4 ms·
> shouldn’t they grow their headcount organically and slowly? You would think so, but a lot of companies who are/were venture backed don't think this way. The
by bsuvc 4y ago
> shouldn’t they grow their headcount organically and slowly?
You would think so, but a lot of companies who are/were venture backed don't think this way.
There is a tremendous pressure to use funding to accelerate growth, which can work fine in a good economy, but can be a disaster in a recession when no amount of capital can speed up growth.
- mrzimmerman 4y agoBlitz-scaling is still the primary mindset at a lot of startups (at least where I've worked or the companies I've come into contact with). They may use some other term but the "grab market share as fast as possible and worry about profitability later" is the general strategy. I think this leads to a lot of companies making bad calls like over hiring or building awkward products. I'm not saying blitz-scaling can't be a strategy, I just think it's treated as the only strategy that matters and people end up in hammer/nail situations.
- bombcar 4y agoIn a rapidly growing company you also have the new layer of managers jostling for position - if you get three new engineers (which we badly needed to keep the servers running) then I will want three new engineers to match (to do God knows what, but hell if I'm gonna let your headcount get bigger than mine).