A couple of days ago, Henrique Dubugras published a new episode of the HD in HD podcast featuring Nik Storonsky, the CEO & Co-Founder of Revolut. The conversation is insightful and provocative – absolutely worth your time, I recommend you to check it out when you get the chance.
However, if you’re thinking of following in Nik’s footsteps to grow your own company, you might be setting yourself up for failure. And here’s why.
Hypergrowth is the Holy Grail of the tech startups’ land. Every founder out there wants to have that hockey-stick growth curve. Very few actually get to see it. And there are very good reasons why. Real hypergrowth is the true unicorn that even some of the acclaimed tech unicorns don’t get to discover.
Last summer I joined Austrian fintech unicorn Bitpanda as Chief Growth Officer, with a straightforward mission: to build a high-performing growth organisation. A lot has changed during this time, and so has the scope of my role. After multiple conversations and careful consideration, I realised that I simply don’t belong to the crypto world, so I decided to step down from my role and move on.
Every once in a while I hear people claiming how sexy cool it is to work in a tech startup, as opposed to how bad it’s like in a corporation. The mere word “corporation” now has a negative connotation. You simply close your eyes and picture thousands of profoundly unhappy people working on mundane, repetitive tasks, overworked against their will, forced to only live after work and on weekends. At the other end of the spectrum there are the people in tech: mission-driven, passionate, always smiling, working relentlessly to change the world, all while relaxing in their special-designated areas and playing in their game rooms. Ok, let’s stop the charade now.
Over the past 4 months, I’ve been spending time with my family. I’ve travelled quite a lot, read plenty of good books and took better care of myself. Looking back now, the decision to take a break was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. It’s incredible how much clarity a break can give you. I’ve learnt so many things (that I’ll share with you in a subsequent post).
Back in March I was writing that I’ll consider my sabbatical a success if I manage to stay away from work for 3 months. 4 months later, I’m very grateful for having done it. However, this is the longest I’ve been off since the summer holidays back in school. It was about time to get back to business.