Category: Corp Culture

Now that we have the 3 Must Read Culture Guides for Entrepreneurs, let’s summarize the most important ideas that every entrepreneur needs to know. Some are common sense, some don’t make sense until you’ve experienced it, and some fluctuate with time. Regardless, culture is the only sustainable competitive advantage for an entrepreneur and needs to nurtured and worked on just like anything else in a high performing startup.

Here are 23 corporate culture ideas for entrepreneurs:

1. Culture is the collective of people
2. Culture’s influence permeates outside the organization
3. Culture is the only thing completely within the control of the entrepreneur
4. Culture starts with the entrepreneur
5. Culture must be intentional
6. Culture is different for every startup
7. Culture that works at one company isn’t guaranteed to work at another
8. Culture must be defined and nourished
9. Cultures can be completely different between two startups and still be effective for both
10. Culture isn’t defined by free lunches and masseuses — it’s all about people
11. Culture needs to be defined by core people values every team member believes in
12. Culture isn’t defined by company values placed prominently on the reception wall
13. Culture is either strengthened or weakened with each new hire, it’s never stagnant
14. Culture starts with the hiring process that must actively foster recruiting people that meet the values
15. Culture check teams should be part of the hiring process to counteract short-term desires of hiring managers
16. Culture needs to be reinforced daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly/annually through systems and processes
17. Culture is shared through stories and emotional experiences
18. Culture looks cultish from the outside
19. Culture is fluid and always changing
20. Culture changes as organizations mature (a three-person culture is different than a 300-person culture)
21. Culture should absorb great-fit new hires and make them like they’ve found an amazing home
22. Culture should expel poor-fit new hires within the first month
23. Culture is king

Entrepreneurs that make culture intentional and value it create higher performing organizations and achieve a greater level of success. Culture is more important than most people realize.

What else? What are some other items you’d add to the list?

One of my favorite things to talk about, and most underrated by first-time entrepreneurs, is the importance of corporate culture. This seemingly simple idea that the people you choose to work with is that only thing you can control, and the most important thing to work on, is hard to appreciate without experiencing it first-hand. Entrepreneurs should put their anthropology hat on and study high performing cultures, not to merely copy one, but rather to learn and incorporate their favorite pieces into their own culture.

Here are three culture guides every entrepreneur must read:

• Netflix has their amazing Netflix Culture: Freedom & Responsibility slide deck
• Valve has their super interesting handbook (who knew company handbooks could be interesting?)
• HubSpot has their excellent Culture Code: Creating a company we love slide deck

The next time an entrepreneur mentions culture, explain the significance, and point them to these three guides.

What else? What are some other good culture guides that you really like?

Recently I had the chance to hear Ron Clark from the Ron Clark Academy give a talk on passion and energy. Ron describes the bus concept from Good to Great, where it’s important to get the right people moving in the right direction. Only, he changes it to be more like a Flinstones bus where it has a big hole cut out of the floor and people are powering it with their feet (instead of a motor). He then goes on to describe the four types of people:

• Runner – Always pushing hard. Self-starters. Have tons of ideas. Make mistakes and continue on. It’s critical to support and help these people in whatever way possible.
• Jogger – Does a good job and helps. Never going to get the big promotion but adds value to the team. Quality team member.
• Walker – Sometimes goes in the right direction. Needs help and coaxing. Occasionally with great support can become jogger but not often.
• Sitter – Doesn’t carry their weight at all. Not a good fit. Needs to find a different home ASAP.

With startups, as the team scales from a few people to a dozen people to dozens of people, it becomes readily apparent which people fall into each of the four categories. Runners are the most important and where leaders should spend most of their time. Joggers are helpful and valuable team members, but follow and don’t lead. Walkers and sitters should almost always be shown the door. I enjoyed hearing Ron’s story and powerful message.

What else? What are your thoughts on the idea of runners, joggers, walkers, and sitters?

As an entrepreneur with a vision and a dream, it’s tempting to hire the first good candidate that comes along. Entrepreneurs love building things, and it’s necessary to assemble a team to get things done fast and execute the plan. Only, all too often, I see entrepreneurs settle with their first few hires. Never settle on new hires. Here are a few things to think about:

• Culture is set by the founders and team members, so ensure each hire is a great culture fit
• After interviewing several people, and not finding a great candidate, it’s tempting to hire a decent candidate — don’t do it (continue to hold out until the right person is found)
• Hire for aptitude and culture fit, not purely based on experience (we look for people who are positive, self-starting, and supportive)
• People associate with other people like themselves, so if you hire great fits early on, they’re going to recruit their friends, and the talent pipeline will grow

In the end, entrepreneurs should never settle on new hires. This is true throughout but especially true early on when resources are so limited.

