As companies grow, the role of the entrepreneur changes from scrappy founder to CEO of a much bigger team.
It’s a different game that all founders can learn to play, if they want to take on the new responsibilities.
The impact of your business on your customers, employees, and partners often grows exponentially.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that it can be heavy for the CEO to lead hundreds of employees, thousands of partners, and even more customers.
This leadership weight continues to grow as your company grows, so CEOs need to be proactive and disciplined about their health, personal life, and mindset.
Bryan Forrester is CEO of Boostlingo, a leading on-demand platform for live language interpretation services that is growing quickly and can become a very large company.
Boostlingo now has 160 employees and over 17,000 language interpreters who use their software to manage jobs, coordinate schedules, deliver interpreting services, and get paid.
Bryan raised some practical funds from angels to start the company in 2016. The company grew 50% or more every year since then.
In 2021, Boostlingo raised a growth equity round of funding from Mainsail Partners to provide capital for efficient growth and buy out some early investors. They have also since made several small acquisitions.
Bryan has a big vision for Boostlingo to grow into a very, very big company in a massive global market.
It’s a people business at its core, and people depend on his leadership every day.
Bryan describes how he is managing to stay sane as the company grows up:
“Running a business is probably the hardest thing anybody could do, especially a high-growth startup business. And you have to keep your sanity even as it grows bigger.
“So I have my work day routine and then I have my intentional not-work day routine. I’m very intentional about having a certain amount of time with my kids every day. They give me energy. I am very intentional with my road biking and my sleep. All those things help me keep my sanity.
“When you start showing up to work not as your best self, it has a real impact on your team. Leadership has such an impact in so many different ways that you’ve got to show up as your best self. If you don’t, the chances of your company being successful go down pretty dramatically.”
They are still growing fast. More customers, more partners, more employees. In Bryan’s case, this also means more acquisitions and more investors.
Practical SaaS or VC-funded, bigger companies require more energy and discipline for the CEOs to be the best leaders for their teams.
Check out this amazing interview with Bryan Forrester on the Practical Founders Podcast.
