How can you maintain your startup culture when scaling?

“Culture” is all about what types of behaviors the company rewards and what behaviors it punishes. It doesn’t matter how large you are if these rules are consistently applied.

When a startup grows, keeping its original vibe alive takes effort. It means sticking to the core values, letting people be creative, and staying flexible. Leaders should remind everyone why the company started and hire folks who fit the vibe. Communication, being open, and adjusting as needed are key to holding onto that startup feel while getting bigger.

Work with people (employees, advisors, vendors, etc.) who embody your mission. This of course means you need to carefully craft your mission statement and believe in it thoroughly, and it also means you need to hire well and ask the right questions. Then it is all about holding people accountable and leading by example. Both positive and negative cultures are infectious, and the demands of scaling will expose your weaknesses to the extreme. Setting your culture is different from maintaining it, adjusting it as needed, and recognizing those who embody it best in your organization.

Maintaining a startup culture during scaling involves prioritizing core values, fostering open communication, and preserving agility. Encouraging employee engagement, even as the team grows, and adapting leadership styles to sustain the innovative and collaborative spirit are critical. Additionally, embedding the startup culture into organizational policies and practices, while continuously revisiting and reinforcing the company's founding principles, helps ensure cultural continuity amid growth. #startupculture #corevalues #opencommunication #agility #employeeengagement #policies #practices #foundingprinciples

It’s always about the employees. At least it should be. They ARE your company. It’s sad when companies grow and lose sight of that. Employees KNOW when the company is losing its startup feel and core values. And then they leave to try and recreate what they lost. We see it all the time in the staffing agency world when we speak to candidates and hear their stories.

It's important to hire people that fit the mold. Where we've deviated from this even slightly we've had staff turnover. Early on in the interview process you should state your why, your purpose and hire folks that are aligned while disqualifying folks that aren't from your hiring processes.

This is a tough challenge and the hardest thing I’ve ever attempted as a startup CEO. Leaders must hire people who see scaling for what it is: hard work. It’s about culture and competency no doubt but also about hiring people who have the EQ, will and drive to see through the rougher parts of the company’s journey. It’s not for everyone. I say scaling is like building and flying the plane at the same time while at times parts of it are on fire. How you work together to put out those fires and make sure they don’t happen again and that you learn is crucial. It takes a lot of things to go right at the same time. Be prepared to fall down a lot and get up to try harder.

Because you clearly have understanding of the “why” factor in your culture, it means you can easily find people that believe in what you believe- and these are the best people to hire. It is important to always note that a great culture fit hire inspire both existing employees but also re-emphasise the clarity in your communication. Hiring for culture can be tricky sometimes, while situational questions could help you understand it could also be misleading. So be a bit intentional to keep the interview conversational, lay a lot of emphasis on the feedback from other members of staff and focus on body language when they respond to situational questions surrounding culture.

Hiring for culture fit is essential to ensure alignment between candidates and the organization's values, behaviors, and work environment. It involves assessing not only a candidate's skills and qualifications but also their compatibility with the company's culture. Look for individuals whose values resonate with the organization's mission and who demonstrate a cultural fit in terms of communication style, collaboration approach, and overall work ethic. This approach contributes to a more cohesive and harmonious workplace, fostering a positive and productive atmosphere where employees are likely to thrive and contribute effectively to the organization's success.

Hire individuals who align with your company's values, demonstrate a collaborative mindset, and contribute positively to your team's dynamic—a cultural fit ensures harmony and shared goals.

Clearly communicating the fundamental beliefs, values, and purpose that define your organizational culture in all hands meetings. It’s about conveying not just what you do or how you do it, but more importantly, why. Lead by Example: Demonstrate your culture through your actions and decisions. Consistency is Key: Ensure all communication, internal and external, aligns with your cultural values. Empower Your People: Encourage them to share their cultural experiences and interpretations. Listen and Evolve: Always assess if your purpose and values are still the most appropriate ones for your people. Be Transparent: Show vulnerability. Feel free to request blueprint for building the culture your competitors envy as this is highly condensed.

Creating a culture is easy, but maintaining it is hard. you define your values, your beliefs, and everything, and then comes the hard part, maintaining it. To maintain a culture, you need to keep showing it, people will judge you, so keep posting it. Don't let them forget about it, keep telling them. This is how you maintain the culture that you believe will bring positive change. Consistency and your own will power is the key here

There are two stories every business or startup must tell: 1) The external story 2) The internal story All too often, start-ups focus on the external story. Which makes sense to some degree. They need investors or customers, so the external story (and its refinement) is paramount. But it's the internal story I find to be a greater predictor of success. That's the company story told to hire and retain great employees. It's the story that binds teams together. It's the story that gets people to work in the morning, excited to help the start-up succeed. Communicate your internal story well, and your company culture naturally flourishes.

In a project, my team and I thought that it was important to communicate the culture through a slogan. It took us some time to come up with the suitable slogan. However, the overall performance changed. When we communicate our culture properly, we dont attract the support of stakeholders and beneficiaries only. At the same time we remind ourselves about it and we renew our commitment to maintain it. So, you need to put communication needs at top priority. Innovation is a key here. You need to present all aspects of you culture in alignment with your core mandant and the levels of expectations. And most importantly, choose authenticity as your key strength point. Authentic culture will never face challenges of redefining or replacing.

