The first year or so of the company reminded me a lot of the awkward teenage phase of self-discovery. GitHub the company had sort of sprung up from this side project, so we never had any big vision or dream or aspirations. We just wanted to work on something cool. I’d love to say that’s all you need, but we’ve learned there’s more: you need to have a vision and a philosophy. Everyone (all the founders, at least) need to be on the same page. The hard part is finding that page.
Do we make web apps, or just do source control? What do we pay our employees? Should we speak at conferences? How do we approach customer support?
I don't hear many people talking about the value of a company vision and philosophy. I occasionally hear people talk about company culture, but usually in an abstract way.
I have a feeling it was mostly accidental. Having a bunch of awesome people increases the likelihood of it happening, but I don't think that is a very repeatable lesson.
Having a bunch of awesome people increases the likelihood of it happening...
I'd hazard a guess and say the non-repeatability comes down to the awesome bit.
It is easy to label someone as awesome after coming out on the good side of a rough patch. It is much harder to be comfortable in that label when sizing up a potential co-founder.
If you assume the set-equivalence that "awesome people get on the same page quickly" implies that "people who get on the same page quickly are awesome", you then find, by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aumann%27s_agreement_theorem, that "awesome" means rational.
Great question, also it would be fun to hear about what "page" they ended up on. They have an incredible service that I love using, so what did they decide to actively NOT do?
To elaborate: in "Delivering Happiness" Tony talks about how Zappos goes as far as publishing a real Zappos Culture book each year, containing stories from hundreds of employees/partners/vendors about what Zappos the company means to them.
The book is a great read - amazing how well they've institutionalized the idea of a company culture and methos for holding onto it as they grow.
The first year or so of the company reminded me a lot of the awkward teenage phase of self-discovery. GitHub the company had sort of sprung up from this side project, so we never had any big vision or dream or aspirations. We just wanted to work on something cool. I’d love to say that’s all you need, but we’ve learned there’s more: you need to have a vision and a philosophy. Everyone (all the founders, at least) need to be on the same page. The hard part is finding that page.
Do we make web apps, or just do source control? What do we pay our employees? Should we speak at conferences? How do we approach customer support?
I don't hear many people talking about the value of a company vision and philosophy. I occasionally hear people talk about company culture, but usually in an abstract way.