Create a Startup Values Document That Matters

Published 2025-01-09 · Updated 2026-05-23 · 5 min read · Leadership · By Sahin Boydas

Learn how to create a startup values document that genuinely shapes your company culture. This guide covers a 5-step process for writing and implementing values.

A startup values document is a clear, concise statement of the core principles that guide your company's culture and decision-making. To create one that matters, you must involve your team, keep the language simple and actionable, and integrate the values into every aspect of your business, from hiring to daily operations.

As a serial entrepreneur and angel investor, I've seen hundreds of companies articulate their company values. Yet, only a fraction of them create a values document that genuinely shapes their organization. Too often, these documents are filled with generic, feel-good platitudes like "Integrity," "Innovation," and "Teamwork" that are plastered on a wall and then promptly ignored. A values document that matters is a practical tool, a compass that guides every decision and action within your startup. It’s the foundation of a strong and resilient culture.

This isn't just an HR exercise; it's a critical act of leadership. When I founded RemoteTeam.com, we were handling the complexities of building a fully distributed team long before it was the norm. Our values document was our north star, ensuring we were all aligned and moving in the same direction, even when we were miles apart. It’s one of the most powerful assets you can build.

Why Most Values Documents Fail

Before we dive into the "how," it's crucial to understand why so many values documents end up as meaningless corporate art. The primary culprit is a lack of authenticity and application. The values are chosen because they sound good, not because they reflect the genuine DNA of the company. They aren't integrated into the daily workflow, and as a result, they hold no weight.

Another common failure is making them too complex or numerous. If your team can't remember the values without looking them up, they are useless. The goal is to create a shared language and a set of principles that are easy to recall and apply in real-time situations. A vague value like "Excellence" is far less effective than a specific, actionable one like "Always Deliver Wow."

Step 1: Reflect on Your Core Beliefs

The first step is a period of deep reflection. Before you write a single word, you need to understand what you, as a founder, stand for. What are the non-negotiable principles that have guided your own career? What behaviors do you want to see celebrated in your company? Think about the moments in your professional life that made you proudest. What values were at play?

Consider these questions:

  • What kind of impact do you want your company to have on the world?
  • What behaviors do you believe are critical for success in your industry?
  • When you imagine your team at its best, what do you see?

Write down your answers. This isn't about drafting the final values yet; it's about uncovering the raw material. This process is foundational to building a great company culture.

Step 2: Involve Your Team in the Process

While the founder's vision is the starting point, a values document created in a vacuum is doomed to fail. Your team must be involved in the process. They are the ones who will live and breathe these values every day. Their input will not only make the document more authentic but also create a powerful sense of ownership.

I recommend hosting a workshop with a cross-section of your team. Present your initial reflections and then facilitate a discussion around them. Use prompts like:

  1. Describe a time when you felt proud to work here. What happened?
  2. Who on our team do you admire and why? What traits do they embody?
  3. If our company were a person, what would its personality be?

This collaborative approach ensures the final values resonate with everyone and reflect the reality of your organization, not just the aspirations of its leader.

Pro Tip: When running your values workshop, focus on stories, not just words. Ask team members to share specific examples of behaviors they believe represent the company at its best. These stories are often where the most powerful and authentic values are hiding.

Step 3: Draft, Refine, and Simplify

With the raw material from your reflection and team workshop, it's time to start drafting. The goal is to distill everything into a handful of clear, memorable, and actionable statements. Aim for 3-5 core values. Any more than that and they become difficult to remember.

For each value, follow this structure:

  1. The Value Name: A short, catchy phrase (e.g., "Customer Obsession").
  2. The Definition: A single sentence that explains what the value means in your company's context.
  3. The Behaviors: 2-3 bullet points that describe what this value looks like in action. This is the most critical part, as it makes the value tangible.

For example:

  • Value: Default to Transparency
  • Definition: We share information openly, early, and often.
  • Behaviors:
    • We make our calendars, documents, and key metrics public internally.
    • We communicate challenges with the same candor as we do our successes.
    • We give and receive feedback directly and respectfully.

Step 4: Integrate Your Values into Everything You Do

This is where the rubber meets the road. A document alone changes nothing. You must embed your values into the operating system of your company. This is a lesson I've learned over many years of building businesses and is a key part of my lessons from a serial entrepreneur.

Here are a few ways to do it:

  • Hiring: Design interview questions that test for alignment with your values. This is a core component of the art of startup hiring.
  • Onboarding: Make a deep dive into your values a central part of your new hire orientation.
  • Performance Reviews: Structure your feedback and evaluation criteria around the company values.
  • Decision Making: When facing a tough choice, explicitly ask, "Which option is most aligned with our values?"
  • Recognition: Publicly celebrate team members who exemplify the company values.

Pro Tip: Create a dedicated channel in your company's communication tool (like Slack) where employees can give "shout-outs" to colleagues for living the values. This makes recognition a continuous, peer-driven process.

Step 5: Revisit and Evolve Your Values Over Time

Finally, understand that your values document is not set in stone. As your company grows and the market evolves, you may need to revisit and refine your values. I recommend reviewing them annually with your leadership team to ensure they still feel relevant and accurate.

This doesn't mean changing them on a whim. Your core principles should be stable. However, the way you express them or the specific behaviors you emphasize might need to be updated. This ensures your values remain a living, breathing part of your company's journey, not a relic of its past.

Conclusion

Creating a startup values document that matters is one of the most tapped into activities a founder can undertake. It goes far beyond words on a page; it’s about defining the very essence of your company. By following these steps—reflecting on your beliefs, involving your team, writing with clarity, integrating them into your operations, and revisiting them over time—you can create a powerful tool that will attract and retain the right talent, guide your strategy, and build a resilient and enduring company culture.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I apply this thinking to my own situation?

Start by identifying the core principle behind the opinion, not the specific example. Then ask yourself: does this principle apply to my context? If yes, test it in a small, low-risk way before going all in.

What's the most common pushback you get on this?

People often push back by citing exceptions or edge cases. And they're usually right that exceptions exist. But building a strategy around exceptions rather than patterns is a losing game for most founders.

How has this view evolved over time?

My thinking on most topics has changed significantly over the years. Early in my career, I held many conventional views that experience proved wrong. I try to update my beliefs when the evidence changes.

What experience informs this perspective?

This perspective comes from over a decade of building companies in Silicon Valley, two successful exits (RemoteTeam to Gusto, MovieLaLa to Gfycat), and investing in 200+ startups including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Scale AI. I write about what I've lived.

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