Surviving The Scale: The Lessons I Learned From Growing A Unicorn
You’ve built a viable solution to a real-world problem, convinced investors to invest in your venture, and started to grow your customer base. Just 7.4% of startups reach Series A — so you’ve already beaten the odds. Surely the most challenging part is behind you.
But scaling brings new challenges — often tougher than those you’ve already faced. In fact, growth and scaling rank among the top three concerns for startups, with 38% of founders citing it as a challenge.
Having been part of challenger bank Monzo’s meteoric rise, I know how difficult scaling can be. However, I’ve also learned invaluable lessons that have made the process far smoother the second time around as I grow my own venture, Gradient Labs.
Reinventing the wheel
Early-stage startups often fall into the trap of thinking they must innovate everything, from job titles to HR frameworks. However, with resources spread thin and burnout rates high, 13% fail due to trying to do too much.
Innovation is essential, but you only have so much time, energy and funding, so you can’t do it all. Many business practices have persisted for decades because they work. The challenge isn’t reinventing everything but knowing where to adopt an existing best practice.
This is why founders must be willing to listen and learn. Your product may be groundbreaking, but your journey isn’t unique. Countless entrepreneurs have walked the same path, some successfully and some less so. Learning from their experiences can save you from mistakes that slow progress and raise the risk of failure.
Balancing transparency
At Monzo, we decided to embrace radical transparency from day one. Every Slack channel was public, and every conversation was accessible to everyone. Why? Because having access to relevant information allowed us all to make better business decisions. It also showed trust in the team, with high-trust environments linked to reduced stress, greater productivity and increased job satisfaction.
It worked at first, but as we scaled, the flood of information drowned out key updates. The lesson? What works for an early-stage startup doesn’t always translate to a scaling business. To survive, you need to adapt.
We found that frequent, targeted Slack updates preserved transparency without overwhelming our teams. Ultimately, clear communication isn’t about sharing everything — it’s about ensuring the right information reaches the right people.
Acquiring talent
In the early stages, every dollar counts. You’re carefully controlling your budget — but talent acquisition is one area where cutting corners can cost you far more in the long run. If you want top-tier talent, you need to offer top-tier salaries.
Sure, with a lot of work you might land a top employee on an average salary, but how long before a bigger name comes calling with a better offer — leaving you to foot the bill for recruiting and training their replacement?
Your hires will make or break your scaling efforts, so you need to get it right. The truly exceptional professionals — those worth paying the price for — aren’t just experts in their craft, whether engineering or data science, but also understand (or are at least eager to understand) the domain they’re working in.
If you’re building an AI fraud platform, your data scientist should understand fraud mechanisms. This deeper knowledge won’t just lead to better solutions but will get you there faster — ensuring you reach your goals before your runway ends.
Expecting turbulence
Scaling a startup is like riding a roller coaster where the track is invisible and the drops are sudden. Critical system failures, customers who don’t pay, unexpected illnesses, last-minute regulatory changes, and investors pulling funding at the worst possible time — it’s no surprise that 61% of founders consider walking away from their company. But that’s all part of the ride.
The reality is that growth is never linear. There will be moments when it feels like everything you’ve worked so hard to build is unraveling, which is why resilience is such a critical skill for founders. The ones who scale successfully aren’t those who avoid setbacks; they’re the ones who get back up, adapt and find solutions.
Dimitri Masin is the co-founder and CEO of Gradient Labs, the artificial intelligence startup redefining customer service in regulated industries. With a background in financial engineering and AI, Masin specializes in safe and compliant automation. He previously held roles with Google and served as the vice president of data science, financial crime and fraud at Monzo.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
