When we launched "The Fastest Growing Companies" (FGC) podcast back in June 2021, our goal was to share behind-the-scenes stories of founders and leaders who have experienced insane growth in their businesses. (And hopefully inspire other SMB entrepreneurs along the way!)

As revenue grows so does your team — that success comes with constantly shifting responsibilities and the realization that you can’t do everything yourself. With FGC, we dove into the exponential growth hacks, scaling tips, and secrets to multiplying revenue that earned these companies the title of the fastest-growing small business brands.

As we close out our FGC run, we thought we'd take a look back and share some of the biggest takeaways from these interviews. Here are 20 valuable lessons from "The Fastest Growing Companies":

Brett Synder, Founder and CEO of Knucklepuck

Get clear about your employee’s growth track. An employee's individual contributor path versus a people management path require different logistics, guidance, and foresight.

Everyone should own their destiny in the company, and managers have to own a piece of everyone else’s destiny. Brett attributes their company’s success to the investments and leadership opportunities they put into their middle management.

These investments in career development and management lead to more fulfilled and productive employees as they grow in their own career paths. Employee development isn't one size fits all.

Allison Minutillo, President & COO of Rebel Interactive Group

Find a leader that is willing to hone in on your core strengths and take risks with the opportunities they give you. It will set the table for exponential growth in your career.

Allison believes that when you find leaders that truly want to get the best out of you and activate your core strengths, nothing is unattainable.

She contributes her own growth into leadership at Rebel Interactive Group to the guidance and opportunity from the CEO of the company. This is the power of real positive leadership.

From a leader's perspective, being able to spot those leadership qualities in your employees and give them guidance to grow is key, because that employee may not even see those qualities in themselves. Give your people the opportunity to both fail or succeed on their own if you want to build all-stars — and remove yourself as a bottleneck.

Daniel Marcos, Co-Founder & CEO of Growth Institute

New industries quickly get filled with their fair share of competitors, but the companies who build a strong brand are the ones that last through industry consolidation.

Your brand is your way out of the crowd. Pretty much every industry is crowded — until it's not. The endless ebbs and flows of competition versus consolidation. The ones that last are the ones that play the longest game of all — building a brand.

Darren Magarro, President & Founder of DSM

In the early stages of your business, it’s more important to understand what you don’t want to be than what you do want to be.

You can move a lot faster when you figure out early on what you're willing to say no to and which consumers you don’t serve. Defining that helps you refine your focus on the community you're meant to serve. And even in the micro-sense, knowing what work you don't like to do on a daily basis will help you prioritize what to delegate or who to hire next.

Garrett Mehrguth, President & CEO of Directive

Invest in recruiting so you’re not dependent on applications. Otherwise, you just accidentally acquire the team you have versus getting the team you want.

Garrett puts hiring top talent as a high priority in the company and believes in it so much that he has two full-time in-house recruiters. Hiring the right people and having an independent and empowering culture was one of the keys to Directive’s quick success.

Andrew Fisher, CEO and Co-Founder of Choozle

Once you jump to three levels in your organizational structure, where not everyone reports to the CEO, it’s critical to implement some form of hierarchy to handle a quickly growing team.

At this inflection point (about 20 employees), the need for structure and leadership roles begins to develop within your team. That next level of scale also provides opportunity for your entry-level employees to build out their own teams and develop their own leadership skills.

Stephen King, President & CEO of GrowthForce

An impactful new employee onboarding experience should not be overlooked. It creates an energy that new hires will carry with them throughout the course of their time in the company.

Treat a new employee like a number one business prospect because employees are your most valuable asset.

Michael Wong, Founder and CEO of DayBlink

Talented people have options. To retain them, owners need to create a great environment where employees want to be at your company, instead of focusing on how they can convince them to stay.

Michael encourages an environment where employees are able to be open about career changes or advancement opportunities, even if it results in them eventually leaving the company. This aspect of company culture ends up being a recruiting strategy, because it lets talented prospects know that when they come to DayBlink, the company is willing to invest in them and their career.

David Darmstandler, CEO & Co-Founder of Datapath

Understand that your employees will fail. Just be there for them when they do. Messing up is a sign that they are taking on something difficult, which is more important than having them play it safe.

Young organizations tend to have a lot of micro-management, but that leads to a lack of fulfillment and growth in their team. David has this conversation early on with his new hires, reassuring them that it’s okay to fail, because he doesn’t want complacency in his company culture.

This also means that leaders have to overcome the fear of granting employees more autonomy, which is might be difficult for someone who has had their hand in every aspect of the company from the beginning. Your company can’t truly scale if you can’t shift your mindset.

Jacco van der Kooij, Founder of Winning by Design

CEOs have a hard time delegating. Why? Because they’re not willing to let their employees make mistakes. Get comfortable with this!

