Joining hypergrowth startups 😬

Jun 21, 2021 · 8 min read · 17,246 views

I am writing this for a friend joining an early-stage breakout startup (year 2; $200M+ valuation). I wrote it as bullet points as it was meant to have an audience of one. He suggested that I share it here as well so that it is more widely available.

About this format: Normally, people write multiple paragraphs with stories and repeating examples to drive home “a point”. In contrast, the format of this blog post is a bit more “raw”. So please feedback me and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: The advice is meant for anyone joining the early stages of a hypergrowth team (15-150 people; multiplying in revenue, investments and/or headcount). Usually in the first 1-3 years of a startup. Most of the advice I would not give in larger, more established teams. I also did not try to sugarcoat nor glorify things. It’s just a download of my “recommendations” i would give in a 1on1 discussion.

Who am I

• Worked for multiple hyper-growth companies in different stages
• Was founding team at producthunt.com; led product & engineering project teams at coinlist.com and angel.co.
• Currently leading the product engineering team at beondeck.com
• Invested in multiple breakout startups of the last year

As always: Everything is IMHO & YMMV. 🙏

My advice to people joining hypergrowth startups

Your mindset

Say; Do

• people rely on you; don’t drop; don’t backtrack
• before you make promises take time to think about stuff if needed
• speak up if there is an issue

Don’t think in “roles”; but understand problems and apply skills

• be the person everyone wants to ask to fix something
  • go in; fix/create/setup/improve; hire someone better; move to next
  • first in a weekly rhythm; then monthly; then quarterly; then yearly
• Example: In my first startup, the job title on my business card was “CWTFO” because my job was to establish or fix areas of the company.
  • In reality, every job in a fast-growing company is – with different degrees of variance – a CWTFO role.

Everyone is in every role interim

• the best early people will have ten defacto roles in 2 years
  • sometimes titles will sound lower; don’t worry
  • hire better people than yourself; find something else you are impactful in
• Example: Leaders should avoid throwing around titles but instead use comma titles
  • Instead of “Head of XYZ” – do “Operations Lead, XYZ”

Solve problems

You are hired to fix problems; not to point them out

• most problems your company faces are not hard
  • there are just lots of them
• you are not hired to point them out but to solve them

A half-fixed problem is a not-fixed problem

• it’s easy to implement the 20% of the solution
  • don’t drop stuff there
• make sure stuff gets adequately finished either by you or someone else
  • it’s done when it’s solved
• Example: I frequently worked with people who were good at spotting problems, coming up with a solution, but then not pulling through.
  • You can barely reuse a 20% approach if the originator isn’t leading it. You start from scratch
  • Nobody is hired to “point out obvious solutions” - most problems we face are not that hard - just too many.

Have default solutions

• have a solution for every problem you bring
  • don’t hand over problems upwards
• bring solutions you want feedback on

Stress and Chaos

Stuff is stressful

• but remember
  • stress is you losing control; not you working too much
  • you can burn out, barely working at all
• being overwhelmed is ok; temporary; if you can stay in control
• Example: managers frequently burn out people by letting them face the consequence of rapid changes without shared control over reasoning nor impact on them
• Example: when you feel stressed:
  • regain overview/control
  • or decrease boundaries of authority/responsibility

Build order and structures

• early stage can be chaos
  • bring process and structure
  • just as much as needed; not much more
  • improve as it’s needed later
• Example: Processes are not chains of bureaucracy.
  • They are expectations made explicit. It can be 1-step actions.
  • Processes allow you to scale as you don’t need to discuss continuously one-offs.

Stuff is urgent, important, critical, stressful

• know the differences and how/when to handle differently

stuff will go wrong; that’s normal

• risk mitigation is important
  • have paths to fix things
  • move forward
• compare the cost of waiting
  • to how much better
  • or less risky
  • the future solution most likely will be.
• Example: Can you revert your change? Can you avoid brand damage if it goes wrong? Is the potential damage manageable?
  • If yes: move forward

Your goal is not to work “a lot” but fast & effective

• extra work time won’t compensate for you not scaling yourself

Find ways to recharge

• family, sport, hobbies, passions
  • whatever works for you
• actively make time for those
  • fast-growing work and related problems will otherwise use up every crank of time you have
  • establish boundaries

Scale your work

Never wait; never get stuck

• switch quickly between issues if stuff is stuck
  • make sure balls don’t get dropped
• never “wait”
  • consider if you can do a good-enough solution by yourself
  • consider what alternative thing is most impactful instead

Get autonomy through transparency

• be publicly transparent in what you will do
  • docs, posts, tasks, etc
• to make sure people don’t need to feel they need to check-in
  • it creates trust; this creates autonomy

Acknowledge sync; solve async

• people are nervous
• acknowledge stuff asap; even on the weekend (early on)
• do it async whenever you can fit it in unless urgent

Scale yourself

• automate
• hire
• empower

Your Team

If you lead teams

• hand problems downwards in your team to share authority
  • but you are responsible
• every success is the success of people in the team
  • every fail yours
• treat people like adults
  • give them information
  • trust them to make decisions
  • trust them even if you feel they make mistakes
• ensure people have a fair setup
  • keep information and power differences in mind
• [Sidenote: Management advice will be a separate blogpost]

Hypergrowth teams compensate half-done products with effort

• no balls dropped when it comes to customers
• extra effort whenever possible
• early on, that’s required
  • later on, you want to establish process, automation, and solutions to avoid those one-offs

Differ between frustration with a situation and a person

• treat those separate
• by default, you are frustrated with the situation even if it doesn’t feel like it
  • typical exception: situations that happen repetitively

Your coworkers are not your therapists

• never load your stress on “people below you”
• avoid loading stress/frustration to people “beside” or “above you”
• telling/sharing is ok
  • but “handing over to solve” is typically useless
    • they don’t have the time nor competence
    • most likely, they just end up frustrated too
    • most likely, they do this the first time too
  • if you share also have a default solution to avoid “passing the burden”
• get a coach

Your career

Do a tour of duty

• you won’t be there forever
  • people who fit in well early don’t fit well later unless they level up a lot into top management (most don’t)
  • most founders don’t want to work for large bureaucratic companies
  • so they “instead” end up creating large bureaucratic companies by themselves
  • but it’s a large company they have power in and can stay longer term
  • other early people not necessarily
• plan 1-3 years of a strong learning experience

Optimize for equity

• not because it’s worth more
  • that too
  • but because its easier to get a salary boost later on
  • equity increases are hard as the company valuation increases
• Disclaimer: This is only true for early-stage companies

Have fun

• don’t take yourself or anything else too serious
• never sacrifice long-term health
• never sacrifice family-time
  • you can’t get back, neither

I hope this is useful to others as well

✌️ Andreas