Some companies can grow from small startups to huge businesses in just a few years, gaining millions of users and making billions of dollars. This is called hypergrowth—when a company’s revenue or customer base grows by more than 40% yearly.¹
For comparison, most successful companies grow at 10-20% annually. Even “rapid growth” is only 20-40%. But hypergrowth is a whole new level.
Think about Zoom. It went from a business tool used by a few companies to something that almost everyone used during the pandemic. Or Slack, which went from 16,000 daily active users in February 2014 to over 500,000 within a year—and, as of January 2019, surpassed 10 million active users.²
Hypergrowth is exciting, but it’s not easy. If a company grows too fast without the right plan or the right people in place, it can fall apart just as quickly.
The Role of Scalable Tech Teams in a Company’s Hypergrowth
Hypergrowth is the dream of every startup founder, but it’s not just about speed—it’s about sustainability through a scalable team that can handle rapid expansion without breaking down. If a company suddenly gains millions of new customers but doesn’t have the right team or systems, things can spiral out of control quickly. A scalable team ensures operations run smoothly, no matter how big the company gets.
A great example of getting scalability right is Amazon. What started as a simple online bookstore quickly transformed into a global e-commerce and cloud computing powerhouse. To support its rapid growth, Amazon developed AWS (Amazon Web Services)—not only to power its own expanding infrastructure but also to become a profitable service for other businesses.³
On the other hand, failing to build a scalable IT team can cripple even the most promising companies. Take Friendster, for example. In the early 2000s, it was the dominant social networking site, but its IT infrastructure wasn’t built to handle rapid user growth.⁴ The site became slow, cluttered, and unresponsive, frustrating users and driving them to better-optimized platforms like Facebook.
Tech companies that fail to scale their teams and infrastructure properly risk overburdened employees, inefficiencies, system failures, and, ultimately, losing their market leadership. On the other hand, hypergrowth companies that invest in scalable teams and technology don’t just grow fast; they grow smart and sustainably.
How to Build a Team That Can Handle Hypergrowth
Here’s how to build a team that doesn’t just keep up with hypergrowth in tech—but thrives in it.
1. Hire People Who Can Adapt, Not Just Experts
When your company is just starting, hiring people who can do a little bit of everything is wiser than hiring those who specialize in just one skill. Early on, things move fast, and unexpected problems come up all the time. You need problem-solvers who can think on their feet and adjust to whatever comes their way.
A great example of this is Airbnb. When the company struggled to get off the ground, its founders didn’t just sit behind a computer and wait for things to improve. Instead, they went door-to-door to convince homeowners to list their properties and took professional photos of listings to make them more attractive.⁵
Airbnb’s success wasn’t just about having a great idea—it was about having a team willing to do whatever it took to keep the business alive. Instead of saying, “That’s not my job,” their team jumped in, adapted, and solved problems as they came. That mindset helped them survive the tough early days and eventually become a global brand.
For any business looking to grow fast, hiring people who can think on their feet, take on different challenges, and adjust when things don’t go as planned is important. Being skilled in a specific area is great, but the ability to learn, pivot, and find solutions will help your company thrive in achieving hypergrowth.
2. Build Fast-Moving, Independent Teams
As companies grow, communication can slow down. Teams start working in silos, decisions take too long, and people spend more time in meetings than actually doing their jobs. Information gets stuck at the top, and employees feel out of the loop, leading to frustration and inefficiency.
To avoid this, create a culture where everyone shares information openly, and decisions aren’t stuck in long approval chains. Use tools like Microsoft Teams, Notion, or internal dashboards to keep conversations organized and ensure employees can access the correct information without endless emails or unnecessary meetings. Set clear expectations on who makes decisions so employees aren’t always waiting for higher-ups to sign off on everything.
Amazon, for example, introduced the “Two Pizza Team” rule—if a meeting requires more people than two pizzas to be fed, it’s too big.⁶ This helps keep discussions focused, fast, and productive. Amazon also encourages small, independent teams that can make decisions quickly without getting stuck in long approval chains.
