So many entrepreneurs try to get “culture” right in their organizations but can’t. Too often it’s because are told it’s important by advisors, board members, and articles like this, but end up only putting a veneer of happy egalitarianism (‘we’re all in this together”) in their company while they limit information, pit teams against each other, or ignore the warning signs of bigger problems to come.

While entrepreneurs are often told that the company they start and even that gets initial funding might not be the company that pivots to success in the long term. Startup leaders need to know from the beginning that their ability to survive that pivot, among all the other challenges startups face every day, is to define and nurture their company culture every day. You can pivot a business, it’s very hard to pivot a culture.