Scaling with the Right Executive Team

Scaling a business is no joke. Market dynamics are constantly shifting, buyer needs are evolving, and new challenges pop up as businesses scale. Building the right leadership team to manage these realities is one of the most critical factors for success. Even more important, though, is recognizing that the executives you need at one stage of growth are likely different from the ones you need at another.  

For CEOs, having the knowledge and resources to understand the roles and skills you need to prioritize for your scaling business can be the difference between success and failure. Let’s break down some of the resources you can leverage to help you strategically assemble an executive team that will enable your business to thrive. 

Leadership at Scale Report: Understanding Your Evolving Leadership Needs

The evolution from seed to Series D represents significant growth, and your leadership team has to adapt accordingly. Early-stage startups often require a "jack-of-all-trades" approach, where leaders wear multiple hats and operate with a high degree of flexibility. Specialization becomes more important as the company scales. 

In the Leadership at Scale report, we analyzed the executive team composition of more than 30,000 companies across multiple funding stages. Based on our findings, we broke down what scaling leadership teams really look like, and how to align your executive hiring strategy with your business goals: 

• Pre-Seed & Seed: The focus is on validating the core idea and building the initial product. Leadership needs are lean and agile, often filled by founders or early hires. Key characteristics include adaptability, resourcefulness, and a bias for action. A strong vision is paramount.
  
• Series A & B: The focus shifts to proving product-market fit and establishing a repeatable go-to-market strategy. As growth accelerates, the company needs to scale its operations and expand its market reach. These stages require leaders who can build scalable processes, manage larger teams, and execute complex, cross-functional projects. Experience in scaling is valuable, but a willingness to roll up the sleeves and execute is essential.‍
• Series C & D: The focus is on achieving market leadership and building a sustainable, long-term business. Leadership needs include deep functional expertise in areas like sales, marketing, and engineering, experience in navigating competitive landscapes, and the ability to drive innovation. A strong emphasis on organizational development and building a high-performance culture is crucial.

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Leadership Archetypes: Matching Executives to Business Needs

Different growth stages require different leadership styles. Understanding leadership archetypes can help you align your company with the right leaders. To assess which archetype is best suited for your company’s current needs, CEOs need to consider the following:

• Current business goals: Identify the company’s immediate priorities, such as launching innovative products, improving operational efficiency, or establishing long-term sustainability.
  
• Organizational structure and processes: Early startups benefit from looser structures, but as teams grow, clear operational processes become essential for scaling effectively.
  
• Market demands: Fast-moving markets with high demands may be best suited to visionary and operator archetypes, while stable markets often benefit from a steadying influence.

Knowing what your business needs and aligning that to the qualities, skills, and experience you’re looking for in executives significantly increases your ability to build a highly impactful leadership team. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to applying leadership archetypes; a leader may embody aspects of multiple archetypes, or your business may need a blend of archetypes to fit your needs. However, knowing where an executive excels within their function (their archetype) and understanding what type of functional leader your business needs is a surefire way to find the right fit. 

The archetype framework examines the qualities of each type of functional leader, when they’re best suited for different stages of companies, and how to identify the archetype based on skills and experience. Five primary archetypes are available here:

• Chief Financial Officer Archeyptes
• Chief Marketing Officer Archetypes
• Chief People Officer Archetypes
• Chief Revenue Officer
• Chief Technology Officer

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Startup CXO: Hiring and Managing the Functional Executives You Need

You know what stage your business is in, where you’re aspiring to grow to, and what type of executive you want to add to your team. But, as a CEO, what if you’ve never managed or had to hire an executive for that specific role? It can be hard to know what great looks like, what types of skills or experience you need to look for, and how to recognize when it’s time to add a functional leader to your executive team. 

Startup CXO was released in 2021 as a companion to Startup CEO and a “book of books” covering each major functional role within a company to help answer those questions.  Now, five of the sections are available as standalone field guides that provide practical advice and actionable strategies for building and scaling key functions within your startup.

• Startup CMO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company's Marketing Function
• Startup CFO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company's Finance Function
• Startup CRO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company's Sales Function
• Startup CPO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company's HR/People Function
• Startup CTO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Company's Technology/Product Function

Investing in your leadership team and being well-positioned to achieve sustainable growth and build a thriving business starts with knowing what you need. Hiring the right leadership at the right time is the key to unlocking your company’s full potential.

If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to creating your executive talent strategy, Bolster can help. When you work with Bolster, our extraordinary team will work alongside you to make your search a success. We take the time to listen, understand, and respond to your needs, support you throughout your search, and offer our expertise as a resource. 

Want to know more about what it’s like to work with us? Let us know what you’re looking for.