Growth Studio

Growth Studio helps early stage and high-growth founders scale from $3m to $25m ARR through strategic growth direction and execution. 

We start with deep customer research to build your growth roadmap, then take ownership of implementation—managing your paid acquisition, optimizing conversion funnels, designing growth experiments, and orchestrating your retention strategy. 

Built by operators who've scaled companies to $XXM+ ARR, we provide the strategic leadership of a CMO plus hands-on campaign management, all without the overhead of building an in-house team.

Founder

Samantha Leal • Growth & Marketing Advisor

I help early-stage startups with acquisition, retention, and monetization strategies to scale to 8-figures.

If you're a founder, here are some of the areas that I can help you with:
• Growth Loops
• Acquisition Strategy
• Paid Social
• Lifecycle / Email Marketing
• Customer Research / JTBD development
• Content Marketing
• Conversion Rate Optimization
• Engagement & Retention
• Monetization
• Team building / Hiring


Companies I've worked with:
- Kinedu (500 Startups, StartX): Leading early childhood development app that empowers parents with personalized, science-based activities and tracking tools to optimize their baby's cognitive growth.
- Leadsales (StartX, Latitud): B2B sales automation platform that transforms cold leads into warm conversations through intelligent outreach and engagement.
- Terapify (YC, 500 Startups) - The leading spanish-speaking mental health platform connecting Latin American users with licensed therapists through online therapy sessions.
- Prequel - Education company building the common core of life skills that schools aren't teaching, empowering kids aged 9-18 to launch businesses, build products, and achieve real-world success.
- Curious Cardinals - Online platform connecting high-achieving college students from top universities with K-12 students for personalized mentorship and academic enrichment.
- Huex Labs - Enterprise AI solutions provider specializing in automating complex business processes through custom machine learning models.
-Mely AI - Cutting-edge AI platform that streamlines customer service operations through intelligent automation and natural language processing.

Growth & Marketing Advisor

Prequel

Leading all marketing and growth efforts for Prequel.

We often underestimate what kids can do, but at Prequel, we not only empower them – we are setting a new standard.

At Prequel, we help 9-18 year olds accomplish what their parents think is impossible.

Head of Growth & Marketing

Prequel is a group of EdTech brands that aims to help the world's most ambitious kids learn 21st century skills that prepares them for the new global economy. Our brands include: AlphaX, Beta Camp, and Apollo School.

Head of Marketing

Synthesis

Scaling the best ideas from Ad Astra, the school our cofounder started with Elon Musk at SpaceX. Synthesis teaches kids 8 to 14 collaboration, critical thinking, and decision-making skills by challenging them to wrestle with complex simulations of real-world problems.

As the Director of Marketing I was responsible for setting the strategy and overseeing marketing functions including user acquisition, customer LTV through communication strategies, lifecycle engagement campaigns, conversion efforts, and product marketing.

Within 8 months, as a team of 3 in the marketing team, managed to spearhead their growth efforts and scale the number of paying subscribers by 340%

Director of Marketing

YSpace, York University

YSpace is York University’s entrepreneurship hub creating positive change by fostering a community of innovators, entrepreneurs, and changemakers. 

As a Growth Consultant, I provided strategic and tactical guidance to specifically assigned ventures on their user and revenue development goals.

Two of the companies I mentored, ended as the top 5 finalists on YSpace Tech Accelerator Demo Day.

• Huex Labs - developed AIDA, a voice-enabled conversational AI to enable food chains and brands to better serve their customers in live business environments.

• Mely AI - an enterprise AI-powered solution, with a proprietary technology to extract key information from complex documents and specialized in Supply Chain and Logistics.

Growth Consultant

Kinedu

Kinedu's mission is to unleash early childhood development at scale by fostering quality learning experiences at home, school, and everywhere in between. 

Trusted by more than 8MM parents worldwide, Kinedu's iOS and Android app is available in 3 languages (English, Spanish, and Portuguese) and provides personalized, engaging video-based developmental activities for children under the age of 4.

Joined Kinedu in early 2014 as the 1st marketing hire and employee #4.

Responsible for all consumer growth-related functions including user acquisition, customer LTV through communication strategies, lifecycle engagement campaigns, conversion efforts, product marketing, partnerships, and pricing.

VP of Growth Marketing

Joined Kinedu in early 2014 as the 1st marketing hire and employee #4.

