From Start-Up Buzz to Scale-Up Blues: Overcoming the People Pitfalls

Scaling is thrilling until the people cracks start to show.
Because scaling isn’t just getting bigger; it’s getting better while getting bigger. And more often than not, it’s the people challenges that trip scale-ups the hardest.
In the early days, communication is fast, decisions are easy, and culture feels natural. But once you grow past 100, 200, or 500+ people, what used to work starts to wobble.

Research from UC Berkeley & Stanford found that 70% of startups scale too early and 90% of failures link back to premature scaling.

Here’s where scale-ups usually stumble:
🔹 Chaos creeps in (Coordination failures): Silos form, tasks get duplicated, and managers spend more time firefighting than leading.
🔹 More people, more problems (Panic hiring): Headcount (costs) grows faster than results.
🔹 The magic fades (Culture drift): Culture stops being informal, founder-driven; without intention the magic of the start-up phase dilutes.
🔹 Yesterday’s ‘good’ won’t cut it (Performance challenges): Expectations rise, roles outgrow people, and title inflation creates risk.
🔹 First-time managers under pressure (Leadership gaps): Functional experts promoted too fast struggle with the hardest leap in their careers  from doer to leader.
🔹 People team stuck firefighting (Underpowered People functions): Outdated processes, single points of failure, and frustrated leaders who can’t get the proactive support they need.

The good news is that these pitfalls are solvable.
Here are key lessons from successful scale-ups:
✅ Workforce planning: Shape your org for future growth,  hire for quality and complementary skills, and decide which capabilities to build, buy, or borrow; knowing where you need the finished article versus future potential.
✅ Get proactive on talent: Build pipelines, hire ahead of attrition, and have retention plans for high performers.
✅ Evolve culture deliberately: Define and embed the values and behaviours that matter at scale.
✅ Clarify decision-making: Inclusion ≠ consensus. Be explicit about who decides.
✅ Align performance and rewards: Set clear expectations and progression paths, reward impact and outcomes, not just titles, and provide learning infrastructure to help people grow with the business.
✅ Develop leaders early: People stay for leaders and leave because of them. Invest in capability-building across every layer.
✅ Invest in your People function: Your biggest cost and greatest asset are your people. A strategic People team translates growth plans into people solutions, strengthens leadership, and builds a lasting culture.

Scaling well isn’t just about chasing growth. It’s about building structures, culture, and leadership that let your business thrive and grow.

If these challenges sound familiar, let’s have an exploratory chat. I help scale-up leaders turn people challenges into growth enablers.