Tech startup culture is not as original as founders might think

ERIC Yuan earning a high six-figure salary as Vice President of Engineering at Cisco Systems, working on Cisco WebEx. Yet, by his own admission, he was far from happy. "I even did not want to go to the office to work," Yuan told CNBC Make It in 2019.

- YEONSIN AHN

The problem? Cisco's culture was rigid, resistant to change, and dismissive of new ideas. Like his proposal to build a modern, mobile-friendly video platform from scratch.

After Cisco rejected that idea, Yuan left in 2011 and went on to found Zoom. The company skyrocketed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic as became synonymous with remote work. It's a story that seems to embody the classic tech founder narrative: break away from a slow-moving corporate giant to build something better, more innovative, and more agile.

But does founding a startup truly offer a cultural reset? Our research suggests otherwise. Despite their intentions, founders often end up replicating the very workplace cultures they once found so stifling.

It's easy to picture tech giants as lumbering and bureaucratic, and startups as fresh and nimble. However, more than half of all such startup founders have worked at large firms like Google, Meta, or Cisco. The work cultures of these companies leave a lasting imprint on those who doesn't vanish when a founder launches their own venture.

Previous studies have shown that startup founders carry over technologies and strategies from their former employers. Our research shows they also carry over organizational culture.

We examined 30 cultural elements, ranging from innovation and teamwork to authority and customer orientation-and analyzed how they transfer from old to new companies.