Whatnot

These 11 principles guide how we work, how we hire, and how we make decisions. They’re not aspirational. They’re how things actually run here.

1. Always listen to customers
Everyone at Whatnot buys, sells, and goes live. Not as a perk, but because you can’t build for people you don’t understand. Decisions start with what our community is telling us, not what we assume they want.

2. Move uncomfortably fast
The pace here is genuinely fast. You’ll ship in days what your last company shipped in months. Done is better than perfect, but done doesn’t mean sloppy. We deliver good work, quickly.

3. Prioritize impact ruthlessly
There are thousands of good ideas we could work on. We only work on the ones that matter most. If what you’re doing isn’t clearly high-impact, you stop and find what is. We don’t optimize button colors. We solve the biggest problems for our users and our business.

4. Own everything and nothing
When you own something, you own the whole outcome, not just your piece of it. You don’t stop at your scope and wait for someone else to close the gap. At the same time, ownership isn’t territory. Other people will work in your area if it drives more impact.

5. Set unreasonably high goals
We set goals we’re not sure we can hit. If we’re achieving everything, we’re not thinking big enough. The sweet spot is hitting about half. That might sound uncomfortable if you’re used to environments where goals are set to be met.

6. Provide extreme transparency
We share board decks, financial metrics, and honest feedback openly. Everyone has access to the information they need to make good decisions. We don’t hide bad news, and we expect you to share yours.

7. Optimize for upside
We make bets because of the opportunity, not in spite of the risk. Most risks never materialize, and planning for all of them upfront slows everything down. We’d rather start small, move fast, and solve problems as they come up.

8. Team over ego
Your decisions should be guided by what’s best for the team, not your career. If someone else is better equipped to lead something, let them. Give credit generously. Disagree openly, then commit fully once a decision is made. There’s no room for politics or empire-building here.

9. Figure it out
You will hit problems nobody at Whatnot has solved before. That’s the job. We don’t expect you to solve everything alone, but we do expect you to own finding the answer, whether that means digging in yourself or pulling in the right people.

10. Deeply understand why
We move fast, but not blindly. Before you build, you understand why you’re building it. If the rationale doesn’t hold up, you push back or change course. ‘Because so-and-so said so’ is never a good enough reason. If you don’t understand the why, it’s your job to ask until you do.

11. Have fun & be kind
The work is hard, the people are great (and funny). We take the work seriously without taking ourselves seriously. Being kind doesn’t mean avoiding tough feedback. It means delivering it with empathy.