Building a clarity culture, getting clarity about equity and more. All the clarities….
Startups thrive on momentum, focus, and belief. But behind every product launch, investor update, or sprint planning session lies something rarely discussed openly: how clear is your team about what’s going on?
In the early days, founders set the tone, intentionally or not. And one of the biggest decisions they get to make is how they want their company to behave when things are hard. Will you shield your team from tough news and hope for the best? Or will you choose openness, even when it’s uncomfortable?
All relationships are easy when everything’s going well. But every startup faces challenges and this is when relationships get tested.
It’s tempting to hold back. To soften bad news. To protect morale. But over time, that creates cracks and the potential for people to start second-guessing leadership, filling gaps with assumptions, or worse, disengaging altogether.
Choosing clarity over comfort is one of the most effective things a founder can do to build trust. It invites the team in, shows them the whole playing field, and says: we’re in this together.
That’s what Clarity Culture is all about.
Why Clarity Matters More in Startups
Startups aren’t mini corporations, they’re high-trust experiments in motion. Here’s what that really means:
- Uncertainty is the norm: Priorities change, strategies pivot, and entire markets shift overnight.
- Resources are thin: You can’t outcompete on salary or perks.
- Every hire shapes the culture: You’re not hiring into a system—you’re helping to design it.
- Individual impact is huge: When there are 10 people on the team, one person can tilt the company’s trajectory.
In this environment, clarity isn’t just helpful, it’s essential.
What Clarity Culture Looks Like
Clarity Culture is built on a few simple but powerful principles:
1. Operational Honesty
Say what’s true, not just what’s comfortable. That could include:
- Sharing the runway and burn rate in team meetings, so people understand the stakes.
- Being transparent about sales or monthly recurring revenue (MRR) goals and whether the company is hitting them.
- Talking about churn, even when it’s painful.
- Explaining the logic behind headcount freezes or hiring surges.
This doesn’t mean inducing panic. It means treating your team like adults who can handle reality and want to help shape it.
2. Open Signals
People do their best work when they know what’s really going on. That means:
- Explaining why decisions are made, not just announcing them.
- Making internal changes visible: new priorities, new metrics, new leadership hires.
- Sharing feedback as soon as possible, not saving it for a performance review.
These signals help everyone course-correct quickly. When the signals are open, you’re not just building alignment, but you’re speeding up trust.
3. Real-Time Feedback
In startups, feedback delayed is progress denied.
- Praise early, don’t sit on it.
- Coach in the moment, not six weeks later.
- Normalise asking for feedback as often as you give it.
Constructive feedback delivered in real time is one of the clearest signals your culture values growth, not perfection.
4. Naming the Hard Stuff
If a big deal falls through, say so. If the team is behind on targets, acknowledge it. If you’re worried about morale, talk about it.
A leader pretending everything’s fine when it’s not is a trust killer. But a leader who names the problem and invites others to help solve it is a trust builder.
But Clarity Isn’t Chaos
This isn’t about turning your company into a confessional. Founders often mistake transparency for a lack of leadership, but it’s the opposite.
Clarity Culture doesn’t mean sharing everything. It means sharing the right things, at the right time, in the right way.
- Set the tone. People take their emotional cues from leaders, so pair honesty with optimism.
- Share context, not just data. Don’t dump metrics; explain what they mean.
- Be human. You don’t need a perfect answer, just a real one.
How You’ll Know It’s Working
You’ll start to notice:
- Departing team members give thoughtful, constructive feedback, not vague platitudes.
- People raise problems early instead of hiding them.
- Teammates take initiative outside their job descriptions because they know what matters – discretionary effort increases.
- Recruitment gets easier because people say, “I’ve heard your team is really open about how things work.”
In a World of Noise, Clarity Wins
If your startup is navigating uncertainty (and let’s be real, whose isn’t?), then Clarity Culture is your edge.
It attracts people who want to solve problems, not just follow instructions. It reduces politics, confusion, and rework. It builds resilience, not by shielding people from the truth, but by helping them move through it together.
And maybe most importantly, it makes your company the kind of place people want to stay.
For Paid Members:
Clear internal comms aren’t just good practice—they’re growth multipliers. ‘From Chaos to Clarity’ breaks down exactly what, when, and how to communicate to rally your team, manage ambiguity, and build lasting trust.
Ready-made Slack templates, a Prompt to help you design your comms, practical monthly rhythms, and guidance for critical moments included.
Because clarity always beats silence.
A Work experience platform you need to know about.
