So we’re all on the same page—company values are the fundamental beliefs and core principles that shape a company’s actions, decision-making, company culture, and brand identity.
Most businesses agree on values when the company is starting out. Often times they need to be revisited once or twice as the business matures to ensure they have been perfectly articulated and understood - (words matter!).
But there is a difference between writing them down and them being a foundational aspect of a company's strategy.
Company / Brand Strategy should be the sum of:
(more on this coming in another post)
Creating and living company values is not a tick-box exercise, even for a time-poor startup, and should be prioritised by all businesses with ambitions to be world-class and globally successful. Values done right should penetrate every aspect of your brand, customer experience, and how your team think and make decisions.
Values are not designed to be on the wall.
Why do your investor's values matter to you:
I joined Icehouse Ventures in 2017. At that time we had an $11m seed fund and an angel network. In December last year, we reached $450m of funds under management and an investor base of over 2000 (including individuals, family offices, private wealth advisors, iwi, and three KiwiSaver Schemes).
The growth is a culmination of the team’s hard work and the phenomenal calibre of founders and their teams who are building impactful, scalable companies. But there has been a tangible step-change within Icehouse Ventures over the last two years which I attribute in large part to the clarity of our company values.
Understanding and clarifying our values in late 2022 led us to a clearer brand proposition, a definitive way of communicating with founders who we are, and a blueprint and benchmark for the type of work we engage in and how we go about doing it.
Values are important for every company to know and understand, but in many ways, for an investor, they are even more important.
Our business is investing in entrepreneurs and joining them for a long-term partnership.
What are the most important parts of a successful, long-term partnership?
I boil it down to trust, and values alignment.
In many ways, we gain or lose trust by how well we do or do not live up the the values we espouse.
Being an investor in a company is an intimate relationship. As investors we are a confidant to the founder, provide strategy input on the board, and grapple with critical decisions about how to run the company. In many cases, this relationship lasts the life of the company from the time we invest.
It's a long-term business partnership, and choosing the right investors for the company is one of the more important decisions a company can make.
The company must consider; Are they someone I want to spend time with over the period of one of the most important projects I’ll do in my career? Do I enjoy their company? How will this investor make decisions in the most difficult situations? What is their framework for thinking and seeing the world, and is it aligned with my own?
The Icehouse Ventures Values:
When introducing ourselves to prospective portfolio companies, explaining our values is often where I start.
We explain it as who we are, and how we see the world. It’s what we think is important to build a valuable company and it's how we think of ourselves as a part of that journey.
Here’s what I explain:
Our vision is a vastly brighter future, built from New Zealand.
We back exceptional Kiwi founders to build globally successful companies.
We value:
In many ways our values are aspirational. They are how you hope to act every day and a picture of the best version of ourselves.
They are subjective and imperfect.
But they are something to always remind ourselves of what we are aspiring to.
Connect with Barnaby, here.