- Define marketing objectives and strategies to support the company’s goals.
- Plan and execute marketing, email, and social media, and user acquisition campaigns
- Design, build and maintain social media presence and community management
- Measure and report performance of all digital marketing campaigns, and assess against goals (ROI and KPIs)
- Analyze user behavior, conversion data and customer journeys, funnel analysis and multi-channel attribution
- Identify trends to optimize spend and performance
- Design and implement new growth strategies
- Plan, execute, and measure experiments and conversion tests
- Collaborate with Product and Design teams to optimize user experience and increase conversion rates
- Customer insights, and feedback loops

Content

Hey, I'm Sam 👋
When I discovered growth marketing, something clicked. It perfectly blends what fascinates me: understanding people and building systems that make businesses grow.

Over the past decade, I've helped startups scale from 0 to 8-figures by looking at growth holistically. For me, it's never just about finding one magic lever - it's about building a complete system that works. From scaling products to 8M+ users to helping founders navigate their path to $XXM in revenue, I've learned that sustainable growth comes from understanding the full picture.

What sets my approach apart? I look at your entire customer journey - from acquisition to activation, conversion to monetization. It starts with deeply understanding your customers and product, then building a growth system that connects all these pieces. No generic playbooks, no isolated tactics - just strategic moves that compound over time.

I'm known for moving fast and diving deep. Instead of following generic playbooks, I help startups find their unique path to scale by deeply understanding their customers. The result? Growth strategies that actually work for their specific business.

If you're at $3M+ ARR and want to scale efficiently while maintaining strong unit economics, would love to chat.

Want to know more? Check out samanthaleal.io

"Written by a human." That's a first.

We used to assume that. Now it's a flex.

In a sea of AI content, that tiny badge isn't just cute. 

It's a signal.

A signal that this took time. 

That someone cared enough to share a story, not just spit out a summary.

The best content isn't just accurate. 

It's alive.

It has fingerprints on it. 

Opinions that required courage. 

Insights that came from lived experience, not just pattern recognition.

I notice myself scanning for these human markers now:
→ Is there a unique perspective I haven't seen?
→ Does it include specific stories or examples?
→ Are there imperfections that feel... real?

The gap between AI and human content is shrinking daily.

But the authenticity gap is widening.

In an AI-first world, human voice is the real differentiator. 

And audiences can feel the difference.

I have a feeling we're about to see many more of these human signals emerge - new watermarks, artistic choices, and creative risks that machines simply can't replicate.

Samantha Leal

Helping $2M+ startups find their growth levers to scale | Founder & Marketing Advisor, Growth Studio

I ignored "brand" for years.
Thought it was fluffy marketing that couldn't be measured.

Growth was my focus: CAC, payback period, gross margins, conversion rates, retention.

Brand was something I'd invest in "later" - once I had extra budget.

Took me years to realize how wrong I was.

The best companies didn't choose between brand and growth.

They used brand as a growth multiplier.

Kira Klass (who led brand at Brex and Notion) just published a framework in Kyle Poyar’s Growth Unhinged newsletter that I wished I had seen when I got started.

Her point: Brand isn't some fuzzy, unmeasurable concept.

It directly impacts your growth metrics:

🔶 𝗢𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
- Are people looking for you by name?
- What's your branded vs. non-branded search ratio?

🔶 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲-𝘁𝗼-𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲
- Do brand-aware users convert better?
- Does brand familiarity reduce onboarding friction?

🔶 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲
- Do brand-aware users spend more?
- Who explores your full offering faster?

🔶 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱-𝗼𝗳-𝗠𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵
- Is your product becoming part of users' identity?
- Are users invested in your ecosystem?

The evidence is clear:
→ Notion users who came through brand channels converted to team usage significantly faster than paid acquisition

→ Figma became worth $12.5B by becoming synonymous with modern design (not just having better features)

→ Monday.com has to pay for traffic that Notion gets organically through brand strength

What blew my mind - many metrics we already track ARE brand metrics:

🔶 Organic traffic
🔶 Viral coefficients
🔶 Word-of-mouth acquisition
🔶 Time-to-value

As Kira puts it: "Product-market fit gets you in the game, but brand-market fit helps you win it."

This isn't abstract theory. This is bottom-line impact.

It was never about choosing between brand OR growth.

It is about being intentional about brand TO DRIVE growth.

"Why did you choose our product?"
If you're asking customers this question, you're getting bad data.

People are terrible at explaining their own decisions. 

They rationalize after the fact, telling you what sounds good rather than what actually happened.

After studying how Bob Moesta (co-creator of Jobs To Be Done) conducts customer interviews, I've completely changed my approach.

