How We Fight

From Daniel:

@Internal Folks, I think the last couple of weeks have featured a few contentious moments for the team. I’d like to communicate the way Menlo works, and also how I deal with these situations.

Arguing at Menlo

Freedom of Speech

• We are structured as small teams with decision making power, who have independence (including sometimes from me)
• Internally, we have freedom of speech, with everyone able to speak their minds
• Externally, we have a single, united narrative, communicated through designated spokespeople

If we do this right, we will have a strong culture of independence, which results in rapid shipping. We will also have a strong culture of contestation of ideas, which leads to stronger decisions in the long term. But externally, we will be one Menlo.

How We Fight

Menlo is a R&D organization - we recruit smart, opinionated people with ideas and execution ability:

• Freedom of speech means that arguments happen - strong opinions clash, ideas are contested
• We need to have a healthy amount of respect for this process
• However: we need to be careful to not let this go overboard

In life, one of the most important learnings is how to fight.

• In marriage, in partnerships, in business - fights are inevitable.
• Adulthood is about the process of learning to fight, recover from fights, and building relationships that can survive fights.

How I Mediate

I don’t:

• I am focused on making the correct decision for the company
• I expect everyone to be professional, and fight like professionals - ferocious yet kind

In gist: I expect you guys to learn how to work things out.

Why this Culture?

This culture is not for everyone, but is designed for 1 key fact: I believe this is the best way to prepare you guys to be future executives/founders.

• I want each of you to learn to defend yourself and your ideas, and build tougher skin to deal with the world
• Life is hard, world is cruel - I won’t coddle you (go to FAANG for that)
• If you do things, you will meet many critics in life, from well-meaning people to straight up bullies
• This is especially as Menlo goes to America, especially Trump’s America - we need tough skin

This is especially for those of you who become founders:

• Startups are hard and chaotic, and the world is cruel
• You must find that beast inside you, to survive chaos.
• You will only find your inner beast through going through shit
• While we will ensure that conflict does not go overboard, you guys will need to be comfortable with some level of toxicity at a day-to-day level.

Hanlon’s Razor

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity lack of communication or ambiguity.”