Categories: Startup

By Carlos Diaz, Founder of Talento

You’ve raised your Series A. Brilliant. Now what? The temptation is to scale headcount. Sales, product, engineering, hire, hire, hire. But more people doesn’t mean more value.

Scale your startup like you scale your codebase: with intent and design. The best companies avoid the headcount trap by doubling down on flow. Use metrics like lead time for changes and team cognitive load to understand where scaling makes sense.

Team Topologies helps you scale without growing pain. Instead of just adding bodies, you shape teams to optimise for flow and learning. You decouple when necessary and invest in internal platforms that free up cognitive load.

It’s also a good time to revisit your communication strategy. As you grow, your information flow changes. If you don’t redesign your team structures to match, you’ll end up with delays, misalignment, and decision fatigue.

Scaling should feel like evolution, not explosion. If it starts feeling chaotic, go back to basics: What’s the value stream? Where’s the friction? And how can you reduce cognitive load so your teams stay focused on outcomes?

Don’t just scale fast, scale smart. Build the right team topology, keep your feedback loops short, and never lose the agility that got you here in the first place.