The company I currently work at is definitely at the scale up point. Went from 18 to 62 in the last 18 months. The first half of this article was a day in my life and the second half was pure alpha! Great piece, and I will for sure pick some of the tips up at work as well.
You bring up a challenging issue: early heroes can eventually become blockers. Early employees take risks with founders, and this generally creates expectations of greater future rewards. I believe that without defining what those later rewards will be, employees are left with three common expectations: increased position, increased responsibilities, or some financial reward. Promising or allowing employees to assume either increased position or responsibilities as a reward will often lead to the very issue you describe. Setting expectations early makes tough decisions easier later and helps early contributors retain dignity and recognition as the company grows.
I would agree, similar to how a consultant comes in, gets paid well, and then leaves. The respect comes from the higher financial reward, not necessarily from a title or additional responsibilities. The difference is that consultants typically don’t complain or create friction because the expectations are clearly established from the start.
If someone says they've scaled their company from 25 to 50 people, the only thing that is certain is that your cost base has increased. What about the actual results - for the company and the customer?
Having the right people, the right strategy and the right solutions play a big role in scaling.
Hiring more people only really counts as scaling if it helps the business serve more clients, improve the work, or grow revenue without everything getting messier.
Otherwise it’s just a bigger cost base with a nicer story around it.
The company I currently work at is definitely at the scale up point. Went from 18 to 62 in the last 18 months. The first half of this article was a day in my life and the second half was pure alpha! Great piece, and I will for sure pick some of the tips up at work as well.
Appreciate that Joël.
That’s exactly why I do Millennial Masters. It’s great to hear when a piece is useful for someone dealing with this stuff in real time.
Scaling doesn’t just change the business, it changes your relationship to the work, and sometimes that’s the hardest adjustment of all.
You bring up a challenging issue: early heroes can eventually become blockers. Early employees take risks with founders, and this generally creates expectations of greater future rewards. I believe that without defining what those later rewards will be, employees are left with three common expectations: increased position, increased responsibilities, or some financial reward. Promising or allowing employees to assume either increased position or responsibilities as a reward will often lead to the very issue you describe. Setting expectations early makes tough decisions easier later and helps early contributors retain dignity and recognition as the company grows.
Yes, that’s the awkward bit.
The people who were brilliant at the messy early stage can end up in roles that don’t really fit the next version of the business.
It’s hard because they took the risk with you, and the company does owe them respect.
But respect can’t always mean giving them a bigger job they may not want, or may not be right for.
I would agree, similar to how a consultant comes in, gets paid well, and then leaves. The respect comes from the higher financial reward, not necessarily from a title or additional responsibilities. The difference is that consultants typically don’t complain or create friction because the expectations are clearly established from the start.
As companies scale, the founder’s role often shifts away from hands-on work toward complexity, distance, and new responsibilities.
A lot of things look like process when the company is small.
In reality it's often a handful of people carrying context and filling gaps without anyone noticing.
Scale tends to expose that pretty quickly.
Scale exposes what’s still in the founder’s head that needs moving to processes.
If someone says they've scaled their company from 25 to 50 people, the only thing that is certain is that your cost base has increased. What about the actual results - for the company and the customer?
Having the right people, the right strategy and the right solutions play a big role in scaling.
Yes, that’s the test.
Hiring more people only really counts as scaling if it helps the business serve more clients, improve the work, or grow revenue without everything getting messier.
Otherwise it’s just a bigger cost base with a nicer story around it.