Why Slush Exists

At Slush, trust is not earned, it can only be lost. From your first day as a Slusher, every person will believe in you more than you believe in yourself.We show this trust in ways that set us apart from most workplaces:

• Slush trusts you more than you do. To complete our work, we first ask ourselves “can I do this myself”, and only then ask for help. More often than not, we learn something very useful along the way.
• At Slush, leadership is a division of responsibilities, not an expression of hierarchy or a command chain. We trust every Slusher to act as the founder of their own domain. This means taking full ownership of projects, planning your work, challenging the status quo, and making decisions as if Slush were your own venture.
• Decisions should be made as close to the team as possible and by the person who owns the corresponding domain. We trust each other to seek out the necessary perspective to make an informed decision, and even after heated debate, once a decision is made, we expect our colleagues to stand behind it.
• We recognise that while we’re at Slush, we have been put in charge of a project that is not our own. Each year, the team is trusted to shape the company and event to look like their own. We strive for leaving Slush and our own domain in better shape than we found it.

To achieve world-class results, two things are essential: A) Understanding what excellence looks like and actively pursuing it, and B) Holding each other accountable to the mindset that "if the basics aren't right, nothing else matters."

To that end, we maintain high standards for ourselves in doing the basics right:

• Clarity. We believe everything is “work in progress” and therefore document and share our work publicly for feedback already ****before it’s ready. We recognise the difference between half-done and half-thought: we ask the right questions while providing the needed context, instead of making our colleagues to do the thinking for us. Clarity and complexity can rarely be reconciled verbally—therefore, we default to writing.
• Communication. The most common root cause of failure at Slush is unclear or insufficient communication. We always show up on time, communicate promptly, and close the loop—both internally and externally. If we are unsure, we say “I’ll figure it out and get back to you.” We put extra effort into documentation because we know it’s a gift to current and future Slushers.
• Leadership. We recognise that the most important job of leaders at Slush is to reduce complexity. We help our teams do intentional, clear and specific work. We ask “why?” over and over again. Whenever needed, we get our hands dirty and tackle the challenge together. This way, we set our teams up for success.
• Prioritization. We separate what truly moves the needle and what is noise, and focus on the former. When tackling complex tasks, we break them down into actionable steps. We understand that there is always more work to be done than hours available to do it. Therefore, we actively take time to prioritise, deprioritise, and plan our work.
• Frugality. We are frugal like a startup, and default to solving problems with creativity over budget. Whenever it makes a difference, we are ready to do things that don’t scale. We want to ensure that money is being spent where it has the most impact for our core customers.

Over the past decade, Slush has grown from a local gathering into the world's leading startup event: a remarkable achievement for a team of inexperienced students and recent graduates. However, the ecosystem is ever-evolving, and we must be too. Stagnation and reliance on past successes are sure paths to irrelevance.

Therefore, we must constantly evaluate our work from first principles, as if nothing had come before us. Every day, we must answer questions that haven’t been asked before. Equally, we don’t hire people who can execute a checklist—we hire those who can throw it out the window and redefine what success looks like in their role. Concretely, this means we don’t rely on an existing playbook; instead

• We ask what the startup ecosystem truly needs and how Slush can answer that need.
• We reimagine how Slush works and make it memorable both for newcomers and returning attendees.

We ask over and over again, 'Why does this matter?', 'Why are we doing this?', and 'What's next?', because at Slush, every day is Day 1.*We understand the importance of using our resources , especially time and money, wisely, and not reinventing the wheel for concepts that already work. Instead, we focus our efforts on aspects that truly need redefining.

We care deeply for our work, our colleagues, founders and the surrounding startup ecosystem. Work at Slush is about us, not me. We are curious to get to know our team members, and proactively ask how they are doing. Even if in a hurry, we take time to pause and listen.

Caring takes many formats in the Slush team:

• We win and lose as a team, and help beyond our own responsibilities. We own our failures and embrace them as collective opportunities to learn. Internally, we spread positive news through channels like #posiposiposi and celebrate our colleagues both in public and private.
• We give and ask for candid feedback to help each other grow. By giving and receiving feedback, we're able to create a feeling of accomplishment, foster personal and professional growth, and resolve issues proactively.
• We steer clear of gossip and encourage giving feedback directly by asking “have you said this to...?”. When encountering something uncomfortable or against our culture, we don’t close our eyes but run towards the pain.
• We know that doing what’s best for Slush translates into maximal personal learning for ourselves. To pursue our mission, we actively put founders first in everything we do. It means that we obsess about solving founders’ problems at all stages, from pre-seed to exit and everything in between.
• Our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and sustainability guides every decision we make, demonstrating our care for and dedication to improving the European startup ecosystem.