10x culture“We do hard things”
At 10x, our mission is to accelerate the mastery of biology to advance human health. To
succeed in this mission, we have a unique culture. This document is about that culture.
Like all great companies, we strive to be an awesome place to work, delight our customers,
exercise good judgment, act with integrity, and believe in accountability. To us, these are tablestakes. We believe there are a few things that set 10x apart. These things are:
● We are mission driven and stay relentlessly focused on that mission● We operate from first principles● We strive for exponential impact● We put WE before ME● We believe exceptional talent delivers outsized results
Mission driven
To us, our mission is everything.
Working at 10x means loving our mission and having it drive all that you do. This is how we will
have the biggest impact on the world. We have the opportunity to create a legacy byaccelerating the mastery of biology to advance human health. Starting now and over the
coming decades, the revolution in biology will transform the world. Cancer will become a thingof the past. We will dispose of the threat of infectious diseases. People will keep their health andvigor of their youth well past what’s now possible. Crucially, this progress will be driven by newtechnologies. We have built 10x to excel at creating new technologies for the life sciences. Our
goal is to use that prowess as the foundation for leading the revolution in biology and medicine.
We seek to build a new world. To bring the future forward. To realize the full promise of thisCentury of Biology. The work we do is hard and to succeed we must be laser focused onbuilding the best products, delivering the best customer experience, and creating the best
teams. With a mission this critical, we can’t let ourselves be distracted by anything else. We
therefore focus minimally on things that are not central to our mission such as policy decisions,political causes or broader social issues, because we believe that our mission is the way we canhave the biggest impact on the world.
Many companies claim to put customers, employees or other stakeholders first -- often because
it sounds good. At 10x, our mission comes first, and everything we do is in its service. We need1

to provide incredible value to our employees, to our customers and to our shareholders because
they are necessary to advance our mission.
Most importantly, we need amazing people. We need them to invent, work hard, work smart andwork together. There is no company, no value, no mission without them. In exchange for coming
along on this journey and giving so much of themselves, we give our team unique opportunities
to work with amazing colleagues, make a bigger impact than they could anywhere else andgrow more than they could anywhere else.
We obsess with customer experience because it is through our customers that we advance ourmission. Their discoveries are accelerating the mastery of biology and are set to improve thehuman condition in myriads of ways. In the future, we expect to take a more direct role inadvancing human health. Our customers will expand beyond scientists to include clinicians,patients and others. Regardless of what customers we serve, relentless focus on customer
success is foundational for driving long-term growth of the business.
Our primary purpose is not to optimize returns for our investors, yet we expect as we advanceour mission, our shareholders will realize spectacular gains. Executing on our vision will call fora tremendous deployment of resources and will create tremendous value. Those who
understand our vision and join us on the journey will see outsized rewards over the long term.

First principles
Our mission is challenging and the work we do is meant to be hard. We are forging our own
path, which requires us to think, plan and act based on first principles. When we facechallenges, we act based on what's best for the mission; we don’t just accept convention or
simply follow the path set by others. The world changes and we need to be better than othercompanies.
We place high value on intellectual rigor and data. We strive to understand the underlying
properties of systems when making decisions, rather than simply following what others do orwhat might have worked in the past. Experience can be very useful, but only if we make theeffort to understand the reasons why things have or have not worked before. We enjoy
constantly questioning and examining assumptions, seeking the most rigorous explanations andbuilding plans based on the best possible thinking.
Exponential impact
Our mission is ambitious and so is everything we do. We look for opportunities for exponential
impact (it’s in our name). Usually, the best opportunities are exponentially more valuable than
the rest. We strive for home-runs so we are willing and eager to take calculated risks.
We recognize the best opportunities are often the most difficult. Other companies may not havethe courage, conviction, or talent to go after them. Of all the efforts worth pursuing, it is the ones
that are too hard for anyone else to do, that unlock the most value and that push the world
forward. When we hear others say something is impossible, that’s when we get interested. At
10x, we do the hard things because they are hard. Because if we don’t do them, no one else
would.

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Not every bet is going to work out. That’s ok. The key is to have ambition and strive for projects
with the potential for the biggest impact and resist the temptation to produce products that have
only incremental value. Innovation is core to what we do. To be successful we must takecalculated risks, expect to make mistakes and strive to learn from them. Importantly, poor
performance is very different from trying something great and failing. Failing to try is muchworse than trying and failing. When someone tries and makes a mistake, we seek tounderstand what happened and what we can learn from it, both individually and collectively, sothat we can keep getting better.
The scope of our ambitions requires us to take the long view. Taking the long view means
investing in foundations. It means making decisions to build long-term value rather than
optimizing for near-term priorities. It means taking time to hire the very best people possible. Itmeans investing for growth.
Categorically, taking the long view does not mean being slow. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite.
We need to keep driving with extreme urgency. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact, but every delay
in our work manifests itself in lives lost some number of years down the road. People andteams need to have a bias for action and move with a sense of urgency.
This means that 10x can be an intense place to work. 10xers love that intensity, as pace is
infectious. Work is more fun when others move fast, which makes one want to move faster. The
same works in reverse.
We put WE before ME
10xers focus on what we can do together, not on making themselves or their manager look
good. We are working to build something huge to change the world, so we don’t have time forindividual agendas. When 10x wins, we all win.
There is low return on politics at 10x. This means we focus entirely on creating value, not on
advancing our status, trading favors, or promoting individual or team agendas. We lean in totake extreme ownership of issues, problems and mistakes. We don’t cover things up to makeourselves look good. We readily share information. We share bad news especially quickly sothat we can solve problems together. We always do what’s in the best interest of 10x.
We constructively challenge when we need to and speak up if something doesn’t make sense orneeds to be improved. We believe it is everyone’s responsibility to point out when things are notworking as they should – even when it’s uncomfortable to do so. We do this only for the benefitof the company - not for self-gain. We strive for a feedback culture where we willingly give,receive and appreciate honest and direct feedback.
Honest and direct feedback means people hear it from us first – not from others – and we don’t
say one thing to someone’s face and another behind their back. Even when we challenge ideas
and address poor performance, we always treat people with respect. We are not hierarchical.
Ideas are judged based on their quality, not the position of their proponents in the organization.
We are humble and don’t put up with egos. People who don’t collaborate, or treat others withrespect, no matter how brilliant, have no place at 10x.

