A couple of weeks ago, I jumped on a call with Hunter Harris, a fellow technical consultant and Fractional CTO. What started as a casual chat turned into a surprise — Hunter had launched a new podcast called Build and Break Through, and I ended up being his very first guest. Now, I have the honor of having him be the first person I highlight here on my new blog.
Hunter’s podcast focuses on conversations within the startup ecosystem — the people building, fixing, and reinventing early-stage technologies. You can check out Build and Break Through here and listen to my episode here.
The Culture Question
During our chat, we covered a wide range of topics — leadership, scaling, mentorship — but one thread that stuck with me was the role culture plays in technical organizations.
I’ve always had mixed feelings about discussing culture because it’s so intangible. It’s hard to quantify, and even harder to tie directly to strategic outcomes. Yet, it’s impossible to overlook how deeply culture influences small teams, especially in startups where every individual’s performance makes a visible difference.
In a large enterprise, if one engineer has an off day, it barely shows. But in a team you can count on one hand, that dip can represent 20–30% of your capacity. Every person’s energy, motivation, and alignment matter — a lot.
Mentorship as a Cultural Catalyst
This is where mentorship becomes more than just professional development — it’s a core business function with weighty impact.
That mentorship is really what allows someone to see that path of like, not only like, am I here, but I'm here and there's economic interests in the company and there's cultural interests in the company, and then just generally speaking, there's this full alignment.
Mentorship helps team members connect their personal growth to the company’s mission. When people feel that alignment, they stop being just employees — they become contributors with shared purpose. But for mentorship to truly work, employees need to trust that their mentors — especially senior engineering leaders — understand their challenges and career goals. That trust is hard to build if those leaders haven’t been in the trenches themselves, facing the real struggles of writing and shipping code.
I can't understate the value of that specifically, right? Like, just having a manager who has no idea what you're doing versus a manager that's like, I've been where you've been. I know how difficult it is. I know how to help you through this situation. It's better for everybody across the board.
Leaders who have walked the same path create trust and credibility — the kind that inspires people to bring their best selves to work every day.
And at the heart of it all lies a shared motivation that defines startups.
They're there for the startup, not for, if they wanted that environment, they could get that environment at significantly less risk elsewhere. In many cases, yeah, more pay.
People choose the uncertainty of startup life because they believe in the mission, the team, and the impact they can make. It’s up to leaders to nurture that belief — to build an environment where culture, mentorship, and growth continuously reinforce each other. But culture doesn’t come from pizza parties or policy documents; it comes from people. In successful startups, culture isn’t engineered or designed — it’s lived, modeled, and sustained through individuals.