WeAreLATech Culture Code

While I was building my 2nd company, an action sports media network, is when I discovered Zappos. They are a now billion dollar commerce site acquired by Amazon in 2009. Back in about 2004 they were reported to have the fastest loading code for any shopping site and that’s when I stumbled upon what was to become a business cultural phenomon. Just like you probably do now, I looked up to Zappos on how to build a smart company. Zappos became known for it’s company culture. I was lucky enough to be selected for the Zappos Insights business beta program. This is where I discovered their company core values. These core values were and still are guidelines every teammate at the Zappos lives by. By the time I began to write up the core values for my sports company it was too late. I remember one of my teammates was delayed on all deadlines. It was such a frustrating experience and one that contributed to a downfall. The other teammates, who for years prior worked so hard, followed suit and started slacking too. If at that time we had clear and promient core values ‘timeliness’ would have been one of them and it would have been black or white whether this person was the right culture fit. So now, with WeAreLATech… establishing both internal and external core values was essential for me to even allow myself to build a new company.

External WeAreLATech Core Values

This is who our customers and community are

1. People passionate about and working in tech
2. (Founders, Engineers, Investors, Product Managers, Creatives, UX/UI designers, growth hackers, data scientists)
3. Who currently are or want to be deeply immersed into the LA Tech ecosystem
4. Executors
5. People who see business as a collaborative space
6. and believe in mutually beneficial relationships
7. People who respect one another’s time

Internal WeAreLATech Core Values

This is how our internal team operates

1. People are Humans, not metrics; Customers, website clicks, mobile app installs and podcast listens are not users
2. Respect the community’s time; Respond quickly to customers and inquiries. Only share content that is valuable
3. Rely on personal connection, not automation
4. Communicate with gratitude, no matter the situation
5. Seek solution
6. Be collaborative
7. Create sharable unique experiences
8. Work as a team driven by passion
9. Be detail orientated
10. The purpose of revenue is to be enabled to deliver an outstanding product and service

To become a part of the WeAreLATech culture join our private chat here, http://wearelatech.com/vip

Here’s an episode from my “Hello Customer” podcast featuring Zappos discussing how they deliver extraordinary customer experience.