The High Notes

The skills that built your product are not the skills that build your company. That gap — between the technical brilliance that secured a seed round and the organizational leadership required to scale past 50 employees — is where many funded startups begin to fracture. CB Insights’ analysis of 385 venture-backed startups found that 23% broadly cited not having the right team in place as a cause of failure. And that number may understate the problem.

Imagine you are staring at your sprint board. Six months ago, post-Series A, your team was shipping code at a blistering pace. Now, with 35 employees, deadlines are slipping, JIRA tickets are vague, and a subtle tension exists between your product and engineering leads.