Cultures don't just "happen". Culture is a deliberate act of founder instilling company values in early employees, so the culture then scales from there. Best cultures always feel natural, because founders and early employees spend a boat load of time working on it and enforcing it.
15 years and 9 startups, I walk into the company and immediately can tell if I want to be there. Companies without culture are usually those in a Fortune500 list - numb, bland, like Hondas and Toyotas.
Exactly, that is comparing apples to oranges. In one of the companies I was in we started charging $5 for being late to a huddle or $20 if you were an exec - people took cabs to get to the huddle on time, because it was the fact that you had to pay, not the amount that motivated you. Cab was more than a fine.
Wanted to bring article up now, especially since we are suffering talent shortage in so many of the functional areas and really need to get women back into SMAT and entrepreneurship. CS used to be 40%+ female, but now we are down to 14%. That is going to hurt us bad even worse that it is already.
After decade and a half in startups I am of belief that you must teach management to people. Inspirational managers are not born, they are mentored into that. Good management is not common sense, it is learned. If you are new manager, you should take any help you get.
I wrote this post to share some of the mistakes I and some of my friends have made in 15 years of startups. Would love to see if I have missed some common other offers some of you have settled for only to regret later.