Blake Hall: IDme Culture Deck 2020

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Agenda
ID.me’s Vision and Mission
Why is Culture Important?
ID.me’s Cultural Philosophy
How to Screen for Gifted Teammates
ID.me’s Cultural Values

ID.me’s Vision and Mission
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• Vision: To be the world’s leading digital identity network empowering people to control their own
information and to prove their credentials across all channels: online, call center, and in-person.
• Mission: To make the world a more trusted place by delivering the highest level of security with
the least amount of friction at the lowest possible cost.
• People: We have an audacious mission. We aim to fix the identity layer of the internet. Billions of
people will live better lives with more trust and convenience thanks to ID.me. Like Special Forces,
we are executing against the most difficult missions where others have failed and given up.

Why is culture important?
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• Culture is not a set of beliefs. Culture is what you do.
• ID.me’s Cultural Values and this presentation define the specific behaviors that result in
promotions, pay increases, and recognition.
• Great people make great workplaces. If we live our culture and enforce it, we will have an
exhilarating workplace where talented people have the chance to be their best self.
• If you observe an action that is inconsistent with ID.me’s values – and you don’t question it –  
then you have just set a new hypocritical culture where our actions don’t match our values.

ID.me’s Cultural Philosophy: Trust and Results
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• ID.me’s Culture is similar to Special Forces. We value
highly-skilled teammates who are worthy of trust and
capable of independent decision-making.
• We value results over effort. We particularly value results
and effort together. Talented people who push themselves
and each other to reach their potential are ideal teammates.
• Expectations for results are proportional to skill level, role,
and compensation. As compensation goes up, expectations
go up for return on investment. Entry level employee goals
might be 2 – 3x compensation while senior executives might
need to return 10x+. Like Special Forces, the expectations
for a cook or armorer are different from an operator.
• Excellence at your position – “do your
job well” — is the common expectation
across roles.
• Like a Special Forces unit, intimacy
and trust are performance based. We
must know we can trust our teammates
to do their job. Trust and Results define
performance cultures. Families don’t
condition membership on performance.
• At ID.me, the mission is bigger than
us – we can help billions of people –
and that takes priority.

How to Screen for Gifted Teammates ( 1 of 2 )
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Cognitive
• Keen power of abstraction
• Interest in problem-solving and applying concepts
• Voracious and early reader
• Large vocabulary
• Intellectual curiosity
• Power of critical thinking, skepticism, self-criticism
• Persistent, goal-directed behavior
• Independence in work and study
• Diversity of interests and abilities
Creative
• Creativeness and inventiveness
• Keen sense of humor
• Ability for fantasy
• Openness to stimuli, wide interests
• Intuitiveness
• Flexibility
• Independence in attitude and social behavior
• Self-acceptance and unconcern for social norms
• Aesthetic and moral commitment to self-selected work

How to Screen for Gifted Teammates ( 2 of 2 )
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Affective
• Unusual emotional depth and intensity
• Sensitivity/empathy to the feelings of others
• High expectations of self and others, often
leading to feelings of frustration
• Heightened self-awareness, accompanied
by feelings of being different
• Easily wounded, need for emotional support
• Need for consistency between abstract
values and personal actions
• Advanced levels of moral judgment
• Idealism and sense of justice
Behavioral
• Spontaneity
• Boundless enthusiasm
• Intensely focused on passions—resists changing activities when
engrossed in own interests
• Highly energetic
• Constantly questions
• Insatiable curiosity
• Impulsive, eager and spirited
• Perseverance—strong determination in areas of importance
• High levels of frustration—particularly when having difficulty meeting
standards of performance (either imposed by self or others)

Stars in every position
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• Like Special Forces, ID.me depends upon stars in every position. Mediocre performers are subtraction by
addition in performance cultures. They not only do not add value, but put the team, the mission, and the
culture at risk. Special Forces are special because the people in Special Forces are special.
• Trust in each individual creates the conditions for maximizing individual performance. When you know the
teammate to your left and right will do their job, you can focus on your role.
• Raw ability and alignment trumps experience (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPHVeQ7-ynA).
(Note, raw ability, alignment, and experience together is the best combination.)
• ID.me’s ambitious mission and scale means a poor performer doesn’t just impact the team, but also
millions of users who depend on us to protect their data and improve their lives.
• The Keeper Test: ID.me has a simple test for managers. Would you fight to keep a member of your team if
they were recruited away? If no, we immediately offer generous severance.

