Since the launch many folks have asked me “Why does Kulturenvy exist?” My natural response has been: “Because culture matters, it’s one of the most important parts of a company.” I couldn’t help but think back to this absolutely great panel discussion on startup culture with Julia Hartz co-founder of Eventbrite, Tom Preston-Werner co-founder of GitHub, John Lilly the Partner at Greylock Partners, Hannah Kain CEO of ALOM, and Dave Kashen co-founder of Quantum Leanding.
There are three takeaways which I underlined in my little notebook after listening to this discussion:
1.) You have to know how to define your culture – to some it’s common values that all employees follow whenever they need to make decisions on their own, to others it’s the mission or cause that all employees truly identify with and follow. Whatever it is, it’s not the fun parties, perks, and toys you have at the office.
2.) Culture doesn’t just flow from the CEO – culture happens from the bottom up. Those values, that mission which everyone identifies has to be partially created and modified by every employee in order for them to believe in it.
3.) Live your culture, don’t be fake about it – don’t stick a bunch of good sounding words on a board and try to follow them. Those are not culture values people will follow. Make them actionable. Make your culture real, something you can identify with. Don’t say: “We’d like everyone to have high integrity.” It’s not something people can easily test.
So what are you waiting for? Go kickstart your culture!
