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\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
Growing a company is a challenge that scales quickly in difficulty. Building from zero to $25 million in revenue is not easy, but many companies and leaders manage it. Scaling from $50 million to $200 million is substantially harder. And crossing the next thresholds \u2014 growing from $200 million toward $1 billion, for example \u2014 is so hard to do that of the roughly 225,000 companies founded in the last 20 years<\/a>, fewer than 15 crossed the $1 billion revenue threshold.<\/p>\n However, there is one thing in common that each new step requires, and it\u2019s something many founders and CEOs resist, especially as their companies really begin to thrive: To reach the next level, you have to tear up the playbook that got you there in the first place.<\/p>\n In my career, I\u2019ve led through this evolution at every stage of growth, joining a team to take Omniture from startup to $1.8 billion acquisition by Adobe, then scaling the revenue from hundreds of millions to $3.5 billion at Adobe, and now driving the same trajectory at BambooHR. Sustained growth at scale doesn\u2019t come from optimizing what\u2019s working now. It comes from rebuilding the company for the future, not once, but multiple times. It means transforming go-to-market motions, rebuilding executive teams, re-architecting organizational structures and evolving product vision.<\/p>\n The companies that succeed at scale are those that can evolve their systems and people as fast as they evolve their product. Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned about when and how to rebuild to get to the next stage.<\/p>\n Making changes isn\u2019t the hardest part of leading through transformation. It\u2019s recognizing when you need to make them. Things that used to be your core competency suddenly stop working like they did in the past. You inspect your KPIs, and nothing is screaming red, but a bunch of metrics are misbehaving. That\u2019s your signal that it\u2019s time for a teardown.<\/p>\n I think about this through an S-curve framework. Every business model, every go-to-market motion, every organizational structure has a natural growth curve. The challenge is being self-critical enough to recognize when your curve is starting to flatten out. If you wait until your dashboard goes red, then you\u2019ve likely missed your window to get ahead.<\/p>\n The truth is, most executives wait for perfect information before they are willing to make the necessary changes. As a leader, you rationalize, you justify and you think you can optimize your way through a bad stretch. But if you\u2019re only considering changes once your S-curve is clearly dropping, then it\u2019s already too late. The price of waiting far outweighs the short-term pain of rebuilding.<\/p>\n I often look back at decisions I made in the past and think, \u201cWho made that decision?\u201d The catch, of course, is that it was me \u2014 and the real challenge isn\u2019t just spotting outdated decisions, but separating yourself from them. You have to accept that the past you and the current you are essentially different leaders operating at different scales.<\/p>\n Six years ago, BambooHR had one of the best inbound B2B selling models on the planet. A prospect would fill out a form on our website, we would call them in under five minutes, and they would buy. It was that good. And that\u2019s exactly why we hadn\u2019t needed to transform \u2014 until suddenly we did.<\/p>\n We were putting more into our inbound engine and getting less out. Our \u201caha moment\u201d was recognizing very clearly that 90% of the market wasn\u2019t actively in-market at any given time, and our model only captured those raising their hand.<\/p>\n Our transformation meant expanding from pure inbound to a multi-channel engine: outbound sales, brand advertising, international expansion and what we call \u201ccreate\u201d motions. If you\u2019re a go-to-market expert, nothing about this is novel. It\u2019s 101-level stuff. But transformation doesn\u2019t mean inventing strategies that have never existed. It means deploying well-worn strategies in your specific context at the right time.<\/p>\n The playbook exists. The hard part is admitting that what worked brilliantly at your previous scale won\u2019t carry you to the next one.<\/p>\n I recently had lunch with one of the co-founders of a large public software company. I asked him what version of their executive team he thought they were on. He said, \u201cProbably the fifth generation.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re early in your journey, thinking about having to rebuild your leadership team five times can be daunting. At BambooHR, we\u2019ve brought in six new executives over the past few years, including leaders of our revenue, finance, marketing, technology and product teams.<\/p>\n It\u2019s exhausting work, but here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned: Team renewal is invigorating. New voices bring fresh energy and new perspectives.<\/p>\n Once you recognize the need to rebuild and start making changes, your next challenge is bringing your organization along with you. If people don\u2019t understand the \u201cwhy\u201d behind the transformation, you\u2019ll lose them.<\/p>\n I spent an entire leadership summit with our top leaders explaining the S-curve concept, and how we have to find our next growth curve as a company \u2014 and as individuals \u2014 or we will plateau. I thought I had communicated my vision clearly. Two weeks later, I heard through various channels that one of my leaders had told someone outside the company that they didn\u2019t understand our goals or why so many changes were happening.<\/p>\n You have to be boringly consistent in describing the \u201cwhy.\u201d Humans have context windows, just like AI. If I described the strategy once in October, is a human\u2019s context window long enough to hold onto it? The answer is probably not. You have to communicate the same message over and over, finding new ways to bring energy to it so it actually lands.<\/p>\n My advice to CEOs going through transformation \u2014 and the advice I continue to give myself \u2014 is this: Be bold. Activity equals learning. If you don\u2019t know, ship something and learn from it.<\/p>\n The competitive advantage belongs to companies that iterate faster than anyone else. If my learning cycle is twice as fast as my competitor\u2019s, I like my chances. And in a world where every playbook is being rewritten, the willingness to rebuild as often and as quickly as necessary is what separates the companies that scale from those that plateau and even disappear.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Growing a company is a challenge that scales quickly in difficulty. Building from zero to $25 million in revenue is not easy, but many companies and leaders manage it. Scaling from $50 million to $200 million is substantially harder. And crossing the next thresholds \u2014 growing from $200 million toward $1 billion, for example \u2014 is so hard to do that of the roughly 225,000 companies founded in the last 20 years<\/a>, fewer than 15 crossed the $1 billion revenue threshold.<\/p>\n However, there is one thing in common that each new step requires, and it\u2019s something many founders and CEOs resist, especially as their companies really begin to thrive: To reach the next level, you have to tear up the playbook that got you there in the first place.<\/p>\n In my career, I\u2019ve led through this evolution at every stage of growth, joining a team to take Omniture from startup to $1.8 billion acquisition by Adobe, then scaling the revenue from hundreds of millions to $3.5 billion at Adobe, and now driving the same trajectory at BambooHR. Sustained growth at scale doesn\u2019t come from optimizing what\u2019s working now. It comes from rebuilding the company for the future, not once, but multiple times. It means transforming go-to-market motions, rebuilding executive teams, re-architecting organizational structures and evolving product vision.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nRecognize the plateau before your KPIs turn red<\/h2>\n
Transform your go-to-market motion for the market you\u2019re not reaching<\/h2>\n
Rebuild your executive team \u2014 again and again<\/h2>\n
Like AI, humans need context: Communicate with boring consistency<\/h2>\n
Be bold when you don\u2019t know<\/h2>\n
Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n
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