What practice helped you scale your organization fastest?

Cameron McCord

Co-Founder, CEO · Nominal

Talk to Customers

Cameron McCord says that when in doubt, the answer is to go talk to customers, because action produces information and you won't get answers without taking action.

The answer starts at 34:28.

Sam Altman

Chief Executive Officer · OpenAI

Clear goal

Sam Altman says a clear goal, a clear plan to get there, and a clear way of making decisions along the way are very important for organizing humans at scale, citing OpenAI's bet on scaling deep learning as an example.

The answer starts at 10:29.

Chase Lochmiller

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer · Crusoe

Maintaining urgency

Chase Lochmiller says his company continues to move with incredible urgency, and he tries to eliminate any sense of entitlement or comfort, citing Elon Musk's ability to hold urgency and opportunity in tension.

Gary Vaynerchuk

Chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia · Vaynerx

Hiring senior people

Gary Vaynerchuk says hiring senior people was required, recalling that he initially hated bringing in senior hires but that the right ones helped VaynerX grow from $100 million to $400 million in revenue.

The answer starts at 25:08.

Blake Erickson

Founder · Scaling.com

Product market fit

Blake Erickson says scaling comes down to product market fit, adding that a business with product market fit has a really good chance of scaling, and that you also need to understand your total addressable market.

The answer starts at 6:14.

Eric Glyman

Co-Founder, Co-CEO · Ramp

Small teams

Eric Glyman says one practice his company still maintains is breaking teams up once they reach 8 to 12 people, keeping small teams with clear ownership so people can make decisions and own them.

Zohar Einy

Co-Founder & CEO · Port

Mini‑company task force

Zohar Einy says his company scaled its transition by building a mini company within the company, a full-stack task force of sales, engineers and product working together, which then pulled the rest of the company in.

The answer starts at 33:17.

Steven Bartlett

Founder & CEO · Steven.Com

Hiring

Steven Bartlett says hiring is the biggest lever for scaling, spending 30 to 40 hours a week on it because everything in the business comes out of someone's head.

Mark Abbott

Founder and CEO · Ninety

Having a coach

Mark Abbott says he has had coaches for years and belongs to peer groups, and recommends founders get help because you can't read the label from inside the jar and someone else's perspective is valuable.

The answer starts at 27:49.

Andy Frisella

Chief Executive Officer · 1st Phorm International

Developing Leaders

Andy Frisella says developing leaders is the key to scaling, because leaders from that group go on to lead others and you cannot scale to 500 reps as the only teacher.

Harshil Mathur

CEO & Co-Founder · Razorpay

The 30% rule

Harshil Mathur says his 30% rule was key to scaling: he audits where his time goes every week or two and delegates anything over 30% of his bandwidth to someone who owns it day to day, so a founder isn't the single point of failure.