What is the product of your company? - is a byproduct

I follow Zach Holman, he works at GitHub. I follow him not because the guy is a techy, or because he works at GitHub, but because the guy just makes sense. Many of his blogs resonate through the different start-ups and companies I've worked. Specially, how to run a company which he talks in hist post the product is a byproduct.

I worked in many places that cared more about the "perception" of the company rather than the people. Many manager/directors worry about the image of the company without realizing that they are setting the tone of the company's culture (their workers), and this will affect their bottom-line/product. For example, "we expect you to work from 9 am - 6 pm", "we expect you to work AT the company, not at your house", "we expect you to dress a certain way - we have a dress code", "we need to ship this feature, we don't care how you get it done…that's your problem."

When we started a my former start-up, we thought we understood our customers, we thought we knew what they wanted, and we just wanted an application that WE would like. After all, "build it, and they will come", right? WRONG! The bottom line is that we were assholes. We really didn't have it right. It was until hard lessons learned that we started listening to our customers and focused on what they wanted rather on what we thought they wanted.  But also, it was until we started changing our culture and hiring the right people that the company finds its product.

Zach talked about things like:

Your product should be a byproduct of the people, process, and technology of your company.

Foster a good environment, be more likely to create a good product.

Hire those bothered by suck. You want fixers

I'm very committed to my companies, but I'm also in LOVE with my family. This is constant tough of war in my head. I do want to help the company in everything I can, but I also want to help my son with homework, and spend some time with my daughter and wife.  I do feel that where I work is MY company. I know that there are some people that said that it shouldn't be like this, "you shouldn't live for work, but work to live". But that's not what I mean. I work as it's my company in the perspective of shutting down my MacBook Pro,with the feeling of "I kicked ASS today".  It is not always like this, but most of the time, they are.   I like the fact that people (coworkers and directors) say, "ever since we hired Marcelo, this place is TIGHT", but I also want my family to say, "we love were you work, because we can see you and spend quality time with us".

As Zach mentions:

Any time you interview a potential hire, you need to ask yourself not only if they're talented or collaborative but also if they're capable of literally running this company, because they will." - VALVe

Hire broad people. Hire diverse people.

Good culture attracts good people

Be family friendly

Flexible location, hours, workload