{"id":564,"date":"2020-07-01T18:45:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T15:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/?p=564"},"modified":"2025-06-11T13:01:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T05:01:05","slug":"shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaping Up Your Company&#8217;s Culture and Values: Chris Ruder of Spikeball"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So having that sort of asynchronous conversation, if you will, I think, may result in higher quality feedback.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Today we have Chris Ruder, founder and CEO of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/spikeball.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spikeball<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this episode, we talked about how shaping up company culture and values, the \u201ca-ha\u201d moment when Chris realized that an office is not really required to get things done, how Chris deliberately works on processes and culture within the company, and his advice for companies starting out with remote work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a review on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/outside-the-valley\/id1481937930\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">iTunes<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Outside the Valley is going on break for a bit, so in the meantime, check out the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.feedspot.com\/leadership_podcasts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Top 30 Leadership Podcasts You Should Follow in 2020<\/a>\u00a0here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The podcast is also available on your favorite players:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/outside-the-valley\/id1481937930?ign-mpt=uo%3D4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">iTunes<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy50cmFuc2lzdG9yLmZtL291dHNpZGUtdGhlLXZhbGxleQ%3D%3D&hl=en-TW\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Podcast<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/castro.fm\/podcast\/5a2c6978-e8e7-4f02-a47d-ca3474778329\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Castro<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/overcast.fm\/itunes1481937930\/outside-the-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Overcast<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5qzXgcHzieXIRtXglSmUE8?si=rMPobXZtQwSU0wQ3grTAxA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/podcast\/outside-the-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stitcher<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/player.fm\/series\/outside-the-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Player.fm<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tunein.com\/podcasts\/Technology-Podcasts\/Outside-The-Valley-p1251704\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tune In<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow us on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/arcdotdev\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0to get updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Looking for top talent fast? See how <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/\">Arc<\/a><em> can help you:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u26a1\ufe0f Find developers, designers, marketers, and more<br>\u26a1\ufe0f Freelance or full-time remote + fully vetted<\/em><em><br>\u26a1\ufe0f Save up to 80% with global hires<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\"><strong>Hire top talent with Arc risk-free \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"topics-also-covered-on-the-podcast-episode%3A\">Topics also covered on the podcast episode:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The history of Spikeball<\/li><li>Why playfulness and kindness is essential to Spikeball\u2019s company culture<\/li><li>Identifying traits that makes someone suitable for remote work during the interview process<\/li><li>Spikeball\u2019s onboarding process for new employees<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"mentioned-resources%3A\">Mentioned resources:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/spikeball.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Chris Ruder<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/spikeball.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spikeball<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/blog\/podcast-ep20-hotjar-ken-weary-8vmnu8da0l\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ken Weary of Hotjar: How to Regain Productivity in Your Remote Team<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/basecamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Basecamp<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"full-transcript%3A\">Full transcript:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Hello, world. Welcome to another episode of \u201cOutside The Valley,\u201d a podcast by Arc, the remote hiring platform that helps you hire senior remote software engineers easily. Here, we interview remote startup leaders, remote work advocates, and workers of distributed teams who thrive outside of Silicon Valley. I\u2019m your host, Jovian Gautama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am super excited for this episode because our guest today is the founder of a product that we at Arc really love. It\u2019s not a software, it\u2019s way better than that. Today, I am joined by Chris Ruder, founder and CEO of Spikeball, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, game you\u2019ll ever play. Believe me, we\u2019ve played a lot. Spikeball and Chris has been featured on \u201cShark Tank,\u201d \u201cThe Today Show,\u201d \u201cESPN,\u201d and \u201cInc. Magazine.\u201d Also being praised by Ryan Seacrest for that matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And one thing that people probably don\u2019t know is that Spikeball is also a fully remote team. And I cannot wait to learn more about the company, the culture, the processes, and the internal side of things, and more. So first of all, Chris, welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Thank you so much. Quite an intro. I love it. Glad you guys are fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Superfans. So, in this podcast, I love to listen to founder stories and especially a bootstrap one as well. This is kind of like the selfish side of me. The reason is because, like, I believe that the rise of remote work, the fact that people can work remotely, helps entrepreneurs everywhere to just get started. So let\u2019s chat a bit more about the history of Spikeball and your background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, absolutely. So occasionally, I\u2019ll get the question asking how did I invent Spikeball? And I actually did not, I brought it back to life. So it was originally launched in 1989 here in the U.S. At the time, I was 14 years old, and one of my friends bought it at a toy store and brought it back to the neighborhood. And we\u2019d play the game on and off, we fell in love with it and thought it was, you know, a super cool game. And we\u2019d play, and people would\u2026strangers would walk up to us and ask us about it and say, you know, \u201cWhat\u2019s that game? How do you play? And where can I get it?\u201d And the \u201cWhere can I get it?\u201d part we could never really answer because from what little we knew, it launched in 1989, and it was killed in 1991. So it was only in the market for, like, two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So thankfully, one of my friends bought it back then. But I guess when they launched it, for some reason, it just didn\u2019t sell well. So we played\u2026you know, that was back in late \u201980s,\u2019 early \u201990s.\u2019 And then fast forward to 2003, me and those same friends, and my brother, my now wife, went on a trip to Hawaii, and those friends brought one of those beat-up old Spikeball sets. And that really rekindled my love for it, and I really got into it, and we started thinking like\u2026and, again, in Hawaii, people would ask us\u2026like, strangers would ask about the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we started thinking like, \u201cI wonder if we could actually bring this thing back to life, like, that\u2019d be pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>And so we did what most people do with ideas, is we just talked about it. We didn\u2019t do anything, we just talked, and talked for, I think, a couple of years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And I got sick of that, and I said, \u201cAll right guys, I\u2019m gonna talk to some attorneys and see if we can actually legally do this because I have no idea how that sort of thing works.\u201d So the attorney told me, \u201cThe trademark which protects the name Spikeball\u2026\u201d that had been expired for over 10 years. So they said, \u201cYeah, you can do what you want with the name.