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Core values

1. We want to be the fastest growing AI content platform (WIP)

Vertebrae that we simply recite (WIP)

We automate LinkedIn marketing through executive led content for mid market companies. We are serving over 30 companies from Series A to IPO’d companies, including MongoDB, Rippling, and Corgi Insurance.

2. We are building for B2B seed-series C founders (WIP)

Primary ICP

We build for high growth B2B startups that are starting or have an existing executive led content motion.

Criteria

Buyer persona

Must-have traits

Triggers (best time to sell)

Examples

Campfire AI, Corgi Insurance

Secondary ICP

B2B enterprises pushing team wide initiatives but lack coordinated team leadership led content.

Criteria

Examples

Rippling spend pod, Rippling startup pod, MongoDB startup team, MongoDB social team

Positioning

3. People that we love working with

Building a successful company requires years of building, and we only want to work with people that we enjoy hanging around. We love people that are:

Genuine

To us, this means three things.

  1. First, it means someone who is honest and clear about their intention. Disingenuous people often assume a zero-sum game when they work with others, so they hide their true incentive in order to maximize their personal gain. But we find that unproductive and tiring because we don’t like to be calculative all the time, especially around people that we work with 24/7. Also, startup generally is a positive-sum game, so it’s way more productive to work out a plan that is beneficial to everyone. Just be straightforward with what you want.
  2. Second, it means someone who is low ego. We are nowhere near perfect and there are always people better than ourselves. Hence, we must stay humble and always strive to learn from others. It doesn’t mean undersell yourself in all aspects, but rather know your strength and weaknesses. Be unapologetic and willing to share the knowledge when it comes to your strength, but don’t over-exaggerate it just to look strong. Acknowledge your weaknesses and be open to critiques.

Driven

We love people that are strongly motivated, determined to succeed, and willing to work hard and persist to reach their goals. Once they set their sight, they will do whatever it takes to get there. We want people that can unblock themselves, figure out a way to clear or work around whatever obstacles they have in their ways. The opposite of this is someone who waits for help when they are stuck.

Smart

This also means two things.

  1. First, it means someone who can learn and adapt fast. Startup moves quick, skills and knowledge you have had learned is most definitely insufficient after a few months, by that time we might be facing a whole different set of challenges already. Therefore, we need someone who is agile and can adapt extremely quickly.
  2. Second, it means someone who holds themselves to a high standard that they are proud of. This is one thing that most people don’t emphasize enough. We want someone who is serious about their craft and proud of the work they produce. Time is always an enemy of this, so it means can this person prioritizes well and produce good quality of work instead of doing everything mediocrely.

4. Principles

Here are some principles that we have been unconsciously following since we started the company and have been shown to be paramount:

  1. Be extremely scrappy. This could mean in engineering, sales, operations, or any initiatives that you can imagine. We prioritize speed and quick experimentation, therefore we always start with something extremely simple and scrappy to validate our hypotheses first before doubling down.
  2. Be relentlessly resourceful. Collison installation is a prime example of this. We also did something very similar to what Airbnb did in the early days, when we were figuring out how to activate our customers, one of the things we did was to go to our customers’ offices in person and take professional photos for them to post. We are still going to customers’ offices to activate them.
  3. Focus on doing one thing extremely well. Peter Thiel enforces this strictly and there is a solid argument for it.
  4. Lead by example. It’s hard to ask others to follow a standard we don’t follow ourselves. So we make expectations concrete: we set boundaries, communicate the goal, and explain how we want to work together to get there. Boundaries are very important, clear boundaries protect focus, prevent resentment, and make it easier for others to succeed. When we set them, we’re not being rigid; we’re being responsible.

Working together

1. Expectations

Keep growing and keep being challenged

Every 6 months, we will try to give everyone a new role. It doesn’t mean going from say a salesperson to an engineer, but rather like owning a bigger scope of work, taking more challenging responsibilities that push you to learn and grow. We will try to ask you where you want to be in your career in the next 2-3 years, and we will work with you to put together a plan, helping you get the skills and experience you need, and guide you on a course to get there.

