Startup Culture
paulstamatiou.com
paulstamatiou.com
I wish more people understood this. For me personally, seeing offices full of nerf guns and foosball tables turns me off, because I worry they're focusing on that instead of real culture -- managers that don't micromanage, a sense of vision that's being communicated well, employees being listened to in a real way, etc.
It's easy to buy nerf guns. It's hard to create a company culture that thrives. I'm sure you can have both, but the nerf guns don't mean anything.
And me personally, I'd rather not have the nerf guns, because it's clear they are just gimmicks, and I trust a workplace more if they can attract good employees without gimmicks.
That said, I agree with you that people shouldn't be using these gimmicks to guide their career choices, and I never would.
I think this is one of the biggest fallacies of "startup culture" and possibly of business strategy in general.
This idea that you can hire the right people and culture magically comes out of it is ludicrous. Yes, a lot of your culture is based on personalities and people you can't control, and hiring is still important. But it is incredible to me how people will rise to the culture they're a part of, and how culture and the systems surrounding people will enable them to become better.
Define your company culture well. Know what kind of company you want, and create that kind of culture. Hire based on that as best you can, with people you believe will fit with your culture. But when you invariably end up with people who aren't those perfect rockstar A-listers you think you need, don't throw them away. Stick to your culture and be emphatic about it. Teach them, allow them to learn. Have a culture of positive personal development, not static employee hiring or firing decisions.
Do you think Stripe hires 100% perfect employees? Do you really think that's why their culture works?
I think it's the exact opposite. Their employees work because they've figured out a great culture, and they value it highly, and hold it as sacred. That's a company value, not an employee value. It's shared, and it comes from the whole group, glued together by the resolve of a leadership that knows it.
Figure that out, and you can achieve what Stripe has. If you think it's just a hiring strategy; sorry, try again.
What I was trying to say is that it's well nigh impossible to force a culture to go in a certain way. Most you can do is have a certain type of work process, don't micromanage, have a flat structure, small teams and let people be independent and/or support employees working remotely if they wish (if you want that kind of culture that is).
"Hire based on that as best you can, with people you believe will fit with your culture"
I was also saying that you can't really determine culture fit in the course of a regular interview process. You can somewhat determine their work ethic from asking them about past experiences and projects.
Otherwise, I think we are pretty much saying the same thing.
Thanks, & apologies if I came off harshly.
I think one can tell a lot about companies and people by the way they hire. Is their attitude extractive or do they act to preserve and create value? I think a lot of people greedily seek A-Listers because they've heard that's the way to succeed and make money. To me, that's sort of like people who start playing a new genre of music because it's now cool. The real value is in people who are passionate for deeper reasons.
I'd say the biggest thing that distinguishes startups from other small businesses is the risk factor. When your goal is to solve challenging problems in your field, then by definition your chances of success are low. After all, the problems are categorized as "challenging for a reason: nobody has been able to find a simple and elegant solution to them yet. Whereas a typical small business operates on relatively safe territory - they are most likely providing identical products and services as other players in their industry. So their risk is a lot lower.