Instead of asking WHY, he asks about WHAT HAPPENED:
❌ "Why did you choose our product?"
✅ "What was happening the day you decided to look for a solution like ours?"
❌ "What features do you like?"
✅ "Walk me through how you used it the first time."
❌ "How satisfied are you with the product?"
✅ "What were you able to do after purchasing that you couldn't do before?"

The difference is crucial. 

The first set of questions gets you made-up reasons. 

The second reveals the actual story.
This isn't just theory. 

Companies that master this approach see massive results:
🟠 𝗠𝗰𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗱’𝘀 7x’d milkshake sales, not by changing the recipe, but by realizing commuters wanted a portable, filling breakfast.
🟠 𝗔𝗶𝗿𝗯𝗻𝗯 unlocked 50%+ more host signups by addressing the real fear: “What if I get a terrible guest?”
🟠 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗸𝘆 𝗪𝗮𝘆 stayed relevant for 100+ years by positioning itself not as a heavy snack like Snickers, but as a light, satisfying treat.

Your customers won't tell you why they buy.
But they will tell you what happened when they did.

What's your favorite question to uncover key insights?

Founders love to obsess over: 
→ GTM strategy
→ Tech stack
→ Brand identity
→ Investor decks

But the killer growth limiter?

The people in your team.

Settling for B and C players doesn't just slow you down.

It sets your ceiling.

I’m advising a founder right now who realized this the hard way.

Their org had a lot of well-meaning people who were B-players.

The result:
→ Mediocre execution
→ Bottlenecked growth
→ A manager layer that couldn’t coach up or push forward

Hiring isn't about headcount.

It's about raising the standard.

Remember:
→ You're not just hiring for output.
→ You're hiring for culture, speed, and accountability.

You wouldn't cheap out on product, infrastructure, or customer experience.

So why are you tolerating mediocrity in your most important asset - your people?

Here’s the truth:
✅ High standards create momentum.
❌ Coddling underperformers creates deadweight.

Talent isn’t a line item.

It’s your biggest multiplier.

I've said this in four different meetings this week, which means it's time to share it publicly:

DOCUMENT YOUR MARKETING EXPERIMENTS.

I just watched a startup spend $86,000 testing a channel they had already tested (and abandoned) last year.

Why?

Because nobody wrote down the hypotheses and the results.

I know you think you'll remember what worked.

You won't.

I know you think your team is on the same page.

They're not.

I know you think "we'll get to documentation later when we're not so busy."

You never will.

The most expensive marketing isn't the test that fails.

It’s the test you have to run twice because nobody documented the results the first time.

Your growth isn’t failing because you’re testing the wrong things.

It’s failing because you’re not building on what you learn.

Start documenting your tests. 

Even if it’s just a Google doc. 

Even if it’s messy.

Anything is better than the expensive amnesia most startups operate with.

Stop that test. 

Seriously, think bigger.

What does your company need right now: incremental or exponential growth?

Sure, everyone loves James Clear’s 1% improvement mentality.

I do too, but not for startups.

 1% improvement will lead to a mere 36% increase. 

Do the math. I bet that does not cut it for your business. 

Consider the costs: time, money, manpower, and attention. 

Are they worth those tiny gains?

What if instead of focusing on incremental gains like CTA color changes

You focus on big bets that could move the business exponentially, like a change in your positioning, target market, offer, or pricing?

Startups thrive on learning loops. 

Make sure each experiment counts.

Prioritization is your secret weapon. 

My go-to? The ICE + A framework.

Evaluate your ideas by:
-Area: which funnel area does this idea impact?
- Impact: by how much this will impact my business?
- Confidence: how sure am I that this test will prove my hypothesis?
- Ease: how easily can I get launch this test?

For Impact, I liked Mehtab Bhogal's approach of using MOIC (Multiple On Invested Capital) as a key metric – aim for 4X or higher.

Meaning: every $1 spent on a test should yield $4.

Guide your team toward big bets, not just incremental ones.

Constantly remind them of growth targets and show progress on a dashboard.

Skip small improvements. Your startup needs more than a 36% increase.

The #1 marketing mistake I see education brands keep making:

I reviewed 6 education brands in the last year, and nearly all of them make the exact same mistake:

They obsess over WHAT they're selling instead of WHY anyone should care.

Their entire pitch revolves around:
→ “12 hours of expert video” 
→ “Downloadable PDFs” 
→ “Bonus modules included”

But nobody wakes up excited to buy "access to modules."

They wake up desperate for transformation: 
→ From overwhelmed to clear 
→ From stuck to skilled 
→ From unsure to confident

Your curriculum is just the vehicle. The destination is what sells.

