Scaling for Success: Andrew Bartlow on High Growth Startups

“Keep it simple. Be brilliant at the basics”. This is the advice that Andrew Bartlow, Founder of Series B Consulting gives to small, high-growth organisations looking to scale rapidly on this week’s This Much I Know episode. Managing Partner Carlos Espinal chats with Andrew about Andrew’s recently published book, “Scaling for Success: People Priorities for High-Growth Organizations.”

The two discuss common challenges related to rapid growth, including the brilliant jerk’ phenomenon, along with the merits of when a company should define a proper HR function. Regarding the latter point, in super early stages of a company, HR encapsulates payroll, employee benefits, and recruiting. But when a team starts to have around 20 employees, Andrew suggests that a CEO should hire a dedicated recruitment role. “You want a dedicated internal recruiter once you’re hiring 10-12 people a year,” Andrew says. “The recruiter will easily pay for themselves.” They also discuss how to find the right advice from the right people for founders. It’s important to prioritise context over content and to not go shopping across a bunch of different people for advice - it’s better to find the targeted advice that fits a founder’s own context better.

Tune into this week’s episode to hear some of the secrets to scale your high growth startup successfully!

Shownotes:
Andrew Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/bartlow
Series B Consulting: seriesbconsulting.com
Carlos Espinal - twitter.com/cee
Seedcamp - seedcamp.com
Book, Scaling for Success - amazon.co.uk/Scaling-Success-Priorities-High-Growth-Organizations/dp/0231194447](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scaling-Success-Priorities-High-Growth-Organizations/dp/0231194447
Brilliant Jerk Phenomenon - hbswk.hbs.edu/item/can-the-brilliant-jerk-be-managed-effectively