Rewriting the scaling playbook

How we build companies is being rewritten in real time. AI isn’t just changing how we work, it’s redesigning the entire system. Automation and intelligence are flattening hierarchies, killing middle management, replacing layers of coordination with direct impact. What once required 50 people can now be done by 10, faster, cheaper, and sharper than ever before.

I see many firms moving toward what I’d define as the “Vision and Velocity” structure, a flatter operating model that connects strategy directly to action. 

• Leadership / strategy layer - sets vision, direction, defines outcomes, removes blockers.

• Team / execution layer - builds, ships, learns fast, owns results.

The vision comes from the top, but velocity increasingly lives inside the teams that are wielding agents. These aren’t just tools anymore, they're autonomous workflows that take on the repetitive, low-leverage tasks that usually slow people down.

That’s the shift in action. Teams that work alongside AI agents are collapsing the distance between decision and delivery: research gets done in minutes, first drafts appear instantly, and processes run themselves while people focus on judgment, creativity, and relationships.

That means rethinking who and how startups and scaleups hire:

• AI native problem solvers: the next generation of high-impact operators will be the ones who know how to work with AI, not around it. You don’t need prompt engineers, you need people who instinctively reach for AI to unblock themselves, automate workflows, test ideas, and scale their own output. Ask candidates to show you how they would use AI to solve a real problem they’ll face in the role. Someone who can pair judgment with agentic AI workflows will outperform someone who relies only on manual expertise 

• Curiosity compounds faster than credentials: A curious operator who constantly experiments with new tools (especially AI) will outperform someone relying on what worked five years ago. Hunger to learn is now a core competency. And as AI accelerates everything around us, the people who stay curious will be the only ones able to keep up with and capitalise on the pace of change.

• Hire people who are comfortable with the uncomfortable: The ones who lean into difficult decisions and conversations instead of avoiding them. You need people who can handle tension with clarity, honesty, and maturity. Whether it’s giving tough feedback, pivoting a product, or saying no to a bad deal, progress often comes down to who’s willing to have the hard conversation first and that's where emotional intelligence becomes the real superpower. AI can’t read a room, defuse tension, or build trust. The leverage shifts to those who can stay calm under pressure, communicate clearly, and bring maturity into messy moments

• Hire doers, not tellers: Good interviewers can be dangerous, especially in a world where candidates can use tools to automate job applications or use AI to help prepare them on how to tell a great story. But once you realise you’ve hired a storyteller instead of a builder, act fast. Don’t let narrative replace outcomes. Look for people who show progress in days, not quarters, people who’ve shipped a product or closed a customer themselves. Execution is the new signalling.