Coinbase is a mission-oriented company

 

There have been many difficult world events this year: a global pandemic, shelter in place, social unrest, widespread protests and riots, and wildfires on the West Coast. On top of that, we have a controversial American election on the horizon.

Everyone is wondering how companies should address broader societal issues during these tough times, while keeping their teams together and mission-oriented. Coinbase had its own challenges here, including employee walks. I decided to share publicly how I deal with this out of fear of helping others navigate a path in these challenging times.

In short, I want Coinbase to focus on the laser to achieve its mission, because I believe that this is the way we can achieve the greatest impact in the world. We will do this by playing like a championship team, focusing on building and being transparent about what our mission is and what is not.

Play like a championship team

In difficult times I think it is important to return to the governing positions that we have established, as our document of culture, mission and values.

One of the tenets of the document is to play Coinbase culture like a championship team. What does this mean?

Be a company first: We act as #OneCoinbase, putting company goals before any specific team or individual goals.

Take Action to Serve the Greater Mission: We are united as a team to try to accomplish something none of us could do alone.

Defect with Confidence: We accept positive intentions among our teammates and accept ignorance about malice. We support each other.

Focus on what we agree, not what we share: We help create a sense of cohesion and unity by focusing on what we have in common, not what we disagree on, especially when we are not involved. with our work.

Sustainable High Performance: Compared to a family, where everyone is included regardless of their performance, a championship team makes a concerted effort to raise the bar for talent, including changing team members when necessary.

Through this lens, we began to search for a solution. A championship team is trying to win, and all teams are making sacrifices to do so. They are upside down and diligently focused on the long-term goal, avoiding distractions.

Focus on construction

There are many places where a business can choose to allocate its limited time and resources. There is never enough time to do everything, so companies must choose the change they want to see in the world and then focus. It will take many years to move the needle towards the major global challenges.

At Coinbase, we say that we are focused on construction. What does this mean? It means focusing on being the best company we can be and moving toward our mission, in relation to broader social issues.

We focus on what helps us achieve our mission:

Create Great Products - Most of our impact will come from the products we create, which are used by millions of people.

Finding great talent - We create job opportunities for the people who matter most, including those who come from underrepresented backgrounds and who don't have equal access to opportunities, with things like different rosters (Rooney's rule) in hiring seniors, and we spend a lot to get the best talent.

Fair Talent Practices - We work to reduce unconscious biases in interviews, using elements such as structured interviews, and to ensure fair practices in the way we pay and promote. We pay for a culture of performance, which means that your rewards and promotions are tied to your overall contribution to the mission and goals of the company.

Empower everyone - We work to create an environment where everyone is welcome and can do their best work, regardless of origin, sexual orientation, race, gender, age, etc.

We focus as little as possible on reasons not directly related to the mission:

Policy decisions: If a bill of encryption is presented, we can get down to business here, but we would not normally be involved in policy decisions on health or education, for example.

Nonprofit work: We do a little work here with our Promise 1% program and GiveCrypto.org, but this is about 1% of our efforts. We are a non-profit company. When we make a profit, we can use it to hire more great people and build even more. We must never shy away from making a profit, because with more resources we can have a greater impact on the world.

Wider Social Issues: We do not participate here where issues are unrelated to our core mission, as we believe impact is only made with focus.

Political reasons: We do not advocate for any particular cause or candidate internally that is not related to our mission, because it is based on our mission. Even if we all agree that something is a problem, we may not all agree on the solution.

Of course, there are exceptions here for intern employment, whistle-blowing, etc. And we want all employees to feel safe by disagreeing with their own work. Openness and debate are essential for a healthy team, where it is safe to disagree. We believe these are relevant to our mission.

Why are we mission oriented?

It is now common for Silicon Valley companies to engage in a wide range of social activities, even those that are not involved in what the company does, and there are certainly employees who really need it in the company that it operates. them the. So why did we decide to take a different approach?

