The startup I work at is definitely Netflix culture inspired, I think they remain a pretty popular “culture role model.”
Wasn’t sure if it’d be for me at first, as it’s so different from where I was before. Previous company I was at, great social culture (pre-COVID), very nice people, but very top down decision making. Also nobody ever got let go (or even really talked to) for performance reasons, very easy place to coast. Some people referred to the culture as “toxic positivity”, which is a pretty good description. Really, the only way people got let go was at mass layoffs every 2 years or so, but between layoff people could dog it and nobody would say anything. Overall it was socially fun, but work wise extremely slow, inefficient and bureaucratic. I have lots of good memories from that place, but I don’t think it was an EFFECTIVE company culture.
At my current, “Netflix inspired culture” company, there’s a lot less process, a lot more personal responsibility, and an expectation of high performance. People who aren’t contributing enough are quickly told, and if they can’t turn it around, let go. I thought it might feel too harsh/cold for me, but I actually really like the culture. Low process, high productivity, and you can trust basically all your teammates to be high quality contributors and decision makers. I feel more pride in my team and what we’re building. Social aspects are definitely not as fun as at my last co., but I do think a fair bit of that is the post-COVID world, hard to have a really social/fun company culture when most people are remote most of the time.