"Did We Become the Company We Once Left?"

Very few people start a business without a reason. More often than not, that reason is their previous employer.

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that very few people start a business without a reason. More often than not, that reason is their previous employer. They leave believing they’ll treat people better, build a better culture, do the right thing by employees and customers. They’ll never become the company they just left. And to be fair, most founders genuinely mean it.

In the beginning it’s easy. There are only a handful of employees. The founder knows everyone. Problems are solved quickly. The company’s values aren’t written on a wall — they are simply how the business operates. Then the company grows. Five people become twenty. Twenty become fifty. Managers are hired. Reporting structures appear. KPIs become part of everyday life.

Yet the message rarely changes. “Our people come first.” The problem is that as businesses grow, messages become interpretations. The founder says something. A manager repeats it. An employee hears something different. Nobody is necessarily wrong. The perception is simply different.

Over the years I’ve spoken to many founders around the seven to ten-year mark. Most are proud of what they’ve built. But many eventually say, “If I had my time again… I’d grow slower. I’d hire differently. I’d protect the culture more. I’d spend more time with my people.”

Then there is another group. A much smaller group. They don’t have many regrets. Not because everything went perfectly. But because they accepted that businesses evolve. And founders evolve with them.

Perhaps that’s one reason I enjoy owning self-service laundromats. The business is remarkably honest. If something breaks, you fix it. If customers aren’t happy, they simply don’t come back. There aren’t multiple management layers interpreting the same message.

After 15 years in recruitment and hundreds of conversations with founders, one question continues to stay with me. Did we become the company we once left?

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