Tim Brady - Building Culture

TL;DR

Culture is defined as the implicit set of behaviors that inform employees how to act when not explicitly told. The first ~20 employees are your cultural DNA; they hire and train the next wave, so getting culture right early prevents propagating mistakes.

Key insights

• Culture is just behavior – the implicit set of behaviors inside the company that inform employees how to behave when it hasn't been explicitly laid out.
• The first set of employees (up to roughly 20, before scaling) are the cultural DNA; they will be highly involved in hiring and training the next wave. Mistakes get propagated if early hires are wrong.
• Choosing an idea with your ego (because it sounds good at parties) makes it impossible to sustain energy/enthusiasm during hard times; founders who don’t identify with their problem will lose employee