From Quarks to Culture

Nature has a pattern: complexity emerges from simpler units combining into something new. Quarks become atoms. Atoms become molecules. Molecules become cells. Cells become organisms.

Companies follow the same logic, and culture is the mechanism.

The main thesis of Tyler Volk's book From Quarks to Culture: "combogenesis" is a grand evolutionary sequence where nature repeatedly invents new, more complex levels of reality by combining and integrating entities from preceding levels. According to the author, this is true for all scientific fields and life itself.

I believe that companies follow the same pattern and we use culture as the channel to transmute intentions, beliefs, thoughts (abstract items) into words, actions, behaviors and habits (concrete ones).

At the end, the founder's character is the single cell from which a company, a "multi-cellular" organism, emerges. Due to our human agency, we can consciously build a culture that is coherent with what we want to attract, maintain and enhance as an organization. Culture sets the rules of the game, the incentives, what behaviors are rewarded (and punished) and how much individuals balance individualism with common goals.

As the author of Maps of Meaning (1999) puts it: "improving the world and improving yourself are the same act. You cannot do one without the other".

I've worked in two early-stage startups in Spain. In both cases, the culture was inseparable from the founder's character (their energy and standards, their tolerance to ambiguity, their relationship with failure). You embody culture and it spreads.

After 5 years of professional experience, I can say that I believe in the following principles:

1. High talent-density teams: A-players want to play with other A-players. If this is respected in the company's foundation, it generates a virtuous circle. While the company increases in size, the best talent is attracted naturally.

2. Low ego: every single team member is an important part of a bigger organism. By minimizing personal ambition and accolades, the team focuses on results.

3. Extreme ownership: everyone delivers what is under their responsibility and is always eager to help someone in need; my colleague's goals are mine too.

4. Fast iteration: shortening the gap between thinking and acting is key. Trust in the iterative process must be sacred.

5. Long-term mentality: we build the blocks day-by-day with a clear vision of the building in mind, always.

These are filters.

The companies I want to work with embody them.

The ones I want to build will be defined by them.