What It Takes: Vision, Mission & Culture

[Music]
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we're gonna have a lot of fun this
evening I've managed to just get around
the tables and talk to each about this
what we're trying to do this evening is
make sure that you get a chance to
engage on what you want so you were all
actually not all necessarily but a
number of you were very good about
filling in the survey and telling me
what it was you were coming to the class
for so I'll give you some Clues here
about what I hope we'll cover but I also
think it's fine if something comes up in
the middle of the class and you say gosh
I have no idea why I was here but then
this occurred to me I need some help
with X that's absolutely great so a lot
of you came right to the point and said
for example things like well how do we
Define our culture well that's the core
of this workshop and it's actually
really important to me that you do get
somewhere with it today so that's why
the white boards are here and that's why
we want you to come up with your own
approach to this how I approach this is
not with answers at all it's actually
with questions for you because there is
no such thing as an answer to how do you
define a culture it's going to be unique
to you it's going to be specific to your
Venture and it's also going to be very
importantly defined in person sorry in
concert with who you are as a person
so another thing that I heard a lot
about and the number of teams talked
about this is what about hiring can
culture help me with hiring I know
that's a big problem for a lot of people
in the early days might be attracting
your co-founder so one of the teams said
for example you have one to three more
co-founders to bring on this was City
bricks anybody from City bricks here
um yeah so tell me a little bit about
that before I go any further
yeah I think um it's right now I'm a
solo founder of a startup and I'm
looking to add one or at least one or
two more people over the next six months
and so I'm concerned that if I drive and
Define a culture before I find my
co-founders it might push away someone
that otherwise would be a great fit but
then on the flip side it's like maybe
defining a culture
um and a starting point will attract the
right kind of person that already is a
fit for that so I'm not sure what that
which comes first chicken or egg but
it's like you could give the class
because that was an excellent answer I.E
there is no answer there's no right
answer you you should decide whether
it's important to you to establish a
culture before for example attracting
your first Founders because that might
determine who you attract or whether you
want to co-create it with them in which
case you'll bring together more values
and it might be harder work but it
probably more significant in terms of
who it feels ownership for that culture
going forward
and I'm going to give you a chance to
understand this from a practical
perspective
so we think about culture and we
typically think about it as a very soft
thing you think about it as something
that for example oh I can't feel culture
I can't touch culture and so what is it
that we want to Define if it's something
that you can't touch and feel well by
the end of this evening I want you to
have some elements of culture that feel
very real to you
so anyway I wanted to give a couple of
examples to get you going because the
point here is this there are no answers
but there is an important outcome here
which is it matters that you have a
culture and I'll tell you why right up
front which is if it doesn't get defined
by you it will be defined on its own and
you might not like this answer but it
could be a bacteria
that kind of culture that you wouldn't
want that would infect your company in
the wrong way that would not attract
people but on the contrary would
actually make you unproductive so Define
it as early as you possibly can is the
answer that I will give up front the
rest of it is up to you
so why are vision mission and culture
important first of all there are some
elements of culture that are very
tangible
so one of the most important ones of
these is having a vision and Mission
that is clear about what you're trying
to do so people who want to engage with
you in any kind of stakeholder wants to
engage with you is clear what you're
trying to do otherwise why would they
get involved and if you think about it
the ultimate extreme this is a customer
why would a customer engage with you if
you're not clear what what you're doing
if you're not clear what problem you're
solving for who uniquely well how are
they going to engage with you if you're
all over the map so that's a fundamental
thing it's just as important as hiring
of course because if people don't know
what your purpose is and they can't
relate to it how are they going to get
excited about it and you want them
excited about it and compelled to not
just join you but then contribute to it
so it's very fundamental to selecting
the right people so let me give you a
counter example so you can think about
this this evening too if you didn't put
any Vision or Mission out there it's the
classic story of any road will get you
there if you don't know where you're
going
so it's very problematic in that regard
likewise if you don't have a culture to
find and you start hiring people what
criteria are you going to use for hiring
those people well sure you can do things
like experience Knowledge and Skills but
if you find out that they're
fundamentally different in their values
about things like honesty or trust
that's a real problem because you might
end up with a very you know disparate
kind of set of energies in your in your
company before you even get going
so that's why this is important and if
we get it right on the positive side it
should really help you in your execution
in building the business it should bring
Focus because everybody's clear about
what they're doing it should bring
alignment and somebody brought this up
actually so I'll get to it straight away
uh connected who's here from connected
okay you said something very important
this is a perfect example of why this is
important you said you want to bring
everybody onto the same page is it uh
gulnas yes tell us a little bit about
why you think that's important
so I think now connected has been
working for two years and now we're
having like 2.0 version and still we
always like every six months have the
question of where we are going and like
every team like needs to understand what
we are doing again and like what is our
ultimate mission to be on track and like
to speak the same language internally
and externally perfect so what Google
has just said is the reason why this is
so important if everybody is not clear
about what you're doing and they're not
on the same page they don't have the
same language even about how they talk
about it you're going to find your
energies are very quickly literally
wasted in all these different ways that
people could for example go off so
that's a perfectly good example of why
alignment's important what about Agora
anybody here from Agora yes you said
something very important you said you
wanted to align your teachers with the
right culture but you didn't know how to
do that so tell me why you think that's
important
so for context agoram it is a is a
platform that wants to give
after school opportunities for kids in
Spanish who are based in Latin America
and are lacking access to
interesting courses that could develop
their Hobbies or their passions so for
instance you take math in school but in
Agra after school you can take design in
your video game
I essentially am a Marketplace so I find
teachers and I try to give like the
availability of these teachers to
students
But ultimately I need to empower these
teachers to deliver what they want to
deliver so it's always a concept about
how much I should step in the middle
and I do and I need to somehow be very
Nimble bringing
teachers on board showing the culture
that I want them to have but also
releasing them so they can do freely
what they want so how can I keep that
alignment how can I like just like be
part of it but let it grow and then
don't let it become a mess where like
teachers provide a different culture
through different classes
and I think it's an alignment a mystery
but probably after this session
perfect so again you could give the
class because the way you're thinking
about this is exactly how I think we all
need to think about it imagine if you
could give people instead of a rule book
that says here are the things you must
not do or uh worse than that a set of
instructions which they had to follow
which was frankly the opposite of
empowering imagine if you could give
them a culture that made them feel like
oh I am incredibly clear that I'm
empowered and then alignment around a
very clear vision mission and purpose
that they could all get behind that
would be really attractive to your
potential teachers and as you said would
really Empower them so that's what we're
talking about this evening that's why
this is so important this is why it's
actually not a soft thing it's a very
hard fact that the greatest and most
successful companies you can go and look
at this on Fortune 500 you know analyzes
are usually those with the best cultures
they're the best places to work they're
the places where people all want to go
and work so this is really exciting we
can get this right so let's put it all
together because sometimes people lose
track of where it all fits when they're
starting a business and I want you to
all have a very clear picture of this
so let's start at the very beginning
obviously you have to have some kind of
a value prop that's addressing the kind
of problem you want to solve or perhaps
an opportunity you want to exploit
there's a whole startup Secrets workshop
on that I think it's in a few weeks time
so good news you don't have to think
about that tonight but imagine if you
had a really clear problem to solve but
you couldn't all agree what that problem
was
that's what the vision and Mission is
really important for you all need to
know where you're headed and by the way
we all know this people make decisions
all day long you can't just keep coming
back to the well to check is that the
right decision you want this culture to
empower people and align them as we just
heard are very well articulated by Agora
and as you can see at the bottom here
between those two things I've written
one keyword and it's not culture it's
