“Culture isn’t an HR project. It’s a founder habit”

As companies grow, it’s easy to assume culture can be delegated to the People team. Policies, perks, and events help—but they don’t define how people behave. Culture is shaped from the top—it’s the imprint of leadership in the habits, decisions, and interactions that happen every day. When leadership steps back, there’s a real risk of creating a “culture on autopilot”: programs that look good on paper but don’t influence how people work together.

At Fourvenues, I’ve observed how founder-led culture has made all the difference. From day one, the founders have actively role-modeled behaviours they value: taking ownership, collaborating openly, staying resilient through challenges, and approaching problems with curiosity and initiative. Culture isn’t only celebrated in visible moments like our Summer and Winter Camp; it’s embedded in every interaction and process. Performance management reflects our values, with top performers celebrated as “headliners,” and peer recognition highlights behaviours that embody our culture. Hiring balances skills with culture fit, with the CEO personally involved in every recruitment process to maintain connection and set a high standard.

The People team plays a key supporting role during this scaling journey, ensuring that the systems and processes in place—onboarding, performance management, recognition, internal communications, and hiring—amplify the founders’ example and make culture tangible for everyone. By embedding values and providing context for roles, the People team helps employees and leaders understand how to act in alignment with both the culture and the realities of our industry.

What also makes our culture distinctive is how deeply it’s tied to the nightlife, music, festivals, and live events industry we operate in. From the naming of our values to our internal communications, everything reinforces this context. This approach ensures employees not only live the culture, but also understand the challenges our clients face, the environment in which we operate, and how to make decisions that drive innovation and impact.

What I’ve learned is that culture scales only when leadership actively models it, and the People team supports and amplifies it along the way. My advice to anyone facing a similar challenge is to embed culture in every process, hire for both values and capabilities, provide clear context for roles, and use recognition and feedback to reinforce what matters. Culture is a competitive advantage—but only when it’s lived, understood, and tied to the work people do.