My Learnings from leading operations at a Hyper Growth Startup (1/3)

Who should read it – Entered into a fast paced (and hopefully funded) startup for the first time and suddenly have a large team to handle? The money is in the bank and you are told to fly. Used to a line of command and analysis for every decision and suddenly there is no rulebook? Welcome to the best experience of your life!

Everything is on fire? Reporting directly to a CEO and suddenly responsible for more than what you bargained for?

Some of this might sound obvious(90% of operations is obvious) but in high stress months you will tend to ignore the obvious. Life at startups is about ruthless prioritization, moving faster than you can imagine, building a team that you can trust (critical) and creating mechanisms for reflection and communication.

Each business is different and so is each business culture. So a little more structured while other a little more wild west. These are just some of my thoughts and learnings.

How do you read this –

The list is a mix of guidelines and thought triggers. You could view it like a cheat sheet. Many of these learnings are retrospective and a few that have held me in good stead.

1. Delegation and team empowerment

a. You need to rapidly remove yourself as a bottleneck. Operationalize and then only be there for the outliers. Sounds logical but you end up getting sucked in regardless. Why? Read the next subpoint.

b. It will be a big ego boost right from day 1 and you feel a certain high pumping out a large number of hours on issue resolutions daily with people across the company reaching out to you. This is a red flag if it continues way into your 3rd month. Not you being a good leader.

c. You need to invest in the decision making capabilities of your team

i. Tip – Create a mechanism to deal with outliers and let the team come up with solutions after a while. Your business values come into play here. Let them fumble a bit. Communicate to you your CEO and ask for time early on to build the capabilities in your team. (Basically he/she should open to a few errors)

2. Scaling is about less – How can you eliminate parts of the process, simplify your steps further and actually reduce the number of people involved in the process.

a. Sometimes we end up going up in the opposite direction. Especially when money is not an issue.

b. At times your processes will seem too complicated. In most cases, this is a warning that something is broken somewhere

3. MVP in Operations - When you move from a large organization you expect/are used to commands to be fairly well thought through. In startups you need to take each command with a pinch of salt, self-prioritize and communicate and then deliver in nuggets and reiterate. (Yes, just like a product MVP). Seeking perfection in every process will be your final nail in the coffin. Find the non-negotiables and let everything else operate at 70%.

a. It is much easier to make small mistakes in startups. So make them.

4. Importance of one on ones - Team needs to feel involved into the process

a. With sudden hiring you will end up creating multiple power centers and multiple cultures within your teams. One good way that worked for me – Small clusters of people across teams – Then solve problems in one hour batches - Create micro mentors (Helpful and acts as a quick motivational tool)

b. Shuffle any team that is filed with old timers.

5. Team camaraderie– When everything is on fire, team building is usually put on a back seat. Reverse that thought. Make camaraderie an even more integral role in the process. Take that extra hour out and mix and match people from your different teams and take them out for lunch.

6. Find your second in commands as early in the journey as possible (Rotate if possible) – Applicable everywhere but even more during stages of fast paced growth. Always be on the lookout for the right person and get them on board and find things for them to do.