consistency
because what you want is a platform that
people can rely on that when they go
back to touch this Touchstone if you
will of what it is they're doing and why
they're doing it and indeed how they're
empowered to do it what your cultural
values are Etc they can rely on it
because again if that keeps changing
you're in a lot of trouble
now businesses get into trouble so let's
talk about that I've actually never
backed a startup that went from zero to
a billion dollars as a straight line
just doesn't happen usually they're the
exact opposite they have this wonderful
Journey that I call the startup squiggle
and it's sort of you know if you're
lucky ends up in a place where you
hopefully have some great value being
created but in these troughs of
disillusionment or in these problems
where you're pivoting or in these places
where you're trying to raise money uh or
where for example you suddenly discover
you're in the wrong Marketplace
you have really big challenges to
overcome these are all typical at
startups the one thing that can help you
get through to that is culture and let
me tell you a story so you I can
understand I've experienced this plenty
of times I'm lucky enough to have backed
some great Founders who were one of the
first companies to get into the SAS
business well SAS wasn't even a word
back then and so we went through so much
pain trying to build that business that
at one point my entire partnership
declared the company bankrupt because
they couldn't understand SAS economics
they hadn't been invented we were busy
writing that book at the time
so that was problem number one problem
number two was the founder had actually
taken the IP out of a prior company and
he got sued and the next thing we know
we're having to take him out of the CEO
hire a CEO position and hire a new CEO
whoa it's starting to get interesting
now we're in the next phase of the
growth these are all twists and turns
and by the way by the way you know the
legal suit could have taken the company
down any one of these things could have
taken it down
and in the middle of that we're actually
encountering a huge challenge which is
that the markets decided that actually
this is a business that needs a
different business model than the one we
have by the way I'm very happy to tell
you we didn't accept that we actually
stuck with our business model and that
company became a very successful IPO and
was ultimately acquired for 2.8 billion
okay but what was consistent in that
culture
so that story I could repeat basically
for almost every company I've ever
backed lucky enough to have a Founder
here who I've worked with uh and CEO so
you can talk to and find out you know
what happens in the tough times but it's
really really important so any questions
before I go on about now why we're doing
this where it fits
so is culture something that once you
are able to describe it and articulate
it
um do you have to then do you then
codify it do you like how do you bring
it from it's now this thing that we know
into like the actual world that you can
feel see touch excellent so if I haven't
answered that question
before the end of this evening and you
can't tell this class what the answer is
I've failed so do we codify it is it
something that we should be able to feel
see and touch all right so I'm going to
start you oh yeah at the back
my name is Giovanni
um my question is about before the
culture the vision and the mission I
always have
a bit of misunderstanding in terms of
separating what is exactly what is
exactly the vision and what is exactly
the mission because I feel sometimes
they kind of go hand in hand so can you
based on the history
State your previous vision and your
previous Mission so we can have it
clearly
established okay no
[Applause]
so I told you I wouldn't given you
answers but the reason I said no so
strongly is that honestly some of the
biggest most successful companies in the
world merge those two things talk about
them one way talk about them another way
it doesn't really matter I'd almost like
replace them with the word purpose like
what are you trying to do but we're
going to talk about that tonight so
again after we finish the class tell me
whether we've helped you figure this out
does that make sense all right thanks a
lot Mr Giovanni yeah great pleasure
okay so let me keep this rolling because
I don't want to make you late this
evening and by the way if I'm going too
slow you can also do this
totally fine by me I don't take anything
personally I've learned a long time ago
that it's I'm here for you so good news
there is nothing you need other than
yourself to start figuring out how to
define your culture
because actually every culture starts at
the top and usually with obviously the
founders the the people who create the
basis for the business in the first
place so I'm going to ask you all now to
just stop and think about a really easy
question
which is what are you uniquely qualified
for
now you're all looking at me blankly
well I don't know
well let me give you the good news you
already know you're all unique
you are not one in million you're not
one in a billion you're one in eight
billion
you are unique so just think of on your
personal whiteboard one thing that you
think you're uniquely qualified for and
it might be based on your personal
experience it might be based on your
past job that you've done something
you've been educated in or anything but
there is something about you that's
unique we know that
now you just pull out one word don't
think too hard
let's just get one from each table
so on this table do you want to pick one
what's your word uh my word is buildings
say more uh it's kind of a play on words
because I have a lot of experience in
real estate
um but also when I work in teams
I've often been told that I have a
unique strength in like when other
people come up with an idea helping
refine and build it instead of just like
like when we're brainstorming like
building off of someone else's work
fabulous say no more what a great
example of something that feels unique
but personal to you okay I'm gonna
guarantee nothing other than some point
that's going to come up in your culture
because that's who you are it's
authentic to who you are so this is how
easy it is to come up with culture you
just have to look within to start off
with and say what are you unique at okay
this team was um oh you're doing great
now you've come along very well you want
to pick one
uh my word is connecting
um because one thing I think I'm good
with connecting with people but also
connecting others together
um when I think about my strengths and
my past job it was being a great manager
and having people come up under me that
were out performers outperformed me and
I do think that part of that was
connecting with them finding their
purpose and making sure that I invested
in their individual goals wow so whether
you start something or join something
every startup needs you so I'm actually
going to stop here because we already
have two great examples we don't need
more you're getting the point which is
that everybody has something whether
it's something they've experienced or
somebody's told them that they feel oh
this is me this is kind of one of the
values that I you know espouse or um
seem to be doing uh or known for that's
a great starting point for you to start
thinking about your culture so now I'm
going to challenge myself does everybody
think they could figure out at least
something even if not right now uh
that's unique about them
anybody who doesn't
all right good then you are off to the
races on starting to Define your culture
one of the things I'll tell you though
is
um there's a word on here that is the
one that I think people pay very little
attention to in startups which is great
when the chips are really down your
cultural strength is going to come
through so your ability to see people
for what their strength is and connect
them and promote them is going to be a
hugely important thing in whatever you
do I don't know anything else about you
I just know that your ability to help
people build on whatever it is was an
idea or something that you're working on
is going to be a strength for you when
things get tough so again these things
are all connected and not just raising
them because they're sort of you know
ideas they are all connected to how you
build your culture to sustain your
business one of the things that you've
done here is an exercise in this room
but when you get together with your next
two or three founders or the next two or
three hires I'm going to encourage you
to do the same exercise
now can anybody tell me why
I already gave you the answer
it was one word
what's that so do you find the culture
as a team that's definitely true
but I gave you a word go ahead well
consistency bingo thank you very much
because imagine if you hired three
people and by the way you didn't check
on the way in that they have the same
cultural values as you and then they're
not subscribed to something that you
really care about like building or
connecting
that's going to be a problem it may not
be a problem on day one but it will
become a problem down the road in fact
what I'd like you to think about is a
graphic imagine how quickly a degree off
course becomes a mile
well you're going to be in business
typically on average startups of seven
to ten years minimum before they get
critical mass to go public for example
seven to ten years down the road if
you're culturally misaligned you're
going to be all over the place so your
first three highs man you better get
really clear about that they have the
same values as you that they care about
connecting they care about building or
let's pick another word who hasn't who's
got a word here uh solving this was you
yes what a great word tell me about
solving
uh well essentially you know someone
hands you a problem that they're not
sure if you can solve and then you learn
to break that down into smaller problems
you know everyone can solve small
problems you're going to be an awesome
Panda too if you're not already I mean
that is one of the biggest challenges
that people face is it's problem solving
honestly there's never a day that goes
by they don't have some problem to solve
and if you can break it down to small
parts to help people figure out how to
make it digestible and solve it awesome
so your name is kale
oh my gosh that's way too simple
all right so Kayla's is another example
of somebody who can bring that value