And here's here's what most miss:

Make sure your promise is a first or second-order benefit, not a tenth.

If your customer has to connect five dots to see the value, they won’t.

Not "learn email marketing" but "become the expert who never chases clients again."

Not "master Facebook ads" but "build a predictable client pipeline without constant networking."

Ask yourself:
If your product actually works... what becomes undeniably true in someone's life?

That's what they'll pay for. 

Not your modules.

Marketers don’t burn out from hard work.
They burn out from bad prioritization.

They’re drowning in requests:
→ A webinar from Sales
→ A campaign from the CEO
→ A new deck for Product

But here’s the thing...
You weren’t hired to execute every idea.
You were hired to drive business outcomes.

That means knowing how to push back.

And having a system that helps you do it.

Here’s what I give every team I work with:
→ Start with the scoreboard, your goal (revenue, CAC, LTV)
→ Prioritize by ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease), not by who yelled loudest
→ Say no with logic, not emotion
→ Defend your team’s attention like it’s your runway

Focus isn’t a personality trait. It’s a system.

✅ Build a simple prioritization matrix
✅ Align cross-functionally around business goals
✅ Communicate tradeoffs clearly

The most successful leaders I've worked with aren't the ones who execute the most requests.

They're the ones who ruthlessly protect their team's focus on what actually drives the business forward.

It's not about doing more. It's about focusing harder.

Marketing teams fail when they lack clarity. And if your CEO doesn't understand what marketing is doing? That's on you.

Marketing leaders need to communicate their plan in business terms - not marketing jargon.

Try this framework:
1️⃣ What's the #1 business goal? (e.g., "Grow revenue from $2M to $4M.")
2️⃣ How will marketing contribute to it? (e.g., "Drive 1,000 new SQLs at $250 CAC.")
3️⃣ What's the plan to achieve that? (e.g., "Double down on LinkedIn ads + inbound content.")
4️⃣ How will you measure success? (e.g., "Pipeline growth, SQL conversion, CAC efficiency.")

The CEO shouldn't have to dig through dashboards to know if marketing is working. 

They should see the impact in 60 seconds.

The best marketing leaders I know can articulate their entire strategy on one page.

The rest hide behind complexity.

Make your marketing plan so clear that anyone in the company can repeat it.

That's when you know it will actually get worked on.

Most marketers obsess over external messaging.

They perfect their website.

They optimize ad creative.

They test email subject lines.

But the biggest communication breakdown?

𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹.

You can have the best campaign in the world, but if your sales team doesn't know how to talk about it, your product team can't support it, and your CEO doesn't understand why it matters...

You lose.

Great marketing leaders don't just broadcast outward. They align internally.

That means:
→ Translating the strategy into business outcomes
→ Giving sales enablement the same attention as ad copy
→ Getting buy-in before go-live, not after
→ Running internal Q&As so every stakeholder can speak the same language

When marketing isn't driving growth, it's rarely a creativity problem. 

It's a communication problem.

Rule of thumb: if your internal stakeholders can't explain the "what," "why," and "how" of your marketing initiative, you're 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 to launch.

Get alignment before airtime.

Focus isn't just a nice-to-have skill for entrepreneurs.
It's the foundation of success.

I've worked with dozens of startups, and the pattern is clear:
Founders confuse motion with progress.

Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph shared a powerful post yesterday:
"The worst mistake you can make is to try and do everything 5% of the way, rather than picking 4 and doing each of them 125%."

This explains the 90% startup failure rate.
Resources are scarce and yet most teams default to:
→ Chasing 3 channels instead of mastering 1
→ Building 8 features instead of perfecting 3
→ Exploring 2 markets instead of dominating 1

They chase breadth over depth.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, confirms: "Once you have figured out what to do, be unstoppable about getting your small handful of priorities accomplished quickly."

Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Peter Thiel all emphasize the same principle: Focus yields exponential returns.

The strategy isn't to do more with less.

It's to do fewer things extraordinarily well.

What are you willing to ignore today so you can execute at 125% on what truly matters?

"We need to grow faster. Can you help scale our ads?"

A B2B SaaS founder came to us with this request.

But like a doctor who never lets patients self-diagnose, we started with data.

Something didn't add up:
→ Ad CTR: 1.5% (above 0.9% industry average)
→ Trial conversion: 28% (vs 22% benchmark)
→ Monthly churn: 10% (!!!)

The growth problem wasn't acquisition.

It was activation.

After working with dozens of startups, I've noticed a pattern:

Founders obsess over acquisition while ignoring activation.

