In this new episode of my Foundation video series, I talk with Zappos founder Tony Hsieh about entrepreneurship, fostering corporate culture, and his latest project to fuel a thriving tech community in Las Vegas.
Tony opens up about starting his first company, LinkExchange, an early take on Web advertising which was acquired by Microsoft for $265 million. He tells why his first startup taught him to pay close attention to company culture, outlines how founders can map company culture to their personal values, and explains why Zappos actually pays people to quit. Tony also discusses his latest efforts to accelerate the tech ecosystem in Las Vegas and his goal to fund at least 100 local tech startups.
Tony Hsieh’s advice on how to hire the right people to build a great company culture:
From the beginning, company culture was always important. Is this someone I would choose to hang out with or grab a drink with, if we weren’t in business? If the answer was no, we wouldn’t hire them.
Kevin Rose is a general partner at Google Ventures. You can watch Kevin’s prior Foundation episode, an interview with Tom Conrad, CTO of Pandora, here.
