In this instructional video, Gregory Shepard explains why a company manifesto is a vital, public declaration that shapes a startup’s culture, decision‑making, and long‑term direction. He breaks the manifesto into five essential parts—purpose, advantage, core values, mantra, and exit strategy—detailing how to craft each component with clear, jargon‑free language and providing a concrete example from a fictional rescue‑service startup, Hearts Aloft, LLC. Shepard shows how the manifesto should be revisited annually and used as a guiding framework across product development, investor relations, marketing, hiring, and KPI setting, ensuring alignment with the founder’s vision and stakeholder expectations.
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Your company's manifesto is a structured, public declaration of who your company is. It guides your company's leadership, employees, and investors in decision-making aligned to the company's vision. This ultimately defines your company's culture. Your manifesto informs your product development, investor relations, marketing, service delivery, and customer support strategies, throughout your company's lifecycle. It must be able to grow and scale with your company. A manifesto has 5 parts, each telling a portion of your company's story and objectives: purpose, advantage, core values, mantra, and exit strategy. You'll use each part of your manifesto for different purposes and at different times, but they all point back to your company's purpose, culture, and objectives. Your purpose. Your purpose is an expression of why customers need your company to exist and calls upon your company what and why that you defined during the North Star process. For example, your company can improve life by increasing productivity, connectivity, or happiness for their customers. It can right a wrong, such as automating a dangerous manufacturing process, or preserve something of value, like protecting threatened portions of the environment. Your purpose must be clear. Avoid industry jargon and include context necessary for individuals who may not be familiar with your company or product. Here's an example: Hearts Aloft, LLC exists to reduce the loss of life in remote hiking locations where current human-resourced rescue operations are hindered by geography. Next, state your company's advantage. What uniquely positions your company to fulfill its purpose and capture market share over your competitors. Your customers will experience your advantage. Your company advantage aligns your company's use of resources and guides messaging to the market and investors. Startups have limited resources, so you can't be all things to all customers, and you can't beat all competitors in all areas. So at this stage, your advantage must narrowly focus where your competitors can't easily or rapidly compete with your company. Your advantage lives in your product, pricing, or customer service and support. Compose a concise statement that captures what your advantage is, why it exists, why you expect to sustain that advantage, and how your customers will experience it. Hearts Aloft's competitive advantage is its product's unique ability to rapidly deliver on-demand life-saving medical supplies to remote, geographically isolated locations In all weather, day or night, and without the need for large response teams or costly training. Our technology is unlikely to be replicated by competitors in the next 3 to 5 years. Your core values and beliefs communicate your company's culture. They should inspire your stakeholders, employees, and customers, so they must be authentic, simple, and reflected in your company's decision-making and actions. It's the founder's decision as to who participates in formulating your core values and beliefs. When applicable, BOSS encourages input from all levels, from senior leadership to entry-level employees, stakeholders, and investors. To compose your core values and beliefs, start with a list of 10 to 15 words or phrases like integrity, value, and high standards that reflect your company's purpose and personality. Group them into related areas associated with your product, customers, or company culture. Now add a short sentence describing what each word means for your company. For example, integrity may mean unwavering, absolute transparency with our customers, employees, and stakeholders. Now prioritize 3 to 5 of the most meaningful terms and associated definitions to become your core values and beliefs. Your mantra. Combine your purpose, advantage, and core values and beliefs into a single concise grouping of phrases called a mantra. Your mantra is a shorter, more readily communicated form of your company's culture that encourages belonging and brand loyalty from your employees and customers. For our Hearts Aloft Rescue Company, a mantra could be, anytime, anywhere, rapid rescue from above so others may live. Start with full sentences, remove ambiguous or filler words, and finally trim to short phrases. Your mantra must be authentic, truthful, aesthetically pleasing, intriguing, and meaningful. The last part of your manifesto is your exit strategy statement. Leverage the work you did in creating your exit strategy to develop a concise statement summarizing who you'll sell your company to, what your acquirer will be buying, how much your company will be worth when it sells, when you think an acquirer will purchase your company, and how much profit you, the founders, expect to make on the sale. Your exit strategy statement communicates an unambiguous path for your company that translates into strategy and a shared vision for founders, employees, stakeholders, and investors. Hearts Aloft, LLC will sell to a large North American-based emergency medical services company looking for cost savings in personnel and training and to improve customer service through rapid response in remote locations. We will sell for $20 to $25 million in the next 5 years, with founders making $5 million in profit from the exit. Revisit your manifesto as your company grows, approximately once per year, to ensure it remains true to your purpose path and culture. As a founder, ensure you align your decision-making with your manifesto. Use it as a guiding light for your company. Reference your core values and beliefs to reinforce employee buy-in and behaviors. Use your exit strategy statement to guide KPI development and when hiring for functional areas. Use your purpose with investors and in marketing messages. Use your advantage to strategize allocation of resources. When you codify your manifesto, you're making a public declaration that will guide your company's culture, decision-making, and direction. Invest the time and effort appropriate for the importance of your manifesto. BOSS: The Formula for Startup Success.