We ran a diagnostic and found:
- 68% of users never completed basic setup
- No one owned the critical first 14 days
- Sales celebrated closing deals while customers silently churned

Instead of more ad spend, we launched a focused sprint on activation.

𝟭. 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘀 (𝟯𝟬 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀) = fix ownership gap
- Assigned a dedicated onboarding owner
- Created a documented handoff between sales and customer support
- Built an activation checklist with progress tracking

𝟮. 𝗠𝗶𝗱-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 (𝟲𝟬 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀) = simplify experience
- Streamlined first-run experience by cutting steps from 15 to 5
- Developed automated onboarding sequence
- Restructured success metrics around activation

𝟯. 𝗟𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 (𝟵𝟬 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀) = align incentives
- Tied bonuses to activation metrics
- Created cross-team retention reviews
- Implemented customer success scoring

Three months later:
Onboarding completion: 32% -> 71%
Monthly churn: 10% → 6.2%
Revenue: +47% with the same ad spend

Your biggest growth levers aren't always where you think they are.

Sometimes they're hiding in plain sight, in the gaps between teams where customers silently disappear.

Most brands have a differentiator.
They just forget to talk about it.

They’re trucking in fresh tortillas from Mexico...

They’re hand-stitching every pair of boots by artisans trained for decades...

They’re cold-brewing for 18 hours to preserve every note of flavor and function...

And burying that story under buzzwords and generic marketing speak.

I see this constantly: 
→ Founders with 10 years of experience, but no origin story.
→ Products built with care and science, marketed like commodity fluff.

Customers can't value what you don't communicate.

This is what Shaan Puri calls The Tortilla Principle:

You’re doing something exceptional, and saying nothing.

Your job isn’t just to build the product.

Your job is to tell the story.

🟠 What’s the one detail about your product that would make someone say: 
“Wait—you do that?!”

Lead with it.
That’s your tortilla.

You don’t need an “AI initiative.”

You need AI practices baked into how your team works, thinks, and ships.

Because culture isn’t what you say, it’s what you do.

And if AI isn’t part of your workflow, it won’t stick.

That’s what stood out in Tobi’s internal memo at Shopify.

It wasn’t about exploring AI.

It was about 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 it.

At a cultural level. 

Across every team.
→ Embedding it into team rituals
→ Baking it into performance reviews
→ Treating it like a baseline skill—on par with email or Slack

Here’s what I took away:

→ 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮 𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗲-𝘁𝗼-𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹.

It’s becoming a baseline expectation - like knowing how to use Slack or write an email. Not being AI-literate in 2025 will be like saying “I don’t use the internet.”

→ 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁.

Shopify isn’t waiting for people to "figure it out."

They’ve added AI usage to performance reviews, prototyping phases, even peer feedback loops.

That’s how you drive real adoption.

→ 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲.

 Most teams still default to:

“We need more people”
“We don’t have time”

But the real question is:
𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙡𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙜𝙚?

As Tobi puts it: "𝘽𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙘𝙚𝙨, 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙨 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘼𝙄."

AI isn’t a tool on the side.

It’s the multiplier.

And it only works if it’s part of how your team actually operates.

Everyone agreed on the goal: sell more.

So one sales team pushed hard to open more stores. 

On paper that sounded like a win:
→ More stores = more visibility
→ More doors = more volume
→ More exposure = more brand awareness

Except… it wasn’t.

It wrecked our client’s margins. 

Operations scrambled to meet inconsistent demand. 

Delivery routes became a mess. 

And the volume per store? Too low to justify the cost.

The problem wasn’t execution. 

The problem was that “sell more” isn’t a strategy.

Without specific constraints, each department optimized for what made sense to them:
→ Sales wanted store count
→ Ops needed route efficiency
→ Finance needed unit economics
→ Marketing wanted market penetration

They were all right in their own lane, but collectively, the company suffered.

The fix wasn’t a new goal. 

It was alignment on HOW to achieve it:
✅ A focused market dominance play
✅ Fewer stores, higher volume per location
✅ Strict minimum order requirements
✅ Cross-functional metrics that unified departments

We didn’t have a communication problem. 

We had a goal fragmentation problem.

The highest-performing companies don’t just set objectives. They create shared rituals where teams:
→ Pressure-test ideas across departmental boundaries
→ Evaluate initiatives on company-wide impact, not just functional wins
→ Align incentives around unified outcomes with clear constraints

This is how companies grow together instead of in silos.

The lesson was expensive but clear: Goals without guardrails create chaos.

Taplio

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