\u201d And they said, \u201cThere never was a patent on the product, so you guys can do whatever you want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, you know, we did talk to the guy that invented the game and, you know, weren\u2019t able to sort of get a deal going there, so we just went ahead and did it on our own. Between me, my brother, my cousin, and three other childhood friends, we chipped in a total of about U.S.$100,000 and went into business. So talked to a friend of a friend and the first company that was our first manufacturer was the same company that makes all the little plastic toys that show up in McDonald\u2019s Happy Meals. So that was our first factory. They helped with product design. We talked to another friend that helped with logo design, and our packaging, and our website. And yeah, then we launched spikeball.com in June of 2008, and officially in business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s hell of a story. So now, something came to mind, I didn\u2019t prepare this to you. But I\u2019m curious about the fact that you are a remote team and the fact that you\u2019re kind of, like, a hardware company, right because there\u2019s, like, physical product that you need to quality control. Like, if you\u2019re co-located, it\u2019s quite easy. You just send the stuff to your office, and you have, like, QC team that deal with it. And how do you go about it in Spikeball?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely. So I\u2019d love to show you a prototype that I have in the office right now, but it\u2019s top-secret, so I can\u2019t, but we got some cool stuff coming out. But it\u2019s a perfect example, right? It\u2019s an accessory that will go with the Spikeball set, and there\u2019s a lot of different parts to it. We have to, of course, make sure they all work well, and the quality is there, and it\u2019s pretty pragmatic. So it went from the factory in China to our head of marketing and product in Austin, Texas. He inspected it, took a bunch of notes, repackaged it up, sent it to\u2026we\u2019ve got sort of an informal product quality committee at Spikeball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So one of the guys that heads it up is Kyle, and his sort of normal job at Spikeball is SMB sales. So he calls to get small retail stores carrying Spikeball. But he\u2019s also very passionate about the product, so he\u2019s helping out a lot with product quality. So Nick, our Head of Marketing, mailed the prototype to Kyle. Kyle messed around with it, and took notes, and said, \u201cHere\u2019s what I like and don\u2019t like.\u201d Kyle then shipped it to another employee, and I think I was, like, fourth in line, so I just got it the other day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Got it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0And I used it in the backyard with my kids, and you know, all of us kind of talked about what we liked and didn\u2019t like. And all of those notes, my notes, Kyle\u2019s notes, Nick notes, they\u2019re all on a single string in Basecamp, so everybody can see everybody\u2019s notes. Some of us included photos and videos. And, you know<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>It takes a little longer than maybe all six of us sitting in the same room doing it, but I also like it because we\u2019re not influencing each other as much. Like I may say that I really don\u2019t like something, and if I say that, maybe the person on the other side of the table will be less likely to say, \u201cActually, that\u2019s something that I really like.\u201d So having that sort of asynchronous conversation, if you will, I think, may result in higher quality feedback.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Got it. Yeah, it\u2019s very similar\u2026 So I interviewed another D2C startup founder, and he\u2019s a remote company, he\u2019s Fred Perrotta from Tortuga Backpacks. And his quality control process is super similar to you. Like, these new backpacks will be passed around to different states, different cities, before they have been okayed. So I feel like this is something that, in my opinion, will be optimized going forward, like more people go remote. And there\u2019s probably some services that can\u2026I know some solution will come up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, one of the reason why I super excited to invite you to this podcast is not only because we love the product, but also what I know about the culture of the company and also you as a person. I follow you on Twitter, you\u2019re pretty transparent about the company culture, this is our team and whatnot. So when I read about Spikeball and what people say about the company itself, there is this culture of fun and playfulness that is so true to your product. In fact, I\u2019m actually looking at your About Us page, and one of your core values, number one is \u201chave fun.\u201d So people say the company culture is an extension of the CEO\u2019s personality and leadership style. Can you share a bit more about what shaped your leadership style to what it is today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, I mean, I\u2019ve\u2026this is the first company I\u2019ve ever run. I have a degree in photojournalism, so I\u2019ve never studied business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>And I think I kind of run it like, you know, just a company that I\u2019d want to work at.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>You know, most of the jobs that I had before Spikeball were kind of big corporate jobs where the culture wasn\u2019t that great, they weren\u2019t that fun, you know. Maybe they paid well, but it was basically a 9 to 5 job. I was passionate about basically zero of my jobs before Spikeball came along. I had some decent managers, but I also had some pretty bad ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And a lot of what I\u2019m trying to build at Spikeball is pretty much the opposite of what I learned at, you know, the corporate jobs. You know, the corporate jobs, I think the main thing I took away from there was I learned how to be a good salesperson. And regardless of your role, I think everybody needs that skill. But, you know, have fun you know, when I worked at\u2026I worked at Microsoft for, I don\u2019t know, four or five years, that was not an element of the job. You know, the, you know, trust, give it until you shouldn\u2019t, that\u2019s another one of our values. That wasn\u2019t a part of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But with our values, you know, most companies have them, but most of them are also maybe written by the executive team. And the executive team will then print them out or email them out to the team and say, \u201cHey, everybody, here\u2019s our values.\u201d Maybe they\u2019ll put it on a plaque on the wall, and you\u2019ll never talk about it again. And the only fingerprints on those values are those of the CEO and maybe, you know, a few other execs. And I wanted to make sure that wasn\u2019t how our values were. So when we first drew them up, it was all employees. I think maybe at the time, there was, like, eight or nine of us. And we sat in a circle\u2026like, we do retreats twice a year where we\u2019re actually physically all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>And at one of those retreats\u2026so every year, we review our values. And that way, we basically say, \u201cOkay, everybody, our first value is, \u2018Have fun.; Do we still like that? Do we believe in that? Do we wanna change that?\u201d And maybe it\u2019s have fun when necessary. Do we wanna make a minor change like that, or do we just wanna leave it at that?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So you\u2019ll see on our site, I believe we have links to some of the older versions of our values, and you can kind of just see how they\u2019ve evolved over the years. So some will have\u2026maybe we\u2019ll add or delete a value, maybe we\u2019ll just remove a period or add a couple of words to some, but we go through them one by one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And whether you know, you\u2019re 23 years old and you\u2019ve been working at the company for 6 weeks, or if you\u2019re the CEO, you get equal amount of input as to what you think the value should be. And now when people are doing\u2026if I see somebody that\u2019s having fun or like, they\u2019re just, you know, doing a great job along those lines, rather than just saying, \u201cOh, you know, good job in that.\u201d I\u2019ll say, \u201cHey, good job of exemplifying our first value, which is, have fun.