Why some tech companies grow while others drift
Research from Sifted, the FT’s publication dedicated to technology start-ups, found that most founders feel exhausted, run down and lacking hope. More than half experienced burnout in the past year. It’s a stark reminder that building a technology company is demanding. The strain is real even when the ambition and the product are strong.
I’ve spent the past decade working with founders and leadership teams across various technology sectors. During that time, I’ve seen remarkable technology held back by solvable issues. Not because teams lacked talent or drive but because running a company makes it incredibly hard to stay clear, stay focused and stay balanced. When those conditions slip, even the most promising organisations begin to struggle.
As my friend Siobhan Clarke once said:
“You can’t scale dysfunction. You either fix it or it multiplies.”
From what I’ve seen, companies that grow well (and stay well) tend to get two critical elements right.
What Drives Scale
There are many components behind a strong technology company such as great products, brilliant science and efficient operations. But these alone don’t create a successful organisation. In my experience, sustained progress relies on two deeper more subtle foundations:
- A leadership team that builds clarity and alignment as the company grows
- A distinctive brand that avoids industry norms
When these two elements work in unison, teams move with purpose, misalignment falls away and the fires that drain energy arise far less often. I’ve seen this repeatedly. When leadership clarity and brand clarity work together momentum follows.
Leadership and strategy in everyday language
One of the most reliable ways to sense alignment is to listen to how teams talk about the business. Not the formal strategy. The everyday version.
When language is consistent, you tend to see clarity of understanding across the organisation. People know where value is created and how their work contributes to it. They also know what should be deprioritised because it doesn’t add value for the customer or the organisation.
I’ve seen teams transform simply because everyone finally understood the same thing. Departments shifted from debating opinions to debating customer outcomes. Meetings shortened. Decisions sped up. Confidence grew.
When clarity lands, momentum follows. When it’s missing, the decline is quiet and harmful.
Businesses don’t stall overnight. They drift. Drift is where well-run companies lose coherence without noticing. It’s subtle but costly. Fires appear more often. Energy is diverted away from what truly moves the organisation forward. Burnout becomes more likely.
Misalignment always hides in small moments. Vague explanations, different interpretations of the same objective or hesitation when describing strategy. It appears long before anything shows up in the numbers. As my friend once said:
“A strategy that isn’t understood is as dangerous as one that’s wrong.”
A distinctive brand
Once everyone is aligned on strategy, and clear on how they create value, the next logical step is developing a brand that reflects that clarity. Without this, teams may understand the strategy internally but the company still sounds identical to competitors externally.
Most technology companies sound the same because they talk about themselves in the same way. Real differentiation doesn’t come from louder claims or bigger budgets. It comes from a clear sense of what the business stands for and why it matters.
One founder we work with leads a business that helps financial institutions reduce risk in their ageing, complex tech stack. Their original message of “reducing operational risk” was indistinguishable from competitors. We helped them shift to something more precise, a narrative that exposed the hidden flaws in how organisations were managing their product launches supported by a calculation of the exact cost savings banks could achieve through their platform.
It resonated instantly. It was distinctive, commercially grounded and gave the entire organisation a focal point they could unite behind.
Brand is not just external communication. It’s a shared identity. When that identity is clear, everything strengthens. The product, the culture, customer conversations and hiring new team members as you grow.
Finding balance
One of the hardest transitions for founders, as the company grows, is learning to step back. It’s understandably difficult (I know because I’ve done it). You’ve built the company by being across everything. But at a certain stage, that instinct starts to work against you.
The best leaders hire people who are better than themselves in defined areas. They don’t dictate how something should be done, but they stay close to the outcomes. They hold the reins lightly enough to guide, distant enough to allow others to lead.
Some founders release too much, too soon. Others keep hold of everything, even when it exhausts them and frustrates the team. The real skill is finding the middle ground and maintaining a clear direction of travel.
Why this matters now
Over the past three years, significant changes have occurred, funding has become increasingly unpredictable and competitive and pressure has intensified. In the UK alone, total startup funding in 2024 fell to £16.2 billion - a 35% drop from 2022 (Investing.com).
At the same time, pockets of the market remain buoyant. AI, climate tech and parts of fintech continue to attract significant investment. What this tells us is not that funding has disappeared, but that capital has become far more selective.
In that environment, clarity, alignment and the ability to let go at the right moment aren’t abstract leadership traits. They’re survival skills. When teams move in different directions, or when the value a company creates isn’t understood internally or externally, small issues turn into drift and drift becomes expensive when the market is more discerning.
If you’re scaling a technology business, having the right support and the space to reflect on progress is vital. Growth doesn’t reward intensity. It rewards clarity. The companies that go further aren’t the ones that work the hardest, they’re the ones that stay balanced enough to see what matters and focused enough to act on it.