We (a compressed air powered vehicle startup) have a few things we repeat from time to time. I guess you could call them indicative of core values. The biggest difference with those listed in the OP, I guess, is that all of these are externally referent, describing what the company should be to the world, rather than what a team member should be to the company:
"Efficiency is a fight to the death."
"The three laws of thermodynamics: you can't win, you can't break even, and you can't give up."
"Don't burn stuff."
"We have to compete with conventional vehicles on their own terms. The market has already decided what the range, performance and cost should be."
"But that's not... platonic" (where platonic is used as a rough synonym for canonical, ideal, beautiful, elegant, etc.)
Our chief aim is to make vehicles, powered by compressed air, that are completely green, practical, and affordable; less expensive than conventional vehicles, if we can. Our focus on inexpensiveness seems to be largely unique among green vehicle startups, probably because batteries and fuel cells and so expensive.
My cofounder often says "All the matters is... results!" I parody him for this.
"Be honest."
My cofounder also points out that I bring an intellectual rigor and level of honesty that's altogether unusual to business. He says that normally it's a hindrance, but in our case it just causes us to work harder to prove out our claims, so it's actually a source of power.
Instead of just rushing ahead and building things, or shopping for solutions, we always try to think things through from the ground up, following physical principles. This isn't always the best way to do engineering, but it's where we have an advantage, and in the fight for efficiency we necessarily push technology beyond what's been before achieved.
We are also trying to cultivate high levels of openness. We don't bother with NDA's, for example, and want to open source as much of our vehicle designs as we can. The patent system was originally designed for this, but now patents are highly obscure.
Based on my (unfortunate?) experience of last 4 startups: when a company creates a multitude of these "core values" it begins making the transition from an exciting start up to a mediocre depressing job. If you have to explain to your employees that "Integrity, Passion, Commitment, Competence,
Conscientiousness" are "keys to success", perhaps you are hiring the wrong people.
Agreed - but I think part of the point of the article was that the 'non entrepreneurs' that were being hired 'didn't get it'.
I a perfect world, there would be no need for Core Values to be written down. However, as the article points out, at some point in a venture's life, it grows big enough that you can no longer assume everyone is 100% aligned.
Creepy to an entrepreneur, no doubt. However, potentially very necessary for non-entrepreneurs to act in the proper manner.
For me, the purpose of Values is that they can act as a filter for actions and decision making - remembering and applying ten values (especially when some are phrases) is beyond just about anybody.
When I run a values exercise with clients, 3 is the number I suggest. For my organisation, our values are Open, Honest, and Fair, which is pretty easy to remember and apply.
That aside, the purpose of the article was the importance of having values, and I think that's great.
I think that a startups Core Values are pretty important and say quite a bit about that particular company. Whether these values are stated or a given is a direct extension of the "company culture" thats at that particular startup. Core Values can vary widely, but I think it's pretty universal that most hackers are looking for a fun place to work and interesting/challenging things to work on. If a startup isn't offering at least that, then no list of positive character traits paraded as "Core Values" can save them
"Efficiency is a fight to the death."
"The three laws of thermodynamics: you can't win, you can't break even, and you can't give up."
"Don't burn stuff."
"We have to compete with conventional vehicles on their own terms. The market has already decided what the range, performance and cost should be."
"But that's not... platonic" (where platonic is used as a rough synonym for canonical, ideal, beautiful, elegant, etc.)
Our chief aim is to make vehicles, powered by compressed air, that are completely green, practical, and affordable; less expensive than conventional vehicles, if we can. Our focus on inexpensiveness seems to be largely unique among green vehicle startups, probably because batteries and fuel cells and so expensive.
My cofounder often says "All the matters is... results!" I parody him for this.
"Be honest."
My cofounder also points out that I bring an intellectual rigor and level of honesty that's altogether unusual to business. He says that normally it's a hindrance, but in our case it just causes us to work harder to prove out our claims, so it's actually a source of power.
Instead of just rushing ahead and building things, or shopping for solutions, we always try to think things through from the ground up, following physical principles. This isn't always the best way to do engineering, but it's where we have an advantage, and in the fight for efficiency we necessarily push technology beyond what's been before achieved.
We are also trying to cultivate high levels of openness. We don't bother with NDA's, for example, and want to open source as much of our vehicle designs as we can. The patent system was originally designed for this, but now patents are highly obscure.