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1 2 3
1 Employee
2 Team
3 Company
4 Investors
5 Customers
6 Members
4 5 6 7
Expand Your  
Sphere of Compassion

We value A players with A effort but not B players with A effort
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Great Fit – Star Not a Fit – Wrong Role

Keeping only the most effective people allows us to pay top of market
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• Pay top of market. ID.me proactively calibrates compensation to market. We dynamically adjust
compensation to match market rates when we identify high-performers.
• Unlimited vacation. ID.me trusts employees who live our values to exhibit responsible judgment.  
We allow high-performers to take time off as they choose.
• Stock Options. ID.me offers attractive stock option packages that allow employees to become owners
and to benefit from the collective harvest of our high-performing culture.
• Three Months Paid Parental Leave. ID.me offers three months of paid parental leave.
• 401k Match. 3% of salary up to $6K.

No shame and generous severance
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• There is no shame in failing to make it at a high-performing culture. We always treat people
with dignity and class because we respect the courage it takes to try to join an elite group.
• We explicitly do not enforce rules like force ranking the top and bottom 10% of employees
or other structures that can demoralize people and hurt collaboration. The Keeper Test and
calibration to market are the only rules for managers for retention and compensation.
• If a manager decides someone isn’t a good fit for ID.me within 30 days of hiring, then we
pay two weeks for severance packages.
• If a manager decides someone isn’t a good fit for ID.me after 30 days of hiring, then we pay
three months for severance packages.

1Don’t be a jerk
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• We do not tolerate brilliant jerks or normal jerks or any other kind of jerk. The total impact of a
jerk in a company is always negative.
• You treat people with respect and dignity. You particularly treat people with the least power
with the most respect.
• You control your temper. If you cannot control your temper, you remove yourself from the
situation until you can cool down. We do not yell at our teammates (at any level) at ID.me.
• You go out of your way to welcome new teammates, to spread knowledge, and to build
relationships across the company.
• You don’t make people scared to come into work.
• You don’t make anyone cry.
Learn More: Tony Hsieh