\u201d Or you know, surprise and delight is another one of our values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Skyler, who works for us, he lives in Colorado, and you know, everybody is locked home right now. And there\u2019s a family that lives down the street, they\u2019ve got three or four kids. He noticed that the kids love sports. He doesn\u2019t know this family, but one day he stopped and left a Spikeball set in the yard with his business card attached to it. Didn\u2019t say anything, just left it. About an hour later, he got a photo emailed to him from the mom, saying, \u201cThank you so much. Our kids love this.\u201d Rather than just saying, \u201cHey, Skyler, good job on that,\u201d I\u2019d like to try and make sure, \u201cHey Skyler, great job of exemplifying our value of surprise and delight. That is fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So a line that I heard which I really like is, \u201cYou should hire, fire, and manage, according to your values.\u201d So, you know, we\u2019ve had to let a few people go, and we don\u2019t just say, \u201cYou know, it just wasn\u2019t working out, so sorry.\u201d We\u2019ll say, you know, \u201cOne of our values is this, and you weren\u2019t really living up to it. We had a couple of conversations, you know, it just didn\u2019t work.\u201d So, you know, maybe the listen, improve, always be learning, was something that didn\u2019t quite click with that person, and we decided we need to make a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>But I wanna make sure it\u2019s a living, breathing document, it\u2019s not just this plaque that we put up on a wall and just kind of pat ourselves on the back that we did at once.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely. There\u2019s so much into that I want to dive deeper a bit later, especially on the hiring. But before that, I like to understand a bit, like\u2026as far as I know, like, Spikeball is, like, 100% remote from Day 1. It\u2019s just from just you, right? When did it hit you that\u2026make you realize, oh, you can actually build a company that is not co-located, like, \u201cI don\u2019t need an office,\u201d and still get things done? Was it like\u2026is it kind of, like, some moment of clarity or just this gradual process?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, our early days were unique in that\u2026you know, I ran the company for five years as a night job before I went full-time. So you know, we only raised $100,000 to start the company, so most of that went to making our first 1,000 sets, and packaging, and website, and all that. So the company had no money to pay for any full-timers. So I kept my job at Microsoft, did that during the day, came home, hung out with my wife and kids at night. They went to bed around 8 or 9, and I\u2019d work from home at 9:00 at night until 1 or 2 in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our first warehouse was in my basement. Usually every night around midnight, I\u2019d go down there and grab one box, maybe two boxes if we had a really good day of sales. And I would literally drive to the post office, drop that off, come back home, work a little bit longer, go to bed, do that. So, it wasn\u2019t like I made a decision on that first day, like, \u201cYeah, we\u2019re not gonna get an office.\u201d Like, we had no money, I had no idea if the company was gonna work or not, you know, this was kind of a fun side project that we started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But you know, after Year 5, we had $1,000,000 in annual sales, with zero full-time employees. That\u2019s when my wife and I agreed it was safe for me to quit my day job and go full-time. And that\u2019s, I believe, the time when we had a decision to make, do we wanna get office space, or do we wanna kind of keep doing what we\u2019re doing? And at that time, it was me and Scott, our now COO. He lives about half-hour, 40 minutes from me. And yeah, we\u2019d meet up at random Starbuckses a couple of times a week. We tried doing\u2026we did have some office space, just the two of us, it was like kind of like a co-working space. WeWork wasn\u2019t around back then, but it was kind of like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We did that for a while, and then we realized that it wasn\u2019t necessary. Because when we were together, we were basically just hands on keyboard and staring at a screen, it wasn\u2019t like we were talking all the time. And when we needed to talk, you know, we could just call each other or, you know, didn\u2019t lose much. So as we started adding employees, you know, there were people that lived\u2026you know, like some of our earliest employees were, like, Skyler and Shaun, two guys from California. I live in Chicago. We needed them to be promoting on the beach and trying to, you know, build things in Southern California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I wasn\u2019t gonna ask them to move to Chicago, and I wanted them out and about. Like, \u201cYeah, we don\u2019t need an office. If you guys want an office, then, you know, of course, we\u2019re happy to pay for it, but I don\u2019t think we need it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>And yeah, for the most part, you know, in the early days, I struggled with it because, you know, I think I just wanted more control. And, like, you know, the common line is, you know, \u201cWell, if people are remote, then how do you know if they\u2019re working?\u201d Well, I know they\u2019re working because I trust them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And I think that\u2019s a huge thing, especially with COVID-19, a lot of companies are being forced to do remote work, right? And they\u2019re like \u201cOh, my gosh, how are we gonna know?\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cWell, how do you know they\u2019re actually working when they\u2019re sitting next to you? Maybe they\u2019re on Facebook, or maybe they\u2019re just doing all sorts of other stuff, but let the results speak for themselves.\u201d And if you don\u2019t have that trust, then you have much larger problems. And hopefully, you can get some idea of that trust during the interview process, or especially since these people have been working for you, some of them for years, if you still can\u2019t trust, then I don\u2019t know what to tell you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But there are some execs, I think, that just love that power, you know, sort of that ego trip of having people where I can actually see. And I think they need to kind of\u2026yeah, just kind of think about the ego and like, is it really that important? Like, it\u2019s gonna be very interesting when the whole COVID-19 thing is hopefully behind us, and normal life or whatever the new version of normal comes back. And there\u2019s millions of people that got that sweet taste of work-from-home life, and they love it. And the bosses are gonna say, \u201cSorry, it\u2019s over, come on back in.\u201d And they\u2019re going to say, \u201cI don\u2019t want to.\u201d And that\u2019s gonna be a tough conversation. Some people will say they hate it, of course, you know, I\u2019m not speaking in absolutes here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But for us, it\u2019s been working. And I just look at, like\u2026I remember one time I got in trouble for, like, showing up at my day job at, like, 9:05, and I was supposed to be there at 9. Even though I was, like, I don\u2019t know, 120% of quota, I was killing it, I showed up a little bit late, and the boss kind of looked at me funny. Like, this is bullshit. Like, why does it matter where I show up or when as long as I get the job done? So that experience is informing a lot of how I\u2019m trying to do things here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0And as you mentioned, like, after the COVID-19, everything is [inaudible 00:17:43], we also hope that on the positive side of things, probably some boss or some entrepreneurs will realize that, \u201cHey, I actually don\u2019t need an office. Like, things are doing really well working from home.\u201d And then that\u2019s another, you know, lease money, get back and you can invest to your employee, to your product, or to your customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019m very glad I do not own any commercial real estate\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0They\u2019re gonna be\u2026we are 100% remote with an asterisk. We do have an office in Chicago. So we have 28 employees, 26 are in the U.S., and 2 are in the UK. But the Chicago office, when it\u2019s open, which it isn\u2019t right now, but when it\u2019s open, I\u2019m usually the only one in it. It has room for six people, but, you know, on a typical day, there\u2019s one person, maybe two. It\u2019s a beautiful office, I love it. It\u2019s not cheap. I\u2019ve been thinking, like, \u201cHmm, I\u2019ve been able to work from home. It\u2019s been nice.