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The Home of Culture Research: The Business of Culture I 2026 I Download Now
The Culture Helping Sokin Move Like a Smaller Company
I DEEP DIVE INSIDER PROFILES
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Sokin is building a global payments business where people are trusted to act quickly and stay close to its mission of making international business easier.
Sokin was built around the idea that businesses should be able to grow internationally without payments getting in the way.
Moving money across borders can still create unnecessary cost and complexity for companies operating internationally. Sokin gives businesses a way to manage that movement through one global payments platform, helping them handle the financial operations that sit behind working across markets.
The company now supports more than $8 billion in annual global payment volume. Its infrastructure is backed by regional licences and banking relationships, while its people operate across seven locations around the world. The ambition is to build the financial infrastructure that allows businesses to operate internationally with greater confidence.
That global scale has shaped Sokin’s culture, but the company does not want its people to start behaving like they are part of a slow-moving organisation.
The cultural belief is that people should have enough understanding of where the business is going to make decisions without constantly waiting for instructions. Sokin is growing inside an industry that changes quickly, so the company expects employees to use their judgement and move work forward when they can see what needs to happen next.
That is the thinking behind its “Own It” value.
Ownership at Sokin means taking responsibility for the outcome rather than simply completing the work that was assigned. Employees are encouraged to follow problems through and recognise when they have the ability to improve something themselves.
It also means accepting that not every answer will already exist. New markets create new questions, and the company continues to develop as its products and infrastructure expand. People need to be comfortable working while parts of the answer are still being figured out.
Clear communication becomes particularly important in that environment.
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Sokin describes this through its “No Bullshit” value. The language is deliberately direct because the expectation behind it is direct too. People should be able to say what they think and understand what is happening without unnecessary layers getting in the way of the conversation.
That matters even more when the people involved may be working in different countries and time zones. Sokin’s workforce brings together people with experience from different financial markets and technology environments. The company wants that international footprint to broaden how problems are approached without making it harder for people to work as one organisation.
Its “Better Together” value speaks to that part of the culture. Collaboration is useful when it improves the work, not when it creates more process around it. Someone may lead an issue because they are closest to it, then bring in another colleague when that person has experience that could change the outcome.
The company also wants people to remain willing to question established ways of working. Sokin started with the intention of removing friction from global payments, so challenging existing systems has always been part of the business. “Break the Mould” keeps that thinking present internally as the organisation becomes larger.
Employees are encouraged to look at a familiar process and ask whether it still makes sense. That can mean changing something inside Sokin or finding a simpler way for a client to operate internationally.
For people inside the company, that creates a workplace where change is part of the job rather than something that happens occasionally around it.
The people who tend to settle into that environment are comfortable acting without a complete playbook. They ask questions when they need more context and then move once they have enough information to make a useful decision. Waiting for certainty can sometimes create more problems than making a considered call and learning from it.
As Sokin grows, employees need to understand what the company is trying to achieve and how the work in front of them connects to that direction. Transparent communication helps people make better decisions further away from the centre of the organisation because they understand what the business is prioritising. That becomes increasingly important across seven global locations. Sokin wants employees to feel that they are contributing to the same company rather than operating as separate offices connected by a brand.
Shared moments and recognition help maintain that connection, but much of it comes from the work itself. People in different parts of the organisation depend on one another to move projects forward, and the company expects knowledge to travel rather than stay within one team or geography.
Growth also creates opportunities that may not have existed when someone joined.
Sokin is still developing its global presence, which means new responsibilities emerge as the business changes. Employees can find themselves taking ownership of work that would once have sat outside their role simply because the company has reached a stage where somebody now needs to lead it.
That gives career development a practical connection to the growth of the business. People are not always waiting for a predefined position to appear before taking on more responsibility.
There is also an expectation that personal ambition should improve the company around the individual. Someone moving quickly is more useful when they help other people move with them. Sharing knowledge becomes important because a global business cannot scale effectively if useful information remains concentrated with a small number of employees.
Sokin has already reached a point where billions of dollars move through its platform each year, but internally there is still a strong sense that the company is being built.
Its mission leaves plenty of work unfinished. International business still comes with financial friction that Sokin wants to remove, while every new market creates another opportunity to improve how the platform operates.
The culture is designed for that stage of the journey. Sokin wants people to understand the direction clearly enough that they can act without waiting for every step to be mapped out, keeping the pace of a smaller company even as the business becomes increasingly global.