Ditch the startup playbook with these 5 lessons

Fast Company

a day ago

In January 2025, I launched CX Foundation to serve the people who shape customer experiences (CX): the operators, strategists, analysts, and decision makers who don't have time for fluff or generic playbooks. My team and I wanted to do more than discuss the CX industry's news and trends. We wanted to rebuild how insights are created, shared, and acted on. That mission forced a choice early on: do we continue to employ the playbook used by most media startups—or fire it?
Simple. We fired it. The playbook tells you to do what's safe. Raise big. Hire fast. Publish fast takes. Focus on scale, then figure out substance later. Those rules were all wrong for our vision, so we decided to make our own.
Since then, I've learned five key lessons that will serve you well if you're building anything early-stage, no matter the industry.
1. EXECUTION BEATS HYPE—EVERY TIME
In an age of overproduced brand noise, authority and execution are the most underrated growth strategies. Early on, I hired someone who talked a big game—checked all the boxes on paper, said the right things, and promised the world. But the execution never came. Their ideas were shallow, they made mistake after mistake, and their follow-through was off. What saved us was competence. The rest of our team—the ones who didn't oversell themselves—stepped up and delivered at an elite level.
That experience made one thing crystal clear. In this game, execution beats hype, and depth beats dazzle. Expertise isn't loud, but it always wins. So if you're hiring, ask yourself these key questions:
• Can this person go deep when it counts?
• What can they teach the team?
• Are they builders of just talkers?
• When they don't have an answer, do they bluff or get curious and push to figure it out?
• Can they execute without being micromanaged?
2. DON'T SCALE TEAMS. SCALE PRECISION
Most startups think progress means hiring more people. It doesn't. It means getting painfully clear on what matters most, and eliminating everything else. At CXF, we focused on three key goals: educating CX leaders at a higher level, publishing fast and with impact, and adding original thinking to every piece of content. These became our North Star, keeping us lean, focused, and immune to bloat.
If you want to scale with precision, determine your definition of 'mission-critical.' What would you still need to do if you had half the time and half the team available? It's also key to think about what you can do better than anyone else in the game.
3. DISTRIBUTION OUTWEIGHS CREATION
You can build the best content in the world, but if no one sees it, it doesn't exist. Distribution must be a core facet—not an afterthought. Every blog post we make at CXF has a repurpose strategy baked in. Every video is optimized for YouTube and sliced for LinkedIn. Every insight is a conversation starter, not just a monologue.
The lesson? Obsess over the first 10 people your work needs to reach. Optimize for impact per view, not just impressions. Remember that every post is your shot to land in the right inbox.
4. BE AUTHENTIC ON LINKEDIN
In my experience, LinkedIn posts with the most engagement aren't the ones with charts and jargon. They're the ones with a strong POV and a little courage. If you want to level up your LinkedIn game, add commentary to your content. Start sharing what you really think about what's happening in your industry. Challenge the norm, and don't be afraid to take a stance that might make people in the industry a little uncomfortable. Most importantly, write like a human.
5. FIND THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THE WHOLE THING WORTH IT
Building a company is chaotic. It's high change, high stakes, and often thankless in the early innings. But when you work with people who are smart, fast, and truly care? It doesn't just make things smoother. It makes them fun. Every win is shared. Every failure is fuel.
That kind of culture doesn't come from Slack emojis or mission statements. You need people who are in it to build. So hire for mindset, not just skill set. Choose the people who'll show up, regardless of their title or status. Then, make decisions together and celebrate wins hard.