Tips to maintain the soul of a startup for company growth

There’s an essential, intangible something in start-ups—an energy, a soul. Company founders sense its presence. So do early employees and customers. It inspires people to contribute their talent, money, and enthusiasm and fosters a sense of deep connection and mutual purpose. As long as this spirit persists, engagement is high and start-ups remain agile and innovative, spurring growth. But when it vanishes, ventures can falter, and everyone perceives the loss—something special is gone.

The first person I heard talk about "the soul of a start-up" was a Fortune 500 CEO, who was trying to revive one in his organization. Many large companies undertake such "search and rescue" initiatives, which reflect an unfortunate truth: As a business matures, it’s hard to keep its original spirit alive. Founders and employees often confuse soul with culture and, in particular, the freewheeling ethos of all-nighters, flexible job descriptions, T-shirts, pizza, free soda, and a family-like feel. They notice and wax nostalgic about it only when it wanes. Investors sometimes run roughshod over a company’s emotional core, pushing a firm to "professionalize" and to pivot in response to market demands. And organizations trying to recover an "entrepreneurial mindset" tend to take a superficial approach, addressing behavioral norms but failing to home in on what really matters.

Most founders believe their start-ups are about more than their business models.

Over the past decade, I’ve studied more than a dozen fast-growth ventures, conducting 200-plus interviews with their founders and executives, in an attempt to better understand this problem and how it can be overcome. I’ve learned that while many companies struggle to retain their original essence, creativity, inattentiveness, and élan, some have managed to do so quite effectively, thereby sustaining strong stakeholder relationships and ensuring that their ventures continue to thrive. So often entrepreneurs, consultants, and scholars like myself emphasize the need to implement structure and systems as a business grows, missing the importance of preserving its spirit. We can and should focus on both. With effort and determination, leaders can nurture and protect what’s right and true in their organisations.

• In Search of Organizational Spirit
• Dimensions of the Soul
• Business intent.
• Customer connection.
• Employee experience.

Often, it takes a crisis for people to notice that a company’s soul is disappearing or gone. Recently, Facebook and Uber both publicly apologized to customers for losing their way. In 2018 hundreds of Google employees demanded that the tech giant shelve plans to develop a search engine that would facilitate the stifling of dissent in China. "Many of us accepted employment at Google with the company’s values in mind," they noted in a letter to the company, "including…an understanding that Google was a company willing to place its values above its profits."Preserving the Soul

It is possible to find a middle ground in which high-growth, dynamic companies add structure and discipline while still retaining the three critical elements that provide meaning.

Read in detail how you can maintain the soul of your startups.

I am a manager at GetEverythingDelivered.We are on a mission to help people understand the importance of project delivery.