The Hackerati — A Culture of Innovation
When we first contemplated starting a business together in early 2012, we came up with a diverse list of new product ideas that we could potentially pursue, including software, hardware, security, media, mobile, analytics, and more. Then a funny thing happened: we liked several of them, but we couldn’t choose just one!
We figured that investors probably wouldn’t fund a product company that was trying to concurrently build more than one product, so we tried to imagine a different kind of company that could realistically develop a portfolio of market-leading products across a diverse set of market segments.
We knew this company would need a nontraditional business model that could provide a perpetual source of non-dilutive capital to incubate our portfolio companies, as well as a continuous stream of new founders, top engineers and designers, and great product ideas. Hence was born our Engineering as a Service consulting business.
Above all, we knew that in order to surface the best product ideas, our company would have to be based on a unique culture that elevates innovation to a first-class citizen, alongside execution. We have created such a culture, and we continuously strive to reinforce it throughout our organization and in every aspect of leadership and management. Here’s how we do it:
Start With Entrepreneurial Hackers
Entrepreneurs are characterized by the risks that they take in striving to create value. Hackers are inventors — people who naturally defy conventional wisdom to create and improve all kinds of things. We start by hiring really smart hackers with entrepreneurship in their DNA. Hackerati are visionary, unconventional, quirky tinkerers and explorers who understand the value of creating a sustainable business.
Have Gumption
Gumption is the psychic gasoline that keeps the whole thing going.
– Robert M. Pirsig
Gumption is one of those words that you rarely hear people use these days, but you kind of know it when you see it. We see gumption as passion — caring so deeply about something so as not to overlook even the slightest detail. We encourage Hackerati to form an opinion, to articulate their reasoning and to listen as others do the same, and to tenaciously drive towards solutions so that there is no way the problem at hand could possibly go unresolved.
Find the “Edge”
Sailing fast is an exercise in balancing true wind and apparent wind to move the boat in the desired direction while minimizing drag. It takes a tremendous amount of coordination to make this happen, and your course is rarely a straight line. Such is the case with innovative technology teams. Product design and engineering work in concert to move forward, utilizing just enough structure and rules to maintain coordination, but not so much as to slow the team down or to make it difficult to pivot.
Rely on Social Contracts Over Rules
Integrity has no need of rules.
– Albert Camus
Some rules are necessary for any organization to function, but too many rules can create drag that slows down the team and stifles innovation. We try to minimize rules, relying instead on the social contracts that we establish among ourselves and the integrity on which those social contracts depend. Integrity starts with the individual: be authentic, don’t try to be what others think you should be, do what you say, tell the truth, and be as transparent as possible.
Challenge the Status Quo
Innovation is about envisioning a state in which things will be substantially improved over the status quo. It’s not about just doing the same things better — it’s about discovering new things to do. To be truly innovative, we must be willing to question — and ultimately relinquish — that which we know for sure to be true, whether it is based on a priori knowledge or empirical evidence.
Practice Intellectual Humility
What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.
– Mark Twain
No one knows everything or is correct all of the time, especially when innovating, which often means working in areas where we have little frame of reference or are relying only on a posteriori knowledge. Our path becomes a series of rapid experiments, leading towards our destination. To reach that destination, we must ask ourselves the hard questions — especially of our own entrenched positions — and be willing to admit when our prior conclusions are incorrect.
Be Fearless!
We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.
– Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, and others
Innovation is a free fall. When we jump off of solid ground and attempt to invent the future, we often don’t know how to fly. But we jump anyway, despite any fears that we might have, because we believe that we can land in one piece. We don’t let what we don’t know get in the way of taking action. We make decisions despite ambiguity, and we always make new mistakes.
Have Fun!
Einstein wasn’t motivated by survival when he was thinking about physics…. It was entertainment to him.
– Linus Torvalds
We do what we do at The Hackerati not because it is imperative to our survival. We do it for the sheer joy and excitement of creating something that didn’t exist until we brought it to life.
This is how we roll. Our culture of innovation is our secret sauce and our competitive advantage, and it is ultimately the truest expression of who we are.
We are doers and dreamers. We are students and teachers. We are scientists and artists.
We are The Hackerati.
