Should we hire someone above us?

We don't think about this enough. Sometimes we're too busy trying to get ahead and get that promotion, to ask what is best for the company - and for us. Perhaps someone else would be better than us?

This is especially relevant inside a startup which must acquire new capability at warp speed as the business moves through different stages of maturity and scale. It is quite common for functional heads to be replaced in startups because of this. The team is talented for what the business needs to do today. But now we are in 'tomorrow' and the business needs more.

You might be one of those people, and that's OK because this is normal. I've been that person. Startups make unreasonable demands on everyone in the team. It is their nature, because they are still growing into what they will become.

One solution to this is to learn like crazy. Ask for help to take on the next level. Another solution is to consider hiring someone above you.

Ask yourself these questions:

⍰ Who can I learn from?

⍰ Who can slingshot me and the team to a whole new level?

⍰ Who would know what to do?

⍰ Who would unlock doors for the company that I can't?

If you come up with a list of interesting people, suggest them to your team as a way for the business to keep up. If they come on board, strap in for the ride to absorb the next level of experience.

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I'm a Partner at Main Sequence, a VC purpose-built to create global companies from scientific ideas with the inventors who imagine them. I build-out-loud here: https://philmorle.substack.com