[This post is based on an answer that I wrote on Quora in response to an entrepreneur's question about the best way to motivate an unpaid startup team. My suggestion was that he/she establish an attractive company culture.]
Company culture is a startup's secret weapon.
Why?
Because, while you may not be able to compete with large companies in terms of compensation, you have a level playing field (if not a home field advantage) on company culture.
Why?
As companies grow, it becomes harder for them to maintain the same spirit and values upon which the company was originally built.
Many times, company culture is the first casualty of success.
Use this to your advantage!
As a startup, you have the opportunity to establish a strong company culture in a way that large companies can not.
The right company culture can work miracles.
Gustavo Caetano , the founder and CEO of SambaTech is a master at this.
He has never had much money to work with, but SambaTech has one of the best company cultures around.
To use an analogy, it is a lot like the old Roman practice of hegemonial imperialism.
Essentially, the Roman's would conquer a country militarily, then use culture (science, technology, literature, etc., which they had taken from the Greeks) as a glue to hold the empire together.
So, just as the Roman's used culture as a way to hold their far-flung empire together, so can the entrepreneur use company culture to hold the startup together.
Good luck!
Comments