Obviously, the way we ran things when it was just a handful of us would never suffice now.
Scaling our business has meant overcoming some tough challenges to build a sustainable organization.
The biggest question Ive heard from otherfoundersis, How do I know when mystartupis ready to scale?
From my point of view, the answer is, When you have found a winning business model.
This is a vital point here.
You have to have a business model that works.
In other words, dont scale if you dont have customers who are willing to pay for your product.
There are two ways that it’s possible for you to accomplish this.
One is by expanding into new countries or regions, the other is by expanding into new products.
What happens to your operational processes as you add people in different regions, or at different management levels?
This is an area where expansions can fail.
Where is your single source of truth?
The main challenge that scaling presents to internal communications is with the flow of information.
Having clear reporting processes in place will also help when youre scaling into new countries or regions.
Efforts in one location might be duplicated in another location, but may proceed in a very different direction.
You see that a lot with car companies.
They have different names for their vehicles, different ad campaigns.
If youre headquartered in Germany, you would likely know what shows people tend to watch and when.
The same applies to startups that scale by adding a new product.
To minimize problems, you better be sure to get people in management who have experience scaling.
If youre adding products, you need product managers who have experience working with that key in of scale-up.
Successful companies hire about30% of their people from who they know and based on referrals.
you’re free to also work with international recruiting agencies that have supported scale-ups.
They will have connections to talent and people in their markets.
As a founder, you better give away responsibility and become comfortable with ambiguity.
You are not going to know exactly what everyone is doing every minute of every day.
Dont wait until you have your minimum viable product and a customer base to start preparing to scale.