instantly into what it is is you're
doing do you have a venture already kale
no not yet okay great well I want you on
whatever team is problem solving to
State the obvious uh and that would be
pretty much anybody
so let's go to Vision next oh sorry
question
when you say talk about these values
with whoever you bring into your company
yep to make sure that they're on the
same page is that sufficient like can
you know somebody's values just by
talking and you know for sure because
like sometimes somebody just says yeah I
agree with that but they may not
actually or they may not feel about as
strongly as you do or it's the same
words as you so I'm going to challenge
you to answer your end question so what
do you think
oh man
well I'm thinking like maybe you'd have
to find out a way to like make it less
abstract
like if there's something that you can
create like a question that isn't just
like do you believe in X or like if you
were in this situation what would you do
wow awesome okay you just nailed your
own answer frankly if you can come up
with a question that will draw out of
somebody what their values are or what
they would do for example the problem
solve you're going to find out very
quickly whether they think like you like
if their answer is I'm not a great
Problem Solver and I don't really care
about that
I mean you know that's a bit of an
obtuse example but this is the essence
of hiring is not to tell people what
your values are but to try to extract
from them what it is they believe in and
why they believe in it and how they
behave in situations just as you said
now there's a whole workshop on this so
I'm going to pause here and just say
you're started and you got started in a
great way
I have a question about the activity we
just did so
um I'm going to use the board as an
example but so what happens
um when you think you're unique in a
space and what ends up happening is
maybe you're unique in one space but for
example we're both in the GSD and I did
not know that so I wrote designer and
Artist as my two unique talents and
assuming maybe he's a good designer and
a good artist too because he's in the
GSD
um so yeah just uniqueness in different
spaces okay this is just such a fun
question and I want to keep us on track
but I can't resist it so I'm going to
give you the the one key principle here
which we started with which is are the
two of you the same
are you the same are you the same people
you don't look like it to me
how much is your background the same
I used to be an architect same here okay
great so keep going with this question
so do you come from the same country
I'm from India from Korea okay perfect I
can tell you it wouldn't take me longer
for just number of questions as to how I
found out how different you were and by
the way how similar you are Architects
both at GSD Etc the net is your
background in some shape or form is
going to cause you to see things
differently and therefore design things
differently just you will you just will
approach things differently and that was
my point about you're all unique so you
don't have to be better than somebody
you just have to be uniquely good at
something that you believe you can go
and pursue to solve a problem or
obviously create some unique opportunity
some kind of opportunity and it's that
that's the key to this that makes sense
yeah you trust me I don't have to argue
this it's the only thing I will say you
will know you're unique so just think
about it that way and it might be your
backgrounds to go back here just to make
sure I've said it it might be your
personal experience it might be your
past jobs it might be where you grew up
it might be your education it might be
the way in which you come through life
as basic as that like what your family
is like or how you've engaged for
example to to get to where you are today
all of That's Unique to you nobody else
did that took that same path as you so
that's what sets you up for this
so we're on to vision and I always like
to give an example here this is my era
but Gates said at one point he
envisioned a world where every desk had
a computer and every home had a computer
that was a vision right it didn't exist
at the time now we take it for granted
you might even go so far as to say and
everybody has a phone
okay so Visions aren't necessarily
things that determine your success but
they help guide you they set a direction
and they are the basis for people to
think about well what if every home had
a computer or every person had a phone
now the minute you think about I mean
let's talk about phones because that's
much more Our Generation
if everybody has a phone there are a
whole bunch of things you can take for
granted like oh we could message
everybody we could share stuff with
everybody we could put for example
banking in everybody's hands
whole Industries came out of the mobile
Revolution
so having a vision is important because
it gives you the basis to set a
direction that you can pursue it's not
in my opinion terribly important what
the words are which is why it's actually
much more important and a couple of you
said it that you can clearly get people
on the same page as you about what
you're doing rather than whether the
words are perfect
so don't feel like you've got to have
the perfect word to put on your
whiteboard or whatever else just be
clear that you could articulate it and
that anybody who said it to goes oh I
get it we've all got phones sure we can
do Mobile Banking now how could we make
for example the next generation of
banking easier and simpler and less
costly for everybody to use it can be as
basic as that
all right
go ahead how precise does the vision
need to be because this seems to be a
little bit like it's wide it can mean so
many things so
um how precise do we need to be when
we're writing a vision it's just not
because we want so many people to join
us that's why it's very wide and it can
mean so many things but it's also at
least at the beginning we need to be
very precise to know in which direction
we're headed to
but based on what we were just talking
about
somebody thinks they use LinkedIn for
networking but you didn't even see that
word on their Vision what do you think
now
but now it's too popular right so that
everyone knows about it that's why a lot
of people use it for different reasons
but when you're just starting
I don't know if you need to be that not
very specific I love your point so I'm
learning from you as you say this so
you're helping me think of something
that's very important so there's a very
big difference between a starting vision
and when you're a company the size of
LinkedIn
and what I think you're saying is you
know let's just call this late stage
I think you're saying is really
uh well questioned which is if you're
starting out and and you have this
incredibly broad vision
and nobody can relate to it could be all
things to all people you'll have people
wondering well what do you do
so I think you're right it should be as
defined and as tight a vision as
possible where everybody can relate to
and say okay I understand what you do is
networking
and it might evolve to something that in
the late stage is a much bigger Vision
that incorporates all these words that
for example LinkedIn has
so I think was a great question like I
said I don't have answers I would say in
general what you're saying is let's get
it really tight so people can relate to
it right off the bat in the early days
but I also will say the following which
is
you need room for it to grow so let me
tell you why
if a customer felt like they were buying
a feature from you and that feature only
did one thing which was networking
they'd question well where are you
headed because I actually want to keep
doing business with a company that can
do all these things create Economic
Opportunity for me with every member of
my Workforce of my Global Workforce
that's when they go okay great this
company's got a nice feature networking
but they've also got a vision for how I
could work with them
for years to come because they're going
to empower my Global Workforce
so I think vision is important on both
levels
make sure you hear that it's not an
answer it's a position I'm taking which
is start somewhere simple where
everybody can be clear what you have
that's usually what I call a value prop
rather than a vision be clear where your
vision could take your customers and for
that matter compel your employees and
your team and everybody else to stay
involved with you for the long term
that's why that diagram was a you know a
literally a sort of a map with the
cultural consistency Underneath It All
does that make sense
so developing your vision
here's the good news we've already
started this because each of you is
defined what you are trying to do and
you know you've got your own basis for
for example you know a value proposition
and now you've got some values that you
think are important
so developing your vision is really what
we've just mapped out here it's it's
thinking about well where are you
starting as a Founder what problem are
you uniquely able to solve and then what
is it that you think over time you're
going to be able to do to lead a
Marketplace so it's almost like read the
top line of the slide and read the
bottom line
and what I would say is as follows you
often don't know and that's okay visions
do evolve
you might start out with a clear for
example sense that you're going to
address this market and realize over
time that that Market's different than
you first thought it evolves you know
technology changer so your customer
patterns change and so you need to
evolve your vision that happens all the
time
but what's important is to keep having
one because again otherwise you won't be
clear about what direction you're trying
to go
so let me just give you all a chance to
actually get involved in this exercise
and I'm going to give you a very very
simple thing
what is one Element just one element
that you'd like to have in your vision
and it might be something as basic as
I'm really clear I want to have this
happen in my venture or the thing I work
on is going to have this impact in the
world or it's going to make this
difference or this change so just one
thing and again put it on your personal
whiteboards
I notice a lot of you are hesitant to
just say what comes straight to you I
had this experience over here and you
had a great answer for me so do you want
to share what it was sure so uh I'm I
already built a website that's it
