What has been the most rewarding experience in scaling up your business so far?
. —“The most rewarding experience in scaling my companies is building and working with my teams – both employees as well as investors. Embarking on a venture, founders often start alone or with only a few partners. As you scale, you have the thrilling opportunity to build your team from scratch. While talent acquisition and culture building are arguably also some of the most complex activities a founder has to get right, seeing your team grow with individuals that are passionate about your organisation and mission is a special feeling.
Adding employees and investors to my organisations not only helped me build strong foundations for my businesses, but working with extremely driven and smart people on a daily basis certainly is the most rewarding part in my endeavours as a founder.
Could you share some of the strategies that have helped your business grow and scale up successfully?
“There are two general principles rather than strategies I apply at the companies I build: radical ownership and radical transparency. On the one hand, radical ownership means teams and individuals are expected to be the architect of the projects, products or processes they own – taking full responsibility for their outcomes – positive and negative.
On the other hand, radical transparency means to be fully transparent about the company’s evolution (positive and negative), to be humble enough to share when as a founder you need advice or hands-on help, as well as being authentic, thus transparent about your values as a person. Applying these principles of radical ownership and radical transparency pays off in the long run, as it helps you build the team and culture you need in order to grow your business. In an environment with radical transparency and radical ownership, people care about what they are building and teams come up with better solutions than a single person can come up with on their own.
From your experience as a scale-up entrepreneur, what is the biggest mistake that entrepreneurs should avoid?
“While I do not think there is a single biggest mistake an entrepreneur can make amidst the plenty of “biggest mistakes” available, one of the biggest mistakes is not being truly authentic as a founder. Hiring employees and raising funds with investors means entering into long-term relationships and allowing others to have a direct or indirect say in the direction you take your business. You do not want the wrong people to join the organisation you have created.
This is where the Law of Attraction comes in: As a founder, if you want to build a truly authentic culture, you must be open about who you are because that is the only way to attract the right people that are aligned with your company’s values. Building a business from scratch is a process that you should enjoy and be excited about. Make sure you do not let the wrong people join your team and make you feel like you have created a job you do not like doing with people you do not connect with. Having said that, I would urge all founders who are building a team with the ambition to grow a business to be themselves and remain authentic.”