‘Startup culture’ has become a stereotype in itself, spawning endless memes and even birthing hit TV shows. Happily, over the last decade or so, the tech ecosystem has stopped confusing culture with ping pong tables and beer on tap. Culture is how employees decide to collaborate and make decisions. It’s what the organisation decides to celebrate and discourage. And it’s how startups bring incredible talent on board when they’re fighting against larger, more-capitalised competitors.

I spoke with Melanie Oakley, former Chief People Officer at London-listed fintech LendInvest and now a people advisor and interim executive for tech startups and scaleups, to understand what difference culture really makes for young, fast-growing businesses.

People joining an early-stage startup are opting into an intense work environment. “You can put all the inspirational posters and slogans you like up on the walls, but in a startup, people learn much more from observing their peers than from reading mottos, documents and guidebooks,” says Melanie.

With this in mind, it’s vital for founders to take the time to “do a bit of self-reflection,” Melanie thinks.

An example might be a founder who regularly works very late in the office – say, until 10pm. If a founder achieves their best work in that way, few colleagues or advisors would recommend doing anything differently. However, that founder might know that he or she wouldn’t ask every member of the team to work until 10pm every weeknight. But “whether or not founders like it, the early culture is absolutely defined by their behaviours,” suggests Melanie.

So, founders need to optimise for their own effectiveness, while being conscious that their first hires are watching them closely for signals showing which behaviours are likely to be rewarded.

Many startups celebrate their transparency as a core value. And certainly, startups can be refreshing environments for team members joining from larger enterprises or from different sectors, where information is often distributed on a ‘need to know’ basis. The candour found in many startup all-hands meetings, where the whole company might hear about engineering challenges and get to understand the latest financial picture, is a big draw for lots of potential hires.

But founders are understandably reticent about “sharing everything with everyone by default” - in Melanie’s words. One important risk of complete transparency is that employees might – accidentally or otherwise – disclose confidential data to customers, their social networks or even competitors, which is potentially damaging in several ways.

It’s important that founders and senior leaders decide for themselves what they’re comfortable sharing. Rather than feeling obliged to dig into every performance figure and strategic decision in team meetings, there are alternate ways of communicating openly.

Founders can set out for themselves where they want their company to sit on an imagined sliding scale, rating their ideal organisation for directness, transparency, collaboration, discipline and any other key behavioural factors. “Founders can either set out these principles in stone, or be led by their team. Are your employees hungry to learn more? Do they think you’re keeping them in the dark? Don’t forget that discontented team members are also a business risk. Transparency is often most effective when it’s collaborative, and everyone feels like they have a say,” says Melanie.

Generally, startups are expanding internationally more quickly. Index Ventures research published in 2025 found that 64% of European pre-seed and seed startups now have some activity in the US, up significantly from 33% five years ago.

The cultural impact on an organisation of hiring internationally and setting up satellite offices can be profound. The tried and trusted playbook for founders looking to expand quickly and successfully is to send ‘cultural champions’ – often long-serving and valued employees – to be among the first boots on the ground in a new international market. But is this the only way to go?

“Expanding with culture champions from your HQ does work well,” agrees Melanie. “But it’s quite often a happy accident, and it relies on some fortune in terms of timing: whether you can spare the resource in your home market, and you’re able to obtain the right visas, which is never a guarantee. Not every company has the chance to do this in a really seamless way, and that’s OK because it’s not essential.”

Founders shouldn’t be afraid of subcultures developing in new geographies, thinks Melanie. “My current interim Chief People Officer role is in a Danish growth-stage company which has a global reach. Our Copenhagen office holds the ‘founding culture’. Other hubs, such as London and Berlin, have layers of their own culture built in to operations and processes. This geographical and cultural dynamism is essential: it supports attracting and retaining top talent by embracing and supporting diverse, effective working styles globally.”

How much difference should founders embrace? “Things like in-office hours, team bonding and socialising norms might change from hub to hub, but as long as the founders and senior team are consistent in which behaviours they reward, leaning into the elements that are unique to newer markets can bring more diverse thought and better collaboration into the organisation,” Melanie says.

Founders can’t be the sole guardians of company culture forever. The early people and talent hires are some of the most important stakeholders in preserving and evolving a startup’s culture. Melanie says, “Recruitment is often the specialist skillset founders hire for first,” with founders often handing talent processes over to a recruiter once the team scales to 10-15 people. A dedicated people manager is often brought in by the time headcount is up to 50, with a senior executive (Head / VP of People, or a Chief People Officer) hired to sit on the leadership team once the team is around 100 people.

People and talent specialists are often charged with creating ways to discern potential culture fit during the hiring process.

“Not everyone is a good fit for every company, and that’s OK. Employees should ask their interviewers how they would describe their culture. You learn a lot from the answers you get: are they describing the social life and fun they have as a team? Or do they bring it back to values and decision-making principles?”

Founders hear all the time that a strong culture is key to shipping great products, attracting high-quality talent, and hitting your growth milestones. But tech startups should be careful not to think they’re ‘doing culture’ by simply spending on office perks. Benefits that help your team enjoy their working days have their place. But your culture is your template for how you work and make decisions as an organisation.

While founders are responsible for scaling up their people and talent functions over time, at the end of the day they will always be held up as the biggest exemplars and champions of their startup’s culture. Decisions that result in a counterproductive culture could have real impact on your growth and cohesion over the longer term.