I want to tell you about BORN, which is a community-driven platform I really believe in.
If we’re serious about solving the so-called talent shortage, we need to demonstrate that tech is a rewarding career path. Bringing a student on board is an effective way to showcase these opportunities and inspire the next generation to pursue careers in technology.
Born is designed specifically to help startups like yours connect quickly and easily with talented students and recent graduates. The core idea is simple: students have incredible skills and untapped potential, and when given real opportunities, they deliver outstanding results.
Through BORN, other startups have successfully launched targeted marketing campaigns, accelerated their capital raises, and seamlessly onboarded students into their dev teams, making a tangible difference right away.
Getting started couldn’t be simpler:
- Set up your account.
- Quickly draft your project brief using their intuitive AI tool, which guides you through structuring roles, tasks, and priorities clearly.
- Post your project. Instantly, your brief reaches hundreds of talented students who can express their interest with a short, personalized message.
The best part? There’s no hidden catch or extra costs, their sole aim is connecting passionate students with innovative startups.
Even if you don’t have an immediate project, I encourage you to explore their student directory. You can review profiles, reach out directly, and start building relationships for when you’re ready.
Come join this growing community, they’d love to have you onboard!
THIS IS NOT A PAID POST
What I learned from speaking to a two-time first product hire
Daragh Kan has been the first product manager at not one but two fast-growing startups. Me&U (formerly Mr Yum) and Cuttable. He’s built products under pressure, scaled alongside founders, and brought a deep sense of user empathy from years running his own hospitality venues.
What I like about Daragh’s perspective is how much of it comes from actually doing the job, not in theory, but in the mess of real-world complexity. He’s made big product bets, worked through early hiring chaos, and found ways to bring structure without slowing teams down.
Here are three things that stuck with me from this episode.
1. Don’t assume — test your way to clarity
“We shipped a feature, it broke production, and it turned out the customer didn’t even need it that badly.”
Daragh tells a story about pushing a feature live under pressure from a customer, only to find out after it failed that it wasn’t actually urgent. The customer would’ve been fine waiting.
This makes sense to me because I’ve seen how often urgency is self-imposed. A single follow-up question — “What happens if we don’t ship this by Friday?” — can change the entire course of action.
2. Startups need high-agency, low-ego operators
“There’s no backup. You’re either the only person in that role, or doing three roles at once.”
Daragh’s clear about the traits that matter early on: accountability, agency, resilience, and the willingness to jump in and figure it out. He’s not looking for polish. He’s looking for momentum and trust.
I’ve seen natural curiosity show up as energy so many times over the years. That kind of initiative — paired with empathy and flexibility — builds the culture before the culture is formalised.
3. Documentation builds trust, speed, and sanity
“Even if no one reads it, writing it down makes you a better communicator — and saves you heartache later.”
Daragh’s a big believer in writing things down early — even when it feels premature. He’s seen what happens when teams rely on meetings and memory. And he’s learned the hard way that clear writing beats loose verbal alignment every time.
What I like about this is how practical it is. If your team is remote, growing, or context-switching constantly, written communication is one of the best ways to scale clarity without creating chaos.
Final thought
Daragh brings the mindset of a founder and the structure of a product thinker. He’s direct, but reflective. Tactical, but calm.
“Things break, strategies shift, tools change — but being close to the customer never goes out of style.”
Love this ☝️
That’s the kind of product thinking every early-stage team could use more of.
Making sense of StartUp Equity.
Joining a startup can turbocharge your career, offering unmatched professional growth and the potential for significant financial upside through equity.
But let’s face it, startup equity—especially Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOP)—can feel like navigating a maze of jargon, conditions, and caveats.
This guide breaks down the essentials of startup equity, clarifying how ESOP works and empowering you to confidently evaluate equity compensation in your next job offer.
The List
📖 7 Books/Essays by or About Aussie/NZ Founders & StartupsBefore you go
Go local or go home. Or something….
Before you go
That’s it for this issue, I really hope there was something useful in it for you. But before you go, please think about sending me your feedback. It can literally be anything.
- What do you like?
- What you don’t really care for.
- What’s missing?
- What problems or challenges are you having that can be solved in the next issue.
There’s been a brilliant response so far. So the cadence from now on is going to be Mon, Weds and Fri emails. Mon and Fri are more braindumps, with Weds being the main issue.
Thank you again. Please hit me up with any questions. Don’t forget that Crew, my main consulting business, is also here to help you.
Have a brilliant rest of the week.
Simon
