Welcome back to The Startup Leap Newsletter—#RealTalk #RealLessons From Founders Who Took The Startup Leap 🚀

💡 This week, our hosts Yvonne and Maria share candid advice from past guests on the tough but crucial art of building a high-performing team.

Yvonne & Maria: Building a High-Performing Team to Scale a Massive Vision

In our conversation, we dive into the growing pains of scaling leadership in startups (00:09:30),

Building a collaborative and values-driven culture (00:18:55),

The power of trust and alignment among co-founders (00:03:24),

The importance of energy, execution, and humility in leadership (00:36:40),

…and much more!

Key takeaways:

Founders often become bottlenecks as the company grows: Delegate, build systems, and make sure no single person (including you!) becomes indispensable.

Spot Your Weak Links: Conduct “single points of failure” reviews to identify and mitigate risks in teams.

The Right People, Right Time: Early startups thrive on generalists; scaling requires specialists.

Adapt your team as your company grows.

Benchmark before you hire: Talk to top performers in similar roles so you know what “great” looks like…

…Then hire to that standard.

One great hire beats five average ones: Avoid mediocrity—it creates more problems than it solves.

Culture starts with care: Care for your customers, employees, and mission.

When your values are real, the right people will gravitate to your team.

Celebrate wins (and failures!): Team rituals, like weekly demos, build transparency and camaraderie—especially when the going gets tough.

Your Story is Your Superpower: Whether you’re hiring, pitching investors, or selling, a clear and compelling story makes all the difference.

Know your "why" and communicate it boldly.

TL;DR:

Delegate smartly, hire exceptional talent, and foster a culture that values care, transparency, and teamwork.

As your company evolves, adapt your team’s skill sets and use great storytelling to bring the right people along for the ride.🚀

Dive deeper into the insights on your next commute—tune in on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

🎥 Get a sneak peek of the episode below…

thestartupleappod

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🚀 Over to you—what’s your biggest takeaway from this episode? Drop your insights in the comments on YouTube, LinkedIn, or TikTok.

Let’s keep the conversation going!

Resources to help you take the Leap📚

📄A blueprint for building a great startup founding team

🚀The ideal tech startup team structure for rapid growth

📚Alex Schultz, Facebook's VP of Growth on growth teams

Thanks for reading 💜

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TSL Team 💜