The Fact: Scaling Without Losing Your Best Talent

Hi, my name is Victoria Romero.I am the sales director for the French market at Factorial.

If I need to define a little bit myself, as a professional,I would say that I'm a little bit like leaving the Disney World because I always see the positive side of things and I think that's really special.

And then it's a must when we are in a company that's growing so much as Factorial, and then we're scaling and then we need to bring like the positive side of things.

Growth and scaling of a startup Today we're here to talk a little bit about growing and scale and I think it's really important to understand where Factorial was, where we are and where we are growing.

I started Factorial in 2021 and some people called me a little bit of a dinosaur because usually you don't stay that long.

And companies that are scaling up and then are fast startups like we are at Factorial.

To give a little bit of context, I have been in two expansions in the Brazilian one when it opened the market in 2022.

And right now we are passing through a massive hiring also in France.

And I think one of the most important things when we are talking about hiring, growing and scaling is not just the bigger numbers, but it's pretty much the challenge of keeping the best people.

Not just the best like people are the best assets that we have in a company and then if we don't care about them, we are going to lose them.

And when you're growing, it's pretty much like the people that you got here in the first place that are going to help you to go where you wanna go.

So for me, the huge challenge in here is that when you start passing through this phase of growing in a massive like growing that we are living right now is that you have to considerate that people that are here, they're a little bit kind of lost because we pretty much are going to change process, we are going to change a little bit the communication. People, they want to feel like they have a direction to go.

And for me, that's the crucial part of having a strong leadership model at place.

A strong leader is going to help you to make the difference and tell you where you have to go and what you're going to do.

Again, if we're talking about growing, I think we have to,for me, there are three key pillars th at we should take in consideration in order like to try to have the success, because scaling and growing is a risk situation.

So you can success, you cannot success, but at least you're trying.

What are the keys to have success So for me, the three pillars would be: People,again as we said is the most important asset that you have in a company is the people that you have around you.

I know when we are growing, when you are scaling,we want to try to think lots of different things to innovate and motivate people and think outside of the box.

But there is this phrase that I like a lot that the wheel was already invented and sometimes we don't do the simple things.

Consider our employee or collaborator and that will be to make them understand that they are but they are here, they have been recognized,we are listening to them, we are seeing them and they are not just one more.

Because sometimes what happens, especially when we are growing that much is that we have the impression that we are just one more, a number more in this massive expansion.

And this for me connects directly with the second part of the leadership,to have strong leaders in place can do like the difference because they are pretty much who's going to tell you I'm still here, it is still the same mission,we are still doing the same thing.

But I need you with me and great leaders.They're going to pretty much be expansion of the company's mission.

So for example, I think you do have to find your best managers to help you to get this message through.

Because if your leader is not convinced, if they don't understand what you have to do, how you're going to get there, they're not going to give the message to the people that you have close by and then you're not going to be able to do like this growth that you want to do and scale as you want to do.

And all this is going to be connected for me with the most important thing that you have when we're growing. That's the culture.

So for example Factorial, we have our culture that we try to live by it.

That would be we teach and learn, relearn and teach.

I always mix both of them.We partner, we grow fast and we own it.

So for me culture is pretty much it's not just like the CEOs or the founders vibe or just like the personality of the people that are here.

But it's pretty much how what we are going to do when nobody's seen.

So for example, I'm not here, I don't have my boss here with me and I have a problem how I'm going to manage it, right?

How I'm going to do something to make this happen.

So I'm going to talk with a colleague because I partner I'm going to ask for help because we partner.

I'm going to teach a friend, because that's how we imagine things.

And of course, with all of that, we are going to go in the same direction.

That's grow, that we grow fast.A factor, for example.

So for me, when we talk about culture, we cannot just think, like,about the vibes or the personality, because pretty much is a mix of the personality of everybody that we have around.

And it's the essence that we have that's going to make us, like,going through in the chaos.

Because growing can be really chaotic.And the most important thing is that we are aligned and we have a clear communication.

How to deal with a hiring avalanch I had two best periods.

That's the first ones that when went to Brazil that we were like,we were three people and I left Factorial actually one year later.

And then when I left, we were like 80, and we pretty much, like,hired 80 people in six months.

So it was a huge hiring process for me.An interview should have, like, this first love side because you have to connect with the person that you're going to be working every single day.

If you have a mixed feeling when you do an interview, maybe this person is not going to be your top talent in the future because you're not feeling safe with them.

