Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post by Tim Chi, the CEO and founder of WeddingWire. He also previously co-founded Blackboard, Inc. Here he shares his story and some of his insights in startup success in the D.C. tech scene.
There is no silver bullet for achieving success in your startup; but you can arm yourself with many lead ones. Ideas (and the businesses that are born from these ideas) come in all shapes and sizes. In my experience, the best startups are run by teams that are strategically thoughtful and execute with excellence. What this actually means can be very different, depending on your industry, stage of growth, and resources available.
WeddingWire is proud to be among the growing group of #DCTech companies. Born here in DC and having just turned 7 years old as a #DCTech company, we thought we would share some of our experiences that helped us be successful. They range from how you should think about partnerships to how you should always be thinking “where the puck is going to be,” or paying attention to what’s right versus what’s right now.
The most powerful and rewarding of these tips, in my opinion, is putting your people first. When I began this company in 2007, I knew that I wanted it to be something that was greater than me. While the idea for WeddingWire sparked from my own pain points (among them, not being able to conveniently develop a seating chart for my 2006 wedding really got me thinking), I wanted our legacy to embody both a transforming an industry and creating a unique, fun, enriching environment for everyone who joined our team. Today, our growth as a business is the direct result of the incredible 300+ team members that work at WeddingWire. That is why I always advise new entrepreneurs to “put their people before themselves.”
Here at WeddingWire, we’ve taken an inside-out approach to our business growth by investing heavily in our unique culture and uber-talented employees. Whether we are bringing in local CEOs from other startups for “Fireside Chats” that inspire and motivate our staff, catering one of our themed monthly lunches, sending staff on a trip to Jamaica as a “thank you” for their hard work, or giving every employee $250 annually and saying “Treat Yo’self” so they may benefit in personal enrichment, we make sure that our employees’ needs are being prioritized and met at every turn. So while unlimited vacation and flexible work schedules are among the benefits we offer, making work as enjoyable, enriching and rewarding as life outside of these walls is equally as important to us.
We also put our people first professionally, by providing opportunities to grow their skills. For example, we challenge our engineers here to solve tough problems, such as keeping our company at the bleeding edge of the mobile revolution. We believe that many of our best future leaders will come from within our company. We have a robust Leadership Development Program that helps develop our current rockstar team members into the future managers and leaders of our organization.
Arming yourself with incredible talent is probably the closest thing to a silver bullet that exists in the business world. It’s not easy to build an organization where all the best talent wants to work, but that won’t stop us from trying.
As #DCTech continues to grow, I encourage startups to continue to lead with putting their people first. So that other talented people will hear about your company and say “Wow, that seems like a great company to work for — I should find out more.” If you think that of us, please do! We’re hiring: http://jobs.weddingwire.com.
