Brett Hurt - Former CEO, Bazaarvoice
Building Company Culture: Leadership That Scales
Brett Hurt, Founder and Former CEO of Bazaarvoice and Founder of Coremetrics
Brett Hurt is a seasoned technology founder who built and scaled Bazaarvoice and Coremetrics through periods of rapid growth and expansion. His experience spans early-stage company building, public-company leadership, and the practical challenges of maintaining culture as organizations grow across teams and geographies.
What Founders Should Know About Building Company Culture
- Culture must be intentional. Strong cultures are built deliberately, not assumed to exist.
- Leadership owns culture. Delegating culture weakens it. CEOs must stay directly involved.
- Consistency requires effort. Reinforcing values takes ongoing discussion, feedback, and repetition.
- Listening matters. Regular employee input helps leaders understand how culture is actually experienced.
- Scale introduces risk. Growth, new offices, and hiring velocity can dilute culture if left unmanaged.
What to Know Before Building and Scaling Company Culture
Why does culture require focus?
Hurt emphasizes that culture does not emerge by accident. At Bazaarvoice, leadership invested time researching best practices, learning from companies like Netflix, Zappos, and The Container Store, and intentionally designing how culture would show up day to day.
How often should leaders engage in culture?
Culture discussions were a regular priority. Hurt describes meeting every three months during company offsites to review cultural health, survey employee sentiment, and identify areas for improvement. Informal touchpoints, including small group conversations, reinforced transparency and trust.
What are common mistakes founders make?
One of the biggest pitfalls is neglect. Culture weakens when it is not actively discussed or when responsibility is delegated away from leadership. Founders set the tone, and employees quickly notice when cultural priorities slip.
How do companies maintain culture as they grow?
Scaling culture becomes harder as companies open new offices and expand geographically. Hurt highlights the importance of rotating trusted culture carriers into new regions to help establish expectations, values, and norms with local teams.
“Culture has to be owned by leadership. If the CEO steps away from it, the culture weakens fast.”
Brett Hurt, Founder and Former CEO of Bazaarvoice
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About Brett Hurt
Brett Hurt is the Founder and former CEO of Bazaarvoice and the Founder of Coremetrics. He has spent decades building and scaling technology companies, with a focus on leadership, culture, and sustainable growth across distributed teams.
Building Company Culture FAQs for Founders
What does building company culture really mean?
It means intentionally defining values, reinforcing behaviors, and aligning leadership actions with expectations.
Who is responsible for company culture?
The CEO and leadership team. Culture cannot be delegated without losing effectiveness.
How can founders measure culture?
Through regular employee surveys, feedback sessions, and direct conversations.
Why does culture erode during growth?
Rapid hiring, new offices, and leadership distraction can dilute values if not actively managed.
How can culture scale across locations?
By embedding trusted leaders who understand and reinforce cultural norms in new teams.