targets misinformation it's related to
the head and neck surgery and my vision
is behavioral change because if people
can relate to misinformation and then go
to the website and get credible
information then in the future they'll
know that references are very important
when they read in information on the web
and they shouldn't just listen or read
on any other resources without getting
some sort of credibility so what I'm
looking for is behavioral change great
so Giovanni here's an example of where a
vision could be a mission
so your your vision is actually just as
good as a mission my mission is to get
behavioral change so all the other
things you said happen
make sense
okay great so uh Victor also gave me an
extremely good example so I'm going to
have the dialogue with Victor so he
wrote down one word which is guidance so
I said well what guidance you're going
to give so let's have the dialogue in
front of everybody well the idea I had
was when people look at my vision
they're written down they would get
guidance from the statement so they'd
get guidance from your vision so I said
what guidance and for what purpose and I
said
um because I'm building a data-driven
nutritional recommendation app
the vision I have is for people for the
global population to use my app and they
will have I think I prevent a lot of
disease from happening you know what I
want I want to congratulate Victor
because when I first asked him none of
those words came out and within 30
seconds he figured it out and look what
a great vision and Mission he got to
he's gonna change People's Health by
giving better recommendations for
supplements
what a great vision and Mission that is
he said it much better than I did and we
just had a 30 second dialogue
awesome you are a perfect example of
what we can do if we just tease it out
of each other now something is terribly
important to me is that I unfortunately
can't get around all of these tables and
ask those questions but guess what you
are sitting next to each other you can
ask each other and it's the biggest
biggest single thing I think you're
going to learn today is get your peers
challenging you on everything that we're
doing tonight after this Workshop don't
wait for the next Workshop you all have
the ability to ask these questions of
each other that's why I put questions
and Frameworks up not answers so
remember that feel empowered go
challenge each other go tease these
things out of each other and you're on
the your uh your way already with this
you know peer chat you just had to
Define your vision
now because Giovanni challenged me and I
don't want to say anything other than
I don't know I don't think we really
need to get into Mission we already had
a great couple of examples of how
visions and missions are very similar uh
and in fact both yours I think are very
good examples of that the vision in
itself can often incorporate Vision but
I did have an example that I think is
kind of fun
and I do have a framework for you that
might help you uh Giovanni get more to a
mission rather than just a pure vision
so how many of you eat sweet green
I eat too much by the way but
what's interesting about their mission
is it has nothing to do with why I go to
them like I I don't go there because
they're trying to build a healthier
Community by connecting people to real
food I could care less about that
actually I go there because I think it's
healthy food
so sometimes these things are so
grandiose that they're kind of unrelated
and they have a few things though that I
did like when you broke it down so one
of them is that they have core values
that guide actions and that aim to
empower that word that we talked about
earlier
that also includes not just their
customers but their team and their
partners and I like all of that because
great visions and missions do actually
impart everybody I said it earlier
stakeholders the entire stakeholder
group that's involved should be feeling
compelled by your vision and Mission
and and then they say how they're doing
that which is you know they're building
a transparent supply network so people
can say okay I see it's healthy you can
see transparently where we get our food
from that's cool they cook it from
scratch so they're not relying on
anybody else so that you know clearly
they hold themselves accountable for
that and they're building a community
which is cool they need to go into more
detail than that so
from that and with a view to helping you
define your mission
I have four M's that I recommend you try
to come up with
the first one is unbelievably obvious
which is is it memorable
if nobody can remember your vision and
Mission you probably just failed right
there because nobody's going to be able
to honestly repeated the following date
let alone for five ten years ahead so
memorable is an easy one
manageable well I gave you some examples
of what for example sweet green is doing
to try to make their mission manageable
you can think of what those might be in
your context so for example what will
make it manageable for you to reach the
world
that might be you have to build a
community or you have to create some
basis for it to get broad reach
what makes it measurable
that's actually much trickier so how do
you measure somebody's Health well you
can do it in one dimension but if you're
doing supplements for example you might
need to pick a vertical or a particular
problem that you want to cure people not
cure people but you want to improve
People's Health then and figure out how
to make it measurable and then the last
one is pretty obvious which is we've all
been talking about this we want it to be
so compelling specifically motivational
that you attract customers to you and
you attract for example all those
stakeholders that might want to get
behind you not just your team but for
example funding or Partnerships or
communities that could support you so
these are the four M's of mission so now
now that you know those I've got a
little quiz for you
how do you rate sweet Green's mission
first off is it memorable
show of hands
okay what was it
it's not on this slide
well from what I see reimagine fast food
for a new era because I think when we
think about fast food we think about
junk food
great and
sweet green is healthy food
Okay so
what was their mission though
anybody remembered building healthy
communities okay good for you but that's
one in 60 people here he remembered it
what I actually like Giovanni's answer
way more reimagining fast food healthy
fast food
I'm gonna say the obvious though it
doesn't really matter what it is if it
isn't memorable it's not going to work
so simpler is generally better and to
the point you made earlier it also needs
to start in a place where people are
going to say okay it's simple enough I
can remember that and then obviously
even if you're going to expand to
something that is you know going to last
for years it also needs to be a
memorable enough for people are going to
go great I know you're trying to for
example improve People's Health by for
example giving them better guidance on
supplements I think yours are going to
be pretty easy to be honest with you
we've already done it okay so that's
memorable what do we think about
manageable
do you think this is a manageable
mission
go ahead
what does manageable mean yeah I mean in
this context
what's your what do you think
yeah yeah manageable as in it's risk you
know it doesn't feel like it's unreal
it's completely unmanageable it's not
going to be possible Etc realistic all
sorts of other terms like that so now
what do you feel about this is it
realistic or you know
yes I would say it's realistic because
we rented an era when lots of people
want to be healthy and it takes time to
make healthy food sometimes I feel I
mean thanks for letting me know about
this because I would love to try it out
usually all I have is like junk food
recipes
so what's neat about this is I think
it's manageable too and everybody here
is starting to relate to one word which
is healthy
which by the way might be the great
example of reduce this vision and
Mission down to something very very
measurable that is all about health
anyway so that's great what about
measurable
how are they going to measure whether
this vision and Mission is working
anybody think that they have an idea you
have to go ahead sounds very dreamy
because it's like let's change the world
right so I don't know how this is going
to be memorable how are you going to
change how are you gonna imagine how
people are reimagining the world and how
exactly in which way they're reimagining
it yeah great well I'll give you a
vision mission that seemed equally bold
but now we all take it for granted
those of you may remember Google in the
early days said our vision and Mission
is that we will basically make all the
world's information accessible
seemed crazy but now what do you do when
you have a question
So that obviously was pretty manageable
and by the way can they measure it yeah
they have the best damn measurement
systems on the planet every time you
type in a query they're measuring what
the query was and who did it and where
was it from and how are they using it I
mean it's like very achievable so if you
do this right you can actually come up
with some very good things that are all
of these three amps and then the last
one we already talked about is is it
motivational
well that's obviously a personal
judgment but a question I'd have is any
of you want to go work for sweet green
like immediately
no you're all founders you've got other
better things to do but anyway this is
the point you do want that reaction by
the way you do want somebody going wow I
really care about health enough that I
want to go work for Victor to solve that
problem because the supplements business
is huge and there's a huge amount of
waste and problems associated with it
I'm motivated please talk to me
bingo bingo good for you Victor all
right
so Giovanni did we make it clear why
vision and mission may or may not be
important to merge but what they are
yeah thank you
if if you could come and tell me why
afterwards that'd be great
my
my issue right now it's I can merge both
but at the same moment if I also think
about LinkedIn
what's the mission of LinkedIn that's
why I picked it up because it's so vague
in my opinion I just don't like it I'll
give you one I mean I've got so many of
these that I've listed in previous
classes one that I much preferred was
was airbnb's for how many how many of
you stayed in an Airbnb
