Lean Coffee: Culture

Today at Lean Coffee Toronto, we discussed Culture as a Competitive Advantage.

A few of my key takeaways:

• Culture is: The expression of your values
• Examples: Mediteranian vs.British vs. German
• Can be a big advantage for small companies
• Business was a lifestyle choice
• Enjoyed work and stuff outside of work
• Profit not the only motive -- sustainability too
• Formalized profit-sharing (after setting aside 3 months emerg. money)
• Working Group working retreat: Amazing ideas, great team building
• Marked a commitment to the future and to the team
• Defining the culture was a group effort
• Building a "post-modern" company: happiness and fulfillment as well as profit
• Reference: "Drive" (Dan Pink)
• Even in bad times, continued to do "extra" stuff like team retreats
• Growth spurts can hurt culture
• It takes a lot of time to hire people that meet the culture
• Often creates problems when companies grow quickly
• Ties into organization, process, procedures, scalability
• In small companies, culture is based on your personality
• When you grow, you need to abstract your values
• Successful models: Zappos, Apple, Google
• Employees drive culture in subtle ways -- when they show up, conversations, etc
• Culture defined stronger when founders are very involved in day-to-day ops
• People want ownership of stuff
• Is culture like a brand? Difference between reality and what is said/written

Thanks to Andres and Dom from TWG for hosting and facilitating today!

Lean Coffee: Pricing and Estimation

Today's Lean Coffee was hosted by Matthew Bertulli at the beautiful Mango Studios.

I managed to jot down a few notes from the session:

• What is your market?
• Enterprise pricing very different
• Your pricing determines what type of customers you'll get
• Estimating ties into pricing to determine whether a business is viable
• Estimating your customer acquisition cost if important
• Price as high as the market will bear
• Should you price yourself based on cost?
• Generally not, but should at least be considered a minimum
• Should never offer a B2B app to businesses for free
• B2C generally needs to have a free option
• Estimating is very hard, and you will always underestimate
• Estimating product costs: How long can you survive on no money?
• Pricing: What are the alternatives?
• What is the premium value you're offering?
• Estimating: At least double it -- there are always unknowns

See you at the next!