In this episode, Brittany Blumenthal, VP of People at HiddenLayer, shares how early-stage startups can intentionally define and evolve their culture. She breaks down the challenges of working with strong founder imprints, the importance of documenting culture as a living contract, and how to build feedback loops that go both ways. If you're scaling a team and want culture to grow with it, this episode offers tactical insight and hard-earned lessons. 🔑 Key Takeaways:

Culture Starts With the Founder’s Imprint Founders often shape company culture unintentionally. People leaders must help them surface, reflect, and intentionally evolve that foundation.

Write It Down—Make Culture a Living Document You can't scale what’s vague. Culture should be defined, documented, and expected to evolve as the company grows.

Bi-Directional Feedback Is a Culture Keystone True culture thrives when feedback flows in both directions and employees feel safe to share how the company is doing—not just how they are doing.

You Have to Slow the Founder Down In early-stage companies, a big part of the People leader’s job is convincing founders to pause and co-invest in culture before it becomes reactive.

⏱️ Timestamped Highlights:

00:23 – Intro: Defining culture at startups and reshaping founder imprint

01:38 – Founders value culture—but need help operationalizing it

03:38 – “How we want you to show up”: Culture as a two-way contract

07:45 – When feedback loops are broken, culture fails

09:50 – Making culture bi-directional and intentionally embedded

12:20 – What to do when culture is fragmented or inconsistent

14:35 – Getting founders to pause and participate in defining culture

16:25 – Closing thoughts: Culture is how we succeed at scale

💬 Quote:

“The best way to retain talent is to be very clear and very true about what it's like to work here—and write it down.”