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Challenged to answer the question of what it took for RebelDot to become one of the technological partners for the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1™ Team, we thought of product mindset, tech excellence, company culture and passion as being the pillars that sustained our growth through yeas.
But to understand the culture at RebelDot, you have to go back to where it began.
The beginning of RebelDot
When RebelDot started in 2018, it was a group of thirty people who believed so deeply in the vision of this new company that stepping out of their comfort zone felt like the only logical thing to do. At that time, RebelDot had only a few clients and no clear growth pipeline, just a sense of purpose and a shared drive to build something meaningful.
Looking back, it’s easy to see how a story like that leaves a mark. It shaped a culture defined not by rules or processes but by ownership, trust, and shared belief. Responsibility felt personal, and growth felt collective.
Uncertainty became a constant in the years that followed, but holding onto a culture where growth was both personal and shared shaped the way we built RebelDot. It made growth intentional, responsibility collective, and success something that felt deeply personal to each of us.
Ownership and excellence as a growth engine
Today, with nearly 300 people part of RebelDot, it’s clear how much that early mindset still defines our path. When people begin from a place of choice and belief, they carry a deeper sense of ownership. Trust replaces control. Accountability becomes intrinsic, not imposed. Growth stops being something managed from the top and starts being something everyone contributes to.
As Tudor Ciuleanu often says, “RebelDot grew on transparency that built trust. Trust that fueled ownership. Ownership that generated care for discipline, for people, and sparked creativity.”
As the tech landscape evolved, competition grew fiercer and differentiation harder to sustain. In that context, striving for excellence became more than a goal; it became a way of working. For us, excellence means being deeply aligned with our clients’ vision. We learned that our real performance comes from making their ambitions possible, transforming technology into their most powerful asset.
This mindset shaped everything, from how we build and deliver to how we adopt new technologies and design our internal processes. It meant focusing our growth strategy on refining how we work every day while attracting and nurturing the kind of talent that could amplify that excellence at scale.
Being a rebel in tech
Our name has often put us in the position of explaining what being a Rebel in tech really means. Being a Rebel begins with questioning assumptions, sharing perspectives, and embracing productive disagreement as the foundation of innovation. It’s about creating an environment where challenging ideas doesn’t mean challenging people, and where open debate and diverse thinking lead to better decisions and stronger outcomes.
In our work, this shows up in how we collaborate. We don’t just take briefs; we question them. We test ideas early, uncover blind spots, and align teams around what truly matters. Our role is not to agree with everything but to guide partners toward clarity and help them make decisions rooted in both insight and empathy.
Being a Rebel also shapes how we show up for each other. It’s reflected in a culture grounded in trust, empathy, and shared ambition, a place where collaboration comes naturally. We build together, celebrate each other’s progress, and create space for curiosity and care. This human-centred approach turns teamwork into a shared objective, fostering an environment where people grow, ideas connect, and performance follows.
A sense of togetherness
For us, togetherness has always been less about grand declarations and more about the small, consistent gestures that build trust. It begins with the kind of safety that allows honesty and mistakes. It continues through open conversations, where ideas can be challenged without challenging each other.
We’ve learned that this difference matters. When we focus on the idea, not the person, discussion turns into progress. Feedback becomes easier to give and to receive. Over time, that openness creates a quiet kind of trust, one based on care rather than hierarchy.
Commitment grows naturally from there. People support decisions they helped shape because they know their perspective mattered. And when ownership is shared from the start, accountability doesn’t need to be managed; it becomes part of how we work together.
You can see it in how we operate. We share financials openly, keep decisions transparent, and make sure everyone has enough context to act with clarity and confidence.
In a recent conversation for the Rebels at Speed series with the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls Formula 1™ Team, Tudor Ciuleanu, CEO at RebelDot, was asked what mindset he hopes every RebelDot team member brings to work. His answer was simple: accountability and ownership.
We see those words not as statements but as practice. Turning ideas into reality means taking shared risks and remembering that everything we build depends on how we connect, interact, and support each other. The same principles that once helped thirty people stay together in uncertainty still guide us today, quietly, imperfectly, and with the same belief that trust is built one interaction at a time.
Culture as a living organism
Culture isn’t something we set in stone. It evolves as we do. Every new person who joins brings their own perspective, values, and way of thinking, and that inevitably shapes who we become. We talk a lot about cultural fit, but what matters just as much is cultural add, the ways someone can make us think differently or move forward in ways we couldn’t before. When we bring in new colleagues, we look for people who can help us grow, not just blend in. In the end, our culture is a shared effort, built a little more with every person who decides to be part of it.
