6 Ways I Sabotaged My Own Startup’s Culture

Over the many years which I had my last business, our culture went from truly amazing to absolutely toxic. At one stage, we had a culture so fantastic that one guy literally burst into tears when I told him he could join us. We were the envy of everyone. I have heard many a story since of founders having similar issues, catapulting from great to appalling. Those dangers come with that otherwise magical word “growth”. This is a cautionary tale. To understand what went wrong, it is necessary to go back to those early years and look at what was so right that it reduced grown men to sobs of joy. Everyone worked hard. We paid just above the average, so it wasn’t the money. We weren’t doing exceptional, groundbreaking work. We weren’t well known other than on the local grapevine. There were no glamorous facilities, just a semi-fitted out warehouse with a staff room full of cast-off saggy bottom sofas and the generous facilities of a kettle and a toaster. And if that wasn’t enticing enough, the landlord’s drains ran too shallow, so not only did we have flash flooding on occasions, but the smell wafting from communal facilities could often be more than a little ripe. Not the normal stuff that dreams are made of. And yet: the culture was nothing short of exceptional. And because of that, people were desperate to work there. They had heard of this Shangri-la of the workplace, where people were actually happy all day. <a href="https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/6-ways-i-sabotaged-my-own-startups-culture-a029b7e13433">Learn More</a>