Lessons Learned in Scaling Early Stage, High Growth Companies
In 2012 I left behind a comfortable, high-paying position after 16 years with the same company, and left my hometown of Cleveland, to join CoverMyMeds, an exciting startup in Columbus. Six years later I was fortunate to have another startup opportunity, moving to Orange Barrel Media to help start the IKE Smart City kiosk business.
Both were exciting and successful ventures (though COVID-19 has taken it’s toll) because of what we accomplished in building these products and businesses. But to me the joy and satisfaction came from how we did it — building, running, and scaling high-performing teams that created fantastic career opportunities for so many talented people. And doing things the right way, with how we ran our business and curated our culture, to create magical results where the proverbial whole was greater than the sum of the parts.
If you are like me, you are heads down, doing and achieving, but also in the back of your mind wondering if you should pause to consider and capture what you have learned. For me, it was always easiest to just keep doing, and stay busy, and worry later about looking back. Still, I’ve had a growing seed in my mind, especially with all of the fast-growing Ohio and Midwest startups, that I should take the time to capture what I’ve learned and share it broadly. This series of blog posts is just that. In the next few weeks I will be exploring different areas of what I’ve learned about growing and scaling teams and companies.
In the first post, I’ll be discussing Recruiting the Hard Way, and how there are no shortcuts to building an employment brand and attracting the very best candidates.
Then, I’ll discuss Interviewing and Hiring the Easy Way, and what I’ve learned about building an effective hiring process that is efficient for both your candidates and your staff.
In my third post, I’ll cover my most important lessons learned in building and maintaining a great culture, all tying to one central theme — Make the Right Way the Easy Way.
Finally, I’ll wrap things up with lessons learned in technology, leadership, and business strategy.
I hope this series of blog posts inspires leaders of early-stage, high-growth companies to do things the right way and that it accelerates their path to success. Stay tuned!
Next up: Recruiting the Hard Way.
