Dream11 – Episode 3

Professor: How does a company differentiate itself?

Students: Profits, Monopoly, Competitive edge.

Professor: Yes, so tell me one competitive edge that’s hard to replicate?

Students: Technology, Business Model, People

Professor: Almost there, People and Culture!

But What is even culture?

What is the first thought that comes to you when you think of culture? Some of us might think that it’s just a cliché, but then all these big companies like Tata, Google have set their value systems to help define the culture. Not without any reason.

The reason for commencing a business and its mission, vision, and values help define the culture — which makes it unique.

And how does culture make a difference?

Every company looks to develop a sustainable competitive advantage in the market by framing strategies on product, price, processes. However, it is possible that these strategies are short-lived because of the dynamic and uncertain market conditions. Technology is changing, customers are demanding faster, and employees are looking for a collaborative workplace. But there is one thing which stays constant – Culture. Although please note, it is not a “define it and overlook it” concept. It is something that must be cultivated and evolved with time.

Dream11 – Episode 3

In this episode, we will talk about what Dream11 does to curate a high-performance culture.

There is a fun acronym that defines the Dream11 culture.

DU POT (Do put) our culture first – Dream11

Dream11 follows five tenets of culture – Data, Users, Performance, Ownership, and Transparency.

Though these tenets are self-explanatory, they use two special frameworks for data which we thought is interesting and important to highlight – ICE and HEAL (designed by the CEO himself), to understand the user data.

ICE framework stands for

Impact – if my idea works, how big is the impact?

Confidence – How likely is this to Succeed?

Ease of Implementation – How many resources will it take?

HEAL Framework Stands for Hypothesis Experimentation Analysis Learning, which says that propose the hypothesis, double down, triple down, if failing, fail faster and start again.

Moving On!

We are sure most of you have your appraisal rounds basis your manager’s feedback on your performance. But what if a company comes and tells you that if you are a culture fit, I’ll pay you the 99th percentile of the salary paid across companies in India without any negotiation.

Well, that’s what Dream11 does!

Empowered Dreamsters

Also, the company allows dreamsters to work in cross-functional pods. They come up with their ideas and work on them, but on one condition, the idea should be supported by data.

Organizational Structure

The company is doing great. But as per the conventional setup, you need employees and different departments to run smoothly, right?

Dream11 has proven that it is not necessary.

The company has no departments, and the number of employees is only 543 till August 2020, working together under one roof.

It means that the company is making sure it will earn approximately $1 million net revenue per employee. Ambitious, isn’t it?

The Way Forward

Dream11 has already gained the largest share in the pie of Fantasy sports, but that’s not all. The co-founder, Harsh Jain, sees fantasy sports as a cash cow, milking millions of revenue, and aspires to build a sports data company.

The company is looking for expansion in different fields like content, merchandising, ticketing, and commerce. All this requires user data that can help the co-founders to achieve milestones.

Dream11 already possesses data of the users – about their team’s preferences, favorite team player, interest in different sports, and also the money they are earning from fantasy sports. And data is the new oil.

To understand how data can be used to customize their offerings, allow me to ask you one thing.

Suppose you are a die heart Kohli fan, and you won 50,000 on a match because your gut feeling about Virat phodega turns true. When you were about to exit, the notification comes asking you would you like to buy a limited edition Virat’s official signed Jersey.

Will you be able to resist?

Well, your answer will determine the future of Dream11.

Writer: Komal Kumari, Nikita Aggarwal

If  Startup stories excite you do read our other episodes on Dream11 Defeat and Success and Business Model and Customer and Acquisition.

You can write to us at decodingsuccessfulstartups@gmail.com.