#191 - Nico Blier Silvestri, CEO of Platypus - on building thriving cultures

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to shape the conditions where everyone can come to work in an environment that’s right for them. My guest is Nico Blier Silvestri, Co-Founder and CEO of Platypus.

Nico has an extremely diverse and robust 15-year career in recruitment, working at industry-leading companies, including Yahoo!, Trust Pilot, and Unity. He's been pioneering his own brand of culture-centric recruitment. Through his time as Chief People Officer, Strategic Business Advisor, and Director of Talent, Nico has now channeled his business and recruitment insights into Platypus

His experience has taught him that company culture is at the core of every step of an employee journey, from attraction to management, to retention.

He believes that culture is democratic. That all employees have an impact on the culture of an organization, bringing their personal values as cultural drivers - and that company culture is not defined by top-down values but by everyday actions.

He believes every organization is different, and so are people; there is no right or wrong, it is all about finding the right place.

This became the founding principle of Platypus, which Nico leads as their CEO.

It's on a mission to help organizations understand their culture better and make sure every employee, whether current or future, has the opportunity to prosper.

This inspired me, and hence I invited Nico to my podcast. We explore what's broken in the market when it comes to building thriving cultures. We discuss that's very much a management issue - and what difference can be made if technology and people blend in the right way. Nico shares his stories about the journey he's been through in taking the Platypus from an initial vision to where it is today. He shares the mistakes he made and explains how we overcame some big hurdles to get to Product-Market Fit and create a solution that makes a significant difference in the eyes of his customers.

Here are some of his quotes:

My big picture genuinely is to kill bullshit branding. I'm exhausted from looking at videos or organizations advertising themselves. It's all the time the same. Put another logo, there's nothing genuine and honest about the reality of this. It's not helping the organization. and it's certainly not helping the candidates or the people outside.

Secondly, we really want to achieve is for people to find the right organization for them to work in. That's the whole idea with Platypus. Platypus is this amazing animal that probably shouldn't exist because it's so specific. But in the right environments, in the right setup, it's happy, it's thriving, and it exists and it's evolving. That's why for us we call it Platypus because it's all about finding the right environment for the person.

During this interview, you will learn four things:

1. That a critical lever for success is positive conflict. You don't need people that agree with you. You don't need to hear what you've just said in a different voice.
2. Remove the ego from leadership. You're not in a leadership position because you're right all the time. You're in a leadership position because you're the best at getting the best out of people.
3. That as a CEO, you want to go so fast, and you're so sold into your own idea that it's critical to have people that are not you making decisions on the product.
4. How to go about making the decision to kill your product, and start all over again.

For more information about the guest from this week:

• Nico Blier Silvestri
• Website Platypus