Not every startup needs to feel like a family: Liselotte Graas on building a high-performance culture

As a company grows, decisions become more complex. More people need to be consulted. Responsibilities can become less clear. Meetings multiply, while the pace that helped the company succeed in the first place starts to slow down.

During her Upstream Festival keynote, Liselotte Graas, co-founder of Weheat, shared a practical view of how startups can prevent that from happening.

Her message was direct: a high-performance culture requires clarity. People need to know what they own, when they have the authority to decide and what is expected of them once the decision has been made.

For Weheat, that starts with the 51% rule.

Give one person the mandate to decide

“Decision-making is crucial if you want to have speed in your organisation.”

The idea of making every decision democratically can sound appealing. In practice, Graas argued, it can easily slow a company down and lead to compromises that do not produce the best result.

“Democracy in decision-making sounds lovely. However, it will really slow things down and even average the outcome.”

At Weheat, each significant topic has one person who holds the 51%. That person has the mandate to make the final call.

It does not mean ignoring the rest of the team. The person with the 51% also has a responsibility to bring the other 49% along. They need to listen to the people affected by the decision, understand the different perspectives and explain the direction clearly.

“You also have the duty to take the 49% of stakeholders along.”

The framework creates a balance between speed and collaboration. Someone owns the decision, but the organisation does not lose the value of other people’s input.

Make decisions before you know everything

Waiting for complete certainty can be another source of delay.

Graas explained that Weheat encourages people to decide once they have around 70% of the information they would ideally like to have.

“We encourage people to take decisions on 70% of the information that you ideally have.”

In a fast-moving startup environment, the remaining 30% may take too long to collect. By the time every detail is known, the opportunity may already have changed.

The goal is not to make careless decisions. It is to develop the judgement to move forward when the available evidence is good enough.

That only works if people take responsibility for what happens next.

When a topic keeps returning to the agenda without progress, the team has learned to ask a simple question:

“Who has the 51% on this?”

The answer makes ownership visible again. Either someone realises that they need to make the call, or the team recognises that responsibility was never clearly assigned in the first place.

Argue like you are right, listen like you are wrong

Clear ownership does not mean holding onto an opinion at all costs.

Graas shared another principle that helps teams improve the quality of their decisions:

“Argue like you are right and listen like you are wrong.”

People should be able to make a strong case for what they believe. But they should also remain open to the possibility that somebody else sees something they have missed.

This combination matters in growing companies. A team that avoids disagreement will not always find the strongest solution. A team that treats every disagreement as a competition will struggle to work together.

Healthy debate requires confidence and curiosity at the same time.

You are building a team, not a family

One of the most memorable parts of Graas’ keynote was her challenge to a familiar idea in company culture.

“You’re not building a family, you’re building a team.”

Many companies describe themselves as families. The intention is usually positive: people care about each other, work closely together and feel connected to a shared purpose.

But Graas argued that the comparison can become unhelpful.

A family is built on unconditional belonging. A high-performing team works differently. People are selected for a role, coached to improve and expected to contribute to a shared result.

“A family is focused on harmony, and a team is focused on performance.”

That does not mean empathy disappears. It does not mean people should be treated as interchangeable or expendable. A strong team still supports its members and invests in their development.

But a growing startup also has to be honest about what the organisation needs at a particular stage.

Create the right context for people to perform

During the audience Q&A, Graas was asked whether a leader’s role is to turn a struggling employee into a high performer.

Her answer was nuanced.

When someone has the potential to thrive with coaching, the company should invest in them. Helping a person improve is better than giving up too quickly.

But sometimes a talented person is simply in the wrong context. They may have strong skills, but the role, stage of the company or working environment does not allow them to perform at their best.

“If you see potential in the person and believe coaching can help them become a top performer, definitely invest.”

The difficult part is recognising when the fit is not right.

Dragging out that conclusion is rarely kind to the individual or helpful to the team. In those cases, an honest conversation may create a better outcome for everyone involved.

Culture should help people move

Company culture is sometimes described in abstract terms: values on a website, statements on office walls or ideas that sound good during onboarding.

Graas offered something more concrete.

A useful culture helps people understand how work gets done.

Who owns the decision?
Who needs to be heard?
When is there enough information to move forward?
What happens when someone is working in the wrong context?

Weheat’s answers may not suit every organisation. That is precisely the point.

A culture should not try to be everything to everyone. It should create the conditions that allow the right people to do their best work.

For a growing startup, clarity is not a restriction.

It is what makes speed possible.

‍