A comunicação da cultura de uma startup vai além do .ppt e é papel dos gestores operacionalizar o engajamento dos colaboradores. Uma cultura forte é absorvida em todas as camadas e reforçada no dia-a-dia. Maneiras de comunicação e valorização da cultura podem acontecer também em reuniões gerais como Town Halls e All Hands nos quais lideranças aproveitam para incentivar e reconhecer pessoas que defendem e praticam a cultura da empresa.

Arguably one of the most important characteristics for a startup to be successful is flexibility. Culture is a great example as a startup requires, even demands, agility of values, prioritization and team-based approaches at every zig or zag. It is incumbent on startups to treat culture the same way it manages any other key ingredient of the company with the respect and opportunity that accompanies the need to pivot to endure. Scaling is an offensive play, not a time for defense. The emotional underpinnings must stay just as dynamic as the operational strategies if the company wants to win. It isn’t a nice-to-have, it is a must-have.

"Startup success hinges on a culture of adaptability – embrace change, encourage innovation, and foster open communication to thrive in dynamic environments.

As you scale, your culture will evolve, but it's crucial to stay true to your core values. It's like growing up – you change, but your essence remains. With new roles and possibly new locations, your startup's culture will adapt. Embrace these changes, but always align them with your core values. Are they still reflected in your daily operations? Keep the conversation open with your team about these shifts. Adapting might mean reinforcing or redefining aspects of your culture to fit your growing company. It's about evolving while staying anchored to what makes your startup unique.

Maintaining a strong startup culture while scaling can be challenging, it's crucial to build organisational resilience for long-term success. A healthy culture enables the organization to adapt to the changing demands and challenges, by keeping focused and motivated to do their best. Leaders can keep everyone on the same boat in times of turmoil by: 1. Building a culture of adaptability as a necessity of the business. 2. Lead by example to create a supporting environment for employees to supports everyone's effort to problem solving. 3. Communicate clearly to explain both long term goals and short term adjustments. Changes can cause anxiety and could cause stress to customers and employees

While preserving the foundational elements of the startup culture is critical, an acknowledgment of the need for certain adaptations as the business scales is equally important. Adapting the culture to accommodate the evolving dynamics, diverse talent pool, and changing business landscape is essential for sustaining the core values and identity of the organization amidst growth.

It’s a team sport. It’s a marathon and not a sprint. It’s all about harmonizing. Be sure to leverage and hire leadership teams with different strengths: visionary, operator, pragmatist etc to assure you have all the pieces you need at that table.

You empower your culture by ensuring that you foster the art of collaboration in the organisation. You empower teams to be their best self and to enable them to grow depending on their skills benchmark.

First and foremost - build trust so that people are comfortable having open discussions, challenge, call out and work out solutions without fear of repercussions and back stabbing. No trust - no innovation.

Empowering your culture is walking the walk and all too rarely practiced. If you have a culture of inclusion in the creation of the annual strategic plan, an empowered culture can execute, making mountains look like moveable foothills!

Consider creating an Employee Ambassador group. This group is your internal AND external microphone of your culture. To be impactful, this group should be a representation your employee population (all levels, departments, locations, genders, ethnicity, and other group types). The purpose: to amplify the culture message internally with employees and be a spokesperson of the employees back to the leadership team. The group can also have an task around taking the message externally to help build your employment brand not only to help grow your business but also to help bring awareness on why your company is a place candidates want to apply to!

To maintain startup culture while scaling, prioritize communication, transparency, and inclusivity. Foster a shared mission, values, and a sense of belonging. Encourage innovation, adaptability, and employee empowerment. Implement scalable processes without sacrificing creativity. Lead by example, invest in employee development, and celebrate achievements. Regularly revisit and reinforce the core cultural elements.

Sustaining a startup culture during scaling demands intentional efforts. Foster open communication channels, preserving the entrepreneurial spirit. Encourage autonomy and innovation by maintaining a flat organizational structure. Cultivate a values-driven environment, ensuring alignment even as teams expand. Prioritize employee engagement through regular feedback and recognition. I emphasize the importance of adapting rituals and traditions that reinforce the startup ethos.

In my experience, maintaining startup culture while scaling involves creating robust systems and processes that embody the core values of the company. This means integrating cultural elements into everyday operations, such as through team rituals, feedback mechanisms, and decision-making frameworks. It's crucial to ensure that as the company grows, these systems are scalable and flexible enough to accommodate new members and evolving business contexts. Fostering a sense of ownership and alignment with the company's mission among all employees is key. Regularly celebrating achievements and learning from setbacks collectively helps to reinforce a strong, cohesive culture as the startup expands.

As you scale, understand that the greater risk to your organisational culture will be micro/sub-cultures developed by managers across different teams. Often when employees talk about a toxic work culture they are mostly referring to the sub-cultures practised within the different departments. So, while you will think you have a great organisational culture, these sub-cultures created can impact what employees experience. The development of these sub-cultures needs to be carefully paid attention to. The main source of this is when hiring for scale. This can often mean bringing on board experienced professionals valuable for business goals but bad for culture. Pay attention to sub-cultures!

In addition to the aforementioned strategies, other crucial considerations when maintaining the startup culture during scaling include the implementation of mentorship programs to facilitate the transfer of cultural ethos to new members, championing transparency and open channels of communication at all tiers of the organization, and instituting regular reviews and assessments of the impact of cultural initiatives within the overarching scaling strategy. Recognizing that the preservation of startup culture during expansion is an ongoing and dynamic process will enable the organization to effectively navigate the changes and challenges that come with scaling.