The first year or so of the company reminded me a lot of the awkward teenage phase of self-discovery. GitHub the company had sort of sprung up from this side project, so we never had any big vision or dream or aspirations. We just wanted to work on something cool. I’d love to say that’s all you need, but we’ve learned there’s more: you need to have a vision and a philosophy. Everyone (all the founders, at least) need to be on the same page. The hard part is finding that page.
Do we make web apps, or just do source control? What do we pay our employees? Should we speak at conferences? How do we approach customer support?
I don't hear many people talking about the value of a company vision and philosophy. I occasionally hear people talk about company culture, but usually in an abstract way.