Three companies, one pattern
Different businesses. The same work underneath.
A creative agency, a hydrogen startup, and a legacy chemical business. Each one hit the point where it had outgrown the way it ran. Pick a step to compare them.
The pattern: write down what only one person knows, hire before it hurts, and make the numbers visible to the people doing the work.
The thread to today
Same skills, bigger projects.
None of this stayed behind. Every hydrogen project I model now leans on something I learned the hard way in one of these three companies.
From FreshFly
Budgets that change shape
Project budgets that grew 30 times larger taught me to account by project. Today: hydrogen project budgets and pro formas.
From FreshFly
The CFO seat
Hiring the controller, sitting with them, then taking the CFO role. Today: structuring projects so they pencil.
From HNO
Scaling a team
From 3 to 20+ people in one year, with SOPs written as we grew. Today: building teams around each project.
From Hardt
Systems with a personal touch
Relationships kept the business; systems made it sellable. Today: running all three companies at once.
Notes
Build notes.
Short notes on what's been helpful. New ones get added as I learn them.
Still learning
Where I'm still open.
I don't have these figured out. If you do, I'd like to hear from you.
- Where does the system end and the relationship begin?Some customers want a process. Some want a phone call from someone they know. Most want both, at different moments.
- How far can a remote team go?Full-time virtual assistants run more of the day than I expected. I'm still learning where the limit is.
- When does a small company need a controller?Earlier than it thinks, in my experience. I'm still working out how much earlier.
- What's worth writing down?Not every task needs an SOP. The ones that only one person knows how to do always do.