Spara CEO says culture is set at the hiring stage

The experience shaped how Walker, cofounder and CEO of AI sales startup Spara, thinks about building a workplace. He said the employees had not committed misconduct or caused a single dramatic conflict. Instead, they repeatedly put proving their own intelligence ahead of collaboration. After they left, Walker said he saw a marked improvement in the company’s energy and culture, and staff began referring more job candidates. His regret was waiting months to act.

“Hiring decisions are the bedrock of setting your culture,” Walker said. Spara, which he cofounded in 2024, has about two dozen employees. Before launching it, he cofounded and ran a technology-enabled real estate brokerage that he later sold.

Walker says culture comes from how colleagues treat and support one another, not from office perks. He looks for people who gain energy from lifting others up, rather than pushing them down. For example, someone who did most of a project’s work might use an all-hands meeting to credit colleagues who handled the rest. “They’re sharing the credit,” he said. Employees who treat every exchange as a contest, by contrast, may see others’ ideas as threats.

He also wants staff to challenge him. Walker said he now explains the reasoning behind decisions before delivering an answer, giving employees a chance to question his thinking and understand how he weighs trade-offs. He believes strong employees expect to hear “no,” and supports a “disagree and commit” approach when he defers to a team’s expertise. In those cases, he and the team agree in advance on how to assess the decision and what to do if it falls short. Reviewing sales-call recordings in the first month is one possible check, he said. An agreed evaluation plan can make a change of direction easier and prevent decisions from stalling.