Avatars, Pirate Lingo, and the Cadet Program: How Pirate Ship Built a Single-Digit Turnover Culture — With Diego Lugli

Just from looking the outside in, I would agree, and I feel like you guys can probably teach a master class in how to do that.

Oh, I don't know about that, but [laughs] we could try.

But there's a lot of like, or there's been a lot of trial and error with it, but a lot of it really is the people too.

Like I think, I think the people really value their part in building the culture.

You know, like- Speaking of Hey Taco, like when I joined the company, the taco culture was already there.

You know? The, it wasn't like it started growing after I got there.

Like, I remember immediately when I arrived, I was getting barraged with tacos for like, "Hey, welcome aboard," stuff.

And, and so it, the, the, there's a piece of, of a successful culture like Pirateship that really has to do with the people you bring in and how they can organically s- you know, scale it up.

It has to sort of feel authentic.

I think, I think a l- a lot of times where, where my struggle is, is when companies try to like architect something that can only be done organically.

Mm-hmm.

There's a, there's a feeling of almost like fakeness to it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right? And so I would credit a lot of our success to our crew and how they've, what they've done to move the culture.

It's not just leadership.

You know, obviously leadership has a big part in it, but it's really a, a you know, top-down, bottom-up, like it's a circle.

And, and our crew really take it and go.

Yeah.

I remember when I talked to Joshua, one of your pirates, and a Hey Taco Hall of Famer-

Yes

... about his giving experience, and I just remember getting off the call and chatting with my team.

I said, "This person's amazing, and you can tell that the team that they work with is also amazing," just from three minutes on the call.

Just the things he shared about how he loves to give tacos, and there's so many things to notice on the team.

You could feel the authenticity and just the genuine enjoyment of who he's working with.