And beat the odds that only 1 in 6,300 will reach this level of annual sales. The attached diagram shows the skills, systems, and experience needed on that team. Each cell would take at least 5 years’ experience to acquire and master that skill area. So, we are looking at 100 years of cumulative experience for the company as a whole.
Most people think they are “ready to scale” as soon as they have some sales. This is never true. In fact, you need at least 4 levels of stuff in 5 business areas, or your odds of success are very low. This can be thought of as the “do, hire/train, manage, plan” levels too. And maps into individual contributor, manager, executive, and CEO/board (long-term vision stuff).
It takes many years to acquire the skills needed to build a significant company. Anyone can build and run a small company with ~7 people. After that, the skills required are very different. And you need a senior team (c-suite or fractional) that consists of at least 3 leaders for vision/product, operations, and marketing/sales. Ideally, each should have 15+ years’ experience and be equity holders with “golden handcuffs.”. Attempting to build a significant company alone never works, literally. You can build a tiny house alone, but not a skyscraper.
