This document discusses how startups can "hack" their company culture through coding it explicitly. It recommends writing down the answers to questions about company mission, customers, employees, competitors, etc. to make the implicit culture explicit. This allows the culture to be reviewed, tested and improved. The company Corporate Spring helps startups do this through 37-hour cultural hackathons where they discuss foundations, beliefs and hacks to implement. The goal is to beta test an improved culture code by the end of the hackathon.

1. Culture coding
for startups

2. We create passionate cultures
that accomplish wonders

3. What’s inside
The Problem
The Solution
The Company

4. The Problem

5. You probably don’t want to hear this…

6. 9
out of 10 startups fail.
Source: The Startup Genome Project

7. Half
of all VC-backed ventures fail.
Source: Sequoia Capital

8. For the most part,
failure is due to
the inner workings of a startup.
Source: Dozens of VCs, most vocally Peter Thiel

9. Peter Thiel’s Law:
A startup messed up at
its foundation cannot
be fixed.
Founder of PayPal. Founders’ Fund. Breakout Labs. Thiel Foundation

10. We disagree. Respectfully.

11. The Solution

12. Hack your culture.
Do it with as much focus and intensity as
you hack your products and distribution.

13. Since (almost) nobody does it,
let us explain what we mean.

14. Culture is
not cookies in the jar.
epic parties.
wild perks.

15. [Although these things
can be very nice.]

16. Culture is what you believe ...and
then do.

17. Every day.

18. Culture is coded in your answers.
Our awesome startup
Why do we exist? What business are we in?
What’s our secret? What’s our big vision? What’s our plan?
People
Customers
What kind of people do we hire?
How do we make decisions?
How do we resolve conflicts?
How do we do things around here?
What do we reward?
Who are our ideal customers?
How do we reach them?
How do we treat them?
Investors
Competitors
Who do we choose as our investors?
How do we work together?
Who do we compete against?
How do we (not) compete?

19. Culture comes in many flavours.
We are
on a mission!
Competitors
Customers
People
Investors
People
Customers
Investors
Driven by
purpose
Competitors
Balancing act
Customers
Driven by competition
[we don't recommend it!]

20. So how do you hack
your culture code?

21. It’s hard to hack
something you can’t see.

22. To hack your culture code,
you need to write your current code first.

23. The language you need to learn to write
your culture code is…well, language.
The traditional kind.

24. Once you can look at it together,
you can change it.

25. It’s intuitive.

26. Let’s do a quick experiment.

27. Where would you rather work?
Company A
We will be a market leader in
market X. Our mission is to
maximise shareholder value.
We value integrity,
excellence, team work and
profitability.
Company B
We are on a mission to solve a
grand challenge X. We have a
big crazy idea. We want to
replace a 10,000 year old
technology (yes, seriously).
We are a team of explorers
ready to give it everything
we've got. Because if we don't
try, we will be letting a billion
people down.

28. You can feel the cultural vibe,
can’t you?

29. 5 tell-tale signs your culture code
is fine-tuned for startup success:
1
2
3
4
5
Identity
You have a distinct sense that you are sharply different
from the rest of the world. In a good way.
Foundation
You are on a mission to change the world.
You've got the vision, the secret and the plan (product+distribution).
Trust
You trust the people you work with.
And they trust you back.
Giftwork
Everybody puts in the extra effort, goes the extra mile.
Because what you do matters. Because people like each other.
Pivot-ability
You learn from everybody and everything. Your beliefs are up for
discussion, you can change them and pivot.

30. Not there yet?

31. Well, roll up your sleeves.
You’ve got some culture hacking to do.

32. The Company

33. Hello, aspiring culture hackers.

34. At Corporate Spring,
we believe passionate cultures
can accomplish wonders.

35. So we help create them.

36. We run 37 hour cultural hackathons.

37. Goal:
Hack your culture
to help you accomplish wonders.

38. Philosophy:
Make the implicit culture code explicit. Take a hard look.
Run cultural experiments. Steal culture hacks from other
startups. Invent your own. Fail quickly. Debug. Have fun.
Celebrate successes. Laugh at failures. Think of cultural coding
as
a game with serious consequences.

39. 37 hours at a glance
DAY 1 – MACRO – start 7:00 am
DAY 2 – MICRO – finish 8 pm
Foundation
Hacks
Create ground to stand on.
Make every day count.
Code stress test.
Why’s. Mission. Secret. Vision. Plan. Person #20.
Coding Foundation.
Code stress test.
Setting goals & allocating time. Sharing
information & ideas. Tracking progress. Course
corrections & pivots. Big & small decisions.
Resolving conflicts. Dealing with setbacks.
Onboarding, giving feedback and celebrating.
Keeping eyes & ears open. Having fun.
Coding Hacks.
Beliefs
Unhide hidden drivers.
Code stress test.
People. Customers. Investors. Competitors.
Coding Beliefs.
Review
Is that Our Way?
People
Customers
Investors
Competitors
Code review.
One last stress test.

40. 37 hours
feel like this:
Fast-paced action. Even when you sleep.
Answer big questions in 30 seconds.
Make impossible tradeoffs on the spot.
Get inside other people's heads.
Turn hacks into edgy social experiments.
And write, write, write the code.

41. Outcome:
Your culture code
ready for beta
testing Monday
morning.

42. Our hackathons are based on research…
Theory
Practice
Hacks
Without good frameworks,
it’s easy to lose sight of
what’s important. We
draw on two seminal
works on culture:
Frameworks without
practical startup context
are useless. Here are
some of the people and
ideas we follow:
Hofstede’s “Culture’s
Consequences”
Hall’s “Beyond Culture”
Steve Blank, Lean Startup
Peter Thiel, Founders’ Fund
Max Marmer, Startup Genome
Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
Paul Graham, Y Combinator
Happy Startup Canvas
Google Ventures
Startup Weekends
Startup Compass
Funders & Founders
We love cultural hacks.
We keep an extensive
inventory of effective
cultural practices. Some
we’ve designed ourselves
(and won prizes for).
Others we’ve borrowed
from culture-hacking
companies like Asana,
Zappos, Google. We are
always on the look out for
good ideas that work.

43. Ready to
culture code?
www.corporatespring.com
hello@corporatespring.com