Scaling a Startup: People and Organizational Issues

This note discusses the organizational challenges that startups often encounter as they begin to scale rapidly, along with approaches to addressing these challenges suggested by scholars, investors, and experienced entrepreneurs. The challenges fall into five broad areas: the need to formalize organizational structure; executive transitions; the need for management systems/processes; evolution of the board of directors role; and, preservation of an entrepreneurial culture.Learning Objective:To build understanding of the organizational challenges that startups encounter as they scale, along with potential solutions to their challenges.