Wife asked the other day what’s the major difference I observed between working at Ginger/HH than the previous companies.
I have been fortunate to work with companies that had a culture and history of 150+ years with 100,000 employees, companies that were 20-year-old startups, and then a real start-up that was going through a major pivot when I joined.
Through all these transitions I have seen hundreds of differences in how these companies operate. However, when I was talking to my wife, without giving a second thought I said at well-established companies you only take responsibility for what you are assigned and there are always other people to help you out, but at startups, in addition to whatever you are doing you also take responsibility of things that are not assigned to you or nobody wants to do, do them with the same level of diligence and ensure at the end there are other members in the team who are equally capable of doing that in your absense.
She seemed satisfied, so I will count this as a satisfactory answer.