Founder Obsession With Rapid Hyper-Growth Is Dangerous and Causes Burnout
Jeffrey Hollender · Advice Line with Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation · May 28, 2026 · at 43:14
Seventh Generation co-founder Jeffrey Hollender reflects on lessons from scaling his eco-friendly consumer goods brand and warns against prioritizing rapid growth over employee well-being.
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“The bigger, the faster, the better, and I think that that is a dangerous thing. I think that, that we need to monitor how obsessed we are with how fast we grow, because it's a dangerous thing to be moving so quickly, and it's stressful, and it challenges your employees, and I think that we need to, you know, I was excited when we were going 50% every year, but it was killing people at the same time. So I would say pick something that's more in moderation, that is comfortable, that doesn't create the challenges and the stress and the sleepless nights that growing that quickly does.”
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