Tim Schafer Quotes

Startups need to focus on building a foundation for their company culture early, and then they need to revisit it often. Every time a hire is made, a feature is launched, a Facebook status is updated, a press interview is given, a round of financing is raised, or a meeting is held, culture should be part of the decision-making process.

I think every company is set by who founded it and who's in charge.

Every thing at a startup gets modeled after the founders. Whatever the founders do becomes the culture.

It seems like those of us who run a business can't go five minutes without encountering the term "company culture." The phrase is always uttered with extreme adoration, yet the very concept seems as nebulous as it is elusive.

If you look at any of the big companies, whether it is IBM or L'Oreal, they have a corporate religion and corporate self-image that makes it very difficult for them to execute in different areas.

It's so important for startups to get their culture right at the start. They need to feel unique and that they are on their own important mission in the world.

Since most startups operate at a break-neck pace, with a concept to prove or a product to launch within a rapidly shortening runway of financing, company culture often gets shoved aside. This is a big, big mistake: Nobody serious about their business should put culture in the corner.

I think you're defined as a company by what you choose to do and what you choose not to do.

In talking to founder after founder; I've heard almost visceral reactions to working for companies, even very cool ones with great things to work on and lots of opportunity, like Facebook, Google, or consulting firms.

The culture is what creates the foundation for all future innovation. If you break the culture, you break the machine that creates your products.

I've spent a lot of time studying corporations and what makes them tick.

Companies become what they want to become.

A new 'look' for any organization cannot be a papier-mache cover, tacked on with Scotch tape under the heading of 'beautification.' It has to be based on a probing examination of the company and the people who work for it. As a result, the eventual external visual design becomes the graphic extension of the internal realities of a company.

My goal is to create one of the greatest companies that's ever existed, and that has everything to do with the people, the culture, and what our core values are versus what we build or how we're perceived out in the market.

Just as two people can have similar personalities, two companies can have a remarkably similar approach to business.

One reason for keeping Disney animation separate from Pixar was that by solving their own problems when they finished a film, Disney could say, 'Nobody bailed us out; we did it.' And it's a very important social thing for them to do that.

Companies have centers of gravity. Where they are is part of their identity.

Values can set a company apart from the competition by clarifying its identity and serving as a rallying point for employees. But coming up with strong values - and sticking to them - requires real guts.

As we've often said, to the world at large, Marvel looks like a giant octopus that's out to swallow the galaxy - which, by the way, we are. But we are, in fact, a rather small and intimate company.

When we started WeWork it really was thought of holistically.

Each company is different because they get their DNA from the founders.

I think companies psych themselves out and say, 'Now that we're public, we've got to get all stuffy. We've got to be a certain way,' and the entrepreneurial spirit dies. What you got to keep alive is the intimacy, the energy, this crazed sense of purpose.

Any company trying to compete...must figure out a way to engage the mind of every employee.

Founders should think of their company as a product and build it and shape it with the same passion and care.

I have that language and that set of skills to step out of the way and make music the priority.