you don't need a vision or mission for
that right it's pretty obvious there's
all sorts of things that are great about
it not the least of which is it's
inexpensive but as it turned out now
what they've realized is it's not just
about expense they want to give people
better experiences better travel
experiences so their whole vision and
Mission is emerged to to that has
evolved to that
I don't really have to
be focused on vision and Mission but
mostly
focused on the potential impacts that's
one of the things I definitely believe
in that's why I said to you you know
when I was walking around what's an
impact you want to have with your visual
Mission if you can say for example you
want to change the world's health or you
want to improve misinformation or you're
very clear who has something they want
to bring out just so we can challenge
challenge me on it
accessibility for what
um if you have impairments if you have
impairments so you want accessibility
for people who are impaired in some
shape or form people can understand
can understand that if you are going to
help people get better accessibility
because they're impaired that's going to
have an impact
so however you bring this out this is
why I don't want to be too precise about
it the 4M should still apply though so
let's just make sure you don't lose
sight of these we want it to be
memorable enough that people are not
going to walk in the following day and
say well what do we do again
it's not what you want you want it to be
manageable so that it's clear that when
you are doing this it's achievable to
use the word that Willow came up with
and if you for example can clearly say
how it's motivational and you're going
to have people compelled to get involved
with you then I'm just going to make a
lot easier to do things like hiring
attracting funding actually and a very
importantly attracting customers
Partners Etc so I just walk away with
four amps don't worry too much about
getting it perfect and don't worry about
the distinction between vision and
Mission make sure that these things are
being achieved and that you feel like to
use your word you're going to have an
impact when you do this
you have one minute only because I want
to go back on time to come up with one
word that will be memorable in your
mission
so my favorite word that I saw I didn't
get around everybody was obsessed
and I love that word because like about
what
so that's going to be memorable but tell
us a little bit about why you picked
obsessed
because it's
triggering work
in any context that you use the word
obsessed
like if I went to my life my wife and I
told her as much as she knows that I
love I say I'm obsessed
like a strong feeling even if I could
not agree more so
um
I I want to say thank you to indonga I
am never going to forget this class I'm
now obsessed with abdonga uh great
perfect example that is memorable all
right now much harder was Vivian
and uh I'll try to help out a little bit
so Vivian shared with me that the word
that came to mind was data but she
recognized right well that's not
necessarily memorable but then when she
told me what she did which is that she's
going to use data to help people in
Neuroscience understand the brain better
I'm like that's memorable
so I'm not going to give you the answer
to what you might pick but I'm going to
ask your peers to work with you and say
gosh that's something that's really
interesting everybody would love to
understand the brain better it's still
one of the least understood parts of the
body having had brain surgery which I
don't want to go into I can tell you
that that is something you do want to
actually understand so we can talk
afterwards
experiment for you
for you I'm not sure I'm up for that but
as you can tell I need lots of more
brain surgery all right so thank you
very much that was fun now we're on to
the next part of this which is really
all about culture
and as I said to you this is the one
thing you want to get consistent
throughout your Venture so it's a little
more challenging because we don't want
this to be changing all the way along
the line like pivoting and you know
going off to different markets this is
the thing that we want to be the Bedrock
of the company so I'm going to start at
the very basic level which is with some
ideas about how do you build culture
from the ground up which is starting
with values
and it's such a tough topic I think the
best way to start is with an example
so how many of you have heard of HubSpot
not enough of you okay so I'll tell you
what it is it was one of the first
companies in Boston to break into
marketing with a new approach which is
now called inbound marketing
and Brian Halligan came to this very
classroom joined one of the startup
secrets and told everybody why uh
inbound marketing is so important so you
can go find that on the Harvard iLab
YouTube channel I think it's on
um going to Market yeah it is on the go
to market startup secret session and he
talks about what they do but that's not
as important as how they've done it
and they're actually famous for having
built a very strong culture and I'll put
it in the workbook for you because it's
fun to watch it dumbass Shah who brought
this particular culture to life the one
of the founders and ctOS co-founders and
ctOS helped codify culture and so who
asked the question about codify it was
uh
mahashi so uh yes is the quick answer it
is very important to figure out how to
codify your culture so that it becomes
reinforced operationalized Etc going
forward and the way HubSpot did this was
they literally created a deck that was I
think it was at some stage
like 60 70 80 pages long
but that's too long for people to be
able to read and to remember every day
so they eventually had to get it down to
five things and this is what they came
up with what's important about this is
what do you do to operationalize that
like how do you make sure that people
actually do solve for the customer
the thing I want to pick on though which
is really fun to me
is we believe our best perk is amazing
peers
that when I read it was like hmm that's
different
now what does it mean to you anybody
want to take a guess at why I picked
that one out
like if you're going to go work there
and you said well I hope my best perk
would be Healthcare or it might be
foosball if you're so inclined but no
it's
amazing peers
go ahead Victor well guys
um your peer is the number one reason
people are leaving the company so I
guess if you have an interesting peer to
work with where you can brainstorm new
ideas who you can rely on and basically
everything else relies on peers like
long-term impact autonomy accountability
transparency it's all goes back to what
kind of people you're working with every
business absolutely so it doesn't matter
what the particular interpretation is
that you have with this the one thing we
could all say is as follows
obviously every business is ultimately
reliant on its people
and so if you have amazing peers and you
really enjoy working with them there are
two things that come out of it one as
you just said you're going to be
attracted to stay there and continue
working with them but you're probably
also going to be more likely to succeed
than the next company that doesn't
really care about its its people and
isn't focused on for example creating
that same culture really amazing peer
peers and what did I say to you earlier
you're all amazing people if you can
appear with each other and help each
other amazing things can happen so I
found that to be a very good example of
a differentiated culture that feels
actionable if we can really focus on for
example building a company where we have
amazing peers that can solve problems
that can build Etc together
so the the best sandwich to start
building a culture is to identify your
values
and a few pointers here
we've already talked about some of the
things that you think you're uniquely
you know qualified for or that you have
is a unique background now I'm going to
ask you a very simple question
what is one value your company needs and
why
and before you answer this question let
me give you some Clues
there are some things that you've
probably got to live through like these
hard times I've talked about where
you're going to need this value
what is that what do you think you need
when you really get in a difficult
situation what's going to be really
important to have in your company that
can get you through this winding path I
drew so that might be one clue
another clue might be something that you
share with your family and friends and
you say
you know whenever I tell a story about
my venture or my company this always
comes through they always say hmm seems
like you valued this
might be make a difference it might be
improving Health it might be building it
might be anything like that but it has
to be authentic to you
and then here's the one that I think is
the no-brainer for all of you you all
have one of these
there is something that is
non-negotiable to you so I'll tell you
what mine is
honesty
I I like I mean it's so fundamental to
me that if I don't have honesty in my
relationships
zero good is going to come of them now I
haven't gone so far as to Define it even
more specifically I like proactive
honesty so I don't want people to wait
and come and tell me what they think I
actually encourage them to come forward
and say you know Michael you talk too
much
foreign
what is one value your company needs and
why
you just did what I hope you'll do after
class two which is you all started
digging in which is great so this
group's got really great peer strength
what I saw was a whole bunch of you
starting to think about things that you
cared about look at the boards they're
fantastic grit and serve passion dignity
value mental health ownership empathy
networking EQ Integrity again
money
let's see okay that matters that matters
I'm not going to judge any of this care
it was right underneath that pretty cool
this board is fantastic passion optimism
honesty fairness growth mindset
open-mindedness
boldness wow incredible team I don't
know what you're going to do but it's
going to be awesome
and then what a great human set of
values over here empathy resilience
credibility
so just look at this team this uh this
group rather in a few moments you very
quickly came up with some values you all
care about now by the way the hard part
is they might all sound great but how do
you pick one or two that you really
think are absolutely critical because
people can't remember 30.
