Article · About 10 min read

To Grow Faster, Hit Pause, and Ask These Questions from Stripe's COO

First Round Review Free Advanced

Six questions you can run against your own org today, with the real Stripe artifacts behind them: the operating principles, the five year plan as a few paragraphs, and see one, do one, teach one.

  • Stripe went from 350 employees at the start of 2016 to 750 a year later, which is what forced the process.
  • Decisions get sorted on a two-by-two of impact and reversibility: only high-impact irreversible ones need rigor and stakeholders.
  • Low-impact reversible decisions should be made alone, guided by the operating principles.
  • Review org structures every six months, and treat not localizing problem-solving as a company killer.
Open on review.firstround.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. What did Claire Hughes Johnson learn about scaling a go to market org, taking Stripe from under 200 people to over 7,000?

Read with it

  1. The tactical half of her thinking: founding documents, operating principles, titles, and how to actually get a large team... Lenny's Podcast Podcast · Full episode with transcript Lessons from scaling Stripe | Claire Hughes Johnson (former COO of Stripe) Lenny Rachitsky with Claire Hughes Johnson
  2. Over 100 pages of it are worksheets, templates and real example documents rather than prose, which is why go to market leaders... Stripe Press Book · Full book Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building Claire Hughes Johnson
  3. Video · About 1 hr 21 min Lessons from scaling Stripe | Claire Hughes Johnson (ex-COO of Stripe) Claire Hughes Johnson
  4. Where the widely copied Working with Claire guide comes from, plus her two document planning hierarchy of multi-year charters... High Growth Handbook Article · About 15 min read Decision-Making and Managing Executives: An Interview with Claire Hughes Johnson Elad Gil
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →