The team at Bunch is dedicated to using the power of data and psychology to redefine the way companies work. They've decoded what growth culture means and how to find yours. Misalignment of organisation & communication tends to grow exponentially as you scale. That's why getting culture right early is so crucial. In this talk, their Co-Founder Anthony shares insights on what are the elements of a strong culture, how to express it, and how to adapt during crucial lifecycle stages.

1. Of great company cultures of
the future
Building blocks
Anthony Reo, CPO & co-founder Bunch.ai

2. Charles O’Reilly, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
The problem 90% of startups fail,
but why?

3. MVPInitial product
market fit
When you start out
Team Health

4. Learn &
improve Gain
interaction
When you hire your first 10 employees
Team Health

5. .
Learn &
improve Gain
interaction
Wrong hire
Lack of cordination
Lack of infrastructure
Wrong
prioritization
When you grow to 100+ employees
Team Health

6. Wrong hires
Lack of communication
Lack of infrastructure
Wrong
prioritization
Growth pains take over, alignment declines
Team Health

7. When toxic culture starts spreading, it‘s extremely hard to get back on track

8. Charles O’Reilly, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
“Organizations within the high-tech
industry with significantly stronger
culture deliver 5 higher annual
revenues than those with less
strong cultures.”
“A company's culture is the foundation for
future innovation. An entrepreneur’s job is
to build the foundation.”
Brian Chesky, Founder Airbnb

9. Charles O’Reilly, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
“Organizations within the high-tech
industry with significantly stronger
culture deliver 5 higher annual
revenues than those with less
strong cultures.”
“The best companies are deliberate about
culture. They design it and defend it.”
Dharmesh Shah, CTO & founder of Hubspot

10. Charles O’Reilly, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
“Organizations within the high-tech
industry with significantly stronger
culture deliver 5 higher annual
revenues than those with less
strong cultures.”
“Intuition and gut feeling don’t scale, and
even if it did, it’s not a good idea.”
Des Traynor, Co-founder Intercom

11. Biggest risks of failure are pre product-market-fit and....
Time
Growth
MVP
Product/
Market Fit
Channel/
Market Fit
Maturity

12. Biggest risks of startup failure are pre product-market-fit and SCALING
Time
Growth
MVP
Product/
Market Fit
Channel/
Market Fit
Maturity

13. Bunch acts as an immunesystem for your company as you scale
Wrong hires
Lack of communication
Lack of infrastructure
Wrong
prioritization
Team Health

14. Alignment between strategy and behavior drives success
BehaviorStrategy
Aligned
Strong
culture

15. What is strong organizational culture?
Strong culture describes “a set of norms […]
that are widely shared and strongly held
throughout the organization”
Chatman, Caldwell, O’Reilly & Doerr (2015)

16. • It gives the team some first principles to fall back on
• It aligns people on values that matter to the company
• It provides stabliity for the company
• It provides trust that bind people together
• It gives you a list of what to do and what not to do (exclusion)
• It allows you to retain the right employees. If you have strong core values,
you’ll know who you do and do not want to retain.
Why strong organizational culture?
- Alfed Lin, COO and Chairman Zappos

17. What is culture?
Culture Design (2017)

18. Culture values Adaptable
Customer-Oriented
PrincipledResults-Oriented
Detail-Orientation
Collaborative
Achievement oriented, action
oriented, high expectations for
performance
Quick to take advantage of
opportunities, willingness to experiment,
risk-taking, fast moving, innovative
Precise, being analytical,
paying attention to detail
Listening to customers, being market
driven, being customer oriented
Having integrity, high ethical
standards, being honest
Cooperative, team oriented
Chatman, Coldwell, O’Reilly & Doerr, 2014“It’s ok to not know the answer, the team can find it.”
“Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines.”
“Let’s make it perfect.”
“I want to do the right thing.”
“I am quick to take advantage of opportunities.”
“The customer is king!.”

19. To be clear, this is NOT…
skills
-Strength in a certain
technical area or domain.
• Javascript Master
• Sketch Genius
• Rainmaker Salesman
Examples:
personality
-Traits derived from
biological/environmental factors.
• Introversion vs. Extroversion
• Thinking vs. Judging
• Intuitive vs. Observant
Examples:

20. “Real company values are the
behaviors [...] that we particularly value
in fellow employees.”
Netflix Culture Deck, 2016

21. How do you measure it?
Bunch Culture Report Sample (2017)

22. How do you measure it?
Bunch Culture Report Sample (2017)

23. Hierarchy of cultural norms

24. We scraped 100k+ Glassdoor reviews
for benchmark data

25. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Adaptability Collaboration Customer-orientation Detail-orientation Results-orientation Focus on principles
Avg. Market capital
~$242b
Avg. Total funding
$1.6b
Avg. Culture alignment
90%
Avg. Glassdoor
4
What is our culture like? What is most important to us?
„I like working
together with
others “
Importancein%
„I am quick to take
advantage of
opportunities“
„I work to
satisfy our
customers “
On average unicorn companies differentiate themselves through high adaptability, collaboration and customer-orientation
Sources: Crunchbase, Glassdoor Bunch analysis 2018

26. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Adaptability Collaboration Customer-orientation Detail-orientation Results-orientation Focus on principles
What is their culture like? What is most important to them?
Importancein%
Newly backed unicorn companies are primarily highly collaborative and adaptable
Avg. Market capital
~$12.3b
Avg. Total funding
$2b
Avg. Culture alignment
92%
Avg. Glassdoor
4
„I like working
together with
others “
„I am quick to take
advantage of
opportunities“
„I work to
satisfy our
customers “
Sources: Crunchbase, Glassdoor Bunch analysis 2018

27. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Adaptability Collaboration Customer-orientation Detail-orientation Results-orientation Focus on principles
Avg. Market capital Avg. Total fundingAvg. Culture alignment Avg. Glassdoor
4.1
What is our culture like? What is most important to us?
Importancein%
„I lead by
example“
~$700b 87% $70m
„I work to
satisfy our
customers “
While the worlds most established technology players display higher customer-orientation and focus on principles
Sources: Crunchbase, Glassdoor Bunch analysis 2018

28. Market capital
$1.8b
Total funding
$205.4m
Culture alignment
92%
Glassdoor
4.1
What do they do ?What is their culture like? What is most important to them compared to others?
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
100 = Unicorn Avg.
Sources: Crunchbase, Glassdoor,
Bunch Glassdoor Analysis 2018
https://blogs.dropbox.com/dropbox/2015/08/hack-week-2015/
• Annual ‘Hack Week’, a period of
five days where Dropbox teams
all over the world work on a
project of their choice.
Adaptability Results-
orientation
Collaboration Focus on
principles
Customer-
orientation
Detail-
orientation
Importancein%
The TRIBE THAT LASTS
Highly adaptable and collaborative, Dropbox focused on building a lean and
scalable network of teams that moves fast Case study

29. Market capital
$9b
Total funding
$478m
Culture alignment
95%
Glassdoor
4.4
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
10
120 = Unicorn Avg.
• Employee first value creation
- “We did an exercise where
[employees] came up with
values, workshopped them,
and tried them on before
finalizing them.
• Round robin customer care -
Every person on the team
spends a portion of their day,
week, or month on customer
support.
Sources: Crunchbase, Glassdoor,
Bunch Glassdoor Analysis 2018
https://www.fastcompany.com/40508999/stripes-john-collison-on-the-
core-values-that-shape-his-company
Adaptability Results-
orientation
Collaboration Focus on
principles
Customer-
orientation
Detail-
orientation
Importancein%
What do they do ?What is their culture like? What is most important to them compared to others?
Highly collaborative and adaptable, Stripe executes as an aligned, large scale team
and therefore can deliver large scope, highly complex and innovative projects
The TRIBE THAT LASTS
Case study

30. Market capital
$31b
Total funding
$4.4b
Culture alignment
91%
Glassdoor
3.8
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
70 = Unicorn Avg.
Sources: Crunchbase, Glassdoor,
Bunch Glassdoor Analysis 2018
https://blogs.dropbox.com/dropbox/2015/08/hack-week-2015/
• TBD
Adaptability Results-
orientation
Collaboration Focus on
principles
Customer-
orientation
Detail-
orientation
Importancein%
What do they do ?What is their culture like? What is most important to them compared to others?
Collaborative, adaptable and customer-oriented Airbnb scaled a highly
personalized offering very quickly across the globe
The LEARNING HOST
Case study

31. 0
5
10
15
20
25
Adaptability Collaboration Customer-orientation Detail-orientation Results-orientation Focus on principles
Avg. Market capital Avg. Total funding
$6.2b
Culture alignment
79%
Avg. Glassdoor
4
What is our culture like? What is most important to us?
„I always keep my
team in the loop“
Importancein%
Sources: Crunchbase, Glassdoor,
“I share
responsibilities“
$935b
„I notice mistakes
quickly„

32. 0
5
10
15
20
25
Adaptability Collaboration Customer-orientation Detail-orientation Results-orientation Focus on principles
Avg. Market capital Avg. Total funding
€468m
Culture alignment
80%
Avg. Glassdoor
3.6
What is our culture like? What is most important to us?
„I always keep my
team in the loop“
Importancein%
Sources: Crunchbase, Glassdoor,
„I focus on the
outcome, rather
than the process“
“I share
responsibilities“
$11b

33. 0
5
10
15
20
25
Adaptability Collaboration Customer-orientation Detail-orientation Results-orientation Focus on principles
Avg. Market capital Avg. Total funding
$1.1B
Culture alignment
87%
Avg. Glassdoor
3.3
What is our culture like? What is most important to us?
„I always keep my
team in the loop“
Importancein%
Sources: Crunchbase, Glassdoor,
„I focus on the
outcome, rather
than the process“
„I am willing to
experiment“
$4.1b

34. Rocket Internet as the Startup Factory Results-orientation

35. Launching a successful startup business in 80 days Results-orientation

36. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Adaptability Collaboration Customer-orientation Detail-orientation Results-orientation Focus on principles
Avg. Market capital Avg. Total funding
$751m
Culture alignment
77%
Avg. Glassdoor
4.1
What is our culture like? What is most important to us?
„I always keep my
team in the loop“
Importancein%
Sources: Crunchbase, Glassdoor,
„I focus on the
outcome, rather
than the process
“„I notice
mistakes quickly
“
$3.2b

37. 0
5
10
15
20
25
Adaptability Collaboration Customer-orientation Detail-orientation Results-orientation Focus on principles
Avg. Market capital Culture alignment
79%
Avg. Glassdoor
3.5
What is our culture like? What is most important to us?
„I always keep my
team in the loop“
Importancein%
Sources: Crunchbase, Glassdoor,
„I notice mistakes
quickly“ „I lead by
example“
$11.2b

38. Customer-
orientation

39. Adaptability
Collaboration
Focus on principles
Customer-orientation
Adaptability
Customer-orientation Customer-orientation
New-Venture
Development
Start-Up Activites Venture Growth Business Stabilization Innovation or decline
Profit,Productivity,Revenues
Faliure
Innovation
Decline
As companies grow adaptability shifts towards a focus on principles, while customer-orientation stays
central to a company’s success

40. Get in touch
Anthony Reo
anthony@bunch.ai
www.bunch.ai