We make software. And we’re building the company we always wanted to work for.
Flagon, Inc. makes good software and runs the whole company in the open. This is the long version of who we are, how we got here, and why we do it this way. It’s also, honestly, a pitch: for the software we make, for working here, and for the kind of company we think ought to exist.
How we got here
Flagon started with a frustration. Most software companies operate behind a curtain: the handbook is internal, the roadmap is a sales tool, and the real reasoning for anything lives in a few people’s heads. Then they spend a fortune convincing you to trust them anyway.
I’d worked at places like that, and it made the work worse. So I started Flagon to do it the other way around: build the company out loud, from the first day, and let people read exactly how it runs before deciding to trust it. A few months in, I’m more sure of that call than almost any other. The whole story lives in the handbook.
Why we're different
Fair warning: if you like the way most companies treat you, you might not like us. We’re building the company we’ve always wanted to work for, which means quietly rejecting a pile of things that somehow became normal. No spin, no fog, no growth tricks that only work because you weren’t paying attention.
The whole thing comes down to one rule: we try to treat you the way we’d want to be treated. If a tactic gives us the ick, it gives you the ick too, so we don’t use it. We’re also not for everyone, and we’d rather say so plainly than pretend otherwise. Here’s who Flagon is for, and who it isn’t.
We just try to do the right thing
Not as a slogan. As a list of specific things we will and won't do, that you can hold us to.
No dark patterns
No auto-renewal traps, no manufactured urgency, no unsubscribe mazes. If it only works because you weren’t looking, it’s out.
No bill shock
When there’s a product, it’s priced with caps you set. You will never open an invoice and gasp. If pricing surprises you, we got it wrong.
Try it without us
No “book a demo” wall in front of the thing. Use it, self-serve, and decide for yourself before you ever talk to a human.
Support from builders
The people who make it help support it. No offshored script-readers, no ticket that dies in a queue.
Here for the long haul
No quick exit, no flip. Flagon is the work, not a lottery ticket. We intend to still be here, and still be good, years from now.
Words that mean something
No marketing fog. We write like people, admit what we don’t know, and tell you plainly when we’re wrong.
Transparency isn’t a feature. It’s the whole thing.
You can see how the entire company operates. How we work, what we value, how we make decisions, and exactly how we pay people, down to the formula. Our roadmap is public, and this whole site, handbook and all, is open source and versioned in git, so you can watch it change.
If you’re thinking about using what we make, or joining us, you should be able to make an informed decision, not just about what exists today, but about the kind of company this is and intends to stay.
100%
Handbook, public
Open
Source, in git
Public
Comp, roadmap, reasoning
We're playing the long game
This isn’t a bait-and-switch or a plan to exit in a few years. Flagon is meant to be a durable company, run default-alive, making useful software in public for as long as it’s worth doing. It’s the work I want to be doing, at the company I’d want to buy software from and want to work at.
We’re small and early, and we’re not going to pretend otherwise. But the direction is fixed, and it won’t change with the fundraising weather: build good things, in the open, for the long haul. Read the long game for the full version.
A note from the founder
Chase Pierce
Founder & everything else, for now
I spent years inside companies that said one thing to the world and did another behind the login. It made me tired, and it made the work worse. Flagon is my attempt at the opposite: everything about how we operate is public, because I’d rather be held to a standard I wrote down than ask you to trust a logo.
If we ever fall short of what’s on these pages, that’s a bug, and you’re welcome to file it.
tl;dr
We make software, and we’re building the company we always wanted to work for: open, honest, priced without games, and here for the long haul. If we haven’t convinced you yet, read the handbook, follow the blog, and come try what we make.
Want the full picture?
The handbook is the real answer to almost any question about how Flagon works. If you’d want to work somewhere like this, the careers page is the next stop.