EP #508 - Victoria Ransom: Building a Startup Culture That Lasts

Timestamps:

5:11 - Hire your first 15-25 employees super carefully

10:35 - Incentives and ownership in company culture

15:28 - What can Switzerland learn from the US?

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About Victoria Ransom:

⁠Victoria Ransom⁠ is the co-founder of Wildfire, a social marketing software-as-a-service company which was acquired by Google, and of ⁠Prisma⁠, a global virtual school (grades 4-12). She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and worked as a Financial Analyst at Morgan Stanley before co-founding Access Trips, the travel startup that led her to creating Wildfire.

During her chat with Silvan, Victoria reflected back on the values which sustained Wildfire and which drive Prisma nowadays. She highlighted the importance of hiring your first 15-25 employees extremely carefully, as these people will set the tone for future hires. She also emphasized the competitive advantage that a strong company culture can bring, since execution often matters more for success than merely having a great business idea.

Victoria argued that incentives like bonuses should complement but never replace a strong culture, and she encouraged Swiss entrepreneurs to learn from their American counterparts: it never pays off to be too humble.

The cover portrait was edited by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.smartportrait.io⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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