Building Inclusive Start-Ups From Day One

Livingston James Consultant, Rachel Sim, recently attended a webinar hosted by The Honeycomb Works and the Royal Academy of Engineering titled ‘Creating Cultures that Scale’. In this blog, Rachel explores how start-ups can use inclusion and intentional culture design as a competitive advantage, rather than treating it as a secondary priority. She outlines key insights from the session and shares practical steps for embedding effective, inclusive cultures that scale.

What if a great company culture wasn’t an afterthought but a competitive advantage built into a start-up’s DNA from day one? At the start of the month, I attended a webinar hosted by The Honeycomb Works and The Royal Academy of Engineering on ‘Creating Cultures that Scale’, which offered practical insights on building inclusive cultures from the ground up.

While all organisations should make a concerted effort to increase diversity, inclusion and equality for underrepresented groups, the start-up community has a unique opportunity to drive change quickly, while teams are still lean and nimble. ED&I support is often tailored to large corporates or requires significant budgets. However, a recent report from the Royal Academy of Engineering makes strong recommendations for accessible, scalable culture improvements. Together with The Honeycomb Works, they’ve developed practical tools and resources for implementing inclusive practices, regardless of company size or budget. In this piece, I’ll explore common pitfalls start-ups face when it comes to culture, strategies for overcoming them, and the key takeaways from the webinar.

 

Culture Must Be Intentional

One of the most powerful insights shared was:

“Cultures are created habit by habit, person by person. It’s not intentions or processes but the behaviours of the majority which establish what is acceptable or not.”

Culture doesn’t live in a policy document – it’s shaped by what people do every day, what’s rewarded, and what’s overlooked. I was reminded of this when listening to Emma Grede on Grace Beverley’s Working Hard, Hardly Working podcast. She put it simply: “Culture is who you hire, fire, and promote.” Recognition, whether positive or negative, sets the tone. If someone is promoted for technical excellence despite poor behaviour, the message becomes clear – skills matter more than values. Others will follow that lead. So, how do we shift behaviours to build cultures where everyone – not just a select few – can thrive?

 

Culture That Scales Requires Consistency, Intentional Growth and Inclusion

To build inclusive, high-performing cultures, start-ups must prioritise sustainable growth and cultural consistency. The data from the webinar highlighted several challenges:

• Culture often favours the “in-group”. In early-stage start-ups, where founding teams know each other well, cohesion can come at the expense of fairness. Those outside the dominant group may have very different – often less positive – experiences
• Bias quietly shapes culture. Research showed women are more likely to rate their organisations poorly on inclusive behaviours. When underrepresented voices speak up, they’re more often met with resistance, leading to silence and disengagement over time
• Age matters. Those aged 35-54 report the most positive workplace experiences, while those over 55 report the worst. Inclusion efforts must therefore consider characteristics such as age, alongside gender, race, and sexuality

 

The Biggest Risks to Company Culture

Two key findings stood out:

• Managers may be out of touch: As start-ups grow, managers become critical influencers of culture. Without training – often skipped due to time or budget constraints – they can become disconnected from the employee experience, impacting trust, collaboration and inclusion
•  Lack of psychological safety: Diverse teams only thrive when members feel safe to speak up, make mistakes, and challenge ideas. Without psychological safety, innovation is stifled, and the full value of diversity is lost

 

Practical Solutions:

• Ask open questions
• Seek and provide feedback across all levels
• Give everyone space to contribute – call out interruptions and vary communication formats to suit different styles
• Run regular wellbeing or ED&I check-ins – qualitative conversations can be more useful than anonymous surveys in small teams
• Use scorecards or team profiling tools to spot patterns in feedback, then act on the insights

 

“It’s Too Early!” – A Common Misconception

A frequent objection from start-ups is, “It’s too early to think about culture.” But that mindset can be costly. Waiting until later often means untangling deeply embedded problems. By contrast, laying the foundations of inclusive culture early sets you up to scale with intention. Culture is formed from the very first hire. Start-ups have a unique chance to build inclusivity into:

• Recruitment – design hiring processes to reduce bias and widen access
• Onboarding and team dynamics – prevent “us vs. them” mindsets between early joiners and founding members
• Values – create a shared language and reinforce it through systems and decision-making
• You don’t need to be an ED&I expert, but openness to advice and action is key. Inclusive start-ups attract people with strong values, diverse perspectives, and higher engagement

 

“We Don’t Have Time!”

Time is one of the scarcest resources in start-ups. With the pressure of product launches, investment rounds and customer needs, culture can seem non-urgent. But it’s never a “nice to have” – it’s foundational. Even if time is limited, culture doesn’t need to take over – it just needs to be intentional. Avoid the mistake of neglecting culture due to daily pressures. The cost of inaction can be high: disengaged employees, stalled growth, and deep-rooted issues that are harder to fix later.

Ask yourself:

• Where are we trying to go?
• What kind of team are we building?
• Are our current behaviours helping us get there?

 

The good news is that starting early makes culture easier to scale and more impactful. Make it part of everyday practice – embedded in recruitment, communication, and decision-making.

 

Final Thoughts

Building a great company culture doesn’t require large budgets or a big time commitment. It requires consistent, thoughtful action woven into your daily operations. When people feel safe, valued, and supported, they perform better – creating a culture that’s good for people and for business.

Want to learn more or access the ED&I tools mentioned? Contact The Honeycomb Works or visit the Royal Academy of Engineering’s ED&I resources.

To discuss scaling your start-up or developing culture in your team, please contact: [email protected]