In this episode, Hall welcomes Krista Morgan, General Partner at Stage and founding partner of the Stage Fund.

With its headquarters in Denver, Colorado, Stage makes control-based investments in businesses that have proven market traction but need a new approach and capital partner to get to the next level. Stage is a turnaround venture fund that offers early stage-small and medium-sized enterprises both the capital and management expertise to rethink their approach to growth.

Stage specializes in situations that require restructuring, refocusing, and reinvesting for growth. They work with management teams to balance growth and cash flow to create a sustainable, valuable company. 

Krista is an accomplished fintech entrepreneur, founding two ventures prior to joining Stage. She has raised over $100M in debt and equity, managed a $75M loan portfolio, and provided over $1B of financing. She is a regular speaker on entrepreneurship, finance and a champion of diversity in tech.

Krista discusses how she sees the industry evolving and shares some of the challenges investors face.

You can visit Stage at www.stagefund.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/stagefund/.

Krista can be contacted via email at krista@stagefund.com, and via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/kristamorgan.

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Having a strong company culture helps the startup succeed.

Customers and partners are attracted to companies with strong cultures. It guides the employees on what is important.

The CEO fosters the company culture.

In general, CEOs build cultures they like to work in.

It’s important to hire well throughout the life of the company.

The first round of hires brings the team that will have a strong influence on the culture.

Here are the steps for establishing the culture at your startup:

The CEO brainstorms with the team to generate a list of potential values.

The goal is to identify values already in the company and not values that don’t exist.

Build the chosen values into everything -- website, internal communications, meetings, new hire onboarding, and more.

Setup rituals to showcase those values.

Capture stories that demonstrate those values.

Use the values to build products, run meetings, and make daily decisions.

Include it in your recruiting and hiring process. 

Continue to reinforce and reiterate the values through stories and experiences.

Culture is one of the harder assets to build into your business and one of the most important.


Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let’s go startup something today.
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