Running a business
Starting, and scaling, your startup operations: the founder’s guide
- Running a business
- Article
- 3 minutes read
Sales figures, brand recognition and product development all feature prominently in startup pitch decks. The functions that keep a business humming, like legal, people, finance, and operations, tend to get less of the limelight. But these teams are absolutely crucial to your success. Here’s our guide to designing operations functions that are ready to scale.
- Maintaining talent density is one of the core differentiators in an early-stage business. We get perspectives on how to identify and attract exceptional leaders in core functions like finance and legal, as well as how to use compensation as a strategic lever.
- Another factor in scaling a business sustainably is the care and attention you give to your culture. Speaking with senior people leaders, we review some best practices for founders looking to maintain their culture and values through hypergrowth.
From new funding rounds to big revenue milestones, every key moment in a business’s lifecycle is supported by the operations, finance, people and legal teams. These functions are responsible for keeping the business moving. They enable the engineering organisation to build great things, and for the commercial teams to market and sell to their fullest potential.
Here we run through a set of resources unpicking some of the defining issues.
Hiring transformational leaders
A founder’s ability to convince great people to build alongside them is one of the defining factors in any successful tech company.
Hiring your first CFO
A great financial leader applies structure to a startup’s capital, its ownership, and its ability to make bets on the future. And in an early-stage business, more financial discipline helps you keep tighter control of your cash. But hiring a senior finance leader, such as a CFO or a VP Finance, is as much art as it is science. Our article gives you expert perspectives on what separates good from great, and how to determine what profile of executive will best fit your business.
Designing a culture that scales
Culture is far from an afterthought in a scaling startup. As the system of values and behaviours that demonstrates what good looks like, culture is almost always defined and best exemplified by the founder. So there is a lot riding on the kind of culture you establish in your startup, but there are also ways to evolve your culture intentionally over time.
Defining and communicating culture
How do founders decide which behaviours to reward, and where to draw the line? Is ‘maximum transparency’ always a good thing? And do you need to keep cultures the same across all your global offices, or should you embrace some differences? We dig into all these issues and more with Melanie Oakley, consultant and former Chief People Officer at a London-listed fintech business.
Getting compensation right
One of the core tenets of a healthy culture is appropriately compensating your team. But how do you set out a fair, competitive compensation strategy, when there are more benchmarks and data points to comb through than ever before? We sit down with Carta’s Bob Engel to discuss international compensation trends, and how to use salary and equity compensation strategically as you scale.
Watch the interview
Final thoughts
The operations functions are critical to effectively managed businesses, but they aren’t just box-checking departments: with the right structure and people, they can accelerate every part of your business. Head back to our Insights page for many more insights on starting up and scaling.
Any opinions expressed are merely opinions and not facts. All information in this document is for general informational purposes and not to be construed as professional advice or to create a professional relationship and the information is not intended as a substitute for professional advice. Nothing in this document takes into account your company’s individual circumstances. HSBC Innovation Banking does not make any representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness or completeness of this document and the material may not reflect the most current legal or regulatory developments. HSBC Innovation Banking disclaims all liability in respect to actions taken or not taken based on any or all of the contents in this document to the fullest extent permitted by law. Nothing relating to this material should be construed as a solicitation or offer, or recommendation, to acquire or dispose of any investment or to engage in any other transaction.
