Scaling Culture: How to Grow Without Losing What Makes You Great

Culture Isn’t Static—It’s a Living System

Startups often begin with a clear mission and a tight-knit team. The culture forms organically, shaped by the founders and the first hires. It’s informal, dynamic, and deeply connected to the people driving it forward. But as the company scales, the dynamics shift—rapidly. What worked at 10 employees starts breaking at 30. At 60, things feel different again. By 100, the company may not even resemble what it once was.

Culture isn’t something you set and forget—it evolves. The challenge isn’t just maintaining it but intentionally shaping it at each stage of growth. Companies that fail to do this risk losing alignment, diluting their values, and ultimately slowing their growth.

Below, we break down how startup culture changes at each stage—and how to shape it with intention.

The Four Stages of Culture Evolution

Early-Stage (1-10 Employees): The Founder-Driven Culture

At this stage, culture is personal. It’s an extension of the founders’ values, leadership styles, and working habits. Decisions are fast, roles are fluid, and the environment is informal. The company operates with a “whatever it takes” mindset, where adaptability is key. Since the team is small, everyone works closely together, often across multiple functions.

What to Focus On:

• Hiring people who align with your vision and mission. Every early hire has an outsized impact on culture, and the wrong fit can disrupt momentum.
• Creating clear, shared values that guide decisions. Even if unwritten, there must be a foundational understanding of how the team works and what it stands for.
• Setting expectations early on. The way you communicate, make decisions, and collaborate now will define future norms as the team grows.

Pitfalls to Avoid:

• Assuming culture will naturally stay the same as you grow. If it’s not actively shaped, it will change in unintended ways.
• Over-relying on the founders as the glue. Culture needs to extend beyond the original team to be sustainable.
• Ignoring early warning signs of misalignment. Disjointed work styles, unclear communication, or different interpretations of company values will only become bigger problems later.

Key Takeaway: Early-stage culture is flexible and founder-driven, but it needs a foundation that will scale.

Growth-Stage (11-30 Employees): The First Signs of Complexity

As new people join, the first cracks appear. Culture starts to shift from implicit to explicit. Founders can no longer be involved in every decision, and as teams form, subcultures begin emerging. Some hires come from corporate backgrounds and expect structure, while others thrive in startup chaos. Misalignment can start to show, making it harder to maintain the original sense of unity.

What to Focus On:

• Codifying values. Write them down and integrate them into hiring, onboarding, and performance management.
• Creating feedback loops. Regular check-ins, all-hands meetings, and open dialogue help reinforce values and alignment.
• Investing in leadership development. Early managers have an outsized influence on shaping team culture, and they need training to do it effectively.

Pitfalls to Avoid:

• Hiring for skills over cultural fit. A technically strong hire who doesn’t align with company values can create internal friction.
• Letting early leaders dictate culture without intention. If leadership styles aren’t aligned, different teams will start operating in silos.
• Failing to create systems that support culture. Without structured onboarding, clear communication norms, and defined values, culture becomes fragmented.

Key Takeaway: The shift from an informal to a structured culture requires deliberate effort to keep teams aligned.

Scaling-Stage (30-60 Employees): Culture Must Be Reinforced

At this stage, culture is no longer self-sustaining. Founders aren’t in every meeting, and hiring velocity increases, which means new influences shape the culture. If not managed properly, subcultures can emerge, causing fragmentation. A once tightly connected team now has multiple functions, requiring more cross-team collaboration and structured decision-making.

What to Focus On:

• Embedding values into operations. Make culture part of hiring, performance reviews, and decision-making. It should be reflected in how the company runs—not just what it says.
• Creating a strong middle management layer. Middle managers play a crucial role in reinforcing culture, translating leadership’s vision into daily work.
• Ensuring teams don’t become isolated. Siloed departments weaken collaboration and make it harder to maintain alignment. Cross-functional projects, open communication, and leadership accessibility help keep teams connected.

Pitfalls to Avoid:

• Over-documenting culture while failing to live it. Culture isn’t just about values on a website—it needs to be actively demonstrated in daily interactions.
• Losing transparency. New employees should still feel connected to leadership and the company mission, even as the organization grows.
• Letting “culture dilution” happen. Growth should strengthen culture, not erode it. If new hires don’t align with the company’s values, long-term cohesion is at risk.

Key Takeaway:* Scaling successfully means reinforcing culture at every level—not just expecting it to persist on its own.

Maturity-Stage (60-100 Employees): Keeping Culture While Scaling

At this point, culture is tested the most. There are too many people to maintain a founder-led culture, and leadership must intentionally design systems that uphold the values while allowing for natural evolution. Without a clear approach, the company risks either becoming too bureaucratic or losing its identity.

What to Focus On:

• Maintaining mission alignment. It’s easy for employees to lose sight of the company’s original vision as the organization grows. Regular storytelling, leadership engagement, and internal communications help reinforce the mission.
• Supporting a culture of psychological safety. Employees should feel comfortable speaking up, experimenting, and challenging ideas without fear. Innovation thrives in open environments.
• Regular culture check-ins. What worked at 30 employees may not work at 100. Leadership should continuously assess cultural health through surveys, feedback sessions, and company-wide discussions.

Pitfalls to Avoid:

• Over-bureaucratizing culture. While structure is needed, too many rigid rules can stifle creativity and innovation.
• Hiring purely for experience over cultural contribution. Skills are important, but employees who don’t align with the company’s values can create internal misalignment.
• Losing agility. Scaling should enhance innovation, not slow it down. Process improvements should be designed to support flexibility, not hinder it.

Key Takeaway: As companies mature, culture must be intentionally scaled while staying true to its roots.

Culture Evolves—But It Shouldn’t Drift

The best companies evolve their culture with intention—balancing adaptation with staying true to their core values. The worst companies let it drift, only realizing too late that they’ve lost what made them special.

As your startup grows, the question isn’t “How do we keep our culture the same?” The real question is:

“How do we scale culture so it stays meaningful at every stage?”

By proactively shaping culture, embedding it in processes, and reinforcing it at every level, startups can grow without losing what makes them unique, as detailed in our Insights on startup culture.