Why should I even care?
When we started Dyte back in 2020, we were a three-member team (Kushagra, Palash & I), and we quickly scaled to double the size by the time we went through the Winter 21 batch of Y Combinator. Today, we are over 30 people spread across different continents, coming from diverse backgrounds and currently in entirely different phases of our lives, yet, we are all aligned towards a common goal - making Dyte successful!
We started Dyte to build a truly legendary company, a company that we knew would be larger than all of us. Come to think of it, it’s genuinely astounding how people from all walks of life are all working towards a joint mission. But why does this happen? What is it that keeps every single one of us aligned?
Culture. The first time I came across the term was when I read Don’t Fuck Up the Culture, a blog by Brian Chesky (Co-founder & CEO, Airbnb). Here he mentions how the single, most important piece of advice Peter Theil has for them is “Don’t fuck up the culture.”
When you’re a high-growth startup, it’s honestly relatively easy to fuck up the culture. Our culture is the foundation of our company. Our end goal with Dyte is the growth of every individual associated with us, and we can do this by setting up a culture to cultivate success. Dyte becomes a successful company only if all of us succeed!
Great, now we know the why. How about the how?
Culture comes from within. You don't wake up one day and decide to have a #culture; it's cultivated. Daily. Over and over again. We can only do this by living by the core values we believe in as peers.
It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.
-Muhammad Ali
We want to be known for our values. Dyte is nothing but the people we are, and people are a reflection of their values and beliefs. So the only way we build a genuine workplace is by following the values we believe in.
Awesome, but what are these “cultural values?”
Our company is supposed to be an extension of us as people. With this idea 💡 in mind, my co-founders & I sat down and jotted down values that are core to all of us, and that became our initial pillars towards building a “Dyte Culture Stack.” I’m going to walk you through all of those below -
- Transparency → We are looking for straight shooters and open communication. Feel free to tell us how you feel about any aspect of our process. Share your concerns, and we'll figure it out together.
- Obsessed with Quality → We don't do subpar. We don't even deliver a plain ”will do” solution. Instead, we strive to outperform on all fronts regarding Quality of service. We are our biggest competitors and plan to keep it that way.
- Ownership (Build and Strengthen) → We want every individual to have a sense of ownership of their work. We want to build a team of leaders and not followers.
- Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS) → We build complex products which are simple to use. We love to see people create with Dyte, and we love it more when they do it with the utmost ease. We like to break down challenges to the simplest form and build ground-up.
- Strong Ethics → We work with honesty and integrity and look for those who uphold the same values.
- Innovation → We're more inclined to produce something crazy and unheard of rather than becoming too comfortable with what already exists. At Dyte, we promote curiosity, and we're here to build the future.
- Be you, Be Dyte → We strongly believe that to put your best foot forward and do the same for Dyte, you must value and hold on to your individuality. We can only grow from what each individual has to offer in their way. We hold mutual respect and make sure people feel the most comfortable being themselves.
And these are the values with which we have set the initial foundations at Dyte. This is a reminder of where we come from and who we are as Dyte!
There might be days where we all screw up, we will be burdened by our own growth expectations, and we will need to discard all assumptions and start over again, but all of this will pass. It’s transient. The only thing that will stay is our culture.
As we continue to scale & grow our team, I want to make sure of one thing - don’t fuck up the culture!
