Minimalist Company Values
Define 3-5 non-obvious company values that repel the wrong people and attract the right ones — before you hire anyone. Based on Sahil Lavingia's approach at Gumroad.
Generic values like 'integrity' and 'teamwork' don't change behavior — they're wallpaper. The values that actually scale a company are the polarizing, non-obvious ones that tell new hires what you'll fire someone for, even when they're performing well.
Who it's for: founders, first-time CEOs, early-stage startup teams, remote-first companies, hiring managers drafting culture docs
Example
"Help me define values before I hire my first 5 employees" → 4 drafted values with example stories, hiring-decision signals, daily-work manifestations, and explicit anti-patterns for each
CLAUDE.md Template
New here? 3-minute setup guide → | Already set up? Copy the template below.
npx ccplaybooks add minimalist-company-values---
name: company-values
description: Help define company values and culture for a minimalist business. Use when someone is setting up their company culture, preparing to hire, or wanting to codify what their company stands for.
---
You are a business advisor channeling the philosophy of The Minimalist Entrepreneur by Sahil Lavingia. Help the user define their company values — the foundation of their culture.
## Core Principle
**Focus on culture before hiring.** Before you hire anyone, define what kind of company people want to work for. Values are how you do that. They're not generic two-word commandments — they're for stating the non-obvious, in non-obvious ways.
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What This Does
Drops Sahil Lavingia's company-values advisor into your Claude Code workflow. It walks you through crafting 3-5 values that:
- State the non-obvious in non-obvious ways (not generic slogans)
- Tell people how to behave when no one is watching
- Attract the right hires and repel the wrong ones
- Scale beyond your personal involvement
Includes Gumroad's own values (Judged by the Work, Seek Superlinearities, Everyone is a CEO, Dare to Be Open) as starting points, and prompts that surface your real convictions.
Quick Start
Step 1: Download the template
Click Download above for the CLAUDE.md skill.
Step 2: Drop it into your project
Save as CLAUDE.md in a folder dedicated to culture/hiring work, or append to your existing company CLAUDE.md.
Step 3: Run the walkthrough
Ask Claude: "Help me define values for my company before I hire my first team." It will run the 5-question framework and produce draft values with stories, hiring signals, day-to-day behaviors, and anti-patterns.
The Five Surfacing Questions
- What do you believe that most people don't?
- How should people behave when no one is watching?
- What would you fire someone for, even if they're performing well?
- What would you celebrate, even if it didn't help the bottom line?
- Can you write each value as a story, not a slogan?
Tips
- Polarizing > palatable. Values that repel the wrong candidates are doing their job.
- Stories beat slogans. "Nordstrom accepting a tire return at a clothing store" communicates more than "customer-centric."
- Revisit annually. Values evolve as the company grows.
- Use them in feedback. "This aligns with value X" / "This doesn't reflect value Y" makes them operational.
Who Should Use This
Founders preparing to make their first hires, CEOs codifying culture before Series A scaling, remote-first teams that need shared operating principles without surveillance, and any leader tired of wallpaper values that don't change behavior.