Disclosure certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Zechory: Genius board told founders to hire engineers instead of writing principles

Ilan Zechory · a16z Podcast | Guiding Startup Culture -- The Genius ISMs · Jan 2, 2019 · at 24:17

Ilan Zechory is the co-founder of Genius. He recounts the reaction from Genius's board of directors when the founding team presented over 30 cultural guidelines.

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“That's what, you know, we were having a good-natured board meeting, and the, sort of, slogan of, as we presented our 32 isms or whatever to them Was sort of like, more, more engineers, fewer isms, I think was the basic, like, rallying cry”

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