The takeaway is to develop straightforward communication methods, eliminate unnecessary steps, and let teams make decisions without constant bottlenecks.
3. Build Your Infrastructure to Handle More Users Before You Need To
If your product or service isn’t built to handle more users, things may start crashing and slowing down as soon as demand increases. Instead of waiting for problems to happen, set up your tech infrastructure in advance so it can handle 10x or even 100x more users than you have now.
Consider moving to cloud-based services like AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure, so your systems can expand automatically when needed instead of relying on fixed, in-house servers that may struggle under high traffic. Instead of building one massive system that does everything, break it down into smaller, independent parts (microservices) that can scale separately. This way, if one part of your system experiences a surge in demand, it doesn’t bring everything else down.
An example of why this step is crucial is Zoom. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Zoom suddenly had millions of new users overnight—growing from 10 million daily participants in December 2019 to 300 million by April 2020.⁷ Many companies would have collapsed under such rapid demand. Still, because Zoom had built its infrastructure on the cloud, it was able to scale up instantly. By leveraging AWS and combining colocation and cloud services, Zoom ensured smooth performance and uninterrupted service even at an unprecedented scale.⁸
Another step you can take is to automate tasks like deployments and testing so engineers aren’t stuck fixing things manually. A well-optimized system adjusts itself, allowing your team to focus on growth and innovation rather than constantly troubleshooting performance issues.
4. Automate Everything You Can
As your company grows, more bugs, deployments, and security risks will occur. If your team constantly fixes things manually, they won’t have time to work on new features or improvements.
To prevent this, automate as much as possible. Use CI/CD pipelines (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) to automate updates and bug fixes. Set up automated security monitoring to detect and handle potential threats without human intervention. The more you streamline operations, the faster and more efficient your team will be.
5. Hire Before You’re Desperate for People
One of the biggest mistakes fast-growing companies make is waiting too long to hire. Waiting until your team is overwhelmed could lead to hiring in a rush and creating more problems than solutions.
Instead, start building your talent pipeline early. Create a strong company culture and employer brand so people want to work for you before you need them. Have a clear hiring plan so that when the time comes, you can bring in great talent quickly without lowering your standards.
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References:
- World Economic Forum. “What Is Hypergrowth – and Why Does It Matter?” World Economic Forum, 27 Apr. 2016, www.weforum.org/stories/2016/04/what-is-hypergrowth-why-does-it-matter/.
- Richter, Felix. “Daily Active Users of Slack.” Statista, 19 June 2019, www.statista.com/chart/6643/daily-active-users-of-slack/.
- Waters, Jennifer. “Amazon.com.” Britannica, Accessed 29 Jan. 2025, www.britannica.com/money/Amazoncom.
- Ray, Michael. “Social Network.” Britannica, Accessed 29 Jan. 2025, www.britannica.com/technology/social-network#ref1073276.
- Hoffman, Reid. “How to Scale a Magical Experience: 4 Lessons from Airbnb’s Brian Chesky.” Medium, 22 May 2018, reid.medium.com/how-to-scale-a-magical-experience-4-lessons-from-airbnbs-brian-chesky-eca0a182f3e3.
- “Amazon’s Two-Pizza Team Structure.” AWS Executive Insights, Accessed 29 Jan. 2025, aws.amazon.com/executive-insights/content/amazon-two-pizza-team/.
- Yuan, Eric. “A Year Later: Reflecting and Looking Ahead.” Zoom Blog, 5 Oct. 2022, www.zoom.com/en/blog/reflecting-looking-ahead/.
- Pariseau, Beth. “How Zoom Security, Incident Response Survived the Pandemic.” TechTarget, 26 Jul 2022, www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/news/252523269/How-Zoom-security-incident-response-survived-the-pandemic.
