Cat Lee AMA on Leap: Angel Investor and Former Head of Culture Pinterest

This is our first conversation that is available for everyone to read, not just members. We hope you enjoy it and would love to hear what you think.

Sometimes, in a more cynical mood, I find myself thinking that the role of culture in many startups is as a social engineering tool by which employers are able to reduce churn in an underpaid environment. If I don't know my coworkers intimately, it's very easy for me to pragmatically leave my employer for better compensation as I don't feel I'm violating some sort of unspoken social contract or friendship that we have through a shared participation in the company's culture. In that way, a 'culture' role feels sometimes like an allegory for an employee retention department in HR. Could you comment on the degree to which you find this true in general or during your tenure at Pinterest? Where do you think that this perspective falls on a spectrum from cynical to accurate?