Company Culture: Building Values (Without Corporate BS)

What Is Company Culture? (Beyond Mission Statements)

Company culture is not your values on a wall. It’s not your mission statement. It’s the thousand small things you do, every day, that collectively signal to people how things really work here.

The Real Definition of Culture

• Culture = the sum of shared behaviors, beliefs, norms, and unwritten rules that actually guide how people work together. Not what’s written on a wall. What’s lived daily
• Twilio CEO Brian Robins on culture: “Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. It’s living the core values when you hire, write an email, work on a project or walk in the hall. We have the power, by living the values, to build the culture. We also have the power, by breaking the values, to fuck up the culture. Each one of us has this opportunity, this burden”

Why Culture Actually Matters (The Data)

• Retention: Companies with strong culture 92% retention vs 72% without. 20 percentage point difference
• Productivity: 14% higher productivity in companies with recognition programs + strong culture. Recognition + culture compounds
• Profit: 15% increase in employee engagement = 2% increase in profit margins. Culture drives financial performance
• Recruitment: 70% of job seekers consider culture fit before applying. Culture fit determines whether top talent comes or goes elsewhere
• Internal promotion: Companies with strong culture promote from within 60% more often. Develops future leaders

Cultural BS to Avoid

• “Integrity” / “Excellence” / “Innovation”: Generic values that every company claims. Meaningless without specific behaviors
• Values that leadership violates: If you say “transparency” but hide bad news from team, culture is dead
• Values with no hiring signal: If you don’t hire for it, you don’t actually believe in it
• Too many values (>5): Dilutes focus. People can’t remember or live by 10+ values
• Top-down values with no input: Founders decide values alone. Team doesn’t buy in. Feels imposed, not authentic

Defining Core Values (Without the BS)

Start by asking: what are the behaviors we actually care about? What are the principles that matter to us? Build from there.

How to Define Values (Process)

Step 1: Gather the Team (Don’t Go Solo)

• Include diversity: Founders, early employees, diverse departments, different tenure levels
• Facilitate conversation: “What behaviors do we love in this team? What frustrates us? What do we want to be known for?”
• Listen for themes: If everyone says “we ship fast” and “we don’t overthink,” that’s a value emerging. Theme = signal

Step 2: Identify 3-5 Core Themes

• Rule of 3-5: Too few (1-2) = misses diversity of what matters. Too many (6+) = dilutes focus. Middle ground is optimal
• Examples of authentic values: “We ship first, perfect second”, “We debate ideas, not people”, “We own problems end-to-end”, “We celebrate learning from failures”
• NOT examples: “Integrity” (too generic), “We care” (vague), “Excellence” (everyone claims this)

Step 3: Make Them Memorable

• Avoid jargon: Use simple language. “Speed” beats “agility”. “Radical candor” beats “transparency”
• Make them specific to your company: Your values should be unique. If Airbnb uses “belong”, you using “belonging” too isn’t authentic
• Test with team: If people can’t remember your values without looking them up, they’re not sticky enough

Common Startup Values (Done Right)

From Values to Behaviors: Making Them Real

Values are useless unless they translate to observable behaviors. This is where culture becomes real.

The Translation Process

Value: “Bias for Action”

• Observable behaviors (what you’d see in practice):
  • People ship features with customer feedback-driven iteration, not 6-month perfection cycles
  • Decisions made in meetings get implemented same week, not delayed indefinitely
  • Failed experiments discussed in retro, not avoided. “We learned” beats “we didn’t try”
  • Process friction questioned. “Why do we need 3 approvals?” vs accepting status quo

Value: “Radical Candor”

• Observable behaviors:
  • In meetings, junior people share disagreements without fear. Ideas challenged regardless of who proposes
  • 1-on-1 feedback: manager tells employee exactly what’s not working, how to improve. No soft-pedaling
  • Bad news shared directly with CEO. No information hiding
  • Performance reviews: honest assessment. Not everyone gets “exceeds expectations”

How to Teach Behaviors (During Onboarding)

• Day 1 orientation: Share 2-3 stories of how company values actually played out in real decisions
• Story example (for “Bias for Action”): “We launched product feature after 6 weeks instead of 3 months planned. VP pushed to ship with 80%. We did. Got feedback. Iterated. That’s us”
• Assign culture buddy: Peer mentor (not manager) shows new hire “how things actually work here”. Unwritten rules
• Interview cultural alignment: Ask in interview: “Tell me about a time you moved fast despite uncertainty.” Listen for past behavior

Baking Behaviors Into Decisions

• Hiring decisions: Does candidate demonstrate bias for action? Did they ship something quickly? Or did they overthink?
• Promotion decisions: Does candidate embody cultural behaviors? Or just execute well? Culture carriers get promoted first
• Project prioritization: Does project align with values? “Is this a “ship first” project or “perfect first” project?”
• Performance reviews: Half of review based on results. Other half: did you live company values? Both matter equally

Hiring for Culture Fit: Not Just Skills

The single most important driver of cultural alignment: hiring decisions. Get this right and culture compounds. Get it wrong and culture deteriorates fast.

Why Hiring for Fit Matters (The Data)

• 70% of retention driven by culture fit. Not salary, not title. Fit matters most
• Misfit hires leave within 18 months. Expensive mistake (recruitment cost + ramp + replacement)
• Culture carriers: high-fit employees are 3x more likely to stay through difficult times. Loyalty matters

How to Assess Culture Fit (Interview Approach)

Don’t Ask: “Are you proactive?”

