Working at Sybotanica

Read this before you apply

Sybren Bies, Founder of Sybotanica

Most people find Sybotanica because of houseplants. That is how we get customers, it is (usually) not how we get team members.

Loving plants helps, but it is not why we hire someone. We make plants happy AND we are building a company. This page is about the latter.

What we're actually building

Sybotanica started with plant cuttings on Etsy. Today we're 25 people, we've served 195,519+ customers across Europe, we're rated 4.8 on Trustpilot, and we're opening the USA soon.

The goal is not to be a cute Dutch brand. The goal is to be the worldwide #1 houseplant soil brand, peat-free, transparently sourced, and big enough that we can make an actual impact at scale.

That sustainable impact is real, but we chase it like a company that intends to win, not like a hobby with a conscience.

The team

Roughly half of us are in the Netherlands, half in the Philippines, plus colleagues in Pakistan and Portugal!

Think of it as two halves making a whole. The offline team runs production, warehouse, R&D and logistics in Arnhem. The online team runs ecommerce, marketing, brand and support, spread across countries and time zones. On parts of the production floor we also work with people who need a bit more support to do their job well.

We speak Dutch in our Arnhem HQ and English for our remote team.

How we work

We're informal. No formal emails, very few meetings. We like to have fun during the day. The work is serious, we are not.

We also don't hold hands. You get context, a goal and a lot of freedom. You don't get someone checking whether you did it. I hire people who already know their craft, because I don't want to teach you your job, I want you to bring it.

And the role you get is a starting point, not a ceiling. A vacancy here is the shape of a problem, and I expect you to redraw it as we grow. That scares some people. The good ones want exactly that.

Where you'd work

Operations roles are on-site in Arnhem, five days a week. Be clear on what that means: it's a soil production facility. It's dusty, it's physical, and it's hard work. (And a LOT of fun!)

Office roles based in the Netherlands are in Arnhem at least three days a week on-site.

Some roles are fully remote. When a skill set is too specific to hire locally, mostly on the ecommerce side, we hire wherever the person is. Every vacancy states which of the three it is.

What we value

  • Speed

    We would rather ship it this week and improve it next week than get it perfect in a quarter. Decisions get made in the room, not in a follow-up meeting.

  • Ownership

    You treat your part like your own company. That means you also get to change how it works. Nobody here waits for permission to fix something obviously broken.

  • Directness

    We say what we think, early, including to each other and to the founder. Feedback here is normal and specific, not saved up for a review round.

  • Pride

    A production line running clean, a beautiful bag of SYBASoil, a perfect 3D model, and making amazing products is genuinely satisfying to the people who work here. If that does nothing for you, you will not enjoy it.

  • AI-first

    Anything AI does better or faster, AI does. We build in Claude. You get a lot of freedom in how, not in whether.

What we offer

  • A salary, marked on the individual page.
  • Real ownership of your part of the business, with the freedom that has to come with it.
  • Team members who like growth and move quickly, together.

What I look for

  • You say "I'll handle that" before anyone asks you to.
  • You've done the work before. Experience matters, ownership & attitude matters more.
  • You care when nobody is watching. We're at 4.8 on Trustpilot, because our team actually cares about what they do.
  • You work with AI. Affinity is a requirement not a bonus (excluding floor-based / physical roles!)

What we don't value

  • Formality. Say what you think, in the fewest words possible.
  • Calendars full of meetings. If you need someone, walk over or send a message.
  • Asking for permission. If it's your area, it's your call.
  • Not doing what's required. Working to the edges of your job description and stopping there.

Don't apply if

  • You want to be told what to do each week.
  • You want a role that stays the same for two years.
  • You want to work here only because you love plants. (Don't get me wrong, a lot of people love plants here!)

If you're still reading

Every open role lists the salary band, the location setup and how the process works. Read the vacancy properly, then apply!

To reach our goals, we are looking for the most talented people across many roles who want to change plantcare. If this is you I would love to talk.

Green greetings,
Sybren Bies, Founder of Sybotanica

Open positions

Nothing that fits, but you still want to work here?
Send us an open application and tell us what you would own.

A look inside our factory

Filmed in January 2026 by the Dutch show Over de vloer bij, so the video is in Dutch. One machine is running in it. We are professionalising and automating fast: by the end of 2026 there will be around five, with a largely automated production process.