unConference 2015 Session: Startup Transparency

unConference 2015 Session: Startup Transparency
October 23, 2015 
Stuart Levinson, Open Company

• What kinds of things would
  you consider being transparent about?
• Salaries: Most said no
  because they felt it would cause problems among employees wondering why
  they weren’t being paid the same; or felt it might have the effect of
  driving salaries up overall which is difficult for startups. Buffer is an
  example of a startup that makes salaries public.
• Equity: So few people
  understand what equity means, so why put it out there? Because so few
  people understand it!
• Runway or Cash Left in
  the business: The group was mixed on whether or not to provide this
  information to everyone
• Expenses: What about
  the salesperson that spends $1K on a sales dinner? one person said it
  would cause grief with developers feeling it was unfair, but another felt
  it required context. Was it to take out 3 or 30 customers? Was it the top
  client or just another dinner? Context, and being able to ask questions
  about it might be important.
• Employee Performance:
  could this be public?

• If you put key information
  out there are they reading it? Just because you’re transparent doesn’t
  mean everyone knows about it. There’s a difference between pushing
  information to someone and making them seek it. Don’t make it difficult to
  know changes have been made. Bring the new information to them.
• Isn’t it a waste of time if
  development is spending time reading information about sales? If so, why
  put all this information out there?
• What are the perverse effects
  of openness, meaning, what are the negative, unintended consequences? The
  SEC mandated that public companies detail CEO pay because there was such a
  discrepancy and shareholder complaints; but making it open has had the
  reverse effect. Public company A points to public company B and C and
  says, “look at what they’re being paid! I deserve at least that and
  more!” Will the same thing happen if startups make their salaries
  public?
• What is the motivation to be
  transparent? It creates accountability when you have to report on your
  work. One person talked about their AllHands where each department head
  walked up to report on their progress that week. Doing that in public
  created pressure and accountability.
• There was a fear of having to
  do more work. The best systems are those that generate reports or
  information based on the work you did, not having to do the work and then
  turn around and report on the work.
• Does transparency create
  maturity and responsible team members? Or does the visibility create the
  feeling of responsibility and therefore more mature, trusted team?
• How do people share
  information today? What tools are they using? Small, early startups are
  using email. Larger companies are using confluence and custom systems.
  Everyone was doing some type of AllHands meeting with their teams to
  deliver information.