The reason is that while I believe these efforts are well-intentioned, they have the potential to destroy a lot of value in most companies by focusing on them and creating internal division. We've seen what the internal confrontation of companies like Google and Facebook can do with regards to productivity, and many smaller companies here have their own challenges. I think most employees don't want to work in these segregated environments. They want to work in a united winning team and move towards an important mission. They want to be valued at work, have a welcoming environment in which they can contribute, and have opportunities for growth. They want the workplace to be a refuge from the division that is increasingly present in the world.

World change only happens when a group of smart and talented people come together to focus on a difficult problem for a decade or more. Many companies never stand the test of time, because they decide to dabble in unrelated endeavors and focus and divide their workforce in the process. Paradoxically, by focusing the laser on our mission, we are likely to have an even greater impact on the world, through our products and our growing customer base.

Ultimately, it would go against our principles of inclusion and belonging to a more active company on issues outside our core mission. We have people with different backgrounds and perspectives at Coinbase, and even if we all agree that something is a problem, we may not agree on how to actually solve it. This is where there is a blurry line between moral statements and politics. We could use our workday debating what to do about various unrelated challenges in the world, but that would not serve the company or our own interests as employees and shareholders.

What is the scope of our mission?

Coinbase's mission is to create an open financial system for the world. This means that we want to use cryptocurrency to give economic freedom to people around the world. This is important hard work, and all employees have signed up with Coinbase because they are excited about this mission.

At some point this year I realized that many employees were interpreting our mission in different ways. Some have interpreted the mission more broadly, to include all forms of equality and justice. It makes sense if you believe that economic freedom cannot be achieved without equality for all. Others interpreted the narrower mission, believing that we wanted to create an infrastructure for cryptocurrency, and that this would create better equal access for all, but we did not want to create all sorts of inequalities in the world. solution.

The more limited interpretation is how you intended to understand the mission. I don’t think companies can do it all. Creating an open financial system for the world is already a very ambitious mission, and we could easily see the next decade or two trying to move the needle towards global economic freedom. We will continue to build the most reliable and user-friendly financial products that will help people access the crypto economy, so that everyone can reap the benefits of this new technology and bring greater economic freedom to the world.

Clear agreement

In a third quarter manual meeting last week, I shared with the company the above clarification of our culture and mission. Such clarifications are needed periodically, as there will be some sort of event each year that will test culture. My aim is to create clarity for all employees as we move forward on how we will work. I suspect the vast majority of people are excited to move in this direction; After all, the mission is what we have all registered and what Coinbase is capable of as a company. . But for some employees, working in an activity-oriented company may be crucial to what they want, and we want to foster that conversation with their manager to help them find a better place. Life is too short to work in a place you are not excited about and we are happy to have a winning conversation.

We have clarified this new agreement in a series of new internal communications guidelines we have published over the past month, but in summary it states:

We didn't win:

Causes of debate or internal political candidates unrelated to the post

Expect the company to represent our personal beliefs externally.

Accept a negative intention or do not give back to each other

Embrace activation outside of our core mission at work

We will:

Struggling to go to the same page when we have differences

Support each other and create team cohesion

Take a positive resolution

Put company goals ahead of our teams or our individual goals

Of course, employees should always feel free to advocate on salary issues, conditions of employment, or violations of the law, for example. I hope the above sets some clear guidelines.

conclusion

These are difficult times and every CEO I know wants to know how to get over them.

I recognize that our approach is not universal and can be controversial. I know that many people may disagree and some employees may resign. I also know that some of what I wrote above will be misunderstood, by accident or for a purpose. But I think the right approach for Coinbase will build our long-term success, and I’d rather be honest and transparent about it than be fair and work at a non-aligned company.

We need to do a better job of being authentic about who we are, and hopefully this blog post is a first step in that direction. We are a rigid culture and we are an apolitical culture. We are also committed to making Coinbase a place that creates incredible employment opportunities and a welcoming environment for people of all ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, etc.

With a strong united culture, we can build a company that changes the world. At Coinbase, that culture means staying focused on our mission and being the best company we can be. I think this is how we will have the biggest impact. With this clarity, we hope that everyone can make an informed decision and that we can move forward as #OneCoinbase.

If you want to work for a company like this, check out our careers page.