• Everyone says yes. Useless question. Tells you nothing

Do Ask: Behavioral Questions Tied to Values

• For “Bias for Action” value: “Tell me about a time you shipped something despite not having complete information. What was the risk? How did it go?”
• For “Radical Candor” value: “Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager or peer. How did you handle it? What happened?”
• For “Own It End-to-End” value: “Tell me about a project where you saw a problem and saw it through to solution. You didn’t hand off midway. What kept you going?”
• For “Learning Over Perfection” value: “Tell me about a failure. What did you learn? How did you apply it?”

Red Flags for Cultural Misfit

• Can’t give specific examples of behaviors: “I’m collaborative” but no story. Doesn’t actually embody value
• Wants process / structure / “clarity on requirements”: If your value is “ship first”, this person will push back
• Cites only past individual wins: “I shipped X” (solo hero). Not “we collaborated on Y” (team player)
• Needs lots of approval to make decisions: If value is “own it”, this person won’t fit

After Hire: Culture Fit Continues

• 30-day checkpoint: Manager asks: “Do you feel like you fit the culture here?” Direct question. Listen to answer
• 90-day review: Assess culture fit. Is person embodying values or clashing? Now is time to course-correct or part ways
• Don’t keep cultural misfits because they’re technically strong. One misfit can corrupt team culture. Better to part ways early

Rituals & Habits: How Culture Actually Works

Culture isn’t one big decision. It’s a thousand small decisions and habits that compound. Rituals are how culture becomes real.

What Are Cultural Rituals?

• Rituals = repeated practices that reinforce values and signal how things work here
• Examples: Weekly standup format, how feedback is given, how decisions are made, how wins are celebrated, how failures are discussed

Rituals That Build Culture

Ritual 1: Weekly All-Hands (Values & Transparency)

• What happens: Every Monday 10am, entire company (even remote) joins 30-min call
• Agenda: CEO shares what’s working / not working. Team asks questions (no canned Q&A)
• Culture signal: “We’re radical candor. Everyone gets the same information. No politics”

Ritual 2: Postmortems (Learning Over Perfection)

• What happens: Every failed project / missed deadline gets 1-hour blameless retrospective
• Rules: No blame. Only learning. “What went wrong? What do we do differently?”
• Culture signal: “Failures are learning opportunities, not career killers. We iterate”

Ritual 3: Async Written Decisions (Bias for Action)

• What happens: Major decisions documented in Slack/email with 24-hr feedback window. No meeting required
• Rules: Disagree in comments, but decision made. Move forward. Can revisit in 2 weeks
• Culture signal: “We don’t over-deliberate. We ship and iterate”

Ritual 4: Peer Recognition (Diversity of Thought Wins)

• What happens: In standup, people shout out peers who challenged them or helped
• Rules: Specific. “Jane challenged my approach on project X. She was right. We shipped faster”
• Culture signal: “We celebrate people who speak up and challenge status quo”

Anti-Rituals (That Destroy Culture)

• Unannounced layoffs without exit interviews: Says “we don’t care about people”. Culture dies
• Leadership decisions made in closed rooms, then announced: Says “you don’t have voice”. Transparency value dead
• Praising individual heroes, not teams: Says “teamwork isn’t real value”. Collaboration value dies
• Punishing people who raise problems: Says “honesty isn’t safe”. Radical candor value dead

Measuring Culture: The Metrics That Matter

What gets measured gets managed. If you don’t measure culture, you’re leaving it to chance.

The Cultural Metrics That Matter (2025 Data)

How to Measure Culture (Methods)

Annual Engagement Survey

• Frequency: Once per year (October/November typically)
• Duration: 10-15 minutes for employees
• Questions: “Do you understand company values?”, “Do we live our values?”, “Do you fit here?”, “Would you recommend us?”
• Analysis: Track trends year-over-year. Look for department differences

Pulse Surveys (Real-Time Temp Check)

• Frequency: Monthly or quarterly (much shorter than annual)
• Duration: 2-3 minutes
• Questions: “How do you feel about current culture?” (1-5 scale). One open-ended question
• Benefit: Catch problems before people leave

Exit Interviews (Understanding Departures)

• Timing: Last week of employment
• Key question: “On a scale 1-10, how well did you fit our culture?” Then listen
• Pattern analysis: If people from one team all say low fit, that’s a team culture problem. Address manager

Acting on Metrics (Important!)

• Low eNPS: Don’t ignore. Run pulse survey to diagnose. Is it pay? Manager? Work-life balance? Culture? Dig in
• High turnover in one team: Usually manager problem. Have conversation. Either develop or replace
• Low manager-employee scores: Manager needs training or feedback. Sometimes a change needed
• Action rate: Measurement without action erodes trust. “Why do they survey us if they don’t care?” If low engagement, implement changes and tell team

Scaling Culture as You Grow

Culture at 5 people (all in one room) is easy. Culture at 50 people is hard. At 500, it requires intention. Here’s how to preserve it.

Cultural Stages by Company Size

Scaling Culture Without Losing It

• Document values and behaviors. Write them down. As you grow, new people won’t just “catch” culture from proximity
• Build culture into onboarding. Every new hire (even engineers) spends 30 min learning company values + stories
• Hire managers for culture fit first, then skills. Managers are culture carriers. Bad managers = culture death. Get this right
• Maintain rituals even as you scale. All-hands still weekly at 500 people (split into two sessions). Values still discussed
• Address cultural drift quickly. If you notice values slipping (e.g., people not giving honest feedback), call it out immediately
• Don’t hire for cultural uniformity. Diversity of background + shared values = strong culture. Avoid “we only hire people like us”