An essay by John Melonakos
Startup Culture – Be Excellent
Startups can provide great personal growth for all involved. This personal growth is one of the biggest factors that enable startups to attract and retain great talent.
Founders have to master many different areas of execution. And that spirit of excellence is contagious. For these reasons, “Be Excellent” is part of our culture list.
Here are some ideas to encourage excellence among a startup team:
- Structure the company so that every employee has a large portion of their interest tied up in the ownership outcome of the startup (e.g. units, shares, etc). Mutual ownership of the startup binds everyone together.
- Hold regular check-ins with employees (perhaps quarterly) to ask questions to evaluate how they feel they are personally growing. Point out areas where you have seen their growth, as people often overlook their own progress. Point out areas where the individual or individual’s team is outperforming the competition.
- Hold regular team meetings (perhaps 1-2X per month over lunch) where you seek to generally inspire excellence and publicly tout specific examples of excellent execution.
- During the team meetings, vote for Heros. Each person anonymously submits one vote for someone who has done excellent work, along with a 2-3 sentence explanation. All votes are read in their entirety and the top winner gets a cash prize.
What do you do to encourage excellence within your startup?