** Note - This is from my perspective and learnings as a founding engineer. This is my personal take on how to build tech teams for the future. Not affiliated with any company or my current employer.

Also, this is just a quick note rather than a well thought article. I will be expanding on this in the future. **

In The Secret of Our Success, Joseph Henrich shows that human progress stems not from individual genius, but from shared culture—accumulated knowledge, norms, and practices passed across generations.

I was fixated on this idea while watching Dwarkesh Patel’s podcast with Joseph Henrich - Joseph Henrich – Why Humans Survived and Smarter Species Didn’t.

For deep tech startups, this is a powerful lesson: success doesn’t come from lone brilliance, but from building a strong engineering culture.

The time has come for cultures to shift from Founder-led to Engineering-led. Aaron Swartz symbolized the old hacker ethos—generosity, curiosity, and principled tech building. The new generation of engineers must carry this torch forward.

“Think deeply about things. Don’t just go along because that’s the way things are or that’s what your friends say. Consider the effects, consider the alternatives, but most importantly, just think.” - Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz

Culture drives faster iteration, better problem-solving, and collective resilience.

For founders and engineers, cultivating habits of open learning, mentorship, and collaboration is not optional - it’s the foundation for compounding innovation, scaling knowledge, and turning hard tech into enduring breakthroughs.

A strong Engineering Culture is a real competitive advantage. Culture Compounds.

Sooner a startup learns - Culture, Not Genius, Builds Great Startups, the better.

There are several examples I could cite but one that stands out is Fairchild Semiconductor approach - encouraging autonomy and innovation among its engineers played a pivotal role in shaping the semiconductor industry.

The beauty about culture is that is has to be invisible, it has to be felt. It is not something that can be written down in a document or a handbook. It is something that is felt in the air, in the way people talk, in the way people work, in the way people think.

As a deep tech startup, building a strong engineering culture is not just about hiring the best engineers, it’s about creating an environment where engineers can thrive, learn, grow and innovate.

There is also a catch, culture is not static. It evolves as the company grows.

The goal isn’t to diminish visionary leadership—but to complement it with a culture that’s inclusive, humble, and open to new ideas. A place where curiosity trumps certainty, and builders, not just founders, are celebrated.

Because in the long run, it’s not just the tech stack that matters—it’s the cultural stack that shapes whether a company endures.

A successful deep tech startup has many visionary leaders, like Fairchild Semiconductor had - Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove. But what set them apart was their ability to build a culture that outlasted them.