The company had a clear growth strategy and the financial backing to execute, but leadership recognized that people capacity was the constraint. The existing team was stretched thin, key roles like VP of Sales and Head of Customer Success were being covered by the CEO and COO, and there was no systematic approach to hiring, onboarding, or developing talent. Previous hiring had been reactive and inconsistent, leading to regrettable turnover and cultural misalignment. The leadership team knew that scaling to $20M would require doubling headcount, but they had no roadmap for what roles to hire when, how to maintain culture during rapid growth, or how to build the leadership bench needed to manage a larger organization.
Stone Capital Partners designed a comprehensive talent architecture aligned to the company's growth plan:
- Collaborated with leadership to model organizational needs at each revenue milestone ($10M, $15M, $20M)
- Created a phased hiring roadmap that prioritized critical leadership roles first, followed by team-level capacity
- Developed role profiles and competency frameworks for all new positions, ensuring clarity on expectations and cultural fit
- Designed compensation bands benchmarked to market that supported both external hiring and internal equity
- Built an onboarding program that accelerated time-to-productivity for new hires and reinforced company values
- Established performance management and development processes that identified high-potential employees for future leadership roles
- Coached the CEO and COO on transitioning responsibilities to new leaders and avoiding the temptation to micromanage during growth
The company executed its growth plan with confidence. Over 18 months, headcount grew from 60 to 95 employees, including the successful hiring of a VP of Sales, Head of Customer Success, and CFO who became core members of the executive team. Regrettable turnover decreased from 18% to under 10% as hiring quality improved and cultural fit became a deliberate part of the process. Revenue exceeded projections, reaching $14M by the end of year two, and leadership capacity kept pace with organizational complexity. The CEO noted that having a clear talent roadmap eliminated the chaos of reactive hiring and allowed the team to scale intentionally rather than scrambling to fill gaps. The business was no longer constrained by people capacity and had the infrastructure to continue scaling toward its $20M target.
