Startup Culture Starts at the Top - Early Leaders and Pillars Amplify It.

In every startup I’ve worked with, one truth stands out: culture starts at the top.

Founders and early leaders don’t just set the vision and strategy - they set the example. How they behave, how they treat people (employees and prospective customers), and how they respond under pressure quickly becomes “how things are done here.”

That’s why your first pillars - the early key hires outside the founder team - matter so much. They don’t create culture. They amplify it. When leaders value clarity, consistency, and thoughtfulness, those pillars carry it forward. But when these values are absent, they spread that too.

I’ve seen a founder who led with accountability and consistency from day one - and it multiplied through their first hires. I’ve also seen the opposite, where inconsistent behavior from the top caused culture drift before the company even hit 30 employees.

The difference always comes back to the behavior founders and leaders exhibit every day - and that’s what defines your startup culture.

Bottom line: culture isn’t a handbook or a set of values on a wall - it’s what people see lived out at the top. And your first pillars make sure it is more solidly engrained in your company.