It started with a Slack message.
Simple. Unassuming.
“Hey, do you have 15 minutes today? Something I’d like to talk about.”
It was from Louise.
Head of Customer Success.
One of Alma’s early hires.
Trusted. Calm. Fierce in quiet ways.
The kind of teammate every founder dreams of.
Alma’s stomach dropped.
They met in the café next to the office.
Louise didn’t waste time.
“I’ve decided to move on. It’s not a burnout thing. I’ve just… hit the ceiling here.”
Alma tried to hold steady.
“Is this about comp? Or scope? We’re evolving. We can—”
Louise shook her head. “It’s not that. I love what we’ve built. I’m proud of it. But it’s changing. And I don’t think I’m the one to lead the next phase.”
Alma nodded, silently. Then asked, “Did I miss this coming?”
Louise smiled, almost sadly. “You didn’t miss it. I just didn’t say it. Until now.”
Back in her office, Alma sat alone for a long time.
This wasn’t about one resignation.
This was about a shift.
The quiet, unavoidable truth every founder eventually faces:
Not everyone who starts the journey will stay for the whole thing.
Even the good ones. Especially the good ones.
She looked at the wall.
Her OPSP still hung there.
Strategy clear. Values alive. Execution humming. Cash under control.
But the people?
That was the hardest part.
Two weeks earlier, they’d made a new hire in marketing.
CV was perfect. Experience impressive.
But something felt off from the start.
In meetings, she dominated.
Didn’t listen.
Dismissed others’ work.
Talked in buzzwords.
Avoided responsibility when things slipped.
Joachim raised the flag first. Then others.
But Alma hesitated. “Let’s give her more time.”
And now, two months in, trust was broken.
Team morale had dipped.
Execution slowed.
All because Alma hadn’t acted faster.
That night, she opened her notebook and wrote at the top of the page:
“The Company You Keep.”
And underneath:
- Who belongs here?
- Who doesn’t?
- What’s the standard — and are we living it?
She thought back to the values they had written:
- Own it
- Build trust
- Stay curious
- Be clear
- Win together
She underlined build trust.
Then circled it.
The next morning, Alma called a leadership offsite.
No slides. No agenda. Just one prompt:
“What kind of team do we need to become — to hit our BHAG?”
It was a quiet room at first.
Then Mikkel spoke.
“We need people who grow faster than the company. Not just keep up. Outgrow their role. Again and again.”
Sara added, “We’ve been hiring for experience. We should be hiring for trajectory.”
Joachim leaned in. “And we need a better system. Right now it’s gut feel. That’s fine at 10 people. It’s not fine at 40.”
Alma nodded. “So let’s fix it.”
They spent the day mapping a new people strategy.
Not just hiring.
Talent flow.
They pulled out everything they’d learned over the past year and tied it together:
- Scorecards for every key role: defining success, not just responsibilities.
- Topgrading interviews — structured, tough, real.
- TMA to assess team strengths and motivators.
- A-player matrix to track performance and values alignment.
- Development paths linked to company rhythm — monthly 1:1s, quarterly reviews, annual growth plans.
- Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team to name what they’d been sensing but hadn’t spoken.
Alma looked at the whiteboard full of tools and said what everyone was thinking:
“This is what grown-up companies do.”
Three weeks later, they started implementing.
The new scorecards were brutal.
Not just “What do you do?” but:
- What outcomes are you accountable for?
- What behaviors must you demonstrate?
- How does this role tie to our OPSP?
One product lead asked, “Are we turning into corporate?”
Alma smiled. “No. We’re becoming accountable.”
Then came the A-player review.
They scored each team member on two axes:
- Performance: consistently delivers results
- Culture fit: lives the core values
They used simple ratings: A, B, C.
Each name was a conversation.
Some Bs had the potential to grow.
Others needed honest talks.
A few Cs were already on borrowed time.
It was painful.
And clarifying.
Alma stared at one name in particular.
A brilliant engineer.
Shipped code fast.
Never documented.
Didn’t collaborate.
Ignored process.
Dismissed feedback.
Culture fit: C.
Impact: unpredictable.
Alma sighed. “I knew this already, didn’t I?”
Mathias nodded. “You did. But now it’s written down.”
They started having real conversations.
One by one.
Respectful. Honest. Direct.
Some people stepped up.
Some opted out.
Some were let go.
Each conversation cleared space.
For the team.
For the future.
For Alma.
Meanwhile, recruiting changed too.
No more “hire fast, hope it works.”
Every candidate now faced:
- A structured interview
- A scorecard match test
- A values alignment screen
- A trial task
They lost some candidates to process.
But the ones who joined?
They fit.
Alma sat in on a final-round interview for a new operations manager.
The candidate paused after the values discussion and said:
“I’ve interviewed at ten scale-ups. You’re the first that knows who you are — and what kind of people you want around.”
Alma smiled. “We didn’t always.”
A month after Louise’s departure, they promoted from within.
A quiet, thoughtful leader.
No ego.
Deep customer empathy.
Scored A/A in the matrix.
She cried when they offered her the role.
“Didn’t think I was on your radar,” she said.
Alma shook her head. “We see you. We just needed a system to name it.”
At the next quarterly offsite, Alma stood in front of the team.
Strategy was alive.
Values were practiced.
Rhythm was steady.
Cash was stable.
And now — the people were rising.
“We’ve spent the last year building TraceAble as a company.
But now we’re building it as a team.
And that means every hire matters. Every conversation counts.
You are not cogs in a machine. You are the machine.
And you deserve a team you can trust, every day.”
The room was silent.
Then someone clapped.
Then everyone did.
That night, Alma walked through the office one last time before heading home.
She passed the OPSP. The core values. The team photos. The whiteboard filled with new names.
It had taken everything — every mistake, every long night, every hard conversation — to get here.
But TraceAble was no longer a scrappy startup held together by her energy.
It was becoming a company.
A real one.
A resilient one.
Built on rhythm.
Run by people who belonged.
Pointed at a future that made sense.
And for the first time in years, Alma didn’t feel like the glue.
She felt like the guide.