Recap: The Summit: A View Toward Your Next Peak

Recap of Helen Yu's Ascend Your Start-Up on the critical decisions as they apply to SBH Labs.

Decision #22: How Will You Inspire Cultural Collaboration?

Yu explains that cultural collaboration is "taking intentional actions to build an inclusive, thriving cure where it's safe to share ideas." SBH Labs is a team of four and all members are family, so there is a lot of openness when it comes to sharing ideas and expressing opinions. However, that will soon change if growth keeps going the way the founders expect. 

To set in the company's culture relating to inclusion and collaboration, the author urges the reader to think about following prompts:

• Do people in your start-up feel valued?
• Do those who are underreoresented have a voice?
• How are you championing people who are underrepresented?

As of now, three-fourths of the SBH Labs are women, and half of the team is Hispanic. The company is very culturally diverse already! 

To set the workplace culture, SBH Labs will join as a team and highlight the aspects of their ideal work environment. Not necessarily pertaining to SBH Labs, just work in general, and create a culture manifesto. The prompts as provided by Yu are:

• How do your hiring practices encourage cultural collaboration?
• If you were describing your company to a new hire, how would you describe your culture?
• How often do you do employee surveys?
• What actions have you taken to improve based on the employee surveys?

Decision #23: How Has Your Technology Connected Humanity in a Better or Bigger Way?

SBH Labs is a baby of technology. As an e-commerce company, SBH Labs would not exist without access to the internet. The biggest different SBH Labs innovative product has made to people's lives is their ability to enjoy a caffeinated drink. David shared multiple stories of customer feedback who were grateful for nuCaffeine as it allowed them to consume energy drinks by measuring exactly how much caffeine they were consuming to keep their health issues in check.

Decision #24: How Will You Armor Up for Adversity?

Yu mentions the four actions to "armor up for adversity" in the list below:

• Look Up
• Prepare and Stay the Course
• Celebrate Small Wins
• Inspire Leaders and Work Together

Decision #25: How Will You Handle the Loneliness Factor?

SBH Labs is family business. It is tough to feel alone in such an environment. It is also tough not to feel overwhelmed. David shared that him and his wife will not speak of business when they are home, on the couch. That couch is strictly quality-time only.

Decision #26: How Will You Take Care of and Preserve Yourself?

Tied to Decision #25 because SBH Labs is a family business, co-founders have also established a Friday afternoon open beer policy. Once the busy work of the week is down, the remainder tasks can be accomplished with a beer on-hand. Another important rule the co-founders have installed is to have date-night every Saturday to get off the business mindset and enjoy each other's company as a spouse.

References:
Yu, H., & Rainer, G. (2021). Ascend Your Start-Up: Conquer the 5 Disconnects to Accelerate Growth. Made for Success.