Keith Rabois on startup offices: “The environment you’re in dictates how you behave”

One of the first companies I joined the board of in 2003 was this company called Zoom. Not unfortunately not the Zoom that we all use with an axis like money transfer company. It did pretty well, went public. But I remember when my friend, the CEO Kevin Hart was like considering moving offices and he articulated at this board meeting that he was going to personally go check out the five top options. And I remember this is my first board ever thinking that's insane. Like the CEOs literally going to go on five office tours. And I was like, that seems like the most backwards use of time. Now I would actually highly recommend that the CEO go tour all those five offices personally because if you think about a culture, the environment you're in dictates how people behave. One of the reasons why I actually joined KV the first time, 2013, almost all of you probably have been to our offices. I was like, this vibe in this office is exactly what I want. Both relaxing but tasteful and all the details. Vinod is incredibly obsessed in details and I believe in the details matter, square, takes care of itself kind of stuff. It just all came together in my brain that I will just fit in here. So I think like CEOs actually need to pick an office consciously. And there's different styles of offices. Some companies are more frugal and it reflects through everything they decide. So you don't have to have the most elaborate fancy office. But if your culture is frugal, then your office should reflect the frugality. If your office is like square, we were design driven culture. The office should reflect every last detail. Being perfectly designed in the office because you're reinforcing the traits you want. So I think it's critical. So that's one of the things I changed my mind on.