9GAG Culture

Live Our Values - H2O

Hustle

“Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.” — Thomas Edison

Our interpretation of Hustle is Smart Work plus Hard Work. We believe Hustling is a journey. Hustling is in those who explore the smartest means whilst going all-in to achieve the set goals.

Hustling also means ownership, entrepreneurship, and the crave for driving a bigger impact.

Humble

“A true genius admits that he knows nothing.” — Albert Einstein

Learn, un-learn and re-learn.

At 9GAG, we stay humble. We believe learning comes from self-awareness, self-reflection and self-improvement. We always keep an open mind and embrace the better ideas of others. Only through that we can continue to learn and grow. 

Open

“Seek first to understand, then be understood.” — Stephen Covey

Openness is a two-way street. It starts with  ‘Active Listening’ and ‘Speaking Up’.

Openness is taking initiative to voice out, giving constructive feedback and being collaborative in creating better work.

We celebrate diversity of thoughts to make 9GAG a better workplace.

Practice Our Beliefs

Active Listening

Is…

  • paying full attention

  • being patient

  • accepting people have their own point of view

  • asking questions to understand the person’s perspective

Is not…

  • thinking about how you want to respond

  • interrupting the other person

  • trying to win an argument

  • asking questions to reveal the other’s flaw

Speaking Up

Is…

  • taking initiative by voicing out

  • understanding it’s safe to speak your mind

  • giving constructive and actionable feedback

  • trusting reason beats hierarchy

Is not…

  • telling yourself “let me voice it out later”

  • worrying it’s not appropriate to voice things out

  • being afraid of being judged

  • personal attacks 

Focus on Impact

We put our focus on solving the most important problems and creating more meaningful changes to the world.

High Performance

We rate small teams of high performers over big teams of average performers.

Working Backwards

Always start with the desired problem you set to solve.

Set measurable results and plan backwards.

Users > Team > Individual

Judgement should be based around the needs of our users. Our mission is to make the world happier. Users are our world. 

A hires A, B hires C

We hire people bigger and better than us so we can grow ourselves into a company of giants, not dwarfs.

Thought Diversity

No individuals can be cloned. We recruit and leverage on our unique talents to bolster the company.

Team Vs Family

A team’s common goal is winning, a family’s isn’t.

A team brings on board accountability, competition and feedback.

In a team’s context, the sense of family discourages competition, lower expectations and creates complacency. 

Take ownership

The company is as good as our teammates. We empower everyone at 9GAG to act their own boss and own every decision and achievement, big or small.