Startup Culture is Not About Ping-Pong Tables
blog.mojotech.com
Startup Culture is Not About Ping-Pong Tables
1–10 of 22 posts
Re: Startup Culture is Not About Ping-Pong Tables
#2This is incredibly true.
But I'd add/caveat that I've seen (and, unfortunately, worked for) plenty of startups that write up a "cultural code" -- typically, a big-ass document that gets posted on a wall somewhere -- and then completely ignore or violate its tenets.
Culture is a living, breathing thing. It's not just a mission statement. It needs to be carried out, and if it's not, then all the mission statements and codes in the world won't force culture into existence. If anything, they'll be revealed for the farce that they are.
And it really does flow from the top down. As the founder, or as a founding exec, you have to eat your own dogfood. You are not above the culture. You are not above the laws of your own land. If you set cultural guidelines and expectations, you are the first person people look to to see if those guidelines are being put into practice.
Re: Startup Culture is Not About Ping-Pong Tables
#3It's not really about generic "move fast and break things" posturing either, though, is it?
Maybe adding some examples, anecdotes or evidence would help, but if the point of this article is to convince me that mojotech has "real" company culture then just saying that ping pong tables are dumb and bolding the word WINNING isn't going to do it.
I think the HubSpot slide is a great example of actually implementing culture/values, but everything else in the article seems pretty boilerplate.
Re: Startup Culture is Not About Ping-Pong Tables
#4Paraphrase of the "Challenge" paragraph: "We only solve very very hard problems, we turn away the easy problems, and we all agree that's the way to go"
Does anyone really think that way or fall for that? This is incredibly immature. Why would you turn away easy jobs? You're not researchers, you're a business.
I never think of whether the problems I'm solving are "easy" or "hard". They just need to be fixed.
It seems to me that MojoTech's culture is 'look at us, we're superheroes, look at the problems we're solving, they're ultra-difficult.'
You're taking yourselves too seriously. We're all doing the same stuff. There's software, then there are bugs, then we fix them. We're not special. Get over yourselves.
Re: Startup Culture is Not About Ping-Pong Tables
#5Paraphrase of the "Challenge" paragraph: "We only solve very very hard problems, we turn away the easy problems, and we all agree that's the way to go" Does anyone really think that way or fall for that? This is incredibly immature. Why would you turn away easy jobs? You're not researchers, you're a business. I never think of whether the problems I'm solving are "easy" or "hard". They just need to be fixed. It seems…
> It seems to me that MojoTech's culture is 'look at us, we're superheroes, look at the problems we're solving, they're ultra-difficult.'
What is wrong with that? If they want to attract people who enjoy finding difficult problems and solving them more power to them. What you see as easy money they might see as grunt work getting in the way of what they enjoy.
The industry needs many different cultures. The practical people who grab easy money when they see it should find a company that does so. People with a lot of pride (you may argue excessive) and think certain tasks are beneath them should a company with simiar views. It might hurt the bottom line but if they are fine with that because it allows them to be more selective I can empathize.
Re: Startup Culture is Not About Ping-Pong Tables
#6Paraphrase of the "Challenge" paragraph: "We only solve very very hard problems, we turn away the easy problems, and we all agree that's the way to go" Does anyone really think that way or fall for that? This is incredibly immature. Why would you turn away easy jobs? You're not researchers, you're a business. I never think of whether the problems I'm solving are "easy" or "hard". They just need to be fixed. It seems…
> It seems to me that MojoTech's culture is 'look at us, we're superheroes, look at the problems we're solving, they're ultra-difficult.' What is wrong with that? If they want to attract people who enjoy finding difficult problems and solving them more power to them. What you see as easy money they might see as grunt work getting in the way of what they enjoy. The industry needs many different cultures. The practical…
They're showing off in a holier-than-thou douchey way.
Contrast that with the attitude the folks at freenode#haskell sport, who are actually solving hard problems, and you'll understand why I think MojoTech's blog post is immature.
Re: Startup Culture is Not About Ping-Pong Tables
#7Startup culture isn't about ping-pong tables.
What's about ping-pong tables is Silly Valley VC culture, where founders are handed enough money to use $100 bills as fapkins because someone on Sand Hill Road thinks they're as cool and aggressive as Mark Zuckerberg.
Re: Startup Culture is Not About Ping-Pong Tables
#8Nice marketing.
Re: Startup Culture is Not About Ping-Pong Tables
#9On hard problems: Just because something is hard does not mean it is valuable. If you are succeeding at the moment I'd say you are doing so in spite of embracing this kind of thinking.
Challenge, Experimentation, Inspiration, Winning? They all sound very generic. If you truly have a culture it shouldn't sound like it could apply to any other company.
Re: Startup Culture is Not About Ping-Pong Tables
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It seems to me that MojoTech's culture is 'look at us, we're superheroes, look at the problems we're solving, they're ultra-difficult.' What is wrong with that? If they want to attract people who enjoy finding difficult problems and solving them more power to them. What you see as easy money they might see as grunt work getting in the way of what they enjoy. The industry needs many different cultures. The practical…
They're showing off in a holier-than-thou douchey way. Contrast that with the attitude the folks at freenode#haskell sport, who are actually solving hard problems, and you'll understand why I think MojoTech's blog post is immature.
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