The first 10 people you hired helped you get the business off the ground. They were scrappy, adaptable, gritty, and willing to do whatever the moment required. Titles didn’t matter. Job descriptions were blurry. Everyone wore five hats and figured things out as they went. But...
Most CEOs think burnout shows up as fatigue, disengagement, or a drop in morale. But, burnout doesn’t just hurt people. It quietly erodes the business. That’s because burnout is rarely a single problem. It compounds. It spreads. And, when it hits a scaling company, it becomes...
Every company has a revenue target. It’s the number every CEO can recite on demand—the one tracked in board decks, celebrated in all-hands, and used to shape strategic plans. But, far fewer CEOs forecast their leadership needs with the same discipline they bring to forecasting their...
On the surface, a company can look healthy and thriving. Revenue is climbing. Sales updates sound impressive. Investor decks sparkle. But underneath? The business is quietly bleeding cash. This is the cash flow illusion—when top-line growth hides financial fragility. It’s more common than most CEOs realize, and...
Imagine cutting 80% of your processes tomorrow. Would your business collapse—or run better? For many companies, the surprising answer is that things might actually improve. That’s because when it comes to scaling, not all processes are created equal. In fact, the Pareto principle applies: 20% of...
Most CEOs don’t get blindsided because they’re careless. They get blindsided because they didn’t prepare for what could happen. Markets shift. Customers churn. Growth surges faster than expected. Any one of these can turn a solid strategy upside down if you haven’t thought through the “what...
When a company begins to grow, leaders often scramble to put processes in place. On the surface, this looks like progress. After all, systems mean structure… right? But, here’s the catch: a half-built process can be worse than no process at all. The Illusion of Structure At first...
When you’re in growth mode, every opportunity can look like the right one. A new client wants in. A partnership sounds promising. A shiny new market or product line is just waiting to be explored. It’s easy to equate scaling with saying “yes” as often as...
When companies hit growth mode, the instinct is often to layer on more… More tools More approvals More processes More dashboards It feels like the “responsible” (and reasonable) thing to do. After all, complexity looks like structure. Not so fast. In reality, complexity slows you down. It eats away at...
One of the biggest fears CEOs face when scaling is this: Will we lose the very thing that made us successful in the first place? In the early days, your edge is clear. It comes from: Speed—decisions are made in hours, not weeks Culture—small, tight-knit teams where alignment...