By Paddy Upton
I’ve been working across all four — and lately, scaleups have taken centre stage
Over the past six months, my business focus has pivoted in a way that’s been both interesting and energising. Scaleups have gone from a small slice of my leadership work to the clear majority. (*By scaleups, I mean startups that have moved beyond product-market fit, secured Series A/B funding, and are now expanding into new markets, verticals, teams, and complexity.)
There’s no surprise I’ve been drawn into this work, given the number of startups that are popping up everywhere, the number of them that are progressing to a few rounds of funding – and in India specifically, where startup IPO’s are projected to reach a record 25 in 2025, which is 100% up from 2024.
The majority of startups today are in the technology sector, meaning the founders are experts in AI, Fintech, software, data, etc. This expertise is what gets them to the point of product-market fit and to garner interest from Venture Capital. When it comes to scaling, going from say 15 to 50, or 50 to 200 employees, this requires expertise in leadership, building human capacity, creating a culture of teamwork and its requisite cross-functional alignment/communication/collaboration, etc. The founder goes from doer to builder, from operator to leader.
The skills required to scaleup are different to those required to startup. At this point, it’s useful to borrow lessons, both of what works and what doesn’t, from other levels of business and sport.
High performance is like losing weight – many speak of it, few do it.
Firstly, startups are like amateur athletes – many have aspirations to become professionals, internationals or Olympians. There are loads of them, although only a select few make it.
When it comes to actual high performance, there is a lot more similarity between sport and scaleups than compared to larger corporations. Here are some key similarities and differences;
- Sport and scaleups comprise predominantly A-team players, where larger corporations are often composed of more B- and C-team players. This holds significant implication, starting with smart recruitment. That said, most startup leaders know how to hire smart people, not all know how to unleash them.
- Scoreboard pressure is more immediate and consequential in sport and scaleups. Poor results even in one football season can mean relegation, or closing doors for a scale-up. In fact all startups and most scaleups are in a permanent season of promotion-relegation. Big business tends to have a longer runway for absorbing losses.
- In sport, the best player is often made a captain, and sometimes it turns out that they are not the best person to lead. In scaleups, the founder often goes on to become the CEO, and at a certain size, they may not be the best person in this role. The transition from being a startup operator to leading a scaleup – with the requisite delegating, hiring, communicating and other aspects of professional leadership – is not a natural or automatic one. Letting go of control, impulsive decision-making, hustle and ego is not easy! Large corporations tend to hirequalified and proven CEOs.
- While the term “high-performance” is often used in sports, scaleups and corporations, it seldom exists in the latter. High-performance generally means having the best performers (A-players), a performance-enabling ecosystem that engages best practice, with every performer constantly seeking improvement and innovation for themselves, the team and organization as a whole.
A number of large corporations have high performance compromised for example by having too many mediocre players, too much red tape, and have too much energy focused internally on politics rather than building, selling and serving.
- My personal experience of doing in-depth work with over 15 different scaleups in the past six months, is their collective appetite for learning, their desire (and need) for leadership insights to enhance human capacity as they scale, and the speed with which they implement new thinking. (What’s also been so refreshing is the speed and lack of red tape in committing to leadership workshops. A 15 to 20 minute briefing conversation is all it takes, no lengthy proposals, no listing expected outcomes, no haggling around fees.)
Sport simplicity vs business complexity
Whilst sport offers business some valuable lessons in high performance, it needs to remember its simplicity versus the complexity of the business playing field.
- In sport, both the goal and measure of success is very simple – the scoreboard and log table is clear for everyone to see. In business goals, direction and outcomes are not as clear or easy to define. I’ve never met an athlete who is unclear on the team’s goal. In contrast, I have seldom met a business team where everyone is genuinely aligned on the team’s direction.
- Teams of equal size compete in sport – cricket and football are 11 v 11. In business it’s often David versus Goliath.
- In sport, everyone plays by the same rules, within very clearly demarked boundaries, and play is closely and immediately governed by a referee or umpire. In business, the rules are much more open to interpretation, the playing field is less defined, and there is a distant, often poorly-sighted and slow acting umpire in the form of laws and regulatory bodies.
- In professional sport, if you’re not happy with your boss, you can’t just leave and join another representative team, like you can in business (especially if you’re an A-team player and in demand). In this way, sport coaches are held less accountable for any lack in leadership skill.
- There are more similarities and differences.
In summary
Startups and scaleups are the new kid on the block. And some of these ‘kids’ have already grown up to be influential players on the world stage.
In scaleups, long-term success hinges on balancing the precision of data, product, and AI with the messier but mission-critical work of leading people, culture, and complexity. Ignore either, and the whole system falters
Finally, my rule of thumb for healthy leadership is one that creates a culture that;
A) attracts the best talent
B) keeps them the longest
C) gets the best out of the rest (referring to the B- and C-team players)
Loved it! great insights!