On hat dies direkt geteilt
Founder • Board Member • Lecturer • Angel Investor | Top 100 Digital Shaper, HSG Founder of the Year 2023
How do you scale your startup without losing its soul? (And, let’s be honest—when your house is on fire, culture is not the intuitive thing you think about fixing first, but shouldn't it be?) As founders and operators, we know the pressures of scaling—faster growth, leaner teams, and endless fires to put out. But what happens to the culture that got you here? Can you really keep that entrepreneurial energy alive as you add hundreds (or thousands) of people? In our latest episode of the Follow the Gradient podcast, Christian and I sat down with Noa Perry-Reifer, Chief People Officer at On, to explore how ON grew from 100 to 3000 employees while aiming to keep their startup spirit intact. A few takeaways from our conversation with Noa: 👉🏼 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞: The priority founders place on culture—and how they model those values—has a huge impact on how the culture evolves as the company scales. 👉🏼 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞: Hiring, onboarding, and empowering employees are critical to ensuring the culture scales with the company. 👉🏼 𝐒𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞: Clearly define and communicate values (and no, putting the values on the wall doesn't change 𝘢𝘯𝘺 behavior), then bring them to life through everyday actions and storytelling. 👉🏼 𝐄𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞: Be this by introducing flexible vacation or no-approval expense policies, it empowers employees and maintains agility Listen to the full episode on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.