How important is culture, really?

[Jessica]

Tl;DR: So is culture just bullshit I was force fed through all the start-up books I’ve read? Or is culture really important? Any advice on improving it? How can I convince my co-founders on it’s importance and that we should get involved more in building it up rather than hoping it will occur organically. Backstory My start-up is doing well and growing fast (100+ employees). We’re about to raise another round to grow even faster. However, we have a fairly dry culture. The symptoms I see are: Employees don’t know exactly what our direction is, and we get various answers about what we are trying to build Teams don’t talk to eachother, or understand how other teams work People feel its just a job and average People joining and leaving before probation is up, saying “I was inspired when I joined, but its different after joining” Big arguments between Founders and managers because there misalignment in culture and how to run the team When I talk to my co-founders, I get one of two answers: “Hey, it works, we’re growing” “Hey, it sucks, but its improving” I feel culture so incredibly important, but hey, this is my first time building a start-up and I’m always open to learning. So is culture just bullshit I was force fed through all the start-up books I’ve read? Or is culture really important? Any advice on improving it? How can I convince my co-founders on it’s importance and that we should get involved more in building it up rather than hoping it will occur organically. – by /hq/btravellerasia – –