Firespring

A marketing company that lets its employees' personalities shine.

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Employees band together at Firespring's Lincoln, Neb. office.

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At Firespring, employee personality is taken very seriously. "We focus on allowing and honoring personalities to emerge," says the company's CEO, Jay Wilkinson. To that end, Wilkinson and his colleagues have created a company "culture club," with an elected official to represent them who goes by the name "Boy George." Firespring holds an annual miniature golf tournament, where employees literally build the course. At the end of the day, it's all about creating a postive workplace experience. "We operate by the philosophy that you might as well work somewhere where you want to be," he says. "We allow all of our staff members to let their personality shine. That's way underrated. Let people be who they are."

Eric Markowitz reports on start-ups, entrepreneurs, and issues that affect small businesses. Previously, he worked at Vanity Fair. He lives in New York City. @EricMarkowitz