AstroPay Culture Manifesto

Warning: This is not comfortable

Imagine walking into an office where people smile politely in meetings while quietly protecting their territory. Decisions drown in endless rounds of approval, and creativity suffocates under layers of cautious mediocrity. Welcome to the world of Comfortables.
Now imagine AstroPay; a world of Radicals.
Here, the air crackles with urgency. Comfort is the enemy; ambition, our fuel. We aren’t a typical company, and we’re not building a typical culture. We believe that radical outcomes require radical ways of working: speed over safety, ownership over hierarchy, and clarity over consensus.
If that scares you, walk away now. But if the idea of redefining what's possible excites you, keep reading.

Our Mission is Radical

We don't adapt to the world. We challenge it. AstroPay shatters expectations, rebuilds reality, and claims ownership of a new future. We’re not interested in incremental progress. We are here to build breakthroughs. Mediocrity isn't just unwelcome here—it’s hunted and exterminated.

Comfort is poison because greatness demands friction. We strategically engineer discomfort, transparency, and fierce accountability into our culture to fuel relentless execution, ruthless innovation, and constant reinvention. This mindset isn’t optional; it’s what enables us to stay ahead in an industry defined by speed and disruption.

The AstroPay Code

1. Builders Only

Comfortables solve problems by adding bureaucracy, layers, and committees because it minimizes personal risk and disperses accountability. Radicals at AstroPay solve problems by building—rapidly, autonomously, and intelligently. By prioritizing immediate action and tangible results, we incentivize a culture where innovation thrives and bureaucracy dies. Builders flourish because they directly see and feel the impact of their actions.

• Extreme Ownership : Comfortables hide behind ambiguity because clear accountability can be threatening. We, Radicals, fully own our outcomes, successes, and failures, which removes excuses, accelerates learning, and fosters rapid growth and accountability.
• Act with Conviction: Comfortables pursue consensus to spread risk, sacrificing speed and agility. We embrace contrarian thinking and decisive action. We move quickly by trusting our judgment. Not everything requires consensus – clear thinking and bold action drives us forward.
• Scientists, Not Judges: Comfortables analyze endlessly to avoid the risk of mistakes, limiting opportunities for real-world insights. We move quickly, test ideas in practice, and refine those ideas based on what actually works, not what is theoretically safe. For us, progress comes from iteration instead of over-analysis.

2. Strategic Discomfort

Comfortables seek stable roles, rigid boundaries, and comfortable tasks because predictability feels safe. This inevitably leads to stagnation. AstroPay deliberately places individuals into roles slightly beyond their current capabilities, fueling rapid growth, continuous innovation, and exceptional adaptability. Discomfort isn’t a side effect of our culture, it’s part of the design.

• Growth Mindset: Comfortables avoid discomfort, hoping to minimize stress. We intentionally embrace challenge as the shortest path to mastery. Stretch, pressure, and even discomfort aren’t obstacles – they are tools for building mastery, fast.
• Work-Life Harmony, Not Balance: Comfortables compartmentalize life, artificially separating work from personal time—seeing work as a means to an end. We reject that notion; rather, we believe that meaningful work brings deep satisfaction. Therefore, we integrate work and life seamlessly, creating continuous alignment and a sustained sense of purpose, boosting productivity and satisfaction.
• Constant Adaptation or Irrelevance: Comfortables cling to routine and predictability for security, but in the long term they become obsolete. The market doesn’t wait for anyone. That is why we Radicals continually reinvent ourselves, actively pursuing new, challenging roles, ensuring constant personal evolution and relevance in a rapidly changing market.

3. Radical Candor

Comfortables mask reality in politeness, preferring ambiguity because directness can feel confrontational and uncomfortable. That is unkind. We believe that being clear is kind. Radicals at AstroPay practice radical transparency and immediate honesty, ensuring clarity, rapid improvement, and heightened trust across the organization.

• Kind, Not Nice: Comfortables hide behind polite lies to avoid tension, stagnating personal growth. Radicals deliver direct feedback, fostering real improvement and establishing an environment where trust and authenticity thrive.
• Bias toward Public Communication: Comfortables favor private discussions to avoid accountability. AstroPay champions public communication, promoting collective learning, accountability, and rapid alignment across teams, driving faster and more effective decisions.

4. Absolute Performance, Zero Politics

Comfortables thrive in political environments, carefully maneuvering within alliances and hidden agendas because politics obscure accountability. AstroPay eradicates politics by relentlessly prioritizing measurable outcomes and clear accountability, thus creating a meritocratic culture where performance alone drives success.

• Up or Out:Comfortables prefer indefinite roles to avoid constant pressure. AstroPay transparently expands responsibilities, ensuring that individuals either continuously grow or step aside, creating constant upward momentum and organizational vitality.
• Titles Do Not Matter: Comfortables chase titles for perceived status and ego. We Radicals seek growth through real responsibility, tangible outcomes, and genuine compensation. This prevents artificial hierarchies, reduces internal competition, and aligns everyone's incentives directly with performance and impact.
• Transparent Compensation: Comfortables rely on secrecy to manipulate negotiations and create leverage. We openly share compensation structures, aligning everyone's goals transparently and creating a unified, highly motivated team.

5. Flat and Fast

Comfortables rely on extensive hierarchies, delaying decisions to spread risk and dilute accountability. AstroPay remains fiercely flat, radically empowering individuals to make immediate decisions and swiftly execute.

• No Manager of Managers: Comfortables create management layers for control, slowing down innovation and execution. We reject management and prioritize building. So we maintain minimal hierarchy, promoting direct communication, clear accountability, and rapid execution.
• Bias Towards Tech, Not People: Comfortables scale by adding headcount, mistakenly equating size with capability. We believe in Radicals that are able to leverage AI, automation, and efficient processes. Maintaining agility, reducing complexity, and maximizing individual impact.

Examples of the AstroPay Code

• Builders Only: Everyone is responsible for the user's experience; we all do customer support.
• Strategic Discomfort: Everyone routinely embraces radical shifts in roles and locations, delivering rapid innovation under pressure.
• Radical Candor: All communication in public channels; monthly all-hands transparently confront team successes and failures publicly, continuously improving collective performance.
• Absolute Performance: Transparent, measurable incentives align team member success directly with company performance, eradicating politics.
• Flat and Fast: We reject managers of managers; individuals can make critical decisions, rapidly iterating and deploying solutions without waiting for hierarchical approvals. </aside>

Be Radically Kind

AstroPay isn’t built for comfort. It’s built for people who want to grow fast, move with urgency, and take real ownership.

This won’t be the right environment for everyone, and that’s OK. But if you're energized by radical transparency, relentless innovation, fierce autonomy, and purposeful discomfort—welcome. You belong here.