Companies often hire growth leaders in a panic when growth stalls. A better approach is to hire when you have early signs of channel fit. This allows the new hire to scale what's working and build a team around that proven channel, rather than desperately searching for any that might work.
Related Insights
Sales coaches excel at turning a functional, founder-led sales process into a scalable machine. They are not equipped to solve the fundamental problem of figuring out your initial case study and factory from scratch. Hiring one before you have a repeatable motion is premature and will likely fail.
Founders often believe they can hire one "integrator" (like a COO) to handle all operational details. This is a myth. True scaling requires hiring specific, talented functional leaders (e.g., Head of Sales, Head of Product) who can solve a single, major business constraint, not a generalist helper.
When founders claim a proven but labor-intensive channel 'doesn't scale,' they often misdiagnose a resourcing problem. The bottleneck isn't the channel's viability but their inability to solve the operational challenge of hiring, training, and managing a team to execute that channel at massive volume.
Resist hiring quickly after finding traction. Instead, 'hire painfully slowly' and assemble an initial 'MVP Crew' — a small, self-sufficient team with all skills needed to build, market, and sell the product end-to-end. This establishes a core DNA of speed and execution before scaling.
The growth role has evolved from a narrow focus on media buying to a strategic function involved in all business expansion, including new markets, sales channels, and product categories. Growth teams offer a critical viewpoint on customer spending and market trends, acting as thought partners for the entire business.
Palo Alto Networks' founder advises that when facing a 10x leap in scale, founders who haven't navigated that stage should hire leaders who have. Rather than being a hero and learning on the job, it's safer and more effective to bring in proven experience to de-risk the next phase of growth.
A startup's initial salesperson should prioritize mirroring the founder's successful sales approach. Their job is to deconstruct the founder's "hook" through observation and trial-and-error, not to immediately implement formal sales processes, metrics, or a CRM. Success comes from successful knowledge transfer, not premature system building.
Before hiring for a critical function like growth marketing, Gamma's CEO spent 6-12 months doing the job himself. This immersion taught him what "great" looks like, preventing a bad hire and ensuring he could properly lead the function he was delegating.
Before hiring a full-time specialist (e.g., for events or SEO), the existing team should first test and prove the channel's effectiveness. Hiring a dedicated owner for an unproven function is a high-risk bet. Validating the strategy first ensures the new hire is set up for success and the investment is justified.
While many product-led growth companies delay building a sales team, this is often a mistake. Waiting until bottoms-up growth stalls forces a painful "whiplash moment" as the company scrambles to adopt a new GTM motion. Building both motions in parallel creates a more resilient business.
