What-if certainty 3/5 debate potential 3/5

Foster: Scaling from 10 to 100 employees would have ruined early Zapier

Wade Foster · Contrarian takes on growth, hiring, and fundraising | Wade Foster (Co-founder & CEO at Zapier) · Oct 5, 2023 · at 34:51

Wade Foster, co-founder and CEO of Zapier, contrasts disciplined headcount growth with hyper-aggressive scaling as first-time founders.

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“As a first time founder, like if I tried to go 10 to a hundred, I think we would have ruined a lot of stuff inside the business.”

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