Trust Your Culture

What makes Silicon Valley the center of entrepreneurial activity in the global economy?

There are many elements of Silicon Valley that combine to create a nurturing ecosystem for startups, including:

- access to startup capital;
- top tier VC's;
- world-class higher educational institutions (Stanford, Berkeley, Santa Clara University);
- mentoring and startup networking groups; and
- the ability to attract top talent from around the world.

Although the San Francisco Bay Area is a strong financial center, the Bay Area moves and manages far less capital than cities like New York City, London, and Hong Kong. As well, the Boston area has a higher density of top universities than the Bay Area.

The key to the success of Silicon Valley is the combination of all the above mentioned elements. One other softer part of the equation is the Silicon Valley culture.

The Silicon Valley startup culture is more than flex-hours, flip flops and ping pong tables, though those are certainly common-place. However, as the dot-com excess demostrated, you can not create a startup culture by simply buying a foosball table.

The hiring process is where the cultural matching process begins. Early stage startup companies need to attract workers who are:

• honest,
• dedicated,
• intelligent,
• passionate about the company's mission, and
• self-starters.

Hard - yes, impossible - no.

Candidates need to bring to the table the following traits:

• honesty,
• intelligence, and
• self-confidence.

For many organizations, high impact projects, work flexibility, and trust are only granted to those who have paid their dues and have an unblemished track record. This system works well for larger organizations, but can derail a small, but fast-growing company.

The genius of the Silicon Valley startup culture is that new employees are granted a valued-member status at the hire date. In turn, these intelligent, self-confident new hires respond by stepping up to the challenge and acting more like stewards of the business than employees punching a clock. Those new to startups may be surprised at the lack of parental controls. Startups are largely devoid of controls, procedures, and rules. If the person is a match for a startup environment, they will appreciate the trust and confidence that the company has granted to them. This in turn stimulates the dedication to the company and drive towards the company's mission. Those who can not function with the lack of formal structure will move onto more mature business organizations. A company's unconditional trust creates a robust work environment where honest, hard-working people will produce amazing results.

If a company's leadership team is worried that employees will abuse the trust granted, or will make huge errors without guidance; then they need to take a closer look at the criteria they are using when hiring new employees. Large organizations have a huge employee pool from which to identify star performers. Startups do not have that luxury, though the need for "A" players in a startup is equally critical. By empowering and trusting team members, the employees gifted with aptitude will quickly develop into star performers.

The startup culture is based on the following formula:

1. Hire well.
2. Empower these workers.
3. Expect exceptional results.

This formula can be utlized anywhere, but in Silicon Valley, where dynamic entrepreneurs are legendary, and failures are forgiven, the environment is particular accomodating.