Build #4 - on growth and team composition
I share how we are doing at TrueStory, new big projects and thoughts on team composition.
How is everything at TrueStory?
Let’s call it a rollercoaster… Q1 was great and we over-performed substantially. Then we got into Covid-19 lockdown which plummeted us down to index 20-30 (compared to last year) and now, and for the last two months, we have been seeing high growth rates. Looking at the last 30 days, we are at 53% YoY growth in Denmark and 102% in Norway - and highly profitable. And now, here we go again. As we speak, they are starting to re-initiate social distancing recommendations in some parts of Denmark…
Check this out. A graph showing growth in actual people having great experiences found, bought and booked through TrueStory:
So what now?
We are playing our cards pretty safely taking a very likely second wave into consideration, but still preparing some big growth initiatives. We are moving slow, so that we can move fast later.
One of the initiatives that we have planned is launching TrueStory onto new markets at the start of 2021. More on that soon.
Fast scaling in 2021
To move fast in 2021, growing fast in our current markets while also launching new markets, we need to add new great people to the team.
When adding new people, we think a lot about balance - and how our standards are an average of the people we have on the team - in many ways.
Balance in the team is key. We want both eager juniors and experienced seniors. We want “quiet” introverts and “loud” extroverts.
We want generalists and specialists.
We want highly growth-driven people and people driven by operational excellence and stable foundations.
If the balance isn’t right, the team will stagnate.
We want everybody to contribute to constantly moving the bar higher - no cold hands.
We don’t tolerate great work if it’s wrapped in bad vibes
When I was 15 I went to a boys-only football boarding school, where there was a lot of focus on discipline and team effort. Each morning we had to practice. If you went into the locker room and shared negative vibes, e.g. sharing how tired you were, you risked a tough 12km run in forest and sand terrain. You had to do that in less than 60 minutes otherwise you had to do it again.
Why? While some of it is old-school and stupid, the essence is that our attitudes influence the people we surround ourselves with. This is why we try to build a team free of negativity without purpose, passive-aggressiveness, and other similar bad traits that do nothing but pulls everybody down.
So we look for balance, for constructive attitudes and for great people that thrive with freedom and responsibility. Currently: junior backend developer (C#, Microservices, Docker, serverless and javascript), Swedish content specialist, and Stockholm-based sales rep/partner consultant. Let me know if you have any recommendations.
Personal stuff
📸 I am trying to get into photography. To do some creative work and get my head wrapped around something that isn’t work. I picked up a Canon EOS 90D and the goal is to do 2-3 great shots a week. I will share some of it on my Instagram (been off Facebook and Instagram for a few years, but now back at Instagram)
👦🏼 I have a three-year-old son and one more on the way. Parenting is so amazingly interesting - can’t really think of something as interesting (and important). A “new” topic where I really enjoy diving deep.
📚 Book recommendation. I am still all-in on Stoicism and can’t seem to read enough about it. The more I study it, the more I realize how it can be the key to solve most modern-life issues. The latest Stoic-related book that I have read is the first Danish book about the topic that I’ve read - and it's really good. The book is called “Det hele handler ikke om dig.” (it’s not all about you).
Thanks for reading - remember to share if you know anyone that would enjoy reading along.