Scaling Teams and Cultures

Scaling an idea into a business is an exciting, challenging endeavor. Any founder will tell you that building a business is a complex process, with hurdles that evolve as you grow. But it’s not just the ever-changing market landscape that presents challenges; from building a team to fostering a culture, there are internal nuances to navigate at every step of your organization’s journey.

In a few short years, DigitalOcean has grown from a founding team of five to a well-funded startup with over 400 employees. We’re not just a startup anymore, but, as with any high growth company, the journey hasn’t been without growing pains. In Berlin, I had the opportunity to share some organizational constructs and cultural considerations through different stages of growth along with the lessons learned from my vantage point as DigitalOcean’s COO with the entrepreneurs at The Family.

In the video below, I navigate the phases of growth in a competitive, evolving market, and share our experiences. I’m sure you can relate to the anecdotes I share, and I’d love to continue the conversation started in Berlin in the comments section.

Karl Alomar is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in developing high growth businesses. He is responsible for driving the day-to-day business and people operations, and manages DigitalOcean’s international footprint—along with all procurement and global operations activities—as the company continues to build out its hardware and datacenter infrastructure internationally. Prior to DigitalOcean, he was the co-founder and senior partner of China Export Finance, Ltd, where he helped the business to grow from inception to more than $125M of annual revenue within four years. He received his MBA from Columbia Business School in New York and a Bachelor’s in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Imperial College London.