If The Shoe Fits: Culture and Values
by Miki Saxon
A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here.
Pundits and investors of all kinds, from lone angels to major VCs, say that your company’s culture is critical to its success.
Therefore, the most important question founders should ask themselves is what are my values?
Not what you say out loud, or agree to in order to fit in, or because they are good talking points, or to be PC.
You need to be brutally honest, at least with yourself, because, in the long run, whatever your values truly are will out.
Mark Zuckerberg claimed he wanted to do good by connecting people.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted to organize the world’s information and “not be evil.”
But, in the long run, their top core value became obvious, echoing Gordon Geko’s, “Greed is good.”
Also long term, Andrew Wilkinson’s 2015 words reflect his values, I’m not a unicorn, I’m a horse.
Culture is based on founder values and sooner or later the real ones do surface.
This is where being “your authentic self” trips up a lot of people, not just founders.
Image credit: HikingArtist
