How This Startup CEO Managed A Staff That Tripled In A Year

The last year was a huge one for sales and inventory company Revel Systems.

In just 12 months, the team's staff exploded from 30 people to 100. That's growth of more than 300%, and it carried the company from a small organization to one that needed leaders and organizational structures. It was a major management challenge for Lisa Falzone, the company's 28-year-old CEO and co-founder.

At first, Falzone and co-founder Chris Ciabarra tried to bring in experts, she tells Business Insider. They hired managers with 30-plus years of experience who were known for building teams of hundreds of people. But those hires didn't work out.

"They just weren't right for our culture," Falzone says.

Now, Falzone and Ciabarra try first to find their hire-ups from within Revel Systems. Their current vice president of support, for example, started as an average support staffer a few years ago, and today he manages more than 40 people.

To further ensure that every employee understands the company culture, Falzone and Ciabarra have each new hire complete a mandatory training period that includes learning how to do basic support functions. It's a new program they've developed in just the past six months, but they say it's made a huge difference.

"For scaling, it's all about people, and it's about putting the structures in place," Falzone explains. "Work ethic is really important to us, as are humility and respect, sense of urgency, entrepreneurial thinking, and teamwork."