”During the last couple weeks, Candida Brush visited with several technology start-up businesses in San Francisco, Boston and Las Vegas. She was particularly interested in how start-ups build a culture in their organizations and whether or not it occurs by default or if it is deliberately designed by the entrepreneurial team.

She had two main take-aways.

1. Intentionally defined culture should be linked to the mission and the values of the company- but they also have to be communicated, memorable and “lived”. This can provide the glue helping a company to sustain during the dynamic ups and downs of the start-up process. At IDEAN, culture is “lived”.

2. Culture is a “strategic” resource leading, invested in and central to growth and expansion. It is strategic, just like technology, brand, or people. At TicketCake, it is core to strategy.

For entrepreneurs starting new businesses, the tendency is to focus on developing the product, and working on the technology. But, culture needs investment and intentional creation just the same.”

We share Candida’s view at the Urban Mill and apply these principles when building our collaborative open innovation culture within the Espoo innovation Garden context.

Read the whole Forbes post here:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/babson/2014/03/03/building-culture-in-a-tech-start-up/