Episode 42: How New Hires Change Your Company Culture Faster Than You Realize

Episode 5 in the series, Scaling Growth

Culture doesn’t disappear overnight — it drifts. One day you look around and realize your company doesn’t feel the same. The people you’ve hired don’t carry the same ownership, the same hunger, or the same fight that you did in the early days.

This episode tells the story of how culture dilutes layer by layer, from the founding four to the second wave of hires, and eventually to the third and fourth. What gets passed down isn’t culture — it’s fragments, mixed with habits from past jobs and a lot of ambiguity.

This episode is for founders who feel their company slipping into something they barely recognize, even though growth is happening on paper.

• Why every new hire absorbs less of your original DNA
• How missing systems and onboarding accelerate culture drift
• Why founders misdiagnose the problem and keep grinding harder
• The shift you must see: culture doesn’t vanish—it gets rewritten

Reflection Questions

• If I asked your last 10 hires to define your company’s non-negotiables, would they all give the same answer?
• When was the last time you reinforced, in plain language, what can never be compromised here?

Links and Resources

The Next Question Guide → NextQuestionGuide.com

LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/jamesmayhew

Website → JamesMayhew.com