- we don't build product unless we have a customer willing to pay. we always need to know whether a feature or product is in validation mode or growth mode. if it's in validation mode, we don't do growth-mode things (like hiring, investing in ads, setting up rigid processes).
- we don't scale experiments, we only scale validated processes. that means not spending money, not building product, not hiring, not buying things (software), not investing in ads (at scale; small-scale ads to validate are fine) until a process is validated.
- we make decisions fast. for decisions that don't have long-term impact, we pick something and move forward. those decisions are often essentially random. that's fine. what matters is taking action, validating against reality, and if the decision was bad, making another decision just as fast to reverse it. we don't do analysis paralysis.
- we move fast. we constantly look for where we (and the organization) are being slow. we unblock bottlenecks. we execute fast. perfection doesn't matter. speed matters.
- for decisions with long-term impact, impact on people, impact on the whole organization, or legal impact, we examine our assumptions before acting: can we validate it with numbers? can we validate it with customers / willingness to buy? nothing should take us more than a week to decide.
- we own the details. we can speak to the details of the areas we lead, and we own every decision made in that area. we don't have a hands-off leadership style. we're in the day to day and in the detail. we like extreme ownership. to ask the team for it, we have to practice it ourselves first.
- we hire slow and we fire fast. our interview process has to be exhaustive because we're looking for technical excellence and cultural fit. we can't delegate hiring for now. it's important that we run it ourselves and that we interview everyone who joins at least once. we always hire people who are better than us; people we feel a little uncomfortable hiring because they're better at our jobs than we are; people we'd be proud to introduce as part of our team. on firing fast: it's important to be transparent with people, say what we think, set action items and deadlines. from the first time we think someone isn't working out to the moment we activate an action plan, no more than a couple of days should pass.
- we are fair. we make decisions with people in mind. if we can help, coach, share more information, or support someone, we do. when in doubt, and the action has no negative impact on the company but has a positive impact on the person, we do it.
- we are transparent and not bureaucratic. we tear down bureaucracy as it appears. if someone needs something from someone, they go and ask (we avoid person -> leader -> person triangulation. the ideal is person -> person). bureaucracy and hidden information slow us down. all that matters is speed.
- we give feedback fast and in the moment. we build a culture of saying what we think the moment we think it. friction shows up when we think things we don't say. we give honest feedback to each other and to the teams we lead. the only way to win as a startup is to have an A-team, and the only way to have an A-team is constant feedback (because it's the only way to improve).
- ideas don't matter. a startup is an experiment. no idea matters, and it doesn't matter who it comes from. all our energy has to go into validating ideas (and the only way to validate is with willingness to pay). anyone who puts their ego ahead of validating ideas wastes our time and slows us down.
- beauty matters and quality matters. we don't imitate, we don't copy. we know what the competition is doing better than anyone, but our execution is 100x better. we come up with new ideas, we're creative, we improve what's out there. we push our industry and our customers forward with innovation and quality whether or not customers or the industry are asking for it. our north star is excellence, not what others are doing.
- we work on big, important problems. Hamming question.