"Culture is the set of collective behaviors within a team, that determines how things are done, why they're done, how people behave and think."
Simone Vascotto, Founder of HumanaQ, joined Mateo on Episode 144 of The Future of the Future podcast to explore how organizations can measure the unmeasurable: invisible culture.
The Visible vs. The Invisible
"There's two different cultures we look at. One is the visible one and one is the invisible one. The visible one is the values, the strategies that you say you do, and the other one is invisible, and that's the one we measure."
The visible culture, mission statements, stated values, strategic documents, is merely the medium with which organizations communicate their culture. It's a surface-level approach. The invisible culture, however, is the unconscious behavior that emerges when you become part of a group. It's between the lines, unwritten, yet teams execute on it every day.
"This can really differ from team to team and within your whole organization. That's what culture is, that's what we measure."
Why This Matters for M&A
When you have an acquisition or merger, you need people to work together. You're creating a new alignment, and you need two teams to align. Simone shared a timely example:
"Recently, Netflix just mentioned Warner Bros. accepted their bid. And I was just thinking to myself, 'It got accepted.' If they do go through, that's going to be a whole set of new challenges, because Netflix is a company that's very new, it's very fast, and Warner Bros. may have just different... a creative process, very different thinking ways."
This is precisely what HumanaQ helps highlight, before you even decide whether to acquire a company.
About The Episode
In this conversation, Simone digs into the origins of HumanaQ, the milestones that shaped his career, and the lessons he's learned about balancing passion and skill with financial sustainability. It's a conversation about culture, vision, discipline, and what it means to build with intention in a world that's constantly changing.
About "The Future Of The Future" Podcast
Mateo interviews Technology Leaders to talk about everything and anything related to Technology and the Future. Guests open up about their stories and opinions on cutting edge topics, in an informal conversation tone.
About the Guest
Simone Vascotto is the founder of HumanaQ, an AI-powered cultural due diligence platform that helps investors, boards, and family businesses measure execution and leadership alignment in M&A and successions. He works at the intersection of AI, behavioural science, and high stakes decision-making.
