Transparency—for better or worse—has become a business buzzword. Tech startups in particular have embraced the concept and incorporated it into their culture, touting benefits from attracting and retaining talent to increasing productivity. Workplace feedback platform 15Five surveyed over 1,000 full-time employees and found that 81% would rather join a company that values “open communication” than one with perks such as free food, gym memberships, or a top health benefits plan.

Transparency still makes staff at some companies squirm, especially when it comes to revealing salaries—even when it promises to eliminate the gender pay gap.

That’s where Glassdoor comes in.

Launched in 2008, Glassdoor aimed to create a database of company reviews, CEO ratings, and interview and benefits information from existing and former employees who could post anonymously. In this way, details about salaries and other information about what it is really like to work at a business from interview to exit opened up to the public.

Seven years since launch, transparency is working well for Glassdoor. With a current valuation of $1 billion, it is used by 34% of Fortune 500 companies, and has 30 million members from 190 countries who’ve contributed company reviews, salary reports, and office photos for more than 400,000 companies. As such, Glassdoor’s traffic outpaced both LinkedIn and CareerBuilder, with 111% year-over-year growth, and is closing in on Monster’s unique views as measured by comScore.

But what have all those reviews served to teach Glassdoor’s staff? We talked to CEO Robert Hohman for his take on the lessons learned from starting in the recession and growing in the rapidly evolving mobile job market.

From beer pong to puppies, nap pods to more cowbell (rung for employee appreciation), Hohman asserts that culture fit matters a lot for both employees and employers. “We typically find that the highest-rated companies on Glassdoor also index high on the “Culture and Values” attributes we track,” he says. Indeed, as their recent research indicated, location and cost of living were just two of the three factors that were important to job seekers. Satisfaction on the job was a big one, and pushed some less-well-known metro areas into the spotlight because their corporate citizens were fostering great workplace environments.