June 28, 2024 | less than a minute read

Founders, here's how to help your startup's old guard and new guard get along

Get in touch

David Hunt

CEO & Founder

Get in touch

David Hunt

CEO & Founder

Communication, Communication, Communication. Clarity and transparity. These are the keys to great company culture, and what great leaders understand and execute. Hyper-growth is tough on a million levels, having a team that loses cohesion, collaboration and togetherness is one more problem you really don't need. Much changes as you move from start-up to scale-up, and often that includes people and/or their responsibilities and sense of place in the organisation. Culture is complex because humans are complex. One simple, but not always easy, rule, is to be open to everybody about what is going on and why.

High performing teams, and talented individuals are much more likely to stay on your bus, if they feel you are not keeping things from them.

To avoid devolving into an 'us' versus 'them' scenario, as a founder, it's your responsibility to manage this change and communicate the business transformation that the collective leadership will undertake. Clarify the current situation and envision the future. For instance: “In the last few years, our business needed to operate in an agile manner, swiftly responding to customer feedback to build the right product for our market. Now that we have achieved product-market fit, our operations are evolving. We need to implement repeatable processes, systems, and practices to achieve consistent results as we take the product to a broader market.” When you paint a clear picture of the future, it brings your OGs and NGs together, ensuring they're all on the same page instead of pulling in different directions.

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