What Do Our Values Mean?
At Romulus, our seven values form the core of what we do, from investing to business-building to hiring. We recently made our values a focal point of our office décor, so everyone who steps foot inside Romulus HQ — from employees to entrepreneurs — can see what we’re all about.
But in practice, what do these words mean? How do we bring our values to life? Read on to see how each takes shape (and if the combination is appealing to you, drop us a line — we’re hiring!).
Authentic
At Romulus, our passion for entrepreneurship is genuine. Our partners are current, not former, entrepreneurs, and their authentic empathy and excitement for founders and the work they do is an important part of what makes us who we are.
We’re attracted to that same authenticity in the companies with which we partner: we look for teams with a genuine energy for and belief in the work they’re doing. Often, that means that founding teams have created products or platforms that solve problems they’ve personally experienced or researched. Our focus on authenticity means that we also value transparency, truthfulness, and trust, and we seek those traits in the companies in our portfolio, the LPs in our funds, and the employees on our team.
Audacious
Romulus’ founding story is, in some ways, a case study in audacity. Founder Krishna K. Gupta started Romulus while an MIT undergrad in 2008: in the midst of the Great Recession, and despite frequent declarations that he was crazy to do so. But that audacity, coupled with his authentic vision of building companies rather than betting on them, paid off. Without that first audacious move (or, truly, first series of audacious moves), Romulus would not be the firm that it has become over the past decade.
We continue to treasure a spirit of audacity in our own work and in the companies we support. We’re drawn to businesses that are leveraging technology to enable old-fashioned industries — and upending industries is certainly audacious. We love helping companies make bold moves to solve big problems.
Engineering
Our firm’s philosophy and practice always return to our focus: that we strive to build companies from the earliest stages — not bet on them. Our engineering approach to business-building has differentiated us; rather than make a series of small bets, we become deeply entrenched with companies to help them engineer solid foundations and secure the best possible outcomes, from their earliest days.
Global
We are and have been a global business for a decade. Our investor base comprises limited partners from 22 countries on 5 continents, and that reach has been an intentional focus from day one. As a firm, we’ve long been appreciative of how global perspectives could help us understand different ecosystems and the various ways in which success is perceived around the world. Our global focus has secured strong relationships for us in key markets, which have been and will continue to be instrumental to the success of several of our portfolio companies.
More abstractly, we encourage our team to have a global sense of vision. We set our aims and expectations high, and we constantly push ourselves to seek further, higher, and better.
Creative
Romulus has always been a firm focused on creating something new. At the time of our founding, we created a new kind of early-stage venture capital, which sought to build strong foundations for our companies from their earliest days. We always aspire to create: create value, create cultures, create products and companies that can shape the future.
We thus seek people who are creative in their approaches to challenges, and who can envision a future that looks different from what they know today. We are drawn to people who want to create something new, and who have the drive, the passion, and the audacity to turn their ideas into creations.
Executing
While we value creativity and audacity of thought, we also commensurately emphasize the importance of execution. We seek to achieve efficient outcomes in the work we do both in our own firm and with our portfolio. We look for people who can balance big ideas and creative thoughts with incredible tactical skills.
Relationship-driven
While a large part of our business focuses on understanding technology, business principles, and numbers, venture capital is at its core a relationship-driven industry. When we make investments, we are investing in people — people with innovative ideas and game-changing products, certainly, but people nonetheless. We don’t take the privilege of working with so many incredible minds and inspiring personalities lightly, and we treasure the relationships we’ve crafted over time. We look for people who equally value good people, and we know that ultimately, regardless of the advances we see in technology over the years, our success will hinge on humans.
These values work in concert to define us, our work, and our spirit. If they’re attractive to you, head over to our careers page and see if there’s a fit on our team for you.