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To ensure we make the best decision, we seek data, ask questions and debate our options.
That means we also let go of a view if we are shown compelling contrary data. It also meansthat once a decision is made, we commit and move fast – even if we disagree. If we get itwrong, we avoid pointing fingers or saying “I told you so;” we put 10x first and do what we can tohelp.
As companies grow and scale, they need more process. Good processes should enable
employees and teams, rather than impose controls. Bad processes lead to bureaucracy, stifle
innovation and slow things down. At 10x we strive to only implement good processes to makethings more effective, take less time, remove ambiguity, and reduce complexity. No matter how
big we grow, we need to keep driving at a rapid pace, work with a sense of urgency and staynimble.
We hire great people and empower them to do great things. We aim to manage people notthrough control or process, but by giving them context and helping them see the importance of
their contribution to our mission and strategy. Leaders set direction and provide context andcoaching to employees. We treat employees as trusted colleagues and trust them to put thecompany first.
Exceptional talent delivers outsized results
To achieve our mission, we need the best people on the planet. At 10x, we hire the best, whichmeans for every role we think deeply about what we are hiring for. We imagine the very best
person in the world for that position and aim to hire that person or someone equivalently great.
We believe that the team is the ultimate source of success for our business. This means wehave a rigorous recruitment process and we hold out to find the right person, no matter how
tempting it is to lower the bar and fill a role quickly.
We expect great performance from every corner of 10x. We strive for excellence everywhere.
We will never achieve our mission with mediocrity, so average is not good enough. At 10x, we
continually manage performance through conversations and feedback. At the heart of ourfeedback culture is a growth mindset, which means that 10xers take feedback in stride, focus on
the content of that feedback and see how it can help them become even better. They don’t get
defensive and they don’t make excuses. Sometimes, employees are unable to respond to or act
on feedback; when this happens, we quickly part ways, as this is not good for the individual or
10x.
Because we have a high bar and seek to be and hire the very best, 10xers around the world areamazing at what they do and always top of their game. They come from a wide variety ofbackgrounds and cultures, and we like it that way. We want the best possible people wherever
they might be. Innovation and ideas are never as good as they can be if everyone thinks thesame. To ensure we are getting the best of the best, we must draw from the largest possible
pool of candidates, which means we don’t put arbitrary restrictions on ourselves by only hiringfrom certain backgrounds or experiences. We draw from the maximum talent pool.
Our focus on inclusion and diversity is in service of our mission and helps ensure we are thebest we can be, which means we have fair pay, promotion and hiring practices that aim to4

remove bias. We work to create an environment where everyone is welcome and can do theirbest work, regardless of their background. At 10x, we strive to provide a sense of belonging
with all our amazing colleagues and leaders, and we operate from principles of respect andempathy.
At 10x, we love experts. We value deep expertise and want cross functional teams of experts towork together. In addition to focusing on those people who are top of their game at what theydo, we believe three qualities are fundamental to all 10xers: Intellectual horsepower, drive, andcollaboration.
1) Intellectual horsepowerIntellectual horsepower is the ability to understand context and solve problems. 10x will
succeed if our people are better than others at figuring out what the world needs and how to
get there, understanding priorities, absorbing all the necessary information and coming up
with a great course of action. Different people have different ways of thinking. Some are
deeply analytical, some are intuitive, some are extraordinarily creative, some are quick,some are slower. Capacity to have a deep understanding of the issues at hand and to usethat understanding to build innovations is what we are looking for.
2) Drive and Passion
True to our name - 10xers focus on solving problems that advance our understanding ofbiology by 10x. This exponential impact is at the core of what motivates us all - it’s ourcontribution to the world. This means that 10xers are doers - we drive to get things done andexecute well. 10xers are thrilled by a challenge and love our work because it’s hard. 10xers
never settle; instead we push past easy answers, figure things out, break through walls andmake things happen, even when it would have been easy to give up and say “it is what it is.”People at 10x are self-driven and move with a sense of urgency, have awesome ideas, andfollow through on their intentions and commitments.
3) Collaboration
Interdisciplinary collaboration is a cornerstone of 10x’s success and how we approach ourwork. At 10x, WE is more important than ME. If we are to succeed, we must work together
as one team. 10xers work well with others by being friendly and having mutual respect foreveryone they work with. 10xers know that we don’t have all the answers, so we invite
feedback from others and ask for help early when we need it. 10xers are comfortable
putting others and the company first and are not entitled in the way we speak or act.

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