WHAT IS CULTURE? _ Through decades of academic studies and research, company culture has been found to have three building blocks: ARTEFACTS NONO What you see (symbols, texts, ceremonies, rituals, facilities, processes, communication) TION TTION T VALUES What people say (norms for good/bad practices, slogans, mission statements) ALENT AALENT A ASSUMPTIONS The meaning behind it (why do we have the culture we have, how does it help us) SS SESSES In less theoretical language culture is the system of agreed and shared values and norms that define what is important and what attitudes and behaviours are appropriate. SMENTSMENT WHEN SHOULD FOUNDERS DO SOMETHING ABOUT DEFINING CULTURE AND VALUES? “Despite all the reasons (to not focus on culture) - not only should you think about culture, you should obsess over it as early in the process as possible.” – Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO of HubSpot Why? Because your team is the biggest thing that will cause a startup to succeed or fail and culture is going to define your team early on. This is going to influence your overall probability of success more than most of the things you will do as a founder. However, this does not mean that you should not iterate. Culture is more like software than hardware. It requires running updates and continual work. As an example: HubSpot’s culture code deck has been updated more than 25 times. 1010