Read and written by John-Miguel Mitchell
These Giants Are Crumbling—Here’s the Cultural Mistake Your Startup Can’t Afford to Copy
What do Coinbase, UnitedHealthcare, and JPMorgan have in common?
They’re all industry giants. They’re all under public scrutiny. And they’re all unraveling—not because of bad products or poor market timing, but because of leadership and culture failures that have been years in the making.
Startups don’t fail because of bad ideas—they fail because of unchecked leadership and fragile culture. When leaders operate without real accountability, transparency, or trusted support systems, it’s only a matter of time before everything breaks—regardless of product-market fit, funding, or hype.
For startup founders, this isn’t just news. It’s a warning.
Let’s break it down.
Trust Is a Cultural Asset—Not Just a PR Line
Coinbase is under federal investigation for allegedly misstating the size of its user base. Just days after being added to the S&P 500, it revealed a $400 million potential loss from a massive data breach.
At UnitedHealthcare, federal agencies are piling on investigations, lawsuits, and allegations of fraud, all while the company grapples with the aftermath of a historic cyberattack and a sudden CEO resignation.
Trust didn’t vanish overnight—it eroded slowly inside these organizations and exploded publicly.
For startups: Trust isn’t a switch you flip when you go public. It’s a habit you build daily in how you hire, communicate, and lead.
Leadership Behavior Is Culture
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently admitted he “emoted a little bit” during a profanity-laced town hall where he railed against remote work. The takeaway wasn’t just his opinion—it was the culture it confirmed.
Tone at the top is the culture. Period.
When founders show disdain for their team’s lived reality, dismiss feedback, or create fear-based environments, they don’t just hurt morale—they create ripple effects that kill innovation, erode loyalty, and invite dysfunction.
Transparency Can’t Be Optional
UHG allegedly downplayed the murder of its own CEO and its business impact. Coinbase no longer reports its 100 million “verified users” after that number came under scrutiny. These aren’t just PR issues—they’re systemic cracks.
Transparency isn’t just about investor updates. It’s how your team learns to trust each other, surface risks, and make better decisions.
In startups, where the margin for error is razor thin, hiding problems is a fast track to cultural collapse.
Culture Is Infrastructure, Not Perks
The most striking part of these meltdowns? They weren’t about bad strategy or bad tech. They were about internal rot—cultures that prioritized short-term optics over long-term integrity.
If you’re building a startup, culture isn’t the “nice-to-have” you focus on after funding. It is the infrastructure. Without it, your most talented people won’t stay, your brand won’t scale, and your leadership will collapse under pressure.
Who’s Protecting Leaders From Themselves?
Here’s the part no one talks about enough: These implosions weren’t just about flawed leaders. They were about the absence of strong support systems around those leaders.
When Coinbase inflated user numbers, when UHG downplayed legal risk, when Dimon snapped—who stopped them? Who questioned them? Who pulled them aside?
Boards? Silent. Investors? Focused on returns. Advisors? Often too close or too cautious.
Every founder needs more than cheerleaders. They need people who will challenge their thinking, offer uncomfortable truths, and put integrity before influence.
Build a circle that checks your blind spots. Hire people who will call you out. And make sure your culture doesn’t punish dissent—it welcomes it.
Because unchecked leadership doesn’t just hurt the leader—it endangers the whole company.
The Bottom Line
Big companies can survive a scandal or two. You can’t.
You don’t have the runway or the reputation buffer. But what you do have is the chance to build it right from the beginning—to create a culture that’s resilient, transparent, and rooted in real leadership.
When leadership breaks, everything breaks. Build the support system that tells you the truth. Lead with transparency. Treat culture as your core infrastructure—not a perk. Because long before the headlines hit, the cracks were already forming—and culture was the first to break.
Questions for Startup Founders:
- Who on my team is empowered to tell me the truth—even when I don’t want to hear it?
- What parts of our culture would crack under pressure today?
- For VCs, are you backing leaders who are building culture—or just riding momentum?
Article was written by John-Miguel Mitchell who is the Founder and Lead Consultant at Ekipo LLC. If you’d like to learn more about how to design and build out the ideal workplace culture for your business, email him at jmitchell@joinekipo.com.
Liked the blog? Get new content delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.
Ekipo 