As a founder turned CEO, there is rarely a topic more top of mind than company culture.

For outsiders, a high-intensity, high-functioning culture is difficult to understand. One can easily point to tangibles, such as a stocked bar and Pop-A-Shot machine, but will always struggle to understand the unique nuances that allow a diverse group of talented people to come together and produce abnormal returns.

To that end, I’m doubtful anyone can accurately depict culture with a great quote and a few soundbites, but I’ll give it a shot. Proceed with caution.

“Working on this team is like being a part of an orchestra playing a symphony. There are ups and downs. Each person impacts the harmony. It is really quite something being a part of something so intricate, watching everything unfold into something beautiful. I, along with everyone else on the team, just give it all that we have.” -Perrin Westrich, VP of Engineering at LockerDome, as quoted in Fast Company

Quality, quantity and impact on team. While working at LockerDome, we expect you to do the best work of your life with an incredibly high output, all while helping your teammates do the same. If you cannot commit to this, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Aptitude and appetite trump experience. Never underestimate someone’s ability to learn your skills and information set overnight. This is why the best results tend to come from the hungry and capable nobodies over the experienced somebodies. Case in point, nearly all team leads first joined LockerDome at entry-level positions.

It’s about what you can do. We have zero patience for those wanting to play startup. To work here, you must produce tangible value: build, sell, and/or help us optimize. And when you create value, you are always rewarded.

We love scoreboards. Champions love scoreboards, because they’re confident they can finish on top. To this end, we rigorously measure everything, from company to individual performance.

We do whatever it takes. We are here to win. We’re responsible for creating a positive return on people’s time, reputation points, and money. We operate with integrity, but beyond that, do whatever it takes to get the job done.

We work smart and hard. Working smarter, not harder, is something lazy people say to rationalize mediocrity. World-class professionals are incredibly effective with their time, and put in a lot of it.

We focus intensely. If you want to become world class at something, you must focus intensely on one goal at a time. This is the primary reason why future Olympians live at training facilities.

We value well-processed, original thinking. We read voraciously, but don’t try to speak on a topic until we’ve done our own original thinking. We recognize there is a major difference between regurgitation and intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to process data and apply your learnings better than those around you.

We are bold, but flexible. We encourage deep discussions, but remain flexible enough to recognize that the only decision that matters is the right one, irrespective of origin and authorship.

We move as a single unit. When a decision is made, we move in unison and with speed. When we’re right, this allows us to maximize the value we extract. When we’re wrong, it ensures multiple shots on goal.

We operate without excuses. We all screw up. Excuse-free apologies go a long way to offset this.

We strive for best net impact. Each employee operates with the care and knowledge that they’re a key resource in a larger system with the ability to directly and indirectly impact the overarching goals of everyone: their team, company, market sector, world, and so forth.

We position for life beyond LockerDome. We don’t hire employees who want to spend their entire careers in one place. Rather, we hire the world’s future leaders. We want to serve as an accelerant to your career, catapulting you to create a positive impact far beyond this company’s direct reach.

Our leaders take out the trash (literally). Never ask someone to do anything you are not willing to do yourself. This is the first — and most important — rule for running a team at LockerDome.

We respect others’ time. When not in meetings, we’re incredibly responsive, internally and externally. When attending a meeting, we show up on time and pay attention, tuning out all external distractions.

We welcome weird. We are far from “normal.” Perhaps this is what makes us great at our jobs. Regardless, our oddities make us welcoming to others that might struggle to fit in elsewhere.