Many tech startup cultures are toxic because of a "hero founder" obsessed with growth driving priorities down a hierarchical management structure. This "command and control" structure creates power dynamics that too often leads to a win-at-all-cost, hustler, "work hard, play hard", masculine culture that breeds burnout, mental depression, lack of diversity, inequality, questionable business ethics, and cultish behaviour.

This is bad for many reasons including introducing unnecessary business risk by placing too many tasks and too much pressure on a small number of people.

Many tech companies (and an increasing number of non-tech) are familiar with working remotely in distributed teams. Code development processes like "agile" take large projects and break them down into smaller "sprints" done by temporary teams. Open source projects have dozens (or hundreds, thousands) of developers that contribute code to a project with a small number of "managers" that approve and incorporate changes.

Guides will operate following these practices through a distributed network of staff, contractors, contributors, and advocates. We are creating a new type of "gig worker" that incorporates all the benefits (flexible, remote work) and none of the drawbacks (below market rates, worker rights & protection, long-term value capture).

Worker "Types"

Each role receives compensation based on the work, skill level required, and fair market rates + participation in the Guides Trust Fund (similar to equity) based on their contribution to the organization's mission and goals.

Operations Model

To manage this distributed process, we will operate using a model inspired by holacracy, used by many progressive organizations including Zappos, Medium, Patagonia, Loomio, and Valve. The model is a decentralized, transparent, goal-based organization structure that captures missions and objectives and defines circles (teams) and roles to achieve them. Team member roles will be defined by the mission(s) and may be performed by full-time employees, role-based workers, project-based workers, or temporary contributors depending on the evolving needs of the organization (see image of how a holacracy organization is managed using glassfrog software).

Each mission, objective, and role is captured in a guide which is updated by the person / people working. At any time workers can submit proposals (what we should be working on) and tensions (things aren't working as they should) that are actively managed and triaged by circle leaders and ultimately the board.

Operating using this model enables Guides.co to draw from the skills and experience of the global network and provides more autonomy for individual contributors.

This model benefits the organization as it puts the mission and values of the organization above any individual stakeholder and pulls ideas, inspiration, and skills from a more diverse and distributed network. While we will be very selective in "hiring" people with the greatest skills (including the ability to collaborate), the organization does not rely on a handful of "rainmakers" to achieve success.

It also benefits workers providing clear roles and responsibilities, a flexible work schedule, and the ability to join and leave the organization based on availability and interest. All contributors (including curators, creators, ambassadors) receive compensation for their work and retain quasi-equity (discussed below) for the value they contributed to the platform.

Finally, it benefits all stakeholders by providing transparency and access to the ongoing operations of the organization including current priorities and missions.