\u201d We may eliminate that. We\u2019ll see, I don\u2019t know. But it\u2019s definitely not necessary, it\u2019s not needed. It\u2019s kind of a nice to have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Speaking about Chicago startups that actually fully remote, so from what I\u2019ve researched, you are a big fan of the Basecamp folks and their a philosophy. Me too. And I\u2019ve been following them for a while now, and I think one of the most intriguing learning from how they run things is that how they see the company itself as a product so that you work on the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, you\u2019ve been working on\u2026I guess, it\u2019s a couple of\u2026you know, even though you started from you alone as a solo founder. But as you hire more full-time people, were there any time where you needed to take a step back and work on the company? Like, you realized, \u201cOh, these things, processes, are not working.\u201d If yes, can you remember what are those moment that you realized, \u201cHey, I actually need to look inside the company and try to clear things up,\u201d so to speak?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0One of the early examples I\u2019ll give is\u2026I think it might have been still when it was just Scott and I. I could be wrong. Or maybe it was just maybe when Scott was first coming on board. We ran out of inventory for the month of July, two years in a row, and that was completely my fault. I just forgot to call the factory and say, \u201cWe need more inventory in time\u201d I called them too late. And July, you know, middle of summer and one of our busiest sales months, and because we didn\u2019t have a process in place, because I didn\u2019t have a process in place, we had no inventory. And that\u2019s one thing that Scott, our COO, does an amazing job of, just systems and processes, and he has done a fantastic job of, yeah, just sort of systematizing nearly everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So that\u2019s been great. You know, you use the term \u201con the business.\u201d I absolutely love that. And I think we\u2019re gonna talk about onboarding here in a bit. One of the slides in the\u2026I got this deck I call the history of Spikeball that we walk all employees through, and one of it is talking about working in the business versus on the business. And some people are familiar with the term, and some are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I kind of walk them through. And I\u2019m like \u201cYeah, on the business is taking your hands off the keyboard and just kind of thinking about how you do what you do, and wanting to make sure, like, whatever it is you\u2019re trying to achieve, if you\u2019re doing it the same way today that you were doing it yesterday, then that\u2019s not a good thing. We want everybody looking for a better way to do things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We had a guy that\u2019s no longer with us, but he used to run our tournaments. And I don\u2019t know, we had 100 tournaments one year, and we were hoping to have, like, 300 the next year. And I was talking to him, like, \u201cHey, you know, we\u2019ve got a lot of tournaments happening right now, and you\u2019re crazy overworked right now. Like, I don\u2019t like the amount of hours you\u2019re putting in. We\u2019re gonna have three times as many tournaments next year. How are you gonna handle that?\u201d And his response was, \u201cWell, I guess I\u2019m just gonna have to work that much longer.\u201d And that\u2019s not the mentality we\u2019re looking for. So that right then and there, I said, \u201cAll right, we don\u2019t have a fit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>The answer is, \u201cI\u2019m gonna try and find a more efficient way to do it.\u201d Or, \u201cI realized that the way I\u2019m doing this right now isn\u2019t working, so I\u2019m gonna start studying and looking at how this works. So how can I actually, you know, get more done with less?\u201d to use the beaten-up line.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>But yeah, you know, whether it be how we\u2019re replying to customer service tickets, how we\u2019re designing products, or whatever it is, I just wanna make sure that we\u2019re always looking for a better way. As I mentioned, one of the values is listen, improve, always be learning, and we take that seriously, so yeah, it\u2019s been working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0So, you know, building process is\u2026as I talk to a lot of founder and CEO in this podcast, I think building process the one thing that is really challenging, like, especially when you\u2019re CEO, like, starting small. Switching that mindset from, oh, like moving fast, if I want something I can just get it done. Or I just ask someone verbally or via text, and you can get it done. But when you\u2019re, like, 20 people, 40 people, 100 people, and then you need some kind of process. And for some founders, it can be quite painful because there was always in this\u2026you know, I\u2019m not sure if hustling is the right word. But it\u2019s like, why is everything so slow? Something like that. So I think it\u2019s a really challenging mindset. Have you ever had that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, the feedback I\u2019ve received from my team is, \u201cChris, it feels like it\u2019s never enough for you.\u201d You know, maybe I ask a team for this much, they do it, but then I\u2019ll say, \u201cWe could have done this. Why didn\u2019t we do that much or this much, and, you know, a little bit more and more?\u201d And it\u2019s something I\u2019m trying to work on. Like,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I don\u2019t want to, you know, sort of move the goalposts, if you will, during the game, on one end, but on the opposite end, I do wanna make sure that the company and all of us are living up to our potential.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So if we set a revenue goal for $100, and we hit it, but if I think we actually could have hit $200, then I\u2019m gonna be kind of bummed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>And we\u2019re having an internal debate right now about sort of the difference between habits and goals. Which one is more important?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So let\u2019s say we set the goal of $100 in revenue, where did that $100 come from? How did we pick that goal? Let\u2019s just kind of\u2026you know, we probably based it on some sort of a trend or something. But the main reason we picked it is because it\u2019s a nice round number. And maybe if we would have spent more focus on our habits\u2026okay, what are the habits needed to hit $100? And let\u2019s place way more emphasis on those day-to-day things that will get us there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we focus more on those habits, maybe we\u2019ll actually get to $200. But if we focus on $100, we may be placing this artificial ceiling above us where that $100 is just an arbitrary number. So I\u2019m not sure what the right balance is. I don\u2019t think it should be all habits or all goals, but we need to have them aligned a little bit more. Jason from Basecamp, he\u2019s, you know, almost\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0No goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026anti goals. Yeah, right? Like, it\u2019s bizarre. And I\u2019ve had to have a handful of conversations with him about that. You know, he used to be on our advisory board. Their office is maybe eight blocks from our office, they\u2019re actually getting ready to get rid of theirs. So yeah, they\u2019ve been a great company to learn from. But yeah, it\u2019s a tricky thing, like,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I think the founder CEO, we always want more. It\u2019s great we hit whatever goal it was, but no matter what, like, \u201cHmm, we probably could have done more.\u201d But you don\u2019t wanna just rain on the parade of the team that just had that great success. So it\u2019s a tricky, tricky thing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Got it. It\u2019s really tricky yeah. Switching gears just a little bit. So I wanna talk about remote hiring. So, you\u2019re quoted in this article about the best practices of managing a remote team. So, I\u2019m gonna read out the quote. \u201cWe hire people that have shown an abnormally high amount of intrinsic drive and motivation. If they have that\u2026\u201d I cannot speak, \u201cThey won\u2019t need to be pushed and told what to do. They\u2019ll own it and run with it on their own.\u201d So I think the biggest question here\u2026I think some listeners will also have the same question, how do you identify these characteristics on the hiring process? Like, what\u2019s the key here? Or is there any particular questions or stages in your process that you feel like super important to make sure that this particular person is a fit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, we don\u2019t have, like, a standard set of questions. As the interview process begins, whoever is actually gonna be interviewing the person\u2026and more often than not, the interviews are remote, you know, they\u2019re video calls. Occasionally, they\u2019re face to face but usually not. At least I know when I\u2019m doing it, it\u2019s more conversation. I just wanna learn about them as a person, learn about their work experience, definitely wanna learn outside of their work experience. So you know, a question like, \u201cWhat do you geek out on? What are your hobbies? Or what are you into?