ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on leadership. Three years ago at a dinner with Ben White and Stephen Chandler from Notion Capital, the author asked them what had been the hardest part of scaling their company, Message Labs, from a startup to a US$750 million exit. They both replied without blinking: scaling leadership above 100 people. Stephen patiently explained him that it was not as simple as that. He need to build a culture, training, and leaders, and make sure communication is aligned all the way through the company. One cannot rely on his own ability as a founder to just stand on a soapbox and be heard and understood. Having talked earlier about how they handled culture and leadership in the earlier stages of Tradeshift’s history, the author thought he would share how we organize leadership at Tradeshift today and some his own beliefs about what makes for efficient leaders.
