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Ask HN: How to build culture as an employee?

15 points by concertappdude ↗ HN
Hey HN, it's 3 AM and something is on my mind.

I'm working as a developer in a funded startup that has been in existence for 4 years. The company has 20 employees, 2 of which are CEO and CTO (the founders), yet absolutely no culture or organisation of any kind.

Project Management is done on a very high level by the CEO - he is the only one that makes decisions, even technical ones even tho it isn't his area and his knowledge is very limited. The CTO has absolutely no involvement in the tech decisions, no tech education and when he writes code it is completely terrible and barely uses source control. We don't have any kind of concrete feature list, release dates, growth direction or goals, don't follow any project management methodology and have meetings to discuss the product maybe once in 3 months. The company has no semblance of culture, there is no identity, no company values, no mission, and it all seems thrown together and held by sheer luck.

I like the product, love area in which the product is (music concerts) and love what a few other employees are doing to keep it good.I would love to continue working here but don't know how much longer I can stay in a company that is so undefined.

Does anyone have advice on building the company culture as an employee?

11 comments

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arkadiyt
My personal take on it: Communicate your thoughts directly and clearly to the CEO. Either they will agree and make changes, or disagree and then you should leave the company (and consider starting a similar app that you run correctly, since you seem passionate about it). If they do agree with you then they should make sweeping changes to fix the problems you mentioned (including firing the CTO - a big mistake startups make is not firing bad apples quickly enough).
concertappdude
Starting a similar app is extremely hard since they have some exclusive industry deals that they got via investors help. It wouldn't be possible to compete with them in that space in the same geographical region.

I've thought about direct talk with the CEO, but the problem is that 1.) he is unreliable, he changes opinions and decisions constantly. 2.) The CTO is his best friend, so I'll either have to start looking for a new gig before approaching them about it and be ready to leave, or try and influence the culture from within. Thanks for the advice tho, if I can't change anything, direct communication is what I will do.

twunde
The best thing about working at a startup? You can start making changes yourself. Start by organizing your work and then share it with teammates.
concertappdude
Yeah that's what I was thinking when I joined, but everyone here seems to have accepted the status quo. As I said down, I'm going to try and Manage-up for now, hope the work will be noticed and others will join in.
throwaway89798
You've correctly assessed the situation. This is not something you can fix.

This is a great illustration of the role of luck in success. The founders were lucky enough to find a niche that could support a company held together with tape and sticks.

As you can see, the leadership's priority is not building a culture or a strong organization. Their priority is extracting value for themselves.

Read this: http://www.codingjohnson.com/hex-lies-and-startups

And govern yourself accordingly.

concertappdude
Wow, this is horrible. I guess I just don't have the mentality that people can be assholes.

> The founders were lucky enough to find a niche that could support a company held together with tape and sticks.

Yeah,exactly this. I'll try to fix what I can, if it proves impossible, I'll have no reason to stay.

JSeymourATL
Assuming your assessment is correct, can you Manage-up?

That is to say-- can you sell your project management ideas to the CEO/CTO and your peers?

Most Founders get stuck working in the day-to-day business, versus working on the overall business vision and purpose bit. Initiate a 1:1 conversation with the CEO. He will likely welcome your ideas to make things run more efficiently. This could prove a huge professional growth opportunity for you. A good boss is always looking for someone who can help him connect the dots and solve problems.

concertappdude
I can try and do it, as I already pushed for company to go from 1/12 to 8/12 in Joel's test, at least for my "team" (since there's 2 of us with sometimes 3rd joining in).

I'm going to try and Manage-up for now, hope the work will be noticed and others will join in.

[dead] BarryTheBaptist
My take on this is that the culture flows from top to bottom. Decision maker should be the one who start the process and pass it on. Its better if you try to put your hands product management and start to improve it from there. They will soon realize the benefit of this and that might bring the change.
concertappdude
So had a big talk with the CEO, it seems like I'll go out and search for a new job. NYC is a big city, lots of chances to do better stuff than fight windmills.
oehokie
I had a similar experience when I worked for a startup. Not the kind of place you want to work at anyways... best of luck to ya!