The Biggest Threat to a Successful Startup Isn’t What You Think
And it’s much closer than you realize…
Back when I was a young founder with few resources and tons of work to do, I used to fantasize about raising lots of venture capital so I could afford to hire a big team. In my mind, every problem I had could be solved with more people.
However, once I did raise VC and actually had the money to start building a team, I discovered something I hadn’t expected. Hiring people didn’t solve all my problems. Hiring people actually created lots of new problems. In some cases, those problems were worse than if I just hadn’t hired anyone.
To be clear, hiring people isn’t a bad way to use an investor’s money. After all, for most companies — and especially tech-focused companies — employee salaries (and associated costs) are the most expensive line items on a budget. However, just because growing startups inevitably need more employees, you shouldn’t assume hiring more people will solve all your problems.
In fact, hiring people eventually leads to the biggest threat every successful startup will ultimately face. If you aren’t prepared to face that threat, it could destroy everything you worked so hard to build.
