[tedmiston]

Getting a reliable pulse on the culture before joining is definitely an important problem to solve.

Ideally try to find someone you know who works there or has worked there. If that doesn't exist then a second-degree connection might. Your LinkedIn connections are a good place to check.

For an early stage company, this will be difficult, especially if you are hire 1-10. In that case I would try to make inferences from the founder's resumes based on where they worked prior (eg defense industry, big co, startup, agency) and in what roles. Culture doesn't appear out of thin air and is influenced by our history, so this can be useful info to keep in mind.