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So if the person does their day job, comes home, and they just watch sports all night long, and just kind of veg out and do nothing, and there\u2019s really no motivation outside of sort of what they\u2019re required to do at work, all right, probably not gonna be a fit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>You know, a few years back, we were interviewing Bridget, who\u2019s on our team, she\u2019s fantastic. And she was still a student at Northwestern University, and she was telling a story\u2026you know, she was on their ultimate frisbee team. And I think she was maybe a junior or maybe a senior or something like that. But, like, the head manager of the ultimate team, I don\u2019t know, they graduated, or the spot was vacant, nobody was taking it, work needed to be done. Nobody asked her. She just started doing all this stuff. And, you know, Northwestern is a crazy good school, so she\u2019s getting great grades, heavy class load. She also has time not only to be on a team but to take a leadership role, a self-assigned leadership role, and just she identified things that needed to get done and she did it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nobody wants the employee that just kind of sits around waiting to be told what to do. And, you know, we probably could have asked Bridget, the question of, \u201cHey, can you give us an example of intrinsic motivation?\u201d And she, probably like anybody, would just stutter a little bit and try and come up with something but probably wouldn\u2019t have answered it well. But just through my normal conversation of, you know, \u201cWhat are your favorite classes? What class don\u2019t you like? Why? What do you do after class?\u201d And somehow we got on ultimate frisbee, and she started telling me about it, and it just kind of came up naturally. So it wasn\u2019t a, \u201cOkay, we need to learn about intrinsic motivation, we need to learn about aptitude,\u201d you know, whatever else. So a lot of it, it\u2019s just coming up in conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yeah, I just try to think of current employees that we have that have done great. And then also on the opposite side, so think of the ones that, you know, maybe haven\u2019t been that great. And, you know, if it\u2019s a student, maybe ask, \u201cOkay, how are you studying to make sure that you do well? What\u2019s your system?\u201d And if you\u2019re at a current job and you hate it, then okay, that\u2019s fine. What are you doing outside of your job to find something you do enjoy? Yeah, and if somebody shows up just too polished, and they\u2019ve got every answer perfect, and it just kind of feels like we\u2019re talking to a robot, then that doesn\u2019t go anywhere as well. We want somebody, you know, that we\u2019re gonna enjoy working with. We\u2019ve gotten a handful of them wrong, but we\u2019ve literally only had one, maybe two people quit in the history\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Got it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026of the company. So that tells me we\u2019re doing something right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0I love how organic the process is. I also want to link it to the fact that\u2026like you mentioned, if you are someone who are looking for a remote job, for example. So I think having some kind of passion or a side project outside of your day-to-day job, well, doesn\u2019t mean you need to burn yourself out, but something that you really like, it doesn\u2019t feel like work, is actually very important. Especially in remote job, like, you\u2019re not working with them, it\u2019s very important to build trust even before the interview starts, even on the resume stage. So you have this trust on this person that this person can get things done, so to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And especially in this day and age where it\u2019s super easy to build an audience. Like I mentioned in the beginning, like, I feel like in the rise of remote work, we\u2019ll have more entrepreneurs will start a company also like creators. This whole creator economy right now with, you know, Shopify, I know Spikeball is on Shopify if I\u2019m not mistaken, and with this Gumroad, and everything. So I really love that. And your process, you take this into account, like, a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I look at Spikeball\u2019s career page. So there\u2019s this\u2026even though you\u2019re not hiring right now, but one thing that really stuck out to me is there\u2019s this part where you say, \u201cYou can join Spikeball if you\u2019re not\u2026\u201d Like this negative thing is always interesting because\u2026which means that there\u2019s a really high, like, intense preference for this particular thing to not show up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So in your webpage, you\u2019re saying that you can\u2026if you wanna join Spikeball, we hope you are not\u2026 I\u2019m actually trying to find that, I actually can\u2019t find it now. Oh, I actually cannot find it. So basically there\u2019s a part where\u2026I think if\u2026I\u2019m paraphrasing here, but basically, don\u2019t be an asshole, don\u2019t be a jerk. And don\u2019t give unsolicited advice to our team members. So I\u2019m curious how do you guys get into this? Like, basically you\u2019re flashing out that these are the kind of person that we don\u2019t want to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, like the unsolicited advice, I think that came just from a pet peeve of mine. Like any entrepreneur, I\u2019m assuming they can relate to this, where you\u2019re out with some friends or you\u2019re out to dinner or something, and somebody learns that you run a company, and they\u2019ll begin a sentence with \u201cYou should\u2026\u201d blank, blank, blank. So what I\u2019ll hear is \u201cOh, Chris, Spikeball, love it. You know, you guys really should go into college, you should start having tournaments, and you should do that.\u201d And all I wanna say is \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing that for years, and by the way, you don\u2019t know anything about my company, so quit telling me what I should do.\u201d But I try to be nice, so I smile, and \u201cOh, thanks, we\u2019ll take it into consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The word \u201cshould\u201d is a word that I have a really hard time with, I think it\u2019s a four-letter word. And people throw it around pretty often, and I know I hate being on the receiving end of it. So if the person had said, \u201cChris, have you guys ever considered college tournaments? I think that\u2019d be pretty cool?\u201d That\u2019s way different than saying, \u201cYou should do this,\u201d you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0You know, the advice thing as well,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I love shared experiences way more than I like advice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So, if somebody says, \u201cChris, in my experience, when I was running a company, I did this really well, and I think that may work for you.\u201d Absolutely right, and I love those kind of conversations. But if it\u2019s, \u201cChris, you should be doing this,\u201d then I\u2019m almost allergic to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I wanna make sure I\u2019m not gonna hire somebody that\u2019s gonna be tapping me on the shoulder a couple of times a day saying, \u201cHey, Chris, do this, you should do this, you should do that.\u201d Like, yeah, we actually had a shareholder that we, unfortunately, had to vote off the island or kind of ask to sell his shares because he did that all the time. He\u2019d just call me up and tell me what to do. I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat?\u201d Like, \u201cNo, I can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So yeah, having the section of sort of what you are not, we\u2019re hoping we can scare away a lot of people. Like, we don\u2019t want hundreds and hundreds of resumes and applications. That takes so much time to go through. It\u2019s a waste of time for the job applicant, and it\u2019s a waste of our time. So if we can just be that much more specific about who we want and who we don\u2019t want, I think that should make life better for both sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the job application as a whole, the descriptions, we get\u2026like, even when we\u2019ll send a note to somebody saying, \u201cHey, thanks for applying. Unfortunately, we didn\u2019t see a match.