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No. 1 factor that determines startup success (hint: it’s not your product)

Discover why company culture is the secret sauce of thriving startups and how to cultivate it from the start.

Marshall Hargrave
4 min readDec 9, 2024

When most people think about what makes a startup successful, they focus on factors like the strength of the product, the size of the market opportunity, or the caliber of the founding team.

…And while all of those things are undoubtedly important, another factor often gets overlooked — but that can make or break a startup’s chances of long-term success.

That factor is company culture.

Company culture is the set of shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that define how a company operates and how its people interact…

…It’s the invisible glue that holds a team together and the north star that guides decision-making at every level.

And for startups, getting the culture right from the very beginning can be the difference between building a thriving, enduring company and flaming out in the early stages.

So why is culture so critical for startups? Here are a few key reasons:

Culture attracts and retains top…

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Marshall Hargrave
Marshall Hargrave

Written by Marshall Hargrave

Serial entrepreneur. Finance, startups, investing. Catalyst-focused, event-driven. Hip-hop vigilante. On the quest for the best hot chicken.

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