All companies have a culture. Some are actively hostile, most are stagnant, a few are strong.
When Peter Thiel invested $150M into Airbnb in 2012, Brian Chesky (CEO) asked him for his top piece of advice. Thiel replied, “Don’t fuck up the culture,” which was an important part of why he invested. As Chesky explains:
“Our culture is the foundation for our company. We may not be remembered for much after we are gone, and if Airbnb is around 100 years from now, surely we won’t be a booking website for homes…The thing that will endure for 100 years, the way it has for most 100 year companies, is the culture. The culture is what creates the foundation for all future innovation. If you break the culture, you break the machine that creates your products.
How did Airbnb build its culture? Chesky elaborates:
You build culture by upholding our core values in everything we do. Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. It’s living the core values when you hire; when you write an email; when you are working on a project; when you are walking in the hall. We have the power, by living the values, to build the culture. We also have the power, by breaking the values, to fuck up the culture. Each one of us has this opportunity, this burden.
A company’s culture is the DNA that animates everyone’s choices. The stronger the culture, the less bureaucracy a company needs, because you can trust people to make the right decisions. The weaker the culture, the more process is needed, the slower people do things, the more disconnect across the organization, the less they deliver to customers—the more likely the company dies.
A strong culture is the only way Substrate succeeds. Given the ambition and complexity of what we are creating here, the only way we win is if all we trust each other, push towards the same goals, and make decisions with the same mental models. This requires all of us to hold ourselves and each other accountable to living out our cultural principles in everything we do, no matter how big or small.
Take these as seriously. We evaluate job performance quarterly on two dimensions: "hard" outcomes (results in your areas of ownership) and "soft" input (how well you live our cultural values and hold teammates accountable). You and your manager will do this for each other. Also, every 6-12 months we revisit this document as a team to assess which principles we're executing well and where we need to improve. You'll find notes from those discussions under "Team Assessment" labels beneath each principle.
Everything in here are ideals we strive for, not a fixed rulebook. Nothing in here is to be taken literally. Our work is complex and how you react should be nuanced based on the situation. Sometimes you will see people violating something in here, and depending on the situation, that might be the right thing to do.
That said, this playbook clearly lays out general expectations that will apply in 95% of situations. You are expected to hold yourself and your teammates accountable to living up to these ideals. When they don’t, call them out on it—mostly privately but sometimes it’s appropriate to do so publicly. If someone calls you out and you disagree, ask for clarification. No one will ever follow these standards perfectly, but we are all accountable to creating a more perfect institution.
What is our chief commitment as members of this team? To uphold the culture set forth in this document, to hold ourselves and our teammates accountable, and to build something worthy of the principles we profess.
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These standards apply to every individual at Substrate.