\u201d You know, \u201cHave a good one,\u201d we\u2019ll get notes from those people, even though we just shot them down, they\u2019ll say, \u201cThank you so much. This was the first interview process or application process where I actually felt like I was talking to a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>You know, we want that human touch, whether it\u2019s our marketing, our product design, or even how we\u2019re interviewing people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>One thing I tell my team is, \u201cI always want somebody to know there\u2019s a human being on the other end.\u201d I don\u2019t want Spikeball to be this faceless company that just really has no soul or anything like that. So you\u2019ll see in the descriptions that we\u2019re kind of having some fun. And you know, I just pulled it up here, so it says, \u201cYou\u2019re not one who cuts off people when they\u2019re speaking, a one-upper, arrogant, an asshole.\u201d Can I say that? \u201cNever wrong, a loud talker, comfortable with the way things are currently done,\u201d blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, right?\u201d There\u2019s some personality to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019re not gonna see that on a job description at Nike, or at Microsoft, or at a giganto company. Great companies, right, they\u2019ve got their own culture. But for us, that sort of thing, we want that personality to be oozing from everything we do, and we think that\u2019s gonna be attractive to the right type of person. It may scare some people away, and if it does, that\u2019s great. That means it\u2019s doing its job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0I find this really fascinating because I\u2019ve talked to a lot of\u2026I found, like, 20 something remote startup people here, and this is like the core of it. As in, you have to communicate well, you know, have deliberate intent. And you have to\u2026when you communicate with remote teams, you have to understand the context or try to be as\u2026to load your communication style with context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0We need to be very intentional, I think you hit the nail on the head, especially with a remote team. Like, if you\u2019ve got everybody coming into the office every day, you know, that culture could go bad pretty quick with a bad hire. But you at least can, like, physically see the interactions between people and just you know, doing a scan of the office, like, \u201cOkay, these three people typically hang out. These two people I can tell can\u2019t stand each other, they\u2019re always at the opposite end.\u201d Like you don\u2019t have that with remote, you know. So hopefully you\u2019re doing video calls, you know, we\u2019re active Basecamp users, we\u2019ve got a retreat twice a year. But yeah, just kind of everybody is involved in most things, it\u2019s a very autonomous culture as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I had very little say in what I was gonna be doing at my former jobs, and that kind of sucked, right? I had no\u2026I wasn\u2019t making decisions, I was more or less being told what to do. So we\u2019re very intentional at Spikeball, where whether it\u2019s your first job out of college or you\u2019ve been working for 20 years, you will most likely be deciding and drawing up that game plan. Whereas a lot of other jobs on your first day, you\u2019re handed that playbook, and you\u2019re told to go execute it. We have no playbook. Almost everybody at Spikeball, their job\u2026they were the first person to hold that job, right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We just hired Ruth last week. Her first day was a week last Monday, and she\u2019s doing marketing in Europe. We\u2019ve never had a marketer in Europe before. So she\u2019s not the type of person, though, that\u2019s gonna say, \u201cOh, guys, how do I do this?\u201d She\u2019s the type of person that\u2019s gonna say, \u201cI\u2019ve never marketed Spikeball in Europe before, but I\u2019m gonna figure it out.\u201d And she\u2019s just scrappy enough where I know she\u2019s gonna start doing it. And that\u2019s exactly the type of person we\u2019re hoping to bring on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Self-sufficiency, in my opinion, is still underrated even in this day and age, so yeah. So one of the things I\u2019m always curious, still related to hiring, when interviewing founders in this podcast, is how they do new employee onboarding. And you shared a bit just now that you have these PowerPoint slides about the Spikeball culture. Can you share a bit more what else there in the onboarding process for new hires?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, perfect example, I\u2019ll continue with Ruth, right. So she started\u2026today is what? Wednesday. Today is Day Number 8 for her. And she\u2019s living in\u2026well, she normally lives in London in city proper, but due to COVID-19, she moved home with her parents to, I believe, a dairy farm in, like, rural England. So she\u2019s trying to get used to living at home with mom and dad while starting a new job. But we\u2019ve got 28 employees, so she will have a one-on-one conversation with all 27 people most likely during her first 2 weeks. And those conversations may be work-related, they may be personal, they can be absolutely anything, but that\u2019s just kind of get to know the people that you work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, she\u2019ll have the paperwork, and insurance, and payroll, and all that stuff. But almost all of that is usually done before her first day on the job. So from the time, you know, somebody accepts, usually they start the job maybe two, three weeks later, we try to get all the paperwork and the BS done before so that when their first day on the job happens, it\u2019s fun stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I need to check with the team to make sure it happened, but we also typically on the first day of the job, if they\u2019re in Chicago or if they\u2019re gonna come here for their first two weeks, sometimes we\u2019ll actually have them come here for the first two weeks, we have a table with all sorts of Spikeball gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>So it\u2019s every Spikeball set, every piece of clothing, a laptop still in a box, and just every\u2026it\u2019s like Christmas morning. Like, you just got all this stuff, and, you know, it\u2019s a really nice way to welcome people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So you get all that stuff, you get a phone call with every single employee. I do a presentation that we call The History of Spikeball. So it\u2019s about an hour and a half. We try to do it face to face. You know, Ruth obviously couldn\u2019t come to town with COVID-19, so we did it remote. But that presentation is one that I created years ago for one of our retreats. I think we maybe only had 10 employees at the time. It was at the end of the retreat, and I said, \u201cHey, guys, I know some of you guys know our story, you know, I\u2019ve heard a lot of different versions of the story, but I put together a quick PowerPoint just kind of telling the story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And I walked everybody through, and it had photos from the early days. And you know, it showed, like, our revenue from Year Number 1, which, I think, it was $10,882, which is what we did in 2008. And the feedback I got was, that was their favorite part of the entire retreat. Everybody loved hearing the old stories and kind of the founding and all that. And Hadas, who heads up our customer service team, she helps run the retreats, and she runs the onboarding. She said, \u201cChris, I think it\u2019d be a great idea\u2026you know, we employees loved that so much. I think it would be very beneficial for every new employee to hear it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So we now have a standing rule that says, All right, no matter what, when everybody starts within their first week or two, I\u2019ll have about an hour and a half of time with them to walk them through.