YC 创业课-DAY 4

Company, culture and Team

In this section, the course mainly centers on three aspects, namely company, culture and team, which are integrated together rather than separate. In order to make things clear, the host asks four questions.

1 What are the core elements to a start-ups?

In Patrick’s opinion, the most significant factors to a start-up are what they do in his daily life. An alternative factor to a successful company is to see the benefits as a result of his celebration or punishment. In addition, he also attributes the core elements to the people he hire.

John holds a totally different view, internal transparency plays the substantial role. Internal transparency means all the employees share the same amount of information and enjoy all the internal policy.     

Ben adds to the question by saying that culture means that everybody should be involved, and it is a kind of atmosphere that everyone desire to get involved.

2 How to find the first ten employees?

Patrick tells us that the means to hire people may vary from person to person and company to company, such as LinkedIn, Caterair, and barbeque. Hiring methods do not count. But some qualifications of the employees should take into account. Patrick mentions that he likes hiring people who have some common with, he likes hiring people who are curious and he likes hiring people who have crazy ideas. These personalities are likely to bring creative ideas. What’s more, they like people who are keen to build something.

John and Ben emphasize that they are likely to hire genuine and straight people, people who are easy to work along in particular.