'Company-Building Cornerstones' Founders Should Focus On
Date
Dec 29, 2025
Classification
- Startups
"Coding Culture": How HubSpot Designed Its Company Like a 'Product'
🫑 3-Line Summary
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Co-founders must be based on a relationship that has been thoroughly vetted through 'complementary skill sets' and 'uncomfortable questions (timing of sale, values, etc.),' rather than a mere friendship.
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Rather than struggling to compensate for weaknesses, they went all-in on strengths, and Shah adopted an unconventional structure without direct reporters to focus on product and culture design instead of management tasks.
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We defined organizational culture not as an abstract declaration but as an 'internal product' that aids in decision-making, and updated it by constantly providing feedback and documenting it, much like catching bugs.
🥦 Insight
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'Engineer' the company (organizational culture).
Startups typically stake their lives on product development, but often gloss over organizational culture or partner relationships with a "let's just get along" attitude over a drink. True to his background as a former CTO, HubSpot's Shah attempted an engineering approach to company operations. He acknowledged his introversion as a specification rather than a bug, treated annual evaluations like "bug reports," and version-managed the culture like "code."
Isn't the perspective that "Culture is a Product"—that is, the idea of creating an 'operating system' that enables our team members to work better—the real secret to unicorn growth?
🥄 A spoonful of execution
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Try asking a colleague for a "bug report on me" today. Ask, "What are my best-performing features (strengths), and what bugs (weaknesses) need to be fixed right now?" You will be able to discuss your growth straightforwardly, just as you would when improving a product, without letting emotions get in the way.
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Co-founder Selection: Securing Long-term Partnerships Through a Strategic Approach
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Many founding teams evaluate ideas and decide on co-founders based on a simple beer, but they should deeply consider whether they truly enjoy spending time together.
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HubSpot co-founders Shah and Halligan intentionally formed the same team for every project while at MIT to simulate what it was like to work together for eight hours.
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In personal relationships, people date for a long time before marriage, but in co-founder relationships, they are often not as cautious.
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We encourage understanding how each other works through online classes or short-term projects.
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Find the Venn diagram, not the two overlapping circles.
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You are attracted to people most similar to yourself, but it is important to have different skill sets.
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Shared values and work patterns are key elements:
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Passion for learning: Exchanging book recommendation emails at 1 or 2 in the morning to get to know each other's reading lists
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The Power of Healthy Argument: Disagreement Must Also Be Able to Argue
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