
So why not use the same framework as a consumer business? We've always been very deliberate in showing up in a playful, spirited way, and that has evolved beautifully over the last three years. The moment Tracksuit turns corporate blue is the moment it’s not for me.
Can you tell us more about the physical “Tracksuits” you guys delivered to customers in the early days?
Mikayla: That was one of my first memories. I started in November, and by December, we had designed and printed the first batch of tracksuits. It was just a no-brainer. Traditional brand tracking is typically presented in long, complicated, 100-page reports around a boardroom table with a group of people in suits. We wanted to take best-in-class methodology, but do it differently. It sounds a bit cheesy, but we’re built for speed, don’t take ourselves too seriously and strip it all back to keep it simple. Tracksuit tracksuits reflect that.
What can a new starter at Tracksuit get most excited about?
Mikayla: There’s a lot to be excited about. First and foremost, career progression. If you're an A-player, there’s no ceiling. It doesn’t matter if you're 20 or 60; you can do anything and everything you want here. We attract ambitious people who want to drive impact and see results. Perks and benefits are also strong— we offer benefits like health coverage, six weeks annual leave, wellness programs, etc., but there are some really unique ones too.
For example, we have the Spark Spending initiative, where each week, people are allocated credits to spend on colleagues to recognise them for demonstrating Tracksuit values. It’s just a great way to spark connection among the team. Another unique benefit is our world-class parental policies: 12 weeks of paid parental leave globally, dinners delivered post-birth, salary reviews, and promotions continue while on leave, four-day workweeks at full pay when returning, and more. So, there are tons of perks, and it’s hard to wrap them all up in a single answer.
Do you have a people team that has designed those programs?
Mikayla: We’ve got an amazing people team. Our People Lead, Christine, has been fantastic at championing things that really matter. She’s great at understanding what matters because she speaks to both the market and the team.
How does the Marketing Team contribute to the employer brand at Tracksuit?
Mikayla: I believe brand doesn’t just live within marketing; every employee at Tracksuit is a guardian of the brand. Marketing does play a key role in telling the story of our employer brand, but we need every employee to live that story (otherwise there’s no story to tell!).
It’s a combination of both— a strong internal culture and a marketing function that shares that story with the world. For us, it’s not just about having an incredible employer brand; it’s about living it, so everyone else knows just how good Tracksuit really is.
Why do you think the Tracksuit brand has gone so viral, particularly on the ANZ tech scene?
Mikayla: We’re very deliberate about the way we build brand at Tracksuit. We deeply invest in our culture, and our employees tell our story for us. We also use PR as a core go-to-market channel to help spread those stories.
I personally onboard every new employee, ensuring they understand that they are a guardian of Tracksuit’s brand. We want them to be so proud to have “Ex Tracksuit” on their LinkedIn profiles one day and to take ownership of our legacy. Every person who joins Tracksuit contributes to that.
What’s the standard process for sourcing talent at Tracksuit? Is it mostly inbound, or a combination of both?
Mikayla: It's definitely a hybrid approach. In New Zealand, inbound is very strong, and as a leadership team, we take it as part of our job to always have a pipeline of potential hires. But we also have an amazing hiring team to help with the phone screenings and interviews.
I personally reach out to at least 10 people a week on LinkedIn to keep that pipeline growing, and everyone in the team does that too.
In the hiring process, do you have any non-negotiables or unique factors that you look for in candidates?
Mikayla: Our culture is built on high care and high performance, so anyone we hire has to demonstrate those qualities. In terms of the actual process, it’s pretty standard— two or three phone calls, a practical take-home task, and a meet-the-team phase. We always pay for candidates' time during the take-home task, regardless of whether they get the role or not.
How do you ensure candidates are a good culture fit during the hiring process?
Mikayla: Every employee at Tracksuit has a very clear understanding of our values, so during the process, we assess how candidates align with those values. For example, one of our core values is "We are champions and cheerleaders," so we ask candidates about their ability to care for the people around them.
Another value is "We lead with transparency and vulnerability," so we look for examples where they’ve been open to feedback and shown vulnerability. We also believe that simplicity is a superpower, so we look for candidates who can take complex ideas and make them simple. It’s all about seeing how they put our values into practice.
Have the Tracksuit values been around since day one?
Mikayla: Yes, absolutely. I have a photo from when it was just the four of us in November 2021, and we were crossing out values we didn’t align with. Those five values are the same ones we chose back then, and they’re still at the core of our culture today.
How do you ensure that the next wave of people joining Tracksuit maintains that high-performing culture and brand fit?
Mikayla: For me, it’s less about the process and more about ensuring the next group of people — whether it's 100 or 1000 — feel the same ownership and pride in Tracksuit as the first 100. It’s about maintaining that culture and making sure everyone knows they play a part in building something special.
