I've made a lot of mistakes this year as CEO of a growing company.
Here are some big learnings:
Background
I launched a company named South connecting US businesses with Latin American talent a little over a year ago. It is the result of years of iteration.
Now we have something that is working and have to scale it. This has been a culture shift. I'm good at a fast 0 to 1. I'm just ok at 3 to 10.
We are working on becoming excellent at doing what already works.
This is very different than the experimentation it took to get here.
My Job is the Team
I'm pretty accustomed to working mostly by myself. Writing, investing, building things. Of course there are meetings and everything, but the core of the work is mostly done by me. But scaling a people-heavy company like recruiting is all about hiring and building the team.
Now my job is to get the right people in the right roles. It's very different. I'm still doing marketing and some design work, but more and more of that is going away.
Anytime a task falls to me, I view it as a flaw I need to correct. My job is to get everything off my plate.
More people should look at every priority they are doing themselves and hire a smart, hard-working Argentine for $1,500 / month to take it off their hands. Grab a time here if you want help with that.
Getting Incentives Right
I'm big on aligned incentives. For most hires, we have been paying a lower salary and probably way too much in commissions. This doesn't work for everyone. Global talent loves the stability of American jobs. They don't value bonuses as much as Americans do. So we are doing higher base salaries and lower bonuses for most of the team.
Predictable Processes
Our customers use us again and again and want a predictable job done well. We have to scale this across new hires so every customer gets a consistent, excellent experience. We've spent a lot of time documenting every step in our process and still have more to do. Even little things like not really monitoring PTO on our team doesn't scale great as we grow. People want to work within the structure. Not everyone loves the just wing-it startup life.
Measure Success
Our barebone KPIs aren't enough anymore. Each person on the team has goals to work towards and updates to give. We use the Traction system with 1/3/10-year goals and quarterly targets to work towards. Grab my free Traction Organizer here.
Hire Experience
My default is to hire smart young people and teach them or let them figure it out. This works great when you're small and scrappy. As we've scaled, it has been amazing to bring in people that have done it before. They cost more, but we've saved years of learning by just adopting the best practices of larger businesses. Now I get to lean on them and let them do their thing.
Company Focus
It's been tempting to take on all business thrown at us. We've done hourly, part-time, and taken on small companies just starting. It's been a mess. We've dealt with bad customers and outright fraud. When customers don't have money, our lives are unpleasant. And hourly and part-time is painful for everyone involved. Lesson learned.
Personal Focus
I’m naturally someone who leans toward doing a lot of different things. My operating manuals across health and finance probably make that clear. I get bored quickly. I’m also tempted to launch and acquire new businesses basically weekly. I’m trying to reign that all in this year.
I’d like to focus on just growing South and seeing how far I can take it this year. Along with that is getting back to content with the podcast and operating manuals.
I still take meetings with venture orphans all the time. I’m not saying I wouldn’t do any deals this year, but I’m mostly handing them off to friends unless they are a perfect fit for us. Even then, I’ll try to structure it so that I don’t have day-to-day involvement.
All that is to say, what got us here, won't get us there.
Best of luck!