One year ago, I joined @beondeck as our 2nd growth/marketing hire.

I learned so much seeing us scale our community to thousands of fellows and grow our team from 50 to 260 employees in 12 months.

Here are 5 lessons I learned about navigating hyper-growth along the way🧵:

1. Have an ownership mindset

In a scaling startup, there are always fires to fight. Great operators take ownership over problems they face.

This means:
- Exercising critical thinking
- Taking responsibility for outcomes
- Having a bias for action

2. Give away your legos

If you personally want to grow as fast as your company, you have to give away your job every couple months. H/t @molly_g @firstround.

Acknowledging and overcoming the discomfort this brings is critical if you want to level up.

3. Optimize for the company’s success

At hypergrowth startups, seeking out the next promotion or inflated title is a waste of time.

Example: Early employee at a unicorn > VP at a failed startup

Instead, focus on being a high-impact contributor & achieving the company mission.

4. Be relentless about learning

Keeping up with hypergrowth requires you to learn at a rapid pace.

My process:

1. Consume content regularly to learn new frameworks
2. Test them in real-world situations
3. Document what works through weekly reflections

5. Lean on relationships for support

Hypergrowth feels like a rollercoaster of highs and lows. But the best part is that you're not going through it alone.

Prioritize building relationships with those around you and lean on them when facing challenges.

TL;DR

1. Have an ownership mindset
2. Give away your legos
3. Optimize for the company’s success
4. Be relentless about learning
5. Lean on relationships for support

Thanks for reading to the end! If you enjoyed this thread:

1. Follow me @iamedgarbrown for more threads that help you scale your startup, your career, and yourself.

2. Retweet the first tweet to help more people navigate hypergrowth.