Culture Club #2

Every founder talks about culture. But not many can explain how theirs works.

Not how it feels. How it functions.

Because at some point, your “we’ve got a good vibe” needs to grow into “we’ve got a reliable system.” One that scales beyond the founders. One that protects what made the early days great, even as your headcount triples and someone suggests a dress code.

That’s where a culture operating system comes in.

At Mina, we learned early that culture without structure is like sourdough without a starter. It might smell nice, but it won’t rise. So we built a framework to embed our values into the day-to-day, not just the pitch deck.

Here’s what our culture operating system looked like.

Vision

Where are we going, and why does it matter?

This was big, ambitious, and emotionally resonant. We wanted every team member — from engineering to customer support — to be able to point at something bigger than today’s to-do list and say, “That’s why I’m here.”

Mission

What are we doing, practically, to get there?

The mission grounded the vision. It turned “we’re changing the world” into “we’re building X for Y people in Z way.”

Values

How do we behave as we do it?

Our four values were Fall Fast, Trust, Be Pioneers, and Care. They weren’t written in a dusty Notion page. They showed up in onboarding, in decisions, in off-boarding even. If someone left and said, “That place cared,” we won.

The BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal)

A target so bold it felt a bit ridiculous.

It gave us focus and courage. We even made it tangible — our first major milestone (driver numbers) was displayed on a live counter. And yes, we once changed the office door code to the next quarterly target.

Quarterly OKRs

Company-wide Objectives and Key Results.

Everyone, from the CTO to the marketing assistant, knew what we were trying to improve by how much. These weren’t nice-to-haves. They drove priorities and clarified trade-offs.

A typical objective:

Improve onboarding experience

Key Result: Increase NPS from 36 to 50 by end of Q2

Monthly All Hands

Company-wide, transparent, and energising.

We’d look at wins, failures, progress on OKRs, and give values shout-outs — moments when someone lived the culture. It wasn’t performance theatre. It was alignment in action.

Weekly L10 Meetings

Borrowed from EOS, but adapted to our rhythm.

Each leadership team ran KPI reviews, OKR check-ins, and issue identification and processing. Not just naming problems — solving them. It kept the business focused, fast-moving, and honest.

Team 1:1s (with values baked in)

This is where culture truly lived.

Every month, managers held 1:1s with a clear agenda:

Workload and wellbeing

• Progress toward role goals

• A reflection on values: “Which value have you most embodied this month? Which do you want to improve?”

It wasn’t just “How are you?” It was “How are we living who we say we are?”

And here’s the kicker. This operating system didn’t just support the culture. It became the culture.

Our team didn’t wonder what we stood for — they experienced it. New hires could feel it within days. Clients noticed it too. Our culture became a competitive advantage, not just in recruitment, but in business development.

Culture isn’t the words you write. It’s the systems you repeat.

If you’re a founder, consider this your checklist:

• Do you have a vision and mission your team can feel?

• Have you picked values that actually matter — and used them in decision-making?

• Is there a cadence (weekly, monthly, quarterly) that reinforces what matters most?

• Do your people have a voice — and know how to use it?

If not, start simple. Start small. But start deliberately.

Culture will form no matter what. The question is whether it’s forming in your image, or in the cracks where your attention isn’t.

Trove Founder Compass

Here’s some other stuff you might like….

I sat down with Chris to chat all things personal brands, pitch decks and headaches. Its a wide ranging chat but there are some gems stuck in there.

Episode 4 is due out next week and we talk to Andrew Gunn, Technologist, former co-founder with Chris Dalrymple and Ashley Tate of Mina Digital Ltd and Angel investor. We look the challenges and thought processes of technical founder compared to the Visionary or Operator founder and how that has shaped Andy’s view of the startup world. For any aspiring technical founders its a must listen.

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