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XColumn: How to Build Company Culture In a Work-From-Home World
Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

It seems like almost every day another tech company announces an extension of their work-from-home ("WFH") plans. First Zillow (my former company) said they'd allow employees to WFH for the rest of 2020, then Google and Facebook announced something similar. And then Twitter one-upped everyone by announcing that they would extend WFH forever.
I've had several tech CEOs tell me that Twitter's announcement raised the stakes significantly, and is forcing these leaders to rethink their own policies.
Regardless of how far this WFH arms race goes, one thing is clear: WFH is here to stay in one form or another.
In order to maintain productivity in a WFH environment, companies have fully embraced collaboration software, video conferencing and other strategies and tactics to succeed. But they're now facing a much harder challenge: how to build culture remotely.
It's actually quite easy to make a video-conference WFH meeting as effective as an in-person meeting. But remotely building the special esprit de corps that makes a company truly succeed — and be desired by potential employees — is very hard.
Unfortunately for those of us who care deeply about company culture, the long trend in workplace design going back 5-10 years is one of more remote and home-based work, and less in-person in-office time. For example, from the time we started Zillow in 2006 until when we went public in 2011, we had only a few hundred employees, and they were almost entirely in our Seattle headquarters. But by the time I retired as CEO in 2019, we had over 4,500 employees across eight offices, and less than half of our employees were in the Seattle headquarters. Dozens more were completely home-based.
The trend towards decentralization began out of necessity as companies sought to tap different talent pools in order to grow, and to station employees physically closer to their customers. But the coronavirus pandemic undoubtedly will accelerate this trend, and it seems very likely that the next generation of great companies will be decentralized, and probably some will be mostly remote.
Said another way, the leaders in workplace culture from 2000-2020 were companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Zillow, which built their culture around in-person events (think: volleyball games and frisbees around their corporate campuses). But the leaders in workplace culture from 2020-2040 will be a new generation of companies whose employees have a very different relationship with their company. Less important will be physical perks like on-site dry cleaning and bringing your dog to work; more important will be programs around career development and mentoring, and ways in which the company allows workers to balance their job with outside interests.
How do you build company culture among a distributed workforce?
Repetitive Communication is more important than ever
In a remote environment, it is imperative that senior leadership consistently and repeatedly communicate with the team. Reiterating the mission, key goals, milestones, strategies and priorities is critical. In addition, one must communicate repeatedly and through multiple channels in order to break through the clutter of employees' everyday lives. For example, a CEO must remind the team of the top 3 priorities for the company via slack, via video all-hands, via all-hands emails, and probably even reinforce it through social media (if the priorities can be published externally).
Celebrate little wins
One of the small joys of an office environment is the opportunity for in-person celebrations of big accomplishments such as product launches and milestones achieved, and the little wins such as employees' birthdays or weddings. It's important to replicate this in a remote environment as much as possible. Video conference calls have a tendency to trend towards a transactional nature which is antiseptic and demotivating. Overcome this by celebrating small wins in any way you can. A simple method is to do weekly "shout-outs" in video all-hands meetings.
Try to build relationships among team members
Again, look for ways to replicate the serendipitous in-office experiences remotely in order to build relationships and trust among team members. Examples include a "bring your pet to lunch" video call; a make-your-own company swag day; and even a crazy-hair day. (Yes, I stole that last idea from my kids' school, but it's a good one for a company also.)
Assemble in-person from time to time
I believe that the company of the future, post coronavirus, will be mostly remote but will still gather in-person a few times a month. An in-person all-hands (with video for those not based in the HQ city) is invaluable. Likewise, some company activities such as brainstorming sessions and annual business planning are best done in-person and you should try to accommodate that via IRL meetings.
Building company culture is important no matter the company's stage or business. But in a remote environment, it's more important than ever. If you have ideas on how else to build culture in a remote organization, please tweet them at me.
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Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.
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This Week in ‘Raises’: Improvado Hauls $22M, Clearlake Launches $14B Fund
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
This week in “Raises”: A pair of Web3 platforms for gamers landed funding, as did a Manhattan Beach medical startup looking to bolster primary care via nurse practitioners. Meanwhile, a Santa Monica-based investment firm launched its seventh fund with more than $14 billion in dry powder.
