Scale Architects
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Most Founders never make it to Stage 6 of their Founder's Evolution, and they never experience the joy and freedom of becoming a True Owner. They also never discover the most valuable asset a True Owner has because it certainly isn't cash (even though they have a whole lot of it).
Stage 4 of the Founder's Evolution is the single greatest shift in the entire journey. Your entire history as a founder and a leader up to this point has taught you the skill of winning the game on the field. Unfortunately, very little of that matters in Stage 4. In fact, the better you are at the earlier stages, the harder it will be for you to embrace this next phase in your journey.
We hit the ground running. It was September 2008 when we relaunched our business, and although much of the world was in the tumult of the financial crisis, we were on fire. The relaunch had gone stunningly well, even though we had inherited some severe problems from the previous owners. We had debt-ridden relationships with …
The Founder's Evolution culminates in Stage 7: The Visionary Founder. At this stage, the Visionary Founder's legacy is truly established. But at the end of the day, it's not about how skilled you are, how amazing your organization is, or how much you are worth. Instead, it's about something far more meaningful, something far more powerful.
If you were to go out and ask any random startup entrepreneur how the new business is going, you would get a huge smile followed by a whole list of superlatives. “It’s wonderful.” “It’s amazing.” “I’m loving it.” Simultaneously you feel like all your life has prepared you for this moment, AND like you are way in over your head because you are. And despite the smile, you show everyone around you, inside, you are plagued by the question: What was I thinking? Did you make a mistake, or are you on your way to the success you’ve dreamt of?
The first stage of the Founder's Evolution happens before you become a Founder. Without this first stage, the journey never is. While it is existentially vital, the first stage is far from comfortable. In fact, it is marked by dissatisfaction. It is by definition uncomfortable. And it needs to be.
Great leaders empower their people. Good leaders think they empower their people. The gap between the two is much greater than you think. In this article, I’ll give you 5 ways to bridge that gap!
Does everyone in your company understand your common goals? Does everyone in your company agree with those goals? Does everyone in your company work effectively and efficiently toward achieving those goals? If not, you might be surprised how much it is costing you every day.
I'm going to share with you the five ways I learned to overcome the departmental silos that develop in virtually every single growing business. Each of these five strategies will help you build the cross-functionality that will allow the organization to work across functions and between silos, at all levels, in an organic, natural manner.
You can’t reach $10M or $50M the same way that you reached $1M or $5M. In the early days of organic growth, you can simply sell your way to success and deal with fulfillment problems as they come. To break the $10M barrier and go deep into 8-figure territory, you need to first create the internal capacity for scale, then you can get back to selling and growing your top line.
I want to propose three principles and a simple yet powerful hiring model that will dramatically increase your hiring process’s effectiveness and reduce the time you spend hiring.
For the first time in a long time, the growth seems to be slowing. Executing on decisions feels more like struggling through a muddy swamp than the perpetual march forward you used to have. Things seem complicated and confusing. What was once a well-oiled machine is slowly, painfully grinding to a halt. Here's how you can fix it.
