What Mariners, Seafarers, and Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Netflix's Culture Deck
- Prateek Khanna
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Over the last 14 years as an entrepreneur, I have built India's largest chess training platform and collaborated with exceptional people across industries (with my current role as founder of DMET Club & Director (Strategy & Planning), Yugen Infra).
But one document that has left a lasting impact on how I think about team building, leadership, and scaling ventures is the Netflix Culture Deck.
For mariners turning entrepreneurs—those transitioning from sea to startup life—this is not just another management philosophy. It’s a culture blueprint that challenges traditional thinking and pushes us to build better teams, lead with integrity, and operate with clarity and boldness.
Having spent years on sea, mariners are used to structure, hierarchy, and well-defined SOPs. But once ashore, the rules change. Especially in a startup environment where agility, creativity, and innovation take center stage.
The Netflix culture framework gives us a playbook to thrive in this new ecosystem.
Let’s explore what mariners-turned-founders can learn from Netflix, with practical, relatable examples drawn from startup life.
1. Values Are What We Value
Onboard a ship, discipline, safety, and chain of command are paramount. But when running a startup, the values shift from procedural compliance to creative decision-making and cultural alignment.
Netflix’s point is clear: Values are not slogans. They’re behaviors you reward and tolerate. At Enron, "Integrity" was on posters, yet the leadership committed fraud. Netflix insists that values are revealed by who you promote and who you let go.
Startup scenario: You’ve built a SaaS product to help ports digitize documentation. Your early backend developer writes great code but mocks others in meetings. Do you keep them for their skills or let them go to preserve team harmony?
Action: Set your founding values early. If you value collaboration, humility, or initiative—hire and fire by them.
2. Freedom and Responsibility
Unlike the rigid schedules and reporting systems on a vessel, startups flourish with trust, flexibility, and ownership. Netflix operates on this belief.
There are no policies on vacation or working hours—only one guideline: "Act in Netflix’s best interest."
Example for mariner-founders: In your marine recruitment tech startup, let your lead recruiter choose hiring partners without checking with you on each candidate. Set targets and budgets—then trust them.
Deeper lesson: Remove the anchor of over-control. Empower people to be decision-makers. You’ll attract self-starters and innovators.
3. High Performance is Non-Negotiable
Netflix doesn’t compromise on performance. You’re either a star or you’re respectfully exited.
The Keeper Test: If this person resigned tomorrow, would I fight to keep them?
Example: You co-founded a B2B maritime services firm. Your sales head is great with legacy clients but struggles with new tools. You’ve coached them repeatedly with no progress. Apply the Keeper Test.
Next step: Part ways gracefully. Create space for someone who aligns with your future, not your past.
4. Context, Not Control
Mariners are trained to follow orders. But entrepreneurs must learn to lead through vision, not command.
Netflix gives employees context—market trends, company goals, key metrics—and lets them decide the how.
Example: You’re launching a ship supply marketplace. Instead of approving every vendor onboarding, explain your marketplace philosophy, quality benchmarks, and customer value expectations. Let your category manager operate freely.
Tip: Good teams don’t need to be told what to do. They need to understand why it matters.
5. Highly Aligned, Loosely Coupled
In shipping, everything must be tightly coupled. In startups, it’s different. You need alignment on goals—but freedom in execution.
Netflix achieves speed and scale through this. Departments are synced on vision, but each team acts autonomously.
Example: You’re building an AI-enabled route optimisation tool. Your tech team and marketing team need to know who the target customer is, but don’t need to sit in daily sync calls. They execute their plans independently, checking in periodically.
Takeaway: Avoid bottlenecks. Empower speed. Enable trust.
6. Pay Top of Market
Netflix pays what the market demands—not based on internal parity or annual increments.
Startup translation: If your product manager is critical to your GTM strategy and other startups are offering them 50% more, match it if you want to retain them.
Real-world application: You’re a mariner-founder who raised angel funding for your vessel monitoring startup. Offer your core developer ₹30L+ if that’s what it takes to retain them. It’s cheaper than finding, onboarding, and realigning a new hire.
Key insight: One great hire > three average ones. Pay accordingly.
7. Promotions & Development
Netflix promotes only when three conditions are met:
The role has expanded.
The person is excellent.
They embody cultural values.
Startup reality: Your first hire has been with you since MVP days. They’ve done admin, marketing, and customer support. But now you need a structured COO. Don’t promote based on loyalty. Promote based on fit.
Tip: Honor early contributions with equity or bonuses—not inflated roles.
8. Brilliant Jerks Don’t Belong
Brilliance is no excuse for bad behavior. Netflix draws a hard line.
Startup example: Your UI/UX consultant designs beautifully but insults developers, delays handoffs, and undermines your product lead.
Decision: Thank them for their contribution and move on. No matter how brilliant, jerks destroy culture.
Why this matters: Startups succeed because of high trust. Protect it fiercely.
9. Minimize Process, Maximize Impact
Netflix removed vacation policies, expense policies, and even dress codes.
For your company: Don’t create process bloat. For a team of under 20, do you really need approval chains for ₹5,000 spends? Or weekly review meetings with no agenda?
Action: Replace process with purpose. Build systems only when chaos demands it.
10. Flexibility Beats Efficiency
Efficiency is great until the market shifts. Then flexibility wins.
Startup context: You’ve built a dashboard for port operators. Suddenly blockchain-based documentation picks up. Can your team pivot? Or are they stuck in optimizing current features?
Netflix survived DVD to streaming. Will you survive industry waves?
11. Rapid Recovery > Error Prevention
Ship operations teach us to avoid errors. Startups teach us to embrace and learn from them.
Netflix believes in fixing mistakes fast, not avoiding them entirely.
Advice: Let your team run quick experiments, fail fast, and course correct. Create a post-mortem culture, not a blame culture.
12. Compensation = Market Value
Netflix pays people based on what they’re worth outside the company—not their job title.
Example: Your customer success lead closes renewals worth crores. Their title says “Manager,” but their impact is CXO-level. Reassess their pay.
Startup mindset shift: You’re building a team of athletes, not bureaucrats. Align comp with value.
Final Thoughts: Building Your Own Culture of Excellence
Whether you're building an edtech platform, a port logistics tech firm, or a platform for seafarer wellness—the Netflix culture deck gives you a compass.
Promote radical honesty and radical kindness.
Hire like your life depends on it. It does.
Pay generously, fire kindly, and lead transparently.
Build a company you’d fight to stay at.
Key quote:
"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to gather wood and give orders—teach them to yearn for the sea." – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
At DMET Club, we believe mariners have every trait needed to lead in business—discipline, resilience, adaptability. What they need is the right lens to build teams and cultures that thrive beyond the sea.
Let’s build ventures we’re proud of. Let’s hire stars. Let’s lead like Netflix.
Because when you build a crew of stars, no wave is too high.
With gratitude to the creators of the Netflix Culture Deck. And with hope that more maritime-born startups embrace these values.
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