Pareen Lathia

No. 2026
a notebook

building things, writing them down

Culture & Team

Your First Ten Hires

The first ten people are the culture — not the deck on the wall. Each one moves the average.

Culture isn’t values on a page; it’s the ten people who set the norm everyone after them copies. This is about hiring the average you actually want.

This piece will cover:

  • Why the first ten set the baseline
  • Hiring for the company you’re becoming
  • The cost of one wrong early hire

Working draft — an outline for now; the full version is coming.