What else? What are some other reasons entrepreneurs should never settle on new hires?

Tonight we had a Technology Executive Roundtable event in the new Atlanta Tech Village conference center. Tom Noonan, one of the panelists, made several excellent remarks (as well as memorable ones — ask about the purple shoe). One of his comments really stood out to me: corporate culture drives how you feel.

Think about the following:

• Culture drives how employees feel about the business
• Culture drives how customers feel about the business
• Culture drives how partners feel about the business

Culture is representative of the values and social contracts within the company. Ultimately, culture is about people, and people drive how you feel. As much as business is about numbers and metrics, it’s also about experiences and emotions. The next time you interact with a company, ask yourself how the company’s culture affected how you feel about the business.

What else? What are some other thoughts on culture and how it drives how you feel?

Most startups are burning cash, meaning they are spending more money than they take in. Ideally, the startup will hit meaningful milestones around revenue, customer momentum, and more well in advance of running out of money. By hitting milestones, they can then raise more money from investors or achieve break-even to continue on indefinitely. One debated recommendation I’ve heard numerous times is that a startup should internally socialize the number of days of cash on hand until running out (and thus being out of business).

Here are a few thoughts on internally sharing the number of days of cash on hand:

• Share the number of days of cash on hand in the context of the greater mission (e.g. as part of a simplified one page strategic plan)
• Educate the team members on how the ideal startup process works with milestones, multiple rounds of financing, value in growing faster than revenues allow, etc
• Develop a rhythm to share the data (e.g. a real-time LED Scoreboard, weekly all-hands meeting, monthly update, etc)

For many people, the idea of running out of cash in a certain number of days is a scary proposition. Entrepreneurs would do well to socialize it with their key team members and make it something to rally around.

What else? What are some other thoughts on internally sharing the number of days of cash on hand?

Here in the U.S. we’re celebrating Thanksgiving today. As part of our family tradition we like to talk about what we’re thankful for and spend time with each other. On the startup front, I think it’s just as important to give thanks on a regular basis.

Here are a few ideas for giving thanks in a startup:

• Have a quarterly celebration where the entire team gets out of the office together for an afternoon and does something fun (baseball game, picnic, whirly ball, etc)
• Recognize a team member as the hero of the month based on feedback from their peers
• Send a handwritten thank you note every time a client provides a referral or testimonial to a prospect
• Take time at weekly team meetings to highlight a recent success story and give thanks to everyone involved
• Volunteer as a company on a regular basis to give back to those that are less fortunate

Giving thanks is a healthy and powerful part of building a successful startup.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

What else? What are some other ways to give thanks in a startup?

Two weeks ago an entrepreneur was asking me about the amazing employee benefits offered by Pardot. Specifically, he wanted to offer more benefits in his startup, but couldn’t afford all the ones Pardot offered, so he was interested in how I would prioritize the Pardot benefits based on how much value they added. Now, we didn’t survey team members to get a precise understanding of the value of each benefit, so this is an educated guess.

Tier 1 Benefits (most value)

• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• 401k profit sharing plan

Tier 2 Benefits

• Healthy snacks and drinks
• Short term disability
• Long term disability
• Tuition reimbursement
• Vision insurance

Tier 3 Benefits

• Catered Monday lunch
• Catered daily breakfast
• Full-time on-site massage therapist
• Wellness bucks (e.g. for a gym membership)

Note: Check out Liazon as a service to offer a marketplace of benefits for employees (e.g. standard health insurance as well as more unusual offerings like pet insurance).

Finally, amazing benefits should be icing on the cake of an awesome corporate culture. It’s important to build a strong culture first as a priority over great benefits. Once the team is in place, find out what benefits matter most to them.

What else? How would you prioritize different types of employee benefits?

Recently I was talking with an entrepreneur about a key team member of his. This individual wasn’t on the executive team but he was referred to as “the best person in the company to gauge the pulse and morale of the company” and he would tell him when things were off. I thought about it for a second and said yes, I know exactly what he means. Having a pulse of the people person is critical, especially if it doesn’t come to you naturally (I don’t have that skill, personally).

Here are a few reasons why it’s important to have a pulse of the people person on your team:

• No matter how hard you try, certain issues and challenges aren’t going to be explicitly stated and must be inferred
• Some people are inherently good at “feeling” how others are doing and can sense issues without trying
• As a startup grows, it becomes more difficult to keep a pulse on the team, making a pulse of the people person even more important

It’s hard to interview for a pulse of the people person but it’s easy to recognize when you have one on your team, and they’re a tremendous asset.

What else? What are your thoughts on pulse of the people persons?