Books Recommended by Catrinel Hagivreta

As a startup entrepreneur, it is easy to get distracted by so many things: how to capture your first client, solving the bugs of the platform, writing an article or hiring your first employees. And all this chaos is affecting the company’s culture and its energy, especially when you have a small team. I remember I was together with my partner and brother George one day and we were concerned about the culture of our company.

How can we keep employees engaged and motivated when, sometimes, it’s difficult even for us to be so? We were considering team building events, bonuses and other things we could do to keep our colleagues happy when I read in this book something that turned out to be the answer to our question: Until you don’t have a product (or company) that works, don’t care about culture.

This is essential because it makes you understand how and whom to hire. You understand that you cannot compete with big companies when it comes to incentives, the looks of an office or financial rewards. On top of that, you will have good days, but most of the times you will have bad days at the beginning, when it looks like nothing is working or making progress.

So if you want a happy and engaged team, first develop a product which clients love and use and hire people who are extremely attached to the mission of the company.