Having served as People Leader in high-growth setups, I have seen multiple faultlines (similar to tech debts), that unintentionally get built during growth/scale-ups phases. Would like to cover a few of them in this post

• As the setup grows multi-folds across each of levels, being a People Leader, apart from keeping an eye on critical human capital metrics (Alignment, Discretionary Efforts, Contribution, Impact v/s. Performance v/s. Potential etc.), 2 key metrics that I closely track are: Speed of Execution, Decision making and Startup DNA Resonance. The former metric is mission-critical ensuring that scalability does not impede/decelerate the speed of conducting business. Startup DNA resonance is to not get transformed to Corporate DNA (with processes, hierarchies & bottlenecks) in the unintended of ways. With most of high growth funded setups, I have found these vulnerabilities, to drive more order, however, the objective is to move from chaos to controlled chaos, rather than complete order, key to having multiplier effect while scaling-up.
• Though operational, but still very pertinent, defining roles (different from designations) on Impact & keeping them fluidic in going from Series A to Series D, with flow of work (& not Designation hierarchies) seamlessly happening between roles appropriate to Impact expectations  – In one of my earlier orgs, the CTO would spend 60% of daily time being hands-on, similarly, in a Series C funded product tech company, we had 8 levels (between Entry role & CXO) and it got increased by 2 more in middle management (In both the cases, we had to raise a strong red flag for corrective action, as these could be hugely detrimental to org effectiveness over long term) . Both of these were strong faultlines that would inevitably come to bite in the longer run. Ensuring that people are not doing work worth 1 to 2 levels down their role, similarly, the promoted folks are not doing the same/similar work when promoted to the next levels. Impact is the key metric for role growth, & having right people driven to create impact is the key.
• Good Team + Great Culture = Great Product (I reiterate this on a daily basis to my teams & self ). Over last decade, I have worked with this hypothesis (& the reverse of Great Team + Good Culture = Great Product is not true) & most times this self-fulfilling prophecy has been validated. Going from Seed to Series C, a great culture is setting a mix of right behaviors with incentivizations & nudges (Behaviors like Ownership Accountability, Problem-Solving, Collaboration + Over Communication, Going above & beyond etc)  built on pillars of Empowerment, Transparency, Collaborative Leadership, Building Trust & Growing others. The key is to make each of these elements measurable (& incentivization of it) at micro level, with corrective mechanisms of 1-1 feedback, continuous feedbacks & developmental interventions.
• Rewards philosophy with ‘making each other successful’ proposition - Underrated though, but yet very powerful at micro level, getting this right, sets in the multiplier effect due to hard-reinforcement of monetary benefits. On the rewards philosophy, my 2 cents is to keep a balance of Intrinsic motivation (Purpose, Problem statement, Impact, Culture, Social capital of trust, camaraderie etc) v/s. Extrinsic motivation (Compensation, Benefits etc). Most of the hyperscale-up org’s get this wrong, as they end up in rewarding a few people consistently creating individual heroes & role models. This creates a Zero-Sum game with Winners take it all approach. Going from Series A to Series D needs everybody to step-up, grow & make each other successful, rather than making themselves successful. Hence, rewarding teams which are hitting the ball out of the park is more effective than rewarding certain individuals perceptioned in driving team’s success.

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