Venture Capital
Improvado, a marketing data aggregation platform, raised $22 million in a Series A funding round led by Updata Partners.
Web3 gaming platform FreshCut raised $15 million in funding led by Galaxy Interactive, Animoca Brands and Republic Crypto.
Medical startup Greater Good Health raised $10 million in a funding round led by LRVHealth.
Joystick, a Web3 platform for gamers and creators, raised $8 million in seed funding.
Open source data protection company CipherMode Labs raised $6.7 million in seed funding led by Innovation Endeavors .
Mobile phone charging network ChargeFUZE raised $5 million in seed funding led by Beverly Pacific, TR Ventures, VA2, Jason Goldberg and Al Weiss.
Polygon, a startup aiming to better diagnose children with learning disabilities, raised $4.2 million in seed and pre-seed funding led by Spark Capital and Pear VC.
Pique, a virtual women's sexual health clinic, raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by Maveron.
Psudo, a sneaker startup that utilizes recycled water bottles and 3D sublimation printing to create its shoes, raised $3 million in a seed funding round led by SternAegis Ventures.
Funds
Santa Monica-based investment firm Clearlake Capital Group raised $14.1 billion for its seventh flagship fund.
Raises is dot.LA’s weekly feature highlighting venture capital funding news across Southern California’s tech and startup ecosystem. Please send fundraising news to Kristin Snyder (kristinsnyder@dot.la).Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
LA Tech ‘Moves’: New Head of Originals at Snap, New President at FaZe Clan
Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
“Moves”, our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.
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FaZe Clan brought on Zach Katz as the gaming and media company’s new president and chief operating officer. Katz was previously the chief executive officer of the music tech investment fund Raised in Space Enterprises.
TikTok brand factory LINK Agency promoted Dustin Poteet to chief creative officer. Poteet was previously creative director at the firm.
Livestream shopping platform Talkshoplive hired Tradesy co-founder John Hall as its chief technology officer. Universal Music Group Nashville's former vice president of digital marketing, Tony Grotticelli, also joins the company as vice president of marketing.
Anjuli Millan will take over as head of original content at Snap after three years of overseeing production for the division.
Tech and media company Blavity hired Nikki Crump as general manager of agency. Crump joins the company from Burrell Communications Group.
O'Neil Digital Solutions, which provides customer communications and experience management for the health care industry, hired Eric Ramsey as national account sales executive. Ramsey joins from T/O Printing.
Investment firm Cresset Partners named Tammy Funasaki as managing director of business development. Funasaki previously served as head of investor relations for Breakwater Management.
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Kristin Snyder is an editorial intern for dot.la. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
Snapchat’s New Controls Could Let Parents See Their Kids’ Friend Lists
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Snapchat is preparing to roll out enhanced parental controls that would allow parents to see who their teenagers are chatting with on the social media app, according to screenshots of the upcoming feature.
Snap’s parental controls.
Courtesy of Watchful.
Snapchat is planning to introduce Family Center, which would allow parents to see who their children are friends with on the app and who they’ve messaged within the last seven days, according to screenshots provided by Watchful, a product intelligence company. Parents would also be able help their kids report abuse or harassment.
The parental controls are still subject to change before finally launching publicly, as the Family Center screenshots—which were first reported by TechCrunch—reflect features that are still under development.
Santa Monica-based Snap and other social media giants have faced mounting criticism for not doing more to protect their younger users—some of whom have been bullied, sold deadly drugs and sexually exploited on their platforms. State attorneys general have urged Snap and Culver City-based TikTok to strengthen their parental controls, with both companies’ apps especially popular among teens.
A Snap spokesperson declined to comment on Friday. Previously, Snap representatives have told dot.LA that the company is developing tools that will provide parents with more insight into how their children are engaging on Snapchat and allow them to report troubling content.
Yet Snap’s approach to parental controls could still give teens some privacy, as parents wouldn’t be able to read the actual content of their kids’ conversations, according to TechCrunch. (The Family Center screenshots seen by dot.LA do not detail whether parents can see those conversations).
In addition, teenage users would first have to accept an invitation from their parents to join the in-app Family Center before those parents can begin monitoring their social media activity, TechCrunch reported.
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.