Al Pacino, ‘Groundhog Day,’ and Peanut Butter: Rypple’s Company Culture Revealed

We were honored to be named a finalist for one of the leading innovation and business development showcases in Silicon Valley — Dealmaker Media’s upcoming “Under the Radar.”

This year’s conference, which begins November 9, is focused on how companies can employ Rypple and other social platforms to leverage the potential of the cloud. Our co-CEO Daniel Debow will be presenting Rypple to a distinguished panel of judges.

In preparation for next week’s showcase, the folks at “Under the Radar” asked us fill out a survey introducing our company and our culture. Here is what we came up with…

1. What are three words that describe your company? 
Disruptive, social, transparent

2. If your company was a movie, which one would it be and why? 
The Bill Murray classic “Groundhog Day,” in which Murray relived the same day over and over until he learned to change; before Rypple, performance management was stuck reliving its own Groundhog Day. We want to help managers and teams get better, faster — and enjoy doing it.

3. What three things should we know about your company? 
1) We’re a social performance management platform; 
 2) we’re social, fun, and easy-to-use; 
 3) we help Facebook, Gilt Groupe, and other high performing organizations do what great managers have always done: coach people to achieve their goals, recognize great work; and give continuous feedback.

4. If you could give a TED Talk, what would it be about? 
How a social, transparent workplace encourages collaboration, fosters employee engagement, and drives business performance.

5. What Hollywood star would play your CEO? 
We have 2 co-CEOS: Jake Gyllenhaal (Daniel Debow) and a young Al Pacino (David Stein).

6. What one piece of advice would you give to other entrepreneurs? 
Don’t try to change existing behavior; deliver a product or service that amplifies an existing behavior and makes it more efficient.

7. Which other internet startup do you respect the most? 
Facebook

8. Who’s the most impressive founder you’ve ever met and why? 
Marc Benioff. We’re inspired by his vision for making a positive impact on the world.

9. Which industry would you like to disrupt the most? 
 Performance management

10. Who’s the most visionary developer you’ve ever encountered? 
Eric Ries

11. What’s the first website you check out every day? 
The New York Times, Andrew Sullivan

12. If you could have dinner with any living person in the world, who would it be? 
Pino Paladino.

13. What’s the first thing you’ll do when you make your first billion dollars? 
Find a way to give something back to other aspiring entrepreneurs

14. What’s your theme song? 
Think (FREEDOM) sung by Aretha Franklin

15. If you ran a startup book club, what would be the first MUST READ book? 
Lean Manufacturing by Taiichi Ohno

16. What is your favorite “just for fun” blog? 
Gawker’

17. Whose Twitter feed inevitably makes you laugh? 
The Onion

18. What food has your startup required to fuel itself? 
Rice cakes with peanut butter

19. What’s the biggest misconception about founding a startup? 
That it doesn’t require real big company business savvy

20. What’s been your favorite moment since starting your company? 
When someone tweets the word “love” about us. It’s sweet.