Startups say small talk and some secrets lead to success

Grocery e-commerce JeongYookGak employees in a meeting. [JEONGYOOKGAK]

A startup's core value and corporate culture serve as a cornerstone of its future growth, say young entrepreneurs, allowing employees a greater degree of freedom while encouraging horizontal communication.

Woowa Brothers, which runs food delivery app Baedal Minjok, came up with its own code of conduct with 11 articles such as "9:01 is not the same as 9:00," and "small talk makes us stronger." As shown in the articles, the corporate identity of one of Korea's most successful tech startups is based on both autonomy and discipline — just like in Silicon Valley.

Founded in 2015, investment app operator HonestFund does not monitor employee attendance. Employees simply share their work schedule and whether they will work in the office or from home with their teammates on a weekly basis. Though they are required to be on duty from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. when most meetings take place, there are no fixed working hours aside from that.

Doodlin, a recruitment software company, also has a flexible work schedule, with no limitations on the amount of annual leave.

“Our approach is to support employees in improving work efficiency, not to manage their work schedules,” said 27-year-old Lee Tae-gyu, CEO of Doodlin.

When businesses begin to gain traction, executives at startups often appoint so-called project owners for each business unit or project. Startups allow a project owner a great deal of autonomy, which naturally comes with a great deal of responsibility.

“The project owner system enhances workplace agility and therefore is suitable for startups,” said HonestFund CEO Seo Sang-hoon, who is 32 years old.

A successful example of project owner culture was seen at Viva Republica, which operates internet-only bank Toss Bank. Established in 2013, the company turned into a decacorn — an unlisted startup valued at over $10 billion — in 9 years with about 50 project owners overseeing its business.

Entrepreneurs born in the 1990s put emphasis on horizontal corporate culture and lateral communication.

“Our team members are really close, but we don’t know each other’s age or which school we graduated from,” said 26-year-old Park Chan-hoo, CEO of Geekble, which creates video content on science and engineering.

Park explained, “I don’t see why we should share such things, as such information is not necessary for work.”

Lee Jang-won, the 29-year-old CEO of music investment service provider Beyond Music, said that a “good team consists of people sharing the same vision with varying abilities.” Lee, who works with employees much older than himself, emphasized the importance of building “mutual trust with people who have totally different lives from each other.”

Autonomy, however, can hurt efficiency when it goes too far, according to some startups.

Lucentblock, a fractional real estate investment startup, promotes horizontal relationships among employees but says that everyone “should speak with one voice when it comes to goals” in its code of conduct.

Class 101, an online lecture platform operator, abolished all job leveling except for a leader of each team. While employees have mostly equal standing in terms of communication, they still operate in a vertical structure.

Integrity is a keyword for many startups.

Some companies make every record accessible for all employees, save for sensitive financial data.

Creatrip, a tourism startup which offers Korea-related information to foreigners, made every record — except employees’ annual salaries — available for all of its employees, including the details of executives’ corporate credit card transactions.

“At the end of the day, every member of a company should be looking in the same direction,” said Lim Hye-min, Creatrip CEO.

Lim explained that “employees can focus more on the task at hand when they have access to necessary information in a situation where they wonder whether they are heading in the same direction as others.”

Young entrepreneurs also believe that a company should grow with its employees. Therefore, their personnel policies and evaluation systems often encourage personal growth.

Classum, an artificial intelligence-based education website, strives to “spark the power of learning together” with its employee management system. Colleagues can form a reading group which offers a fun learning experience, said the company.

“It is important to create an environment where not just the CEO, but everyone can be good at work,” said Classum CEO Lee Chae-rin.

Kim Jae-yeon, CEO of grocery e-commerce operator JeongYookGak, made it mandatory to incorporate each employee’s personal goal in the personnel management system. For example, if someone sets an annual goal of “being able to make clear decisions on my own,” his or her colleagues as well as the team leader and the human resource department should give the employee regular feedback and evaluate their achievement level.

BY JUNG WON-YEOB, KIM JUNG-MIN, KWEN YU-JIN [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]