The do’s and don’ts of scaling from dozens of employees to thousands — McKenna Quint

In Depth

Today’s episode is with McKenna Quint, who was most recently the Head of People at Plaid and also built and led the people team at Cruise Automation. Currently, she’s co-founder and general partner at Quint Capital, a seed-stage fund.

In today’s conversation, we focus on the people challenges that inevitably crop up when you’re going from a couple dozen employees to a couple thousand. We start by discussing when startups should draw from established playbooks in the people space versus when to start from first principles. She also dives into the details of bringing her data mindset to the people space, including designing a sophisticated attrition model.

Next, she tackles some of the questions she most often gets from startup founders, including whether the company should introduce levels, what to look for in your first people leadership hire, and how to approach performance reviews.

Finally, we dive into a larger conversation about the roles that companies play in today’s employee experience. From the company cultures that most inspire her, to the evolution of uncomfortable conversations in the workplace, and what pieces of the Google cultural revolution she’s ready to leave behind.

Today’s conversation is a must-listen for HR leaders of course, but also for folks at startups across the org chart that want an inside look at what’s top of mind for people leaders today — and the systems behind the scenes that powers startups to reach new heights.

Let My People Go Surfing: https://www.amazon.com/Let-People-Surfing-Education-Businessman/dp/0143037838

Management Lessons from the Mayo Clinic: https://www.amazon.com/Management-Lessons-Mayo-Clinic-Organizations/dp/1260011836

Let’s Not Kill Performance Evaluations Yet: https://hbr.org/2016/11/lets-not-kill-performance-evaluations-yet

You can follow McKenna on Twitter at @mckmoreau

You can email us questions directly at [e-mail] or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/firstround and twitter.com/brettberson