There is something Elegant in which it is called startup. What comes to mind first? Flexible work hours, colorful open offices, free pizza and snacks, or maybe family-like teams, countless hours on a laptop, and endless uncertainties.
In its purest form, a StartUp is defined as a company in the first stage of its operations, which is generally looking for proofs of concept, market validation and financing to scale. This definition has been expanded to include more ideas that make up a modern entrepreneurial company. While we have a clear idea of what a StartUp is, there has never been an apparent line as to when a StartUp stops being a StartUp.
When does it really become a “company” in its traditional meaning? And could a full-fledged company keep some business elements in its focus and execution even after 5 or 10 years of operations?
A StartUp by definition
Startups can be referred to as game-changers: hungry for achievement, eager to develop a unique product or service and bring it to market by disrupting it. Likewise, Paul Graham, founder of Y Combinator, describes a company as a company designed to grow rapidly with no present time limit. However, it still seems like market-changing players like Uber, Amazon, Tesla are no longer called StartUps despite their continued growth.
There have been many attempts to set a numerical limit on what separates a StartUp from a company by number of employees, revenue, profit, financing details, and more. One of these, called the Suggested Rule to Hang Your Starter Uniform if any of the following guidelines could apply to your business:
- $50 million revenue run rate (12 months ahead);
- 100 or more employees;
- It’s worth more than $500 million, on paper or otherwise.
So what if your company achieved or exceeded these numbers but still feels like a startup at heart?
The soul of startups
When asked to define their company culture, employees often start talking about flexible work environments, cool offices, attention to work-life balance, funky events, and dynamic team structures. . What is really missing from these descriptions is the ability to articulate the true identity of a company, since .
“Entrepreneurs should play with ideas and explore them, letting their strategies evolve through a fluid process of guesswork, analysis, and action,” Amar Bhide’s 1994 book states. Through such play and exploration, the Startup culture has grown in stature over the last decade, creating an entire movement of companies that developed exciting, progressive, and valuable products and services.
Thanks to innovative companies like Netflix, Facebook, Airbnb and more, the startup mindset is now a relevant section in the modern business dictionary. Therefore, this forward-looking thinking is characterized by an obsession with opportunities, a drive for ideas, a focus on execution, and a readiness to change course.
The one published by the Harvard Business Review shows that there is a certain energy, or soul present in Startups, inspiring employees to contribute their talent and enthusiasm, investors and clients to commit their money, and founders to believe that their ventures were something above their means. missions and business models. Based on these findings, the soul of StartUps is structured around three key principles that help a company remain innovative and maintain continuous growth:
- Business intent (the meaning of work, the true real self of an organization);
- Connection with the client (explanation of the obsession of the client that binds them to a company);
- Employee experience (empowering those who form emotional ties to the company and motivating them to go the extra mile).
Company culture is never built in a day and is not limited to just organizational values and guiding principles. The biggest challenge is to keep these three elements at the top of the business strategy and daily activities to preserve the soul of the StartUp and maintain the business style during growth.
Opinion on Startup Culture
was started in 2004, and we’ve been on an epic journey ever since. It is already a full-fledged, profitable business model that is rapidly scaling up and outgrowing the original startup definition. The need to start talking about culture at arose when we started looking for a business approach on how to evaluate an employee’s performance without getting into the emotional and personal appraisal of the job. The values of successful entrepreneurial companies like Netflix, Google, Amazon were the aspiration for us.
Therefore, from our perspective, StartUps are about culture: the freedom to act, make decisions, follow principles and values as a guideline in all business activities.
“Culture is how we behave when no one is looking. This is how we see culture and it is reflected in the principles of our work. High pace, high standards and results orientation: this is a culture that encourages personal and organizational learning and growth.”
Gabija Marganavičė, Staff Director
The freedom to learn, investigate, make mistakes, experiment and grow comes with considerable responsibilities. Since our culture is a fusion between guiding principles and team, the success of the people is the success of the company at .
measuring the culture
Challenging stereotypes and standards in a multinational environment is a daily process here at . Due to the current pandemic situation, more than 1,000 employees from 35 countries around the world are working remotely. Culture is the core element that unites us all, and there is no recognized need to localize it, according to Justina Telyčėnė, People Partner at .
“Subcultures do occur and are very much determined by the multiple locations of . No matter what country our employees come from, our strategy and goals remain the same, requiring similar tools to achieve our goals. Perhaps one principle will appear more in one place than the other, but the cultural setting must remain the same. Subcultures are acceptable as long as they work together toward a unified purpose and according to the same principles.”
Justina Telyčėnė, People Partner
By not localizing culture, our goal is to ensure that we are all on the same page and can accurately measure the individual and organizational impact of our culture. The Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Team Pulse methods are applied to work on the culture and improve it.
Based on NPS data, we can see whether employees are willing to recommend as a place to work, followed by questions about what could be done better if the review falls short of the full score. Consequently, a monthly Team Pulse survey focuses on what an effective team must follow (psychological safety, reliability, structure and clarity, meaning of work, impact of work).
Creation of a new type of corporation
Here at , we are building an airplane while we fly. As a StartUp expands, additional formal structures and processes must be added and applied to run the business. And there is nothing wrong with healthy corporate environments: they can provide transparency and simplicity if processes are organized efficiently. Consequently, the example illustrates the new type of corporate structure, which includes business intent, customer connection, and employee experience as main ingredients, all with a business flavor.
Unlike large corporations, StartUps don’t have the luxury of slow crawling: customers don’t have time to wait for a StartUp to adapt, and competitors quickly fill in unfilled gaps to meet their needs. Therefore, ‘s real self it’s about making decisions quickly, trying through errors rather than waiting for the best option, and delivering quality results quickly. COO Gintarė Stundytė defines us as “a group of people united by a few key elements: we like to deliver results, learn a lot and get things done fast. We know that satisfied customers are essential for a growing business and we want to show that Lithuania is a place where unicorns are born.”
“Customer obsession is what lives, eats and breathes every day, 365 days a year. It’s just the way you run your business…Always putting the welfare of customers before everything you’re doing,” as Blaine Millet describes the connection to the client as the key element of this new type of business corporation. We do extensive research and work hard to earn and keep your trust.
The emotional bonds of employees with the company gradually form and exist as a two-way relationship between an organization and an employee. This type of bond needs a constant push to grow both individually and as a team. Therefore, in a full-fledged organization like , the startup culture serves as an accelerator for employees to get results. And this is what we believe motivates and keeps the best people to stay: curious colleagues and a rapidly changing environment, built to deliver results.
How to maintain startup culture while expanding rapidly
From ‘s experience, we have recognized the need for a StartUp to incorporate discipline and order into its business activities as it grows. Greater efficiency, maintained customer bond and team connection are expected if such adjustments are carefully implemented.
The culture will change along with the launch, whether we like it or not, and that’s not something to be afraid of. Company culture is like the one element that competitors can never copy.
Here are some practical tips from to maintain a…
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