Coinbase is a mission focused company: Brian Armstrong

In an official blog, Brian Armstrong wrote, cleared about the intentions of Coinbase. There have been a lot of difficult events in the world this year: a global pandemic, shelter in place, social unrest, widespread protests and riots, and west coast wildfires. There seems to be additional bad news every day, including recent events regarding Breonna Taylor. On top of that we have a contentious U.S. election on the horizon.

Everyone is asking the question about how companies should engage in broader societal issues during these difficult times, while keeping their teams united and focused on the mission. Coinbase has had its own challenges here, including employee walkouts. I decided to share publicly how I’m addressing this in case it helps others navigate a path through these challenging times.

In short, I want Coinbase to be laser focused on achieving its mission, because I believe that this is the way that we can have the biggest impact on the world. We will do this by playing as a championship team, focus on building, and being transparent about what our mission is and isn’t.

During difficult times I think it’s important to go back to the guideposts we’ve established, like our culture doc, mission, and values.

One of the tenets of the Coinbase culture doc is to play like a championship team. What does this mean?

• Be company first: We act as #OneCoinbase, putting the company’s goals ahead of any particular team or individual goals.
• Act in service of the greater mission: We have united as a team to try and accomplish something that none of us could have done on our own.
• Default to trust: We assume positive intent amongst our teammates, and assume ignorance over malice. We have each other’s backs.
• Focus on what unites us, not what divides us: We help create a sense of cohesion and unity, by focusing on what we have in common, not where we disagree, especially when it’s unrelated to our work.
• Sustained high performance: As compared to a family, where everyone is included regardless of performance, a championship team makes a concerted effort to raise the bar on talent, including changing out team members when needed.