1. keeping a startup ethos
three simple things to focus on to keep operating like a startup
YLD Innovate
London
October 3, 2017
@billwscott
VP, Engineering Venmo & PayPal
3. For Venmo, connecting the world started with connecting friends to friends
Former College Roommates saw the social side of
payments that everyone else was missing
Social from the get-go
They decided, you should be able to share
this stuff, because it’s interesting, and
added the #p option: “$10 for drinks at
Ranstead Room #p” would show up in your
friends’ feeds on venmo.com as “kortina
paid iqram for drinks at Ranstead Room”
(we never showed the amounts, because
this was not as interesting as the social
context and the story itself).
23. continuous customer feedback (GOOB)
customer metrics drive everything
think it. build it. ship it. tweak it
fail fast. learn fast.
lots of experimentation... build/measure/learn
the Netflix culture
24. 4 unique experiences launched for PS3 same day with
16 variants
focus is on learning
humbled by data
25. 4 unique experiences launched for PS3 same day with
16 variants
focus is on learning
how is it possible for a company to keep this culture?
humbled by data
27. who. what. how.
hire fully formed adults,
first principle thinkers,
customer advocates
netflix’s winning culture
28. who. what. how.
hire fully formed adults,
first principle thinkers,
customer advocates
clearly know who the customer is,
align all decisions and aspirations
to solving customer problems
netflix’s winning culture
29. who. what. how.
hire fully formed adults,
first principle thinkers,
customer advocates
clearly know who the customer is,
align all decisions and aspirations
to solving customer problems
celebrate learning,
inspire rather than
control, avoid
too much process,
share context
netflix’s winning culture
34. who. what. how.
hired risk averse,
process oriented
people
paypal was in need of change
35. who. what. how.
hired risk averse,
process oriented
people
mission became incremental,
focusing on internal customers,
vanity metrics and extracting
value from customers rather than
providing it
paypal was in need of change
36. who. what. how.
hired risk averse,
process oriented
people
mission became incremental,
focusing on internal customers,
vanity metrics and extracting
value from customers rather than
providing it
avoid all risk, treat
all systems same,
dummy proof everything,
focus on delivery rather
than learning
paypal was in need of change
40. who. what. how.
changed the story,
hired first principle
thinkers & customer
centric people
paypal reinvention
41. who. what. how.
changed the story,
hired first principle
thinkers & customer
centric people
language changed from biz
value to customer value, moved
from customers come to paypal to
paypal goes to customer
paypal reinvention
42. who. what. how.
changed the story,
hired first principle
thinkers & customer
centric people
language changed from biz
value to customer value, moved
from customers come to paypal to
paypal goes to customer
highly iterative, embrace
change, start with
discovery, smaller teams
aligned to customer
rather than org, be
open source
paypal reinvention