In this special episode of The Startup Chat, Steli and Hiten are at Dreamforce and they talk about how and why you need to hire a head of culture at your startup, especially if your team members work remotely.

Thanks to Jorge Soto and the team at First Cut for recording and editing the video!

In today’s business world, a lot of startups are run as remote teams, and doing so has its benefits. Many studies have shown that remote working has valuable effects on employee productivity, happiness, and general well-being.

However, there are some challenges of running a remote team and one of these challenges is creating a positive company culture with your team. This is where creating the position of head of culture can be beneficial for your startup.

Tune in to hear Steli and Hiten’s recommendations for how to create the position of head of culture in your startup, when to create the role, what qualities to look out for when you hire for this role and much more.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

00:24 About today’s topic.

01:23 Why this topic was chosen for this episode.

02:45 Hiten talks about how a similar position was created and filled at his company, Kissmetrics.

04:11 Hiten gives real-world examples of how important a person in this role can be to a startup.

05:26 Steli talks about how a similar position was created and filled at his company, Close.

06:17 Steli talks about the qualities to look out for when you hire for this role at your startup.

07:46 If you should consider hiring for this role and when to do so.

09:50 The real value of having a person with this role at your startup and whether it can be measured.

13:34  Steli and Hiten attempt to come up with an appropriate title for this role.

Quotes:

Having a person that team members can trust, come to and confide in can be a powerful thing for a startup.
Once you get past 15 team members at your startup, start looking for a person in your team with incredibly high emotional intelligence, and is trusted by other team members for this role.
A lot of the value that this person creates in your startup can’t really be measured.

[0:00:01]

Hiten: Here we like to talk about more than just sales and marketing.

 

[0:00:03]

Steli: We just want to bullshit and chat about business and life and hopefully while we're doing that provide a little value to people.

 

[0:00:08]

Hiten: The world's best business podcast.

 

[0:00:09]

Steli: Ooh.

 

[0:00:11]

Hiten: Shit.

 

[0:00:11]

Steli: Oh shit, we got it.

 

[0:00:12]

Hiten: We're people trying to get shit done.

 

[0:00:15]

Steli: we don't want to give you feedback that's bullshit.

 

[0:00:17]

Hiten: We want you to do your best.

 

[0:00:19]

Hiten: So are you comfortable?

 

[0:00:21]

Steli: No, not at all.

 

[0:00:22]

Hiten: All right.

 

[0:00:22]

Steli: The only thing that makes me uncomfortable is that I'm not allowed to kiss you, they said that specifically.

 

[0:00:25]

Hiten: Yeah, they said you can't do that.

 

[0:00:27]

Steli: I don't know why they had to say it specifically, but now I'm totally thrown off by that. So, for people that just listen to the podcast, today's a special episode.

 

[0:00:35]

Hiten: Yep.

 

[0:00:36]

Steli: We're here with TeamFirstCut at at the Sales Hacker booth at Dreamforce.

 

[0:00:42]

Hiten: Dreamforce, yep.

 

[0:00:42]

Steli: So there's gonna be a video to this episode.

 

[0:00:44]

Hiten: Apparently.

 

[0:00:45]

Steli: There's gonna be a link in the show notes...