\u201d And it\u2019s pretty cool, like, you know, it shows, you know, revenue from Year 1. It shows when new products came out, when new employees were added, when we were on \u201cShark Tank,\u201d and all this sort of stuff. And it\u2019s a really nice walk-through. Everybody goes to the warehouse as well, that\u2019s kind of cool to see. So, you know, if you\u2019re a remote person, seeing a physical something is actually kind of nice or seeing other employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So usually, when people start, within the first few weeks, they\u2019ll come to Chicago, spend some time with me, even though\u2026you know, we have about six employees in the Chicago area, but everybody works from home, so we don\u2019t see each other that often. But it is very efficient if somebody comes here, they can actually get facetime with that many people, so that\u2019s pretty nice. Go down to the warehouse, they\u2019ll get a tour of that. So they\u2019ll see a gigantic building with just boxes everywhere and forklifts, and that\u2019s kind of cool to see. They\u2019ll probably also be helping work in the warehouse for a couple of hours, like actually putting labels on boxes and doing that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>And it doesn\u2019t matter if that\u2019s a\u2026you know, maybe you\u2019re on marketing, and the warehouse has nothing to do with your job, we still want you to get a taste of that just so you understand sort of most of the business. So, yeah, giving everybody a taste of the entire company, I think, it\u2019s worked well for us rather than, you know if you\u2019re marketing, you\u2019re only gonna hang out with people on the marketing side and only learn about marketing stuff. No, you\u2019re gonna speak with our finance folks, with the operations folks, and with everybody.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So we\u2019ve gotten a lot of compliments from people that have been\u2026you know, their first couple weeks, they\u2019re like, \u201cThis is the last thing I was expecting.\u201d I think almost everybody has terrible stories from other jobs of, you know, onboarding, and, you know, it\u2019s, \u201cOh, I had to do my insurance paperwork, then they messed up payroll,\u201d and then all that like\u2026we\u2019ve got that stuff wrapped up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Got it, yeah, it\u2019s really awesome. So I interviewed the VP of operations for another remote company named Hotjar. So he mentioned to me\u2026I always remember the onboarding process starts when the new hire signed the contract. So that\u2019s where, you know, start buying the laptops and what. So I love that you also have like the similar philosophy on this. So on Day 1, you\u2019re just like Christmas morning and you\u2019re just ready to go. There\u2019s no waiting, \u201cOh, where do I get my laptop?\u201d Oh, there\u2019s this one paperwork that you haven\u2019t signed, you just need to get things done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, getting back to the values, right, surprise, and delight. How can we surprise\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026and delight them on Day 1? How can we make that first impression amazing? I remember my first day at Microsoft, I was handed a three-ring binder, and my manager was out of town for the week. I literally sat in a cubicle reading policies and stuff for five days. It wasn\u2019t until Week Number 2 that I actually, like, got time with my boss. You know, it wasn\u2019t my boss\u2019s fault, like his boss\u2019s boss called him and said, \u201cYou have to be here.\u201d What a miserable way to start though, right? Like that now is setting the tone for the rest of my time there. So again, how can we do the exact opposite of what I learned in my experience is what drives a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0I can almost feel the disdain oozing out from my screen right here. So yeah, we\u2019re almost running out of time. So one question before I let you go. I know this is, like, a weird time right now because most of company are forced to, you know, work remotely. But any advice or messages for companies who are still afraid of hiring remotely probably even after everything goes to normal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0I would\u2026you know, I\u2019m cautious around the advice part because that\u2019s close to the word \u201cshould.\u201d But, I would encourage if you\u2019re very against it\u2026you know, sort of like when you\u2019re learning how to debate right? The first part of it is you wanna debate why you\u2019re for it, and then the second part is you wanna work on the debate why you\u2019re against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>I think people that are against it, they\u2019ve been practicing that debate about why it will never work forever. I don\u2019t think they\u2019ve ever gone through the exercise of how it actually could work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>So let\u2019s pretend we live in a world where you have to do remote forever. What would that world look like? Go through that exercise, put pen to paper and actually, let\u2019s think about it. What are the good things that could actually come from it? A friend of mine runs a company, and they do a lot of, you know, face-to-face sales. And he was telling me\u2026I was asking, I was like, yeah\u2026and he has a traditional office setup. And I was like..this is before COVID-19, I was like, \u201cDo you think work remote could ever work? Like could your salespeople do\u2026could they do it, you know, over the phone or video calls?\u201d Like, \u201cOh, no, no, no. Our relationships, and it has to be face to face, and, you know, that\u2019d never worked for us.\u201d And I think that\u2019s a common response for most people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I talked to him a week or so ago, and his, you know, team has been remote, and he\u2019s like \u201cWe\u2019re doing great, like, I had no idea.\u201d And you know, it was forced on him though. But if it had never been forced, I don\u2019t think he would have been as open to trying. So seeing that there\u2019s company\u2026you know, Spikeball we\u2019re still a tiny company at 28 people, we can make it work. But you know, there\u2019s companies that are thousands of people strong, and they\u2019re remote, and they can do it. Like, I don\u2019t know unless you physically need to be there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think you know, we\u2019re a great example that you can build a culture, a very strong culture where people love working together, remotely. A lot of people think that yeah, you have to be together in order to build those relationships, and we\u2019re together twice a year, and we\u2019ve got fantastic relationships. So that\u2019s my sales pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Chris, this has been an absolute blast. I am definitely surprised and delighted for this podcast interview. It has\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Right. It has been super fun. So, Chris, where can people learn more about you and Spikeball online?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, so, me, personally, my Twitter handle I\u2019m @spikeballchris, that\u2019s Twitter and Instagram. And then just type up Spikeball on any platform, we\u2019re live on all of them. And spikeball.com is our main site. And yeah, when this all is behind us, we\u2019ll get back to having our tournaments. Our next big one that is still in the books is our first ever World Championship taking place in Belgium in end of August-early September we\u2019ll have 20 plus countries there. So love to see you, Jovian, there, and all of your listeners as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0Got it. If you haven\u2019t tried Spikeball, try it, it\u2019s addictive. It\u2019s not that easy to master at the beginning, but once you, like, play it, like, two or three times, absolutely addictive. Spikeball also has an app where you can find other Spikeballers\u2026 Is that a term?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Yep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jovian:<\/strong>\u00a0\u2026on your region. So yeah, check it out. And yeah, you can also play at home, I guess, or in your backyard. So again, Chris, thank you so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chris:<\/strong>\u00a0Absolutely. I appreciate the time. This was fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>You can also try <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/\">Arc<\/a><em>, your<\/em><em> shortcut to the world\u2019s best remote talent:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u26a1\ufe0f Access 450,000 top developers, designers, and marketers <br>\u26a1\ufe0f <em>Vetted and ready to interview<\/em><br>\u26a1\ufe0f Freelance or full-time<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\"><strong>Try Arc and hire top talent now \u2192<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Ruder, founder of Spikeball shared his story of growing the company from a side hustle, 100% remote from day one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thought-leadership"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Shaping Up Your Company&#039;s Culture and Values: Chris Ruder of Spikeball<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chris Ruder, founder of Spikeball shared his story of growing the company from a side hustle, 100% remote from day one.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shaping Up Your Company&#039;s Culture and Values: Chris Ruder of Spikeball\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chris Ruder, founder of Spikeball shared his story of growing the company from a side hustle, 100% remote from day one.