When it comes to scaling your business, your number one task as a CEO is learning how to delegate. In Jacco’s words, “give your employees the chance to make their own mistakes, but those mistakes can’t be fatal to anyone.”

Ty Crandall, CEO of Credit Suite

Can you teach someone to do something ONCE and never have to teach it again? That’s a task you should delegate.

Delegating should be a freeing experience. You offload tasks to free up your workday to focus on other areas of your business.

If you're a young business owner and just beginning this process, take Ty’s advice and pick the tasks that can be taught once. Documentation will be crucial to successful delegation, but get your momentum going some quick delegation wins.

Travis Terrell, Founder & Co-CEO of Soundstripe

Your first five to 10 employees will impact your company culture just as much as you will. Keep this in mind when making your first hires.

Travis’ first hires were generalists who brought dedication and a go-getter mentality to his start-up. They were willing to do whatever it took to get the business off the ground. They set the foundation for his company culture. You may not want to hire the employee that wants a bi-annual review with a perfect job description in that first core group.

The values and mindsets of those first employees will set the tone for your company culture as you scale.

Steven Sashen, CEO of Xero Shoes

“All companies rise to the level of neuroses of their founder,” Steven shared. Find people that fit your culture, your neuroses, but also those who don’t, so they can get the stuff done that you don’t have the brain space to do.

Owners face a lot of pressure to find the perfect hires, but is that realistic? Steven knows that the way he thinks and works may not be conducive to how someone else would handle the same problem. That’s fine — build your team around the skills you lack as a founder.

Ross Black, Founder & CEO of Simple Box 

Think who, not how. Don’t get paralyzed trying to figure out how to solve everything. Instead, figure out who can take on the responsibility and its outcomes. The how will follow.

Kevin Mako, Founder & President of Mako Design

Build in process from day one. It becomes exponentially difficult to add more people to your team if you haven’t refined those processes from the beginning.

In a small team, each new hire results in a big shift in your organization and processes. Kevin says your ability to structure and bake in those processes within a small team is critical as you hire and grow. And while it’s more work upfront, it becomes increasingly difficult to add people the longer you put this off. Start ASAP!

Chase Fisher, CEO & Founder of Blenders Eyewear

Tips for delegating: be clear with your communication. Use templates, documentation, and visuals. Give employees autonomy. And know how to provide feedback.

Like most owners, Chase found it difficult to pass off responsibilities that he was passionate about. But his best results came after delegating some responsibilities to his team with clear communication and expectations. For example, he’s big on visuals and monitoring how his brand looks and feels, so providing templates for his social media creatives was super helpful.

He gives his employees the autonomy to launch a new idea and then provides proper feedback. It’s so important that everyone in your company understands how to provide feedback within a constructive framework. Try the SBI feedback model, (situation, behavior, impact).

Matt Grammer, Founder & CEO of Kentucky Counseling Center

If you want to scale, you have to sacrifice immediate monetary returns and believe that the payoff will come later. There's no getting around that, but be calculated about the risk versus reward in your decision making.

Matt started his company with an “either I'm going to do this or fail trying” mentality. He talked about how he launched his company with just $250 in savings. He put $225 into an office space, $25 into Ad-words and from there, acquired his first clients. By re-investing his profits into the company, he was able to grow the business and reduce risk over time without taking out a loan.

Sid Upadhyay, Co-Founder & CEO of WizHire 

Acquiring investors and board members isn’t all about returns. At the end of the day, it’s a relationship — not just capital. First and foremost, get aligned with your partners because the money and these relationships will be with you for years down the road.

Michael Mogill, Founder & CEO of Crisp Video Group

In a young business, it’s easy to put too much focus on a good week, month, or year of sales. Instead, gauge your success on the repeatability and predictability of those sales. Avoid quick success tunnel vision.

In Michael’s experience, he quickly realized his business was not in as great of shape as he thought, despite doing $1M in revenue during his first year of business. He was humbled at a scaling up conference, where he was exposed to the importance of business strategies like building systems, processes, cash flow management, and human capital. Michael realized he had a lot of work to do to make his business scalable.

When you focus on the repeatability and predictability of your sales, the areas where your business is lacking will become more apparent.

Daymond John, CEO of FUBU & Host of ABC’s Shark Tank

Knowing your why is the foundation for your company’s culture and brand.

“If you can’t describe yourself in two to five words, then you don’t have a compass to tell you where you are going,” Daymond shared. Without that compass, you leave your why up for interpretation with your consumers and your own employees.

• FUBU: “For Us, By Us”
• Apple: “Think Different”
• Nike: “Just Do It”

What’s your why?

👉 If you want to take a deeper dive into the hundreds of micro-lessons found throughout these episodes, be sure to add the podcast to your queue!