The Struggles and Opportunities in Scaling a Business

We glorify the notion of building fast-scaling startups. But the truth is, rapid scaling brings immense growing pains that can kill a company.

"We built for scale, but we're not built to scale," as one founder put it.

Profound insight.

They designed a scalable business model, but they didn't create an organization truly ready to scale. Two very different challenges.

This is the tension every founder faces in the scaling journey:

On one hand, you have incredible opportunity for growth and impact ahead. You see your mission manifest at scale.

But on the other hand, you face the threat of losing the very things that made you special in the first place. The culture, the quality, the soul.

It's incredibly hard to do both.

But it's not impossible.

Here are 3 principles I've observed from long-term scale winners:

1. Ruthlessly Prioritise Culture

Lose your culture and you lose everything. As you scale, culture fraying at the edges is inevitable. Recognize that and stay vigilant. Empower culture carriers—the employees who embody your cultural ideals. Use them as tribe leaders.

2. Connect Everyone to Mission

Scale creates fragmentation. Combat fragmentation by continually connecting every single employee back to the core mission. Paint the big picture. Share stories of impact. Have cross-functional teams meet beneficiaries. This builds a unified community.

3. Systemize to Liberate

Create rigid systems and processes so people are freed to focus on the creative human work only they can do. Simple, scalable systems remove the burden of boring work. They provide scaffolding upon which beautiful things can be built.

Yes, scaling is hard—heart-wrenchingly hard at times—but remember the opportunity that lies ahead. With careful, intentional moves, you can build an organization that delivers on that opportunity.

You can scale your impact without losing your soul.