When it’s no longer like it used to be
At some point, you start hearing it more and more often:
“This isn’t the same startup it was at the beginning.”
“In the good old days, it was different.”
“Soon we’ll be a total corporation.”
The team grows. Meetings multiply. Processes that seemed completely unnecessary not long ago start to emerge. Decisions are no longer made spontaneously between three people over morning coffee.
Organizational culture in a startup, which was natural and intuitive at small scale, starts to look a bit different on at larger scale. And that’s when, gradually, imperceptibly, an increasingly strong tension creeps in. Are we losing what was best in us?
You can build a great culture that grows with the company
Imagine a company that grew, but didn’t become heavier.
The atmosphere in meetings is still friendly, even when the topic is difficult. People speak their minds directly, without calculating if it benefits them. Decisions are made without constant tug-of-war. No one has to fight for space to be heard. People still want to be here.
New hires join the team, and after a few weeks, they feel like this is their place. They know they can rely on others and are committed to others being able to rely on them.
The company is larger. More complex. Yet people don’t say: “This isn’t the same startup anymore.” They say: “It might be different, but I still love working here.”
Because it’s not scale that destroys startup culture. It’s killed by a misconception of what it actually is.
I talk more about how organizational culture in a startup can grow with the company, preserving what’s most valuable, in episode 7 of the Founder 2.0 series, available in Polish and English.
How to grow without losing startup culture
In the early stages of a company’s development, startup culture is often associated with energy. Speed. Lack of formality. Flexibility. A relaxed atmosphere where everyone can be themselves. An approach based on the assumption that “we’ll figure it out”.
And it works — when everyone sees everything, and the number of dependencies is small.
At scale, these same elements begin to carry completely different weight. A lack of clearly defined roles stops being freedom and starts creating increasing uncertainty. Flexibility without boundaries turns into a lack of accountability and blame-shifting when something goes wrong. And spontaneously made decisions, despite good intentions, increasingly begin to lead to conflicts.
Then, a very common reflex for founders is to try to defend “startup-ness.” Protecting the casualness. Rejecting rules in the name of maintaining a relaxed atmosphere.
However, a culture where people want to work with 15 individuals doesn’t automatically emerge with 80. At scale, what was intuitive must become conscious.
Trust at small scale is a result of closeness. At larger scale, trust begins to require a certain architecture. For people to truly rely on others, they need to know who they can rely on and for what, and what is expected of them so that others can rely on them.
So, it’s not about ceasing to be dynamic. It’s about stopping the fight for the old form and starting to build a balance that fits the current reality.
Whether you like it or not, scale changes the rules of the game.
There are mats for fighting, and there are mats for balance.
What’s next?
I talk more about how to build an organizational culture in a startup that strengthens trust at growing scale in episode 7 of the Founder 2.0 series, available in Polish and English.
And if you feel that culture is something worth looking at more closely in your company and you’d like to do it together — let’s talk.