We always liked Steve Jobs' analogy of startups being like pirate ships. Of course, having strong ties to Minnesota, we lean towards Vikings instead of pirates, but the principle stands.
It's better to be a pirate than join the navy. - Steve Jobs
Being a Viking means moving fast, unencumbered by bureaucracy and politics. It means being audacious and courageous, willing to take considerable risks for greater rewards. Implicit in this whole ethos is being the underdog, operating with agility, and entrepreneurialism. We have to operate outside the boundaries of what's normal in this industry if we want to change how the industry works.
We view our ship like Netflix views a dream team—when all of your colleagues are extraordinary at what they do and are highly effective collaborators. We are in the early days of our adventure and we are going to build out the crew significantly over the coming months. If any of this appeals to you, we'd love to talk!
P.S. we hope you can appreciate us not using the pun "Pear-ate ship"...it was hard.
We recognize it's easy to say who we are but what we do is what defines our culture. We strive to live up to these values and we as a team hold ourselves accountable to them every day.
We felt it worthwhile to articulate and codify our north stars for Pear's culture:
Sailing a ship is literally and metaphorically an all hands on deck effort, so we are intentional about the company working well, together. Because of this commitment to alignment, we can act with great autonomy. Those closest to the problem can solve it quickly, but only because they have the full context.