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March 23, 2026

Culture Doesn't Just Happen. You Must Build It.

4 min read

If you don't, you're building a bad one.

Most founders think culture takes care of itself. Work hard, set the example, hire good people. That's not culture. That's hope.

My friend Michele Setzer is a people and organizational effectiveness executive who has spent her career inside companies from three-person startups to global enterprises. She just published the first in a five-part series on building culture intentionally. Her framing is direct:

"Culture does not wait for you to design it. It is already forming in the gap between what leadership says and what people experience."

That gap is where culture actually lives. Not in your values doc. Not in an offsite. In the gap.

Culture is how people behave when you're not in the room. What they say about working here to their friends and family about their job. Whether someone speaks up when something feels wrong, or stays quiet because experience has taught them it's not safe. How people get rewarded, and for what. Whether your best people grow with you or peace out after a rough patch.

All of that is yours to define. Specifically. On purpose. Or someone else defines it for you.

Some folks think they can solve this with an HR hire... when they're ready to do one. This isn't an HR problem. It's probably the most important leadership decision you make, and most founders aren't treating it like a decision at all.

Michele draws a useful distinction: intentional culture versus over-engineered culture. Not culture by committee. A practical architecture your team can actually operate from. Defined behaviors. Operating principles. How people work together when things get hard.

Take a look at your last few weeks. Did anyone say something uncomfortable in a meeting? Do decisions made in the room stay made, or get relitigated in the hallway? Have your best people stopped bringing you hard problems?

If the answers aren't great, that's drift. Drift is correctable. But only if you decide to correct it, on purpose, with specificity.

You'll know you have a great culture when your team is bringing their friends into the company or when they show up energized to solve problems during a hard time. You'll know you have a great culture when one of your leaders fires someone for violating your values, even when they're a top performer. You'll know you have a great culture when you can sit back in a meeting and the team is driving the business, just like you always wanted.

Culture is a leadership output. Not a byproduct.

Get cracking.

Start with part one here: Intentionally Build The Culture You Need And It Will Change Everything and follow Michele for the rest of the series.

FAQ

Q: What is intentional company culture?

A: Intentional culture means deliberately defining behaviors, operating principles, and how people work together — rather than letting culture form by accident in the gap between what leadership says and what people experience.

Q: Why can't you just hire good people and hope culture works out?

A: Culture is not a byproduct of good hiring. It forms whether you design it or not. Without specific, deliberate choices about behaviors and values, drift sets in — decisions get relitigated, best people stop raising hard problems, and top performers leave.

Q: How do you know if your startup has a great culture?

A: You know you have great culture when your team brings their friends into the company, when leaders fire top performers who violate values, and when you can sit back in a meeting and the team drives the business without you.