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Culture coding for startups
We create passionate cultures
that accomplish wonders
What’s inside
The ProblemThe Solution
The Company
The Problem
You probably don’t want to hear this…
9
out of 10 startups fail.
Source: The Startup Genome Project
Half
of all VC-backed ventures fail.
Source: Sequoia Capital
For the most part, failure is due to
the inner workings of a startup.
Source: Dozens of VCs, most vocally Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel’s Law:A startup messed up
at its foundation cannot be fixed.
Founder of PayPal. Founders’ Fund. Breakout Labs. Thiel Foundation
We disagree. Respectfully.
The Solution
Hack your culture.
Do it with as much focus and intensity as you hack your products
and distribution.
Since (almost) nobody does it,
let us explain what we mean.
Culture is not cookies in the jar.epic parties.wild perks.
[Although these things can be very nice.]
Culture is what you believe ...and then do.
Every day.
People
Customers
Investors
Competitors
Our awesome startupWhy do we exist? What business are we in?
What’s our secret? What’s our big vision? What’s our plan?
What kind of people do we hire?How do we make decisions?How do we resolve conflicts?How do we do things around here?What do we reward?
Who are our ideal customers?How do we reach them?How do we treat them?
Who do we choose as our investors?How do we work together?
Who do we compete against?How do we (not) compete?
Culture is coded in your answers.
Driven by competition
[we don't recommend it!]
Competitors
Investors
People
Customers
PeopleCustomers
Investors Competitors
Balancing act
Customers
Driven by purpose
We are on a mission!
Culture comes in many flavours.
So how do you hack your culture code?
It’s hard to hack something you can’t see.
To hack your culture code,you need to write your current code
first.
The language you need to learn to write your culture code is…well,
language. The traditional kind.
Once you can look at it together,you can change it.
It’s intuitive.
Let’s do a quick experiment.
Where would you rather work?
Company AWe will be a market leader
in market X. Our mission is to maximise
shareholder value. We value integrity,
excellence, team work and profitability.
Company BWe are on a mission to solve a grand challenge X. We have a big crazy idea. We want to replace a 10,000 year old technology (yes, seriously). We are a team of explorers ready to give it everything we've got. Because if we don't try, we will be letting a billion people down.
You can feel the cultural vibe,can’t you?
5 tell-tale signs your culture code is fine-tuned for startup success:
IdentityYou have a distinct sense that you are sharply different from the rest of the world. In a good way.
1FoundationYou are on a mission to change the world. You've got the vision, the secret and the plan (product+distribution).
2TrustYou trust the people you work with. And they trust you back.
3
Pivot-abilityYou learn from everybody and everything. Your beliefs are up for discussion, you can change them and pivot.
5
GiftworkEverybody puts in the extra effort, goes the extra mile. Because what you do matters. Because people like each other.
4
Not there yet?
Well, roll up your sleeves.You’ve got some culture hacking to
do.
The Company
Hello, aspiring culture hackers.
At Corporate Spring, we believe passionate cultures
can accomplish wonders.
So we help create them.
We run 37 hour cultural hackathons.
Goal:Hack your culture
to help you accomplish wonders.
Philosophy:Make the implicit culture code explicit. Take a hard look. Run cultural experiments. Steal culture hacks from other startups. Invent your own. Fail quickly. Debug. Have fun. Celebrate successes. Laugh at failures. Think of cultural
coding as a game with serious consequences.
DAY 1 – MACRO – start 7:00 am
Foundation
BeliefsUnhide hidden drivers.Code stress test. People. Customers. Investors. Competitors. Coding Beliefs.
Create ground to stand on.Code stress test. Why’s. Mission. Secret. Vision. Plan. Person #20. Coding Foundation.
DAY 2 – MICRO – finish 8 pm
Review
HacksMake every day count.Code stress test. Setting goals & allocating time. Sharing information & ideas. Tracking progress. Course corrections & pivots. Big & small decisions. Resolving conflicts. Dealing with setbacks. Onboarding, giving feedback and celebrating. Keeping eyes & ears open. Having fun. Coding Hacks.
Is that Our Way?Code review. One last stress test.
37 hours at a glance
People Customers
Investors Competitors
feel like this:Fast-paced action. Even when you sleep.
Answer big questions in 30 seconds.Make impossible tradeoffs on the spot.
Get inside other people's heads. Turn hacks into edgy social experiments.
And write, write, write the code.
37 hours
Outcome:Your culture
code ready for beta testing
Monday morning.
Our WayCulture code version 2.0
Theory
Without good frameworks, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important. We draw on two seminal works on culture:
Hofstede’s “Culture’s Consequences”Hall’s “Beyond Culture”
Practice
Frameworks without practical startup context are useless. Here are some of the people and ideas we follow:
Steve Blank, Lean StartupPeter Thiel, Founders’ FundMax Marmer, Startup GenomeVinod Khosla, Khosla VenturesPaul Graham, Y Combinator Happy Startup CanvasGoogle VenturesStartup WeekendsStartup CompassFunders & Founders
Hacks
We love cultural hacks. We keep an extensive inventory of effective cultural practices. Some we’ve designed ourselves (and won prizes for). Others we’ve borrowed from culture-hacking companies like Asana, Zappos, Google. We are always on the look out for good ideas that work.
Our hackathons are based on research…
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