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arc Employer Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arcdotdev\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arcdotdev\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-01T15:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-11T05:01:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/spikeball-chris-ruder.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"996\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"556\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arc Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@arcdotdev\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@arcdotdev\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arc Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"41 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arc Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/534b43ea0aa8f80095964abb1228a38f\"},\"headline\":\"Shaping Up Your Company&#8217;s Culture and Values: Chris Ruder of Spikeball\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-01T15:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-11T05:01:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":9415,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/spikeball-chris-ruder.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Thought Leadership\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\\\/\",\"name\":\"Shaping Up Your Company's Culture and Values: Chris Ruder of Spikeball\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/spikeball-chris-ruder.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-01T15:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-11T05:01:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Chris Ruder, founder of Spikeball shared his story of growing the company from a side hustle, 100% remote from day one.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/spikeball-chris-ruder.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/spikeball-chris-ruder.png\",\"width\":996,\"height\":556,\"caption\":\"spikeball chris ruder company values\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Shaping Up Your Company&#8217;s Culture and Values: Chris Ruder of Spikeball\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arc Employer Blog\",\"description\":\"Insights on hiring and remote work\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Arc.dev\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/Arc-alternate-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/Arc-alternate-logo.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Arc.dev\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/arcdotdev\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/arcdotdev\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/arcdotdev\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/arcdotdev\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/c\\\/Arcdotdev\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/534b43ea0aa8f80095964abb1228a38f\",\"name\":\"Arc Team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a0ede409fa33fc8968402c9e39b820b22e501e28ec7700d038eedfc80652d3aa?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a0ede409fa33fc8968402c9e39b820b22e501e28ec7700d038eedfc80652d3aa?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a0ede409fa33fc8968402c9e39b820b22e501e28ec7700d038eedfc80652d3aa?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Arc Team\"},\"description\":\"The Arc team provides articles and expert advice on tech careers and remote work. From helping beginners land their first junior role to supporting remote workers facing challenges at home or guiding mid-level professionals toward leadership, Arc covers it all!\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/developer-blog\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/arcdotdev\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.instagram.com\\\/arcdotdev\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/arcdotdev\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/arcdotdev\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/c\\\/Arcdotdev\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arc.dev\\\/employer-blog\\\/author\\\/arcteam\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Shaping Up Your Company's Culture and Values: Chris Ruder of Spikeball","description":"Chris Ruder, founder of Spikeball shared his story of growing the company from a side hustle, 100% remote from day one.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Shaping Up Your Company's Culture and Values: Chris Ruder of Spikeball","og_description":"Chris Ruder, founder of Spikeball shared his story of growing the company from a side hustle, 100% remote from day one.","og_url":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/","og_site_name":"Arc Employer Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arcdotdev","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arcdotdev","article_published_time":"2020-07-01T15:45:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-06-11T05:01:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":996,"height":556,"url":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/spikeball-chris-ruder.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Arc Team","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@arcdotdev","twitter_site":"@arcdotdev","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Arc Team","Est. reading time":"41 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/"},"author":{"name":"Arc Team","@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/534b43ea0aa8f80095964abb1228a38f"},"headline":"Shaping Up Your Company&#8217;s Culture and Values: Chris Ruder of Spikeball","datePublished":"2020-07-01T15:45:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-11T05:01:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/"},"wordCount":9415,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/spikeball-chris-ruder.png","articleSection":["Thought Leadership"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/","url":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/","name":"Shaping Up Your Company's Culture and Values: Chris Ruder of Spikeball","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/spikeball-chris-ruder.png","datePublished":"2020-07-01T15:45:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-06-11T05:01:05+00:00","description":"Chris Ruder, founder of Spikeball shared his story of growing the company from a side hustle, 100% remote from day one.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/spikeball-chris-ruder.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/spikeball-chris-ruder.png","width":996,"height":556,"caption":"spikeball chris ruder company values"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/shaping-company-culture-values-chris-ruder\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Shaping Up Your Company&#8217;s Culture and Values: Chris Ruder of Spikeball"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/","name":"Arc Employer Blog","description":"Insights on hiring and remote work","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/#organization","name":"Arc.dev","url":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Arc-alternate-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Arc-alternate-logo.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Arc.dev"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arcdotdev","https:\/\/x.com\/arcdotdev","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/arcdotdev\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/arcdotdev","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/Arcdotdev"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/534b43ea0aa8f80095964abb1228a38f","name":"Arc Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a0ede409fa33fc8968402c9e39b820b22e501e28ec7700d038eedfc80652d3aa?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a0ede409fa33fc8968402c9e39b820b22e501e28ec7700d038eedfc80652d3aa?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a0ede409fa33fc8968402c9e39b820b22e501e28ec7700d038eedfc80652d3aa?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","caption":"Arc Team"},"description":"The Arc team provides articles and expert advice on tech careers and remote work. From helping beginners land their first junior role to supporting remote workers facing challenges at home or guiding mid-level professionals toward leadership, Arc covers it all!","sameAs":["https:\/\/arc.dev\/developer-blog\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/arcdotdev","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/arcdotdev\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/arcdotdev","https:\/\/x.com\/arcdotdev","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/Arcdotdev"],"url":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/author\/arcteam\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arc.dev\/employer-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}