Sherpa helps contractors grow, build a business worth owning, and earn the option to sell it on their terms. Most businesses never sell. Owners spend years building one, and the value they built never gets cashed in. We exist to change that, and we do it by living three core values:
Speed is king
In our clients' world, a lead that waits an hour calls the next contractor. Inside Sherpa it's the same: someone is always waiting on you. We answer fast, give feedback fast, and change our minds fast when we're wrong.
Competitive greatness
We keep score, we play to win, and we're at our best when our best is needed. Our clients compete for every job in their market, and we compete just as hard for them.
Unimpeachable character
Most contractors we meet have been burned by an agency. Trust is the first thing we sell and the easiest thing to lose. We do what we said, we tell the truth about our own work, and we never talk about someone behind their back.
We kept it to three on purpose, so every person here can name them, use them to make a call, and hold each other to them. We don't always live up to them. When we fall short, this is what we point back to.
Sherpa isn't for everyone. If you'd rather wait for permission, keep score of nothing, or save your opinions for the hallway, you won't enjoy it here. If you want to move fast, win, and tell the truth while you do it, read on.
The words we hire for
Our three values tell you how we make decisions. These words describe the people we want making them. We hire for them, we give shoutouts for them, and we look for them when we decide who grows here.
- Integrity
- You do what you said, when you said; you act the same whether or not anyone is watching; you own your mistakes before anyone has to point them out.
- Humility
- You admit when you're wrong, early; you look for the best idea, not your idea; you stay curious about what you don't know yet.
- Charity
- You give more than you take; you help teammates succeed even when it isn't your job; you assume good intent.
- Love
- You care about the owner behind the business and the crew behind the owner; you want your teammates to win; you treat the work like it's your own company.
- Creativity
- You look for a better way, not the usual way; you try new ideas quickly and keep the ones that work; you treat a constraint as a prompt, not an excuse.
- Inclusion
- You make room for every voice in the room; you notice your own biases and work against them; you make sure every teammate can do their best work.
- Candor
- You say it to them, or you don't say it; you give feedback early and directly, with care; you ask for feedback and thank people for it.
Speed is king
Every task you hold is something a teammate or a client is waiting on. Moving fast is how we respect their time. It doesn't mean sloppy. It means shipping the first useful version, getting it in front of the person who needs it, and improving it while it's live. A good answer today usually beats a perfect answer next week, because by next week the client has already decided.
Respond to teammates fast
Someone is waiting on you. Don't make them.
Give feedback fast
Late feedback is a rebuild. Early feedback is a tweak. If you see a problem, say so the same day, not at the review.
Iterate, and change your mind quickly
Being wrong is fine. Staying wrong is not. When the data says your idea isn't working, drop it and try the next one without a funeral.
Competitive greatness
John Wooden put competitive greatness at the top of his Pyramid of Success: being at your best when your best is needed, and enjoying the hard fight. Our clients compete for every job in their town, against every other contractor on Google and in AI search. We compete just as hard for them, and we hold ourselves to the same standard inside Sherpa.
Keep score
We measure what matters. Every department owns its numbers and sees them in HQ every day: setters see dials, bookings and shows against quota, and reps see exactly what they've earned, with no guessing and no asking. You can't get better at a game you don't keep score in.
Be at your best when it counts
The big call, the launch, the client on the edge of leaving. Those are the moments that decide whether we're great or just busy. Prepare for them, and show up.
Compete with the problem, not each other
We want to beat the market, the competitor down the street and our own last result. We never win by making a teammate lose. A scoreboard is there to show who needs help, as much as who's ahead.
Unimpeachable character
Most of the contractors we meet have been burned by an agency before. Trust is the first thing we sell, before any website or ad, and it's the easiest thing to lose. Character is how we keep it, with clients and with each other. We'd rather lose a deal than win it with a promise we can't keep.
Integrity
Do what you said, when you said.
Tell the truth, even when it's hard
Especially about your own work. If a campaign isn't working, the client should hear it from us before they find it in their numbers. If you're going to miss a deadline, say so before anyone has to ask. A problem raised early is a problem we can fix together.
Never talk bad about someone behind their back
Say it to them, or don't say it. Complaining about a teammate to someone else fixes nothing and costs trust on both sides. Go to the person, be direct, and be kind.
How we work together
We won't need rules if we agree on values
Rules exist when people can't be trusted to make good calls. We'd rather hire people who can, and give them the freedom to do it. The values guide our decisions, and they give every one of us the freedom to make them without waiting for permission. When you're stuck, ask two questions: which choice gets the person who's waiting what they need soonest, and which choice would you be comfortable explaining to them face to face?
Half and half
Great results come from both sides pulling. That's true with every client: they bring the honesty to name the problem and the time to work with us, and we bring the work and the measurement. It's true inside Sherpa too. Nobody carries a client alone, and nobody gets carried. Sales, onboarding, delivery and account management each bring their half.
Find the real pain
Most contractors can't name their problem. They feel it in slow months, leads going cold, or an agency that let them down. Our job is to help them find it. Start with "What are you currently doing to get there?", then keep asking: Why? Why is it important to you? What will it do for the people around you? What will it mean you don't have to do anymore? That last answer is the real pain. The same questions work on each other when a teammate is stuck.
Give people the gift of time
The best thing we can hand an owner isn't more revenue. It's the hours back that let them run the business instead of the business running them. Measure your work by what the client keeps, not by what they pay us.
Say it out loud
When you see a teammate live our values, say so where everyone can see it. Post in #shoutouts: tag the teammate, name the value, and say the one specific thing they did.