How to define core company values at the early stage

Executive overview

Early-stage founders struggle to define values without a large team to draw from. The fix is to use people you already know — both ideal and undesirable — as proxies for the culture you want to build.

Think in people, not platitudes: map who you'd hire and who you'd never hire, then distill the qualities into four to six short value phrases.

The people-list method

• Write a list of 5–10+ people you'd love to have on the team (hypothetically)
• Write a separate list of people you'd never want — even if you like them personally
• For each person, note the single quality or characteristic that puts them on that list

Distilling values from the lists

• Aim for four to six values — no fewer, no more
• Format as short phrases, not single words or full sentences
• For negative examples, flip the characteristic: identify the reverse quality you actually want (e.g. "by-the-book" becomes "creative thinkers")
• Combine positives and reversed negatives into a unified set