Pirates

Pretty often, some one on my team does something really above and beyond that leaves me in awe. Sometimes, it’s a really comprehensive and sensitive response to a customer issue. Sometimes it’s a deep analysis that I didn’t ask for. Sometimes it’s work that doesn’t fit in their job description that they do — and do well — anyway.

I’ve written about how smart everyone on my team is before, but this is more about doing whatever it takes under whatever circumstance to achieve a goal. They are scrappy. They challenge lots of things. They weather the ups and downs of working at a startup like champs.

These qualities are not to be taken for granted. The other day a friend of mine told me he was contemplating leaving Google to work at startup (a pretty established one) but was concerned about “stability”. The hiring team had failed to convince him that his prospects were as stable as they would be at Google (surprise!).

I’m not one to belittle this kind of concern having lots of it myself, but knowing what I now know and looking at my team, I feel like convincing some one that they should work at a startup because it’s relatively stable is the wrong tack. The best people I work with are the ones who do worry about the future, but generally approach it as an awfully big adventure. And because they each play a part in how the adventure turns out, they all haul ass and break rules every now and then.

Here in startup-land, “pirate” has probably been overused to the point of cliche, but I know why now because that’s what I think of when I look at Ankur, Ed, Lauren, John, Jonathan and Song,

Happy Labor Day, and to all the pirates in the world out there, I salute you!-