uh you need a few so I'll give you an
example of how tough this was for me
starting a new Venture firm
I absolutely had one vision and Mission
and it still hasn't changed which is I
want to change Venture for good
there's a double entender in that
and it's intentional I really do want to
change Venture for good and the way in
which we do it is using a community
which is a model designed to bring the
very best people at the right time for
adventure uh to play depending on what
domain or stage or function you need
them
and I learned a lot from open source
it's all great
but how do you reduce that down to a
value that we're going to constantly you
know sort of uh sort of play to
and we came up with many to start off
with
but we only have four now and one of
them I'll tell you is actively evolve
why is that important because I realized
that every day we get up if we actively
evolve to listen to what our Founders
and entrepreneurs need
and their world is constantly evolving
for example you know where they are on
the stage of their Venture what Market
addressing how that's evolved and we can
actively evolve with them to understand
how to help them we might change Venture
for good
so that's just an example of how I
related these things
now the good news is you've got some
great values up here so all you need to
do now is think about how those will
evolve to support your vision your
mission the way I just described it with
you and that's a dialogue you could have
as peers it's a dialogue you can have as
co-founders it's a dialogue you can have
with anybody
and I encourage you to do it
I'm going to go back to one key test
View
if you had to only pick one just one
and now the exercises go up and circle
on your board which one you will need
when it's really hard going when things
have gone wrong you're in the depths of
Despair or the trough of disillusionment
what's the one value you just gotta have
okay Circle one on your board
we've got some really good discussion
going on in the room which is so much
fun and one group just can't even figure
it out which by the way tells me they're
going to have a problem working together
as a team
and by the way I'm not joking when I say
this this is what goes on this is the
real world right if you can't agree on
basic things like what are the values
that really matter to you you're going
to struggle to work together when things
get tough because you'll argue about
well do we care more about honesty or
boldness for example or optimism versus
growth mindset actually those might fit
together anyway that's the reason this
is such an important exercise and it's
also why it's so important for you to
get on the same page that we talked
about earlier and why it's so important
to do this early because if you attract
people who have completely different
considerations it's going to be a
challenge for you but the good news is
look what we came up with ownership this
team's so clever they took two of their
values must be Marketing in there
somewhere and and came up with
empathetic resilience
okay
uh Integrity over here and I think
Integrity over here too right
can you just say why because obviously
that's something that's pretty
fundamental one of you want to speak to
you I think if you're doing the right
thing even when things get hard it will
work out especially if you have a team
that's relying on you and you take
shortcuts or do something unethical that
has trickle-down effects that impacts
their lives their families lives so just
thinking about those long-term and
short-term effects excellent and so what
I love about that is honestly any team
that could say we have deep Integrity or
whatever your way of expressing it is so
you can rely on everybody on this team
to have that you know you're not going
to worry about anything other than okay
so what problem do we need to solve
you're not going to be thinking about
although I trust this person or can I
think about you know how I'm working
with them no just going to get straight
to building or problem solving or
whatever else it is fabulous and the
last one here is grit I love that
because it takes a lot of grit
persistence many other things somebody
else came up with it this team came up
with it too to get through all these
steps so if you have grit and integrity
and you're empathetic and uh
you have and you both come up with
integrity give us one word just try one
more time what would it be
passion awesome okay passions one of
those things that you can't if I'm not
embodying passion now telling you what I
really care about which is you
innovators and entrepreneurs breaking
through and doing stuff I don't deserve
to be up here it does take passion it
takes passion and grit and integrity so
you'll come up with your three four five
whatever it is and they if you do the
work you've been doing this evening
they'll be memorable and you'll have all
sorts of great things that come from
that so well done great great work I
really impressed
so
I have a bit of a joke here which is
often I teach at MIT for example and I'm
dealing with engineers in the room and
they just don't let up on this question
like these are all soft words what do
they mean how does this actually work in
practice so I finally came up with this
phrase which is
culture is really like establishing an
operating system for your company
it's to empower your people though as
opposed to run your apps
and if you have a crappy operating
system no apps run on it so Engineers
can relate to that
I describe the culture as the same thing
if you have a crappy culture nobody
understands it they can't relate to it
it doesn't feel real and it's not
authentic and you don't live it
you're not going to run your you're not
going to empower your people effectively
so that's the bottom line
but I have some other startup secrets
for you by the way this name startup
Secrets just to make sure you understand
my goal is that there should be no
startup Secrets like everything we could
possibly expose that will help you
accelerate your Venture we should get
out that's the reason this class name
came about so this startup secret is
something that I hope you'll see from
this next slide so let me put the slide
up
and then see what you can guess
so I hate remembering 911 for obvious
reasons it's a horrible image
and In the Heat of that moment
a company called Enterprise Rent-A-Car
still around today
had a very interesting moment
people did not want to rent cars the way
they traditionally rented cars which is
two-way rentals
because guess what all they wanted to do
is get out of New York
what did Enterprise do
they said hell yes
you're our customers you need to get out
of town
here's our one-way rental
go for it
how do you think that made the customers
feel
pretty obvious great do people remember
Enterprise rent a car for
that particular moment anybody who did
that day absolutely
and that's what you want as a culture
you want a culture where
and this is the startup secret when
you're not looking when you're not
thinking about what the circumstance
could have been where something comes up
that was completely unexpected your team
does the right thing
that's a powerful culture
and the really important thing about it
is most of the time you don't want to be
looking you're trying to empower your
team you want them to feel like they
know what the right thing to do is
they're going to act with Integrity
they're going to have resilience they're
going to show passion they're going to
care about the customer
all these things when you put them in a
good culture not only Empower your
people but they enable you to do really
great things that make a difference in
the world
so that's what I think about as culture
and the basis on which you can really
make a difference so
rather than call it in my terms now
you've got a chance to think about this
in your terms
but I will just give you one simple
thing to think about here we've already
discussed how you as a Founder have
certain values things that are
non-negotiable to you
so Integrity for example
if you have that that's a starting point
now you've got to attract other people
around it and you've got to fake make
sure that it ends up being something
that is truly the personality of the
company that it's how you actually
embody it and if you've done that well
if you've embodied it in the way you act
every day then people will do the right
thing and they will write a one-way
rental or they'll respond to a customer
problem they've never heard of before by
maybe giving something free or just
taking that extra moment to explain to
the customer why they're screwed up and
that they're sorry about it and how they
might fix it those are all the things
that come out of this and the reason
that I bring this up at this point is
because
there's a framework here that I think
you can use
you need shared values we just talked
about that
if that team literally was going to
start a company that would be the first
thing I'd ask them to do is go figure
out okay you've got a whole bunch of
things up there what are the shared
values between you they don't
necessarily all have to be the same
guess what real difference so we're not
saying that we should have a normalized
culture I actually think it's really
important to have diversity in your
