The Culture Architect: Scaling People, Culture & Leadership

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, we speak with Alexander Nicolaus, Chief People Officer at Paysend and author of Startup Culture, about how to intentionally design company culture as you scale.

Alex shares how his global career shaped his approach to building high-performing teams, why behavior-based hiring beats resumes, and how Paysend is scaling to a billion-dollar business with a lean team. He unpacks how founders can embed values from day one, use clear behaviors to drive performance, and avoid retrofitting culture after growth creates dysfunction.

🎓 In this episode, Alex discusses:

1. Leadership habits that prevent burnout and sustain long-term resilience
2. Why founders must build culture early rather than fixing dysfunction later
3. How startups can intentionally architect culture using behavior-based principles
4. The global people journey and lessons from leading teams across Europe and Asia
5. Building talent systems with bar-raiser hiring, performance management, and equity incentives

🙏‍ Thanks you to our series partner - Deel.

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