Dear hustlers, founders, operators and visionaries,

Things can be tough—your startup is growing fast, you're putting out fires left and right, and culture might seem like something that can wait. But here’s the hard truth: if you don’t actively shape your culture now, it’ll shape itself—and not always in ways that align with your vision.

That’s why we sat down with Noa Perry-Reifer, Chief People Officer at the On, to explore a critical question: Can you scale quickly while keeping the culture that made you successful in the first place?

On went from 100 to over 3,000 employees and navigated massive growth, including an IPO, all while working to maintain their entrepreneurial spirit. How did they approach the challenge of preserving culture amid hypergrowth, and did it work?

🎧 Tune in now on Spotify, Apple, YouTube and find out!

In the meantime: Follow the Gradient and stay tuned!

PS: Has this e-mail been forwarded to you? Sign up here.

How to keep your culture thriving while scaling

What you will get out of this episode

In our interview, Noa shares:

• That the “Why” comes first and illustrates the importance of prioritizing the mission (“why”) over the actions (“what”), in order to maintain a clear sense of purpose

• How embracing failure can foster a culture of innovation

• Why Leadership buy-in is key for culture initiatives to succeed

• How the power of storytelling can accelerate the embedding of cultural values into everyday life

• and much more!

Our main take away’s

1. Lead with values: At ON, people start with why they’re doing something, not just what they’re doing. This clarity fosters alignment and purpose across the team, driving decisions and actions.

2. Proactively safeguard culture: As your company grows, proactively addressing cultural challenges is key. Start by clearly defining and communicating your values. Make them come alive by sharing real stories that reflect these values in action and reinforce them through everyday actions—like how you run meetings, celebrate milestones, or set up workspaces.

3. Failure = innovation: ON embraces failure as a driver for innovation. Creating a culture where risk-taking is encouraged ensures continuous growth and challenges the status quo.

4. It’s a team effort: Maintaining culture requires collective leadership. Every leader must be a culture champion (not just the People team), as cultural initiatives succeed only with full team engagement.

5. Autonomy through trust: ON’s approach to trust—like flexible vacation and removing expense approvals—empowers employees while maintaining agility.

6. Founders as cultural stewards: Founders have a unique role in shaping and preserving culture.

Further material on the topic of startup culture

• The academic institute IMD made an extensive study about On and the question “Can a company retain entrepreneurial spirit during hypergrowth?” - an insightful read.

• 📚The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

• 📚No Rules Rules by Erin Foster and Red Hastings

How to reach out to Noa

• Noa on LinkedIn

Talk to you next week! Until then, connect with us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram and YouTube!

🫶 Melanie & Christian

Each week, a lot of work goes into the Follow the Gradient project to help you navigate this crazy jungle called entrepreneurship. Help us grow this community and we’ll make sure that you or your project gets a shoutout in the weekly newsletter!