Tag Archives: zappos

Planting seeds for the next 30 years in #VegasTech

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Fred Wilson compares NYC to the Bay area in a recent post describing the darwinian evolution of startup hubs. He points out that it takes a lot of time to build a healthy/vibrant startup hub, requiring multiple generations of successful companies to develop the required talent pool, experiences and diverse financial investment from successful entrepreneurs.

Seedling Planting

I think this post is a necessary reminder of the type of (30 year) commitment we need to make as we plant some of the first seeds to build a tech hub in Vegas.

I would like to echo a comment David Cohen made on Fred’s post,

What will be the next Silicon Valley? Silicon Valley is people. People are the place, whether it’s Austin, Boston, or NYC, it’s people.

Where will the next Silicon Valley be? In the bedrooms, garages, shared work spaces, basements, sheds, and dorm rooms of people.

While we have an amazing jump start toward building a great tech hub due to Tony & Zappos’ investment, it will ultimately be up to the people in the bedrooms, garages, shared work spaces, basements, sheds, and dorm rooms to get together launch great companies, and re-invest in our own community.

Here’s to 8 year over-night successes to each of our companies and #VegasTech!

Good core values create a side-effect of easier decisions

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I have spent entire weeks of my life in meetings choosing sides of a discussion, arguing semantics, listing out pros and cons, and defending positions. I imagine you have a similar experience.

One of the most interesting and valuable side-effects of clear core-values is their impact on decision making.

When I was at Zappos, so many decisions in meetings finally came to a head when someone was able to cite a core value that clearly justified one of the options.

This worked because it required the application of the core value to be so evidently true, that the vast majority of people agreed immediately without hesitation. In other words, it cannot be forced, and cannot be manipulated. It is not a ‘get out of jail free card’. It works when we are all mentally and psychologically able to buy into the decision, and move on to the next one.

If you haven’t written down your core values, you might want to spend some time on it. They already exist, and they are already shaping the culture of your business. So why not name them, and be intentional about allowing them to help drive your decisions.

Bonus hack: We usually create core values that are a sentence or two long. This is good becuase it allows us to *fully* express the nuances of what we believe. But, it is worth thinking about what the really short, quotable version of your core values would be as well. e.g. bellow is a quotable version of the full Drumbi.com core values

  • Delight the Consumer
  • Be a partner
  • Create openness
  • Maintain highest standard
  • Lead by example, not just words
  • Be Aware
  • Earn the future
  • Encourage open communication
  • Empowered to do what’s right
  • Prefer agility and innovation

What are your core values?