I think that we have to be okay with making mistakes,especially when you're hiring that much and especially when you have a deadline.

I'm not saying that you just hire the first person that comes,like, into the interview. It's not that.

But you have to make the peace of sometimes not hiring the good person.

But for me, if you see that something's not working, you have to act fast.

So if you see that, oh, my God, I made a mistake, what I'm going to do,you're going to go back to the hiring, and then you're going to go into process all over again.

But for me, the ego part is really important because you cannot, like,think that, oh, my God, I cannot say that I did not hire someone properly, and then I have to go all over again just,like, assume what I did and then go and do a better one.

How do you know when someone is ready to be promoted?

For me, this is a really critical situation.And I have lived this in the beginning of the year that I was being promoted for,like, sales manager to director.

And for me, the most important thing is that I was trying to find someone that could fit with every single one of the people that I had inside of the team, someone that would be able to provide them, like,this challenge and grow with them and show them like, hey, I'm here,maybe I'm going to do things differently but in the same way I'm here to help you.

I think a good manager always needs to have this idea that his team or her team is not their team.

It's pretty much you are working with them and then you have to be there to help them and you are going to grow in the same way that you're trying to help them to grow.

A good manager is never going to think about I, but pretty much in the we. Once happened to me that I promote somebody and then I really thought was going to be like a great manager and was going to be like my hand side but actually was a good IC but couldn't fulfill all the part of being a manager because the soft skills that you have to have when you have a team again,you cannot just think about yourself, but you have to think about the company and what is the value of the company, what is the mission of the company and how you're going to help your team.

And I had to have a really hard conversation because also was a good friend of mine.

We used to work really well together when I was the manager and was my manager.

And at some point I had to say: "Hey, you are really good at this.

We can try to develop you in this position.But if you're not going to do what I need to do, you are going to go back and step back." But it's not like just don't take this personally.

But sometimes you do these mistakes and again you have to assume them.

You're going to have hard conversations.But the most important thing is that you take actions and then you live by the consequence.

Of course in this situation, it was good outcome because the person understood and went back to being like IC but sometimes people are going to leave because they're like, oh, you made a mistake so or you keep me in my position, I'm going to leave.

How to be a better manager?We are always going to have people that are not going to be top performers in every single area.

And I think this is really important to understand that mediocre is a really strong word.

I think there are people that are going to be really good at relationships,for example, with the team and others that are going to be really good with data and others that are going to be really good with forecasting and hiring.

So I do think that you have to find every single strong point with this person and try to put a little bit more of the responsibility on that and not just ignore all the other areas. But show that you want to improve.

I have a situation that will happen with me.I could say that I'm really good with people.

I love my job of talking and being there and trying to motivate people.

But I'm really bad with creating dashboards.For example, HubSpot. It's crazy for me.

And my boss gave me the most important part of all the directors to be responsible and expert of creating of data, excels and everything.

In the beginning, I'm going to tell you guys that I was like,why are you doing that to me?

I hate this part of the job.And he told me, because I need to help you grow in every single area and then you can be a better person.

So again, I think when you're directly and you tell the why behind every single action and every single thing that you're asking your manager or your IC or whatever, you're working with people, they're going to understand and they're going to see that for the positive.

And again, we are here as professionals and we want to grow.

So you have to accept the feedback.I was always trying to pitch like the manager that I would love to have and how I would like to be treated.

And then I was like, I understand that sometimes you have to put pressure on people, but.

But how would I like to receive the pressure?How would this work with me?

So this is something that I try to create in my environment with my managers,with my colleagues and everybody, because I think we always have to behave in the way that we want people to behave with us.

And if it doesn't work, then you ask, how can we collaborate?

How can we work together?I like to work in this manner, but I just think that you have to think Again,we see lots of companies that are growing way too fast, that are moving things around,and it's not easy because if you're in a company like this, it's because you like the challenge, you like the...

You like to move all the time.And this is really important, but also sometimes gets a little bit of chaotic and then you don't know if you have the energy to keep swimming.

So if you have somebody that's there and tell like, hey, we are here,we're going together, we're going together,you are keeping the mission going,and then you're not just going to scale, like in numbers, but you're going to scale in a strong way, like you're going to have this strong way to go behind your mission and then keeping the talent and the people that you had brought here once and doing whatever you need to do.

Is that it? Well, thank you.