Ownership

You should have ownership over your domain, if the project is assigned to you, then you should be the owner of such project unless stated otherwise. Proactive ownership is extremely important, what it means is you should be actively working on projects you picked up and depends on the order of importance, making sure it goes through. If no one puts their hand up because it’s tricky/not obvious/everyone is super busy, the relevant people that touch the thing should decide between them.

If you have a feeling that you want to leave

This usually means that there is something wrong with the team or the business that is not meeting your expectations. If such thing happens, please tell us as soon as possible so we can fix it. Please do not just hold it in and bury the feeling, it’s unhealthy to yourself and everyone else.

Side gigs

Most ambitious people have their own side gigs like being a UGC creator or having a side business that they are already doing. However, we have worked with people that have their own side gig and that turned out to be a huge distraction to their work. We are still early that we cannot take such risk, so please communicate upfront if you are having any side gigs and we can create a plan together.

2. Work schedule

Recommended hours

The recommended hours are Monday through Friday 10AM to 6PM and Sunday 4PM to 9PM in person. Saturday and Sunday morning are off but we still respond to customer support and emergency requests.

These are called recommended hours because we don’t enforce them strictly to a tee, except you must show up for our all hands meeting on Sunday and generally be present throughout the weekdays. Otherwise, you can choose to come into the office and leave at a time you feel reasonable.

General rule of thumb - you manage your own time

We put a lot of faith in you managing your own time responsibly to push things forward, and this trust will need to be earned.

However, more often than not, we work more than the recommended hours, sometimes for 12 hours a day, to deliver our weekly outcomes. Because we are still an early stage company, we tend to over-allocate tasks to ourselves so we can keep the ball rolling fast.

There are also customer meetings and sales calls early in the morning, and the responsible person would arrive much earlier than their first meeting. Occasionally, there are startup social events at night that you can choose to go or not go, but those are not considered work hours.

3. How we work

Quarterly north star and weekly sprint

We generally have a north star that we revise quarterly. After that is set, we break it down to a month by month plan and work on a weekly sprint schedule. Every week, we define certain key outcomes and we pursue them relentlessly. Some examples are sales target, feature releases, and operation deliverables.

Communications

All hands meeting. We hold all hands meeting every Sunday evening to review past week’s deliverable and calibrate the upcoming week’s key outcomes. Otherwise, we just have ad hoc discussions throughout the day in the office.

Slack communication. We keep important discussions such as customers feedback, engineering requests on slack. Otherwise, we use iMessage for more personal discussions.

Centralized workspace

All our documents and operations live on notion. We have a sprint board to coordinate tasks and we expect everyone to utilize that to stay synchronized. If you have a personal operating system (e.g. if you are already extremely comfortable with just pen and paper writing a to-do list every day) that you are glued to already, we’re not going to force you to change that, but please let us know so we can create a system that is productive to everyone.

4. Spending money

Mercury credit card

Everyone will be issued a Mercury credit card, and you must use that to pay for most work-related expenses. We want you to be well taken care of, if you are extremely busy at work and cannot get away, you can order yourself some food, the general rule of thumb is around $20 per meal. Use your best judgement. Please do not use personal card to pay for the expenses since we don’t have enough bandwidth to approve reimbursements case by case. You must keep and upload a receipt if it is more than $75.

Be responsible

Some examples of work-related expenses are productivity tool subscription, business related ground transportation, food during busy hours (when you are working and hungry), and client related expenses. Please be responsible in spending and use your best judgement. A general rule of thumb is ask around if you are paying for stuff that is more than $50.

Reimbursement

If your personal card offer essential covers, such as insurance and protection for certain purchases like airline, hotel, or expensive electronics, you could ask for reimbursement instead.

Sales

1. Rules