SI Boston

2. The GIFt of Culture:
How GIPHY Scales
Culture to Drive
Innovation
AGENDA
1. What is GIPHY?
2. Who am I?
3. What have we made?
4. How did we create a culture
of innovation?
5. Q&A

3. THIS IS

4. GOOGLE = WEB PAGES GIPHY = CONVERSATIONS

5. GOOGLE =
RESEARCH
TOOL
Facts
Figures
Places to go

6. GIPHY =
CONVERSATION
TOOL
Reactions
Expression
Entertainment
Things you wanna
talk about

7. GIPHY =
SEARCH ENGINE
FOR
CONVERSATIONS

8. GIPHY=
NEW
SEARCH
BEHAVIOR

9. 10B+ GIFS &
STICKERS DAILY

10. 700M+ USERS
DAILY

11. THIS IS
ALSO
GIPHY

12. STARTUP
6 YEARS OLD
(almost 7)

13. ~125 People
Doubled almost every year
3 offices: NYC, LA, Chicago
50/50 gender split

14. Office Dogs

15. Holla @ Alex Chung,
Founder & CEO

16. WE MAKE
GIPHY

17. I’M
CAROLINE
VP of Product
4+ Years
at GIPHY
Shipped lots of products
Made lots of
GIFs
Co-manage
Prod/Eng Dept
Your therapist
Your mom
Your spouse
Your friend
Fill holes
Fix things
Create process
Keep things moving
I love the
GIPHY product
And the GIPHY
people
Most days

18. GIPHY IS AN
INNOVATION
COMPANY

19. Built the first and largest
GIF search engine

20. Re-invented the GIF format
Live GIFs
Reaction Packs
Entertainment
Sports
News
Artists

21. Distributed content
everywhere

22. Introduced Animated
Stickers for layering

23. ...and
GIPHY Emoji

24. ...and
GIPHY Text

25. ...and just launched
GIPHY Arcade

26. BRANDED CONTENT
IN CONVERSATIONS
#mood
#mind blown
#good idea
#valentine
#hangry #sleepy #what
#yas
#happy dance

27. Meanwhile inventing
a new ad platform
for conversations

28. Plus other weird/cool stuff

29. THE SECRET IS

30. PEOPLE DRIVE
INNOVATION...
IF YOU
EMPOWER
THEM

31. SO HOW DOES GIPHY
Scale culture
and empower employees
and keep innovating
while growing and making money?

32. But what if we
work at a
company, not a
commune?

33. YOU ARE A
COMMUNITY
People with shared goals
who depend on each other
for success
*These are “successful business people” according to Google.

34. SPOILER: IT’S HARD WORK
It’s not easy or free
It takes a lot of time and effort
And dedicated leadership
GIPHY’s not perfect
We make a lot of mistakes
But we iterate and move forward

35. ROLE OF LEADERSHIP
1. Set expectations & define
success
2. Hold people accountable
3. Empower teams & individuals
to own solutions
4. Provide support & guidance

36. SET EXPECTATIONS
WITH
COMPANY VALUES

37. HOW WE DID IT
1. Survey everyone
2. Leadership narrows down
3. Present to the company
4. Include in Employee Handbook
5. Share with candidates
6. Renew commitment 2x/year

38. GIPHY
PHILOSOPHIES

39. 1. People Before
Product
2. Relationships Before
Process
3. Community Before
Corporation
4. It’s Not What We
Can’t Do, It’s What
We Can Do
5. After GIPHY

40. GIPHY VALUES
animated
expressive
friends
heart
helpful
weird
witty
infinite
transparency
balance
experimental
transparency

41. DEFINE
SUCCESS
WITH SHARED
GOALS

42. Company
Mission
Statement
● Short
● Memorable
● Inspiring

43. Company
Goals
● Simple
● Measurable
● Representative
● Team goals can
level up

44. Company
Roadmap
● Monthly
milestones
● Focus & prioritize
● Set cadence for
projects
● Celebrate wins

45. Re-evaluate
every 6
months

46. Repeat until
people are
sick of hearing
about it

47. CREATE SHARED
EXPERIENCE
TO BUILD
COMMUNITY

48. Monday
All-Hands
● Topic Deep Dive
● Department
Updates
● Participation
● Gratitude

49. Friday Demo
● Team “hosts”
each week
● 3 demos
● Inform
● Evangelize your
work

50. Company
Brainstorm
● Education &
empathy
● Gather ideas
● Meet colleagues
● Diversity of thought

51. Company
Orientation
● Every 6 months
● Review Values
● Mission, Goals,
Roadmap
● Company Policies
● Kickoff Planning

52. Maker’s Days
(aka Hackathons)
● 2 days to make
and present
● Mixed up teams
● Anything goes
● Science-fair style

53. Company
Events
● Lunch & Learn
● Volunteering
● Fundraisers
● Panels
● Parties

54. EMPOWER
PEOPLE TO
DRIVE
INNOVATION

55. Self-Organizing
Teams
● Team Roadmap
● Team Charter
● Team Process
● Team Retros
● Team Updates

56. Working Groups
for Big Initiatives
● Lead / Owner
● Weekly meetings
● Cross-dept reps
● Responsible for
deliverables &
communication

57. Leadership &
Management
Training
● Education for
newbies
● Reminders for
everyone
● It works

58. Career Paths
● Set career
ladders
● Separate
manager and IC
track
● Stay flexible

59. Mentorship
Program
● Optional
● Outside Dept
● Unbiased
● Focused on
long-term career
growth
● It’s the best

60. Prioritize
Diversity &
Equity
● Diversity of
thought powers
innovation
● Doesn’t happen
on its own
● It’s the right
thing to do

61. IN CONCLUSION
Invest in culture
Treat people like people
Set expectations clearly and
Build trust
Give them ownership and
responsibility
And often they will drive success for
your product
*Plus you’ll have nicer days in this short life