Always compete
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• You have a demonstrated track record of excellence for the pursuits where you truly dedicated
yourself: work, academics, athletics, the arts, etc.
• You love winning and hate losing.
• You accept adversity willingly and take on the extra work with a chip on your shoulder.
• You work harder than anyone else and make that a habit in your life.
• You cannot stop your irrational and relentless drive to win when you are competing – whether
recreational games or video games or contests (and people are aware of it).
• You acquire and master the skills necessary to achieve your goals.
• You do your best work no matter how great or dire the situation might appear to be.
Learn More: Will Smith
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Ask questions like a five-year old
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• You research ID.me prior to your interview, and you deeply understand ID.me’s products and
customers after you join.
• You openly share as much information as possible with your teammates.
• You are curious about your teammates and interested in getting to know them.
• You seek guidance when you don’t understand what is expected of you.
• You voraciously consume knowledge (books, podcasts, videos, or articles) in order to learn.
• You are able to connect the dots to discover patterns and to apply those insights to work.
• You ask seemingly simple questions when you don’t understand rather than holding back.
• You ensure your activities are aligned with ID.me’s goals.
Learn More: Ray Dalio
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Inspire people with your passion
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• You are an optimist. Startups are contrarian endeavors. Pessimists will give up too easily at
the first signs of trouble and they will demoralize the team. Virtually all founders are optimists.
• You are deeply committed to accomplishing ID.me’s Vision and Mission.
• You inspire belief in others that they can achieve the seemingly impossible.
• You don’t listen to the naysayers.
• You equip the team around you to win.
• You are someone who your teammates can rely upon.
• You never give up when you have set your sights upon a worthy goal.
Learn More: Steve Jobs
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Make something better every day
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• You pick up trash on the floor if you see it.
• You identify friction points in organizations and move rapidly to smooth them out.
• You maintain and develop persistent habits to improve yourself, your teammates, and ID.me.
• You help teammates when you see they are struggling.
• You take the initiative to improve the organization even if outside your area of responsibility.
• You don’t believe that you are above performing any task.
Learn More: Arnold
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Treat each customer like your  
favorite family member
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• You exhibit a high degree of emotional intelligence and empathy.
• You are able to connect with other people and to feel their pain and need.
• You use your position and authority to take care of customers to the best of your ability.
• You express genuine and appropriate emotions to ensure the customer feels understood.
• You use language that ensures the customer feels listened to and understood.
• You provide customers with a plan and context for how ID.me is working to build features that
will help them or actively reviewing a policy, even if you can’t help them at that moment.
Learn More: Brene Brown
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Own your mistakes so you can  
learn from them
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• You are responsible for everything you and your team does and does not do.
• You do not offer up excuses when things go wrong.
• You focus more on your own role in the failure and learning than on blaming others.
• You are self-aware and selfless enough to accurately diagnose what went wrong.
• You are competent and organized enough to develop an action plan to get better.
• You demonstrate a repeated habit of learning and getting better after failing.
Learn More: Jocko Willink
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Details are everything
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• You are able to focus your work so you can become a craftsman.
• You are a perfectionist and take pride in producing high-quality work the first time.
• You avoid unnecessary mistakes by planning and mitigating risk before things break.
• You dive deep and demonstrate ownership over your workstream.
• Your communication is specific and uses facts rather than adjectives whenever possible.
• You conduct thorough research and cite primary and secondary sources before making claims.
• You polish up the rough edges of your work and finish them to make things easy for others.
Learn More: Steve JobsLearn More: Admiral McRaven
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Act like a scientist, not a talking head
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• You create active feedback loops to constantly change and revise your plans based on new information.
• You have a history of being right about major decisions.
• You are able to leverage validated learning to increase the speed and accuracy of decisions.
• You value facts over opinions.
• You are able to consider multiple points of view before arriving at a conclusion.
• You rigorously test assumptions to confirm or deny truth.
• You have little patience for ideological points of view that are not buttressed by quantifiable evidence.
• You setup systems to speed up the time it takes to test new ideas.
Learn More: Jeff Bezos
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Be truthful  
(even when it’s hard)
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• You understand bad news doesn’t get better with time and report bad news immediately.
• You avoid telling small lies to soften the impact of what is truly happening.
• You are direct when describing the situation and details.
• You report activity you observe that is, or is not, happening that might lead to a bad outcome.
• You ask for help if you are unable to solve a hard problem on your own.
• You ensure everyone has a consistent and referenceable source of truth.
• You build or improve scalable reporting and processes that make information accessible.
Learn More: IncrementalismLearn More: Lying
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If the rule prevents the right outcome,  
then break the rule
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• You understand ID.me’s Vision and Mission and Values.
• You prioritize justice and fairness over what is bureaucratically required.
• You attempt to change the rules to lead to more than just outcomes at scale.
• You realize that rules cannot capture all scenarios.
• Your judgment is sound.
• You understand the goals of your team and your OKRs.
• You pursue outcomes that are consistent with ID.me’s values.
Learn More: Principled Disobedience
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Reflect ID.me’s Values In Your Actions
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“We are what we repeatedly
do. Excellence, then, is not an
act, but a habit.”
— A R I S TO T L E
LearnLearn More: Culture

Blake Hall: IDme Culture Deck 2020

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