culture the more different opinions
around the table for example the more
different backgrounds the more likely
you are to be able to represent the
World At Large which is incredibly
diverse and has all those different
opinions so you want that so we're not
saying no it's all got to be one thing
we're saying they need to be shared
though
and you need to have some guiding
principles amongst you like okay we may
all come from different parts of the
world we may have different religions
Creeds whatever it is but one guiding
principle we have is and now I will give
pay homage to HubSpot and maybe other
companies who know this which is we're
going to solve for the customer or put
the customer first
now you thought that was easy right I'm
about to challenge it
which comes first your team
or your customer
there's absolutely no answer that is
right here no answer that's right what
matters is how you're going to explain
it
so our team in the top left has decided
to redeem themselves we're going to have
to give you a name by the way what do
you want to be called
divided okay somebody gave you your name
that's what happens culture gets defined
by if it isn't defined by you it gets
defined by others so the divided team
would you like to tell us how you got
aligned
um we chose team because we believe that
when you start to try to satisfy the
customer you lose the values that each
of the individual members wanted to
start with so we believe that team
values yes we believe team values are
important for that reason
sorry for the no sorry needed I think I
think you're all incredibly Brave and
I'm very challenging I keep asking you
all these hard questions
so I said I don't think there is an
answer I think what's important is that
you can explain it and that you're clear
on why you can explain it so how do you
think they did I thought they did great
thank you well done you're now
you're now team aligned not divided and
you're aligned around you're going to
put your team first so this is an
example of why culture is not that easy
actually it was all feeling great up to
that point and then I said you know well
what about this situation so one of the
ways that I love you to test your
culture is to discuss how you're going
to live it
so your customer is going to say to you
but you promised me this feature on the
roadmap and you haven't delivered it to
me why not Mark and I have been in this
situation
why not and by the way because you
haven't I'm actually going to uninstall
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth
of software we're both laughing at the
front here but it's a real example now
you could fire your VP of engineering or
your founder or whatever it is or you
could say you know what actually I think
I need him or her around in the future
to fix the next customer's problem why
don't we Instead address that with the
customer and say we're really sorry we
can't do that if you don't feel like
you're a fit for us you know what we
probably shouldn't have you as a
customer which Mark was bold enough to
do
and guess what we live to tell another
day and serve another customer
so this happens all the time
so again this is why all these cultural
things are back to that thought they're
the operating system that makes you able
to operate successfully through
difficult times as much as good times
the good times are easy
everybody looks good when the Tide's
rising and all boats are rising so the
last piece is now an important piece
which is how do you actually put this
into practice so that it is something
you can hold people accountable for and
that you can say hey what are you doing
you know you're not living up to our
culture
and that is actually important because
you don't want people who are not living
up to your culture that is going to
destroy your company it's like One Bad
Apple can spoil the barrel
so
uh keeping going with this what is one
Behavior you'd like to model in your
business venture
and that if somebody didn't model it you
wouldn't want them on your team
and now this one again back to the group
whiteboards and I said one so don't put
up 10 now just discuss as a group
something among you would say you want
to model this in your venture between
you and if somebody doesn't exhibit this
you wouldn't want them on the team
there's some great words up here and
what's interesting is some of them are
completely different to the values you'd
pick before so our aligned team
has uh Joseph who has picked a new value
that wasn't on any one of the other
boards which is very interesting right
so there's other things were very
aspirational but when it comes down to
it Joseph why did you say if somebody
doesn't have honesty you don't want them
on the team
because we want to make the environment
in a transparent way and we can like
share our value together in that kind of
environment so if someone who is not
honest you'll feel like a bit
away from our value awesome so that's
I completely agree deserve a round of
applause
it is funny though because that is one
of the values I told you that I said you
know proactive and open honesty openness
and honesty is one of the things I
personally believe in too so but whether
I do is not so important what's
interesting though is that that value is
not on your other board
so this is why this exercise is so
important too which is at some point you
have to say okay but just what is it so
critical that I cannot work with
somebody unless they have this value or
that we agree this okay there was
another wonderful one over here and this
is Kavita
can you share why you picked respect
for respect for me and my company would
be very important because a company
would go through many highs and lows at
that point the pressure points it is
very important that each one of us
respect us with all those high points
and low points and from the culture I
have come from from India where caste
plays an important role so respecting
each other we may be from different
cultures but without carrying that
baggage with us respecting each other I
feel will give the high productive
environment for the company also
fabulous fabulous
um
so what I love about listening to you
guys is that you will have these things
and you speak them with such passion so
I'm lucky enough to have been to India I
felt that in your culture and I was
always amazed I would go to dinner and
there'd be three or four generations in
a family serving dinner with tremendous
respect for each other whether you were
80 or eight and that's something if you
can bring that to a company and I love
the way you said it tid wasn't just
respect for each other it was respect
for the company and you could take that
value and could say respect for what
we're doing respect for our customers
respect for all these things if that's a
really deep value that is authentic to
you that can be so empowering in a well
so enabling in that case for your
business
so Bridget you wanted to talk about
navigation you said you needed to
explain this
yeah and then we'll have a bunch of
thinking
a bunch of
very new situations for everyone on the
team unfamiliar water is right so I was
thinking being able to navigate those
which requires things like honesty and
respect and EQ you know
that's how I interpreted this word like
being able to navigate those and stay
cohesive as a team beautiful well I mean
I it doesn't matter how that word came
about your explanation was wonderful so
congratulations again
um that is actually the the best way I
could have embodied what I was saying is
the journey you're going to go on if you
could navigate all these twists these
turns these ups these downs and you had
the empathy resilience all the other
things you came up with along the way to
do that what a great great value
excellent all right I really feel like
if I did nothing other than call the
class to a halt at this point you'd have
done great but there are a few tips I
want to give you so this is one that's
fun and it's embodying Amazon's culture
in a simple physical way so those of you
don't know this story when Bezos started
Amazon
he literally took the door off its
hinges and made it his desk why do you
think he did that
I can tell you it's driving around on
every truck you see that's Amazon today
yeah what does it show uh
uh it's to be frugal
Bingo what do the trucks say anybody
been watching the Amazon trucks go by
your neighborhood
they have two things on them
I'll tell you
low prices
fast delivery pick two
that's a vision a mission a culture a
value and a whole set of things right
there in two words
low prices
is obviously what he was trying to
embody here he wanted a Frugal culture
and he started the company right away
with that mentality
Amazon's powered its entire Cloud
business with a simple principle will
not only innovate faster we'll have the
best cloud services out there but we'll
constantly lower prices
that's how they took originally at one
point they had like 60 plus percent
market share
so now a you know multi tens of billions
of Dollar business because they had that
embodied in their culture so not going
to do this tonight because I don't have
ability to take you into your physical
spaces but think about what you might do
in your physical spaces or your virtual
spaces for that matter to embody your
culture that people could touch every
day
there it was the door
nobody at Amazon forgot that
all right so this is back to
operationalizing it and um you know I
think a magashi you asked about this so
we're gonna hit it again which is it
should be something you can relate to
that's personal to you the things we've
talked about that you can engage in that
you can act on so you can always reduce
prices for example you can always
improve delivery actually Amazon used to
have a third thing and I think it's
still there which is
um infinite assortment uh infinite
variety so there's always you know a
choice for you
so uh what's exciting about this is you
can also do this again with a framework
in mind which is if somebody doesn't
know what the right thing to do is and
you've said look
it's either faster or cheaper
then you know what the right thing to do
is when there's a decision like how
should you serve this customer well we
should either make it faster for them or
cheaper for them cheaper for them or
give them more selection
so it can be very clearly embodied into
what you do and you saw the example with
um now Amazon with that example you've
seen it with uh HubSpot in terms of how
they want to solve for the customer
you've seen it with Enterprise with the
way they empowered their employees and
we could probably keep talking about
examples but the point is to test
yourself to say okay when there is no
obvious answer what would somebody do
and I already gave you this startup
secret it enables you to do the right
thing versus the easier obvious thing
and it should be possible when you're
not there and you don't have a rule book
or anything else
here's one that's an anti-example for me
how many of you use Facebook or not
matter
okay
this is their set of operating
principles
I I got nothing against matter by the
way at all I mean I'm a user of it I
think it's a great company that done
amazing things for the world
but when they say keep people safe and
protect privacy
you're all laughing I don't need to say
anymore
so now if I say apple
and privacy what do you think
you're all nodding your heads they
fought the government
they took them on they said no you
cannot hack our phones sorry we're not
going to give you the back door
what are they advertising the iPhone for
these days privacy
it's one of the key things face
identification
so it doesn't work if you put up values
that you can't live up to
people laugh at you It's actually an
anti-culture at that point it does work
when you just deliver and you don't
promise
enough said
okay sir
one of the things that has to be in a
company to for this to work is good
communication
if if you don't communicate constantly
what your vision and Mission and culture
is it will not flow it's the lifeblood
of your startup you can do it informally
or formally you can do it around the
water cooler or you can have company
meetings once a month or you can have
Town Hall meetings once a quarter you
can do all these things but whatever it
is you do do not assume culture do not
assume your mission or vision and do not
ever take for granted how things are
changing around you that's why as I said
we pick our actively evolve value
because you constantly will have changes
going on around you and you'll need to
constantly reinforce and recommunicate
how your values and your vision and
Mission still apply
so there's a great example of this
you'll find it in the workbook and on
the slides and I encourage you to read
about it gitlab they have a great way of
actually talking about communication
what does it mean how do you get your
message out in the right format through
the might medium how do you test it Etc
I'm going to give you my startup secret
with a simple example
so how do you know absolutely clearly
that somebody
has a good communication skill
you might have a judgmental like oh
they're very clear they're very precise
or they you know articulate well but
there's an acid test
what's the acid test when somebody's
communicated well
you can explain it back to them
wow
straight off the bat
say why
because it means you you
received information internalized it now
you can you can share it with somebody
else perfectly said your name is yeah
so Dan is who you now should go talk to
about communication
perfectly
the truth is there's really no way of
feeling that you've been successful at
communication you have to test it you
have to feel like somebody could
authentically communicate back to you
with as much Fidelity as you could
possibly expect so 100 Fidelity would be
ideal exactly what you just communicated
which might not just be the words it
might be the intent it might be the
feeling Etc but that's the measure of
good communication thank you Dan
so it's an easy thing for you to do you
can test it every day what do we do we
send out surveys all the time to our
Founders or to our entrepreneurs I think
you had to answer one recently uh Mark
we send them out to our investors we
send them out to everybody we talk to
regularly to say well
are we doing what we thought we were
doing is our message getting through if
we hear it back differently which we
often do by the way we go well why what
are we not making clear
and so I encourage you to do that it's
also by the way the number one thing you
need to do when you start your business
which is if you're going to figure out
what problem you solve uniquely well for
who so for your value prop you're going
to need to listen to your customers
which is the biggest form of
communication as to what their need is
or what that opportunities that you see
and you're going to need to test that
communication with them by saying back
to them I heard your need is X
did I hear it right
if you can't start there
you're going nowhere
but if you can start there and you can
listen which has said that in my opinion
the most powerful form of communication
and you can hear your customers needs or
pain points or the opportunity you're on
to something strong that you can build
on
okay so how do we reinforce this well I
like to have a bit of fun we we gave
examples of the door they have to be
substance to this there can be things
like your reward people
but it's also what goes how you reward
people when things go wrong so do you
reward people for failure
actually I think it's a great thing to
do
because you're never going to get a
breakthrough of people aren't trying to
do things that have never done but been
done before
and if you're trying things that have
been done before you're going to make
mistakes
and you want to fire somebody for doing
that or do you want to reward them for
trying
I know which I'd pick but that'll be
your choice
and then do you want rewards to always
for example come from the top what do
you want to have peer rewards do you
want to encourage you know peer
communication and peer uh acknowledgment
at underscore we made the cheapest form
of reward system you can possibly
imagine it costs us nothing it's a
virtual system
we let everybody on slack give each
other tacos
and you can give each other a taco
anytime there are only five you get to
give a day but we're all giving each
other tacos for you know tacos for
having looked after that particular
entrepreneur and found them this person
tacos for the fact that you supported
your teammate when they were in a
difficult situation tacos for a mental
health solution you came up with for one
of our Founders who was stuck with a kid
at home
we're getting tacos all the time and by
the way as a result you know at the end
of the month we don't have to actually
figure out who should be what we call
the Kick-Ass team member we just look at
the number of attackers they got
super simple cost nothing incredibly
easy just an example to give you some
fun to think about
okay
has to be authentic you can't just
borrow mine start giving out attackers
if it doesn't mean anything to you the
reason we pick tacos by the way is
because one of our team absolutely loves
tacos she can't get enough of them
National Taco day to her is more
important than any other day in the year
so it's authentic to us
and the bottom line on all of this is
you have to live it you have to walk the
talk it's defined by you and so you have
to lead by example
and if you do all of this you get a
great to a great place and I love this
particular sit quote an example because
it's very real
which is for those of you seen how well
Southwest Airlines has done
they always are to me an embodiment of
culture as herb said you know anybody
could copy our Playbook if you will but
nobody can copy our culture
and that's what differentiates them and
that's true for lots of companies when
you get to think about it you'll have
your own favorite example about it so to
bring it home and put all this together
this is really about finding this
platform of cultural consistency which
along with your vision and Mission can
lead you to where you want to get
and if you bring that in a form that
people can relate to
that they're empowered by and that
they're also going to feel for example
as motivational as memorable
and that you can then communicate
reinforce consistently and live it
you're going to build a great company
thank you very much
[Applause]
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