Roha Rehmat’s Post

One thing I hear a lot from CTOs and VPs of Engineering: “We could move faster, but we don’t want to sacrifice quality.” And they’re right. When you’re building a competitive product, every wrong decision costs more than time. That’s why many teams avoid scaling quickly: ⚠️ fear of messing up the architecture ⏳ fear of long onboarding cycles 🧩 fear of breaking stability 🌀 fear of adding more chaos to the roadmap But here’s the irony: delayed hiring becomes a bigger risk than speed itself especially when your delivery pace influences the next funding round. At Xedrum, we work as a tech partner that: adds engineers in under 7 days integrates them smoothly into existing workflows keeps architecture clean and maintainable supports product growth as if it’s our own We don’t just “add people”. We help build systems that stay effective as the product scales. 📈 Speed doesn’t kill quality, the wrong team structure does.

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in my career as a CTO is scaling engineering too quickly. I learned this the hard way at GRIN. When we raised our Series B, I thought 4x’ing our engineering team would take us from fast to warp speed. Nope. We ended up moving more slowly for months despite hiring great talent. New hires needed onboarding, existing processes broke under the new load, and communication overhead skyrocketed. The system we built just wasn't designed for that kind of throughput. It's a counterintuitive truth: adding engineers doesn't always add velocity. The key is balance. So here’s my advice: Thoughtfully build out your engineering levels before you scale. For every senior engineer, make sure they're someone they can mentor. Build a layered system that can learn and adapt as it grows. Slow and steady with the right mix of talent always wins, and it's a lesson I'll never forget, especially when it's time to scale the Search Party team. I'm interested in how others approach this. How do you keep your team balanced as you scale?

Here’s one of the biggest mistakes I see hiring teams make: They copy-paste a hiring process that worked once and expect it to work every time. However, what worked for one role or department may not necessarily work again. Different roles need different approaches. A sales hire shouldn’t be screened like an engineer. A startup hire shouldn’t be interviewed like a corporate one. A senior leader shouldn’t go through the same loop as an entry-level role. When you treat every hire the same, you end up with the wrong people filtered out early. The right people turned off by a clunky process. And a slower, weaker team overall. Hiring isn’t about standardization. It’s about alignment. You need to know exactly what success looks like for each role, then build the process around that. Because one-size-fits-all? In hiring, it fits no one.

I promoted the wrong person once. It cost us 6 months and 3 team members. Early in my career, I had to choose between two senior engineers for Tech Lead: Candidate A: Technical genius. Solved impossible problems. Everyone came to him for help. Candidate B: Solid engineer. Not the smartest in the room. But people loved working with him. I chose Candidate A. Obviously, right? Wrong. Within 3 months: → Team morale tanked → Two engineers quit → Project slowed down Why? Candidate A was brilliant but couldn't lead. He fixed problems himself instead of coaching others. Team felt micromanaged. I learned: Technical skills get you promoted to Senior Engineer. Leadership skills get you promoted to Tech Lead. Now, my promotion framework has 3 questions: 1️⃣ Can they MULTIPLY talent? (Not just be talented themselves)  → Do they mentor? Do they unblock others? Do they grow the team? 2️⃣ Do they think SYSTEMS over SOLUTIONS?   → Do they fix the root cause or just the symptom? 3️⃣ Would people CHOOSE to work with them?   → Not just respect them but actively want them as their leader Candidate A scored 1/3. Candidate B would've scored 3/3. After that mistake, I promoted Candidate B to a different team. He became one of our best leaders. 💡The lesson: Promote for the job you need filled, not the job they currently do well. How do you decide who to promote? What's your framework? #Leadership #EngineeringLeadership #CareerGrowth #TechLeadership #TeamBuilding

A CTO who’s never scaled engineering beyond 20 people won’t suddenly figure it out at 200.   Executive search in tech isn’t about impressive titles. It’s about finding leaders who’ve actually solved your specific problem before.   That’s the filter we use at Doghouse. Has this person built what you’re trying to build? And can they do it again?   Complex executive searches end up with us because we know the difference between experience and relevant experience.

Recently, we were on our way to hire a few more engineers to speed up our development pace. However, I noticed we might not have a lack-of-people problem, but more of a process problem. Sometimes the bottleneck isn’t capacity, it’s coordination. When teams grow quickly or work across multiple tracks, a lot of time gets lost in back-and-forth, unclear ownership, and waiting on dependencies. Instead of hiring right away, I started thinking about how we could improve visibility: - making progress more transparent (so everyone knows what others are working on) - discussing upcoming tasks and dependencies early - reducing reliance on one-on-one updates and central communication bottlenecks These small tweaks can often multiply output more effectively than adding new hires. Good process scales a team before headcount does. Curious to hear from others, how do you decide when it’s time to hire versus when it’s time to improve the process?

Most companies hit pause on hiring in December. But the smart ones? They quietly build. Here’s what happens every year: December hits. Budgets freeze. Decisions stall. Everyone says, “We’ll start fresh in January.” But January doesn’t bring clarity — it brings chaos. New goals, new KPIs, same empty seats. Meanwhile, top engineers are quietly looking now. They want stability before the year flips. That’s why the best hiring managers use this window — not to rest, but to reset their teams. At Evolve Squads, we’re already matching companies with verified engineers through #ReferenceMe, so onboarding starts strong in January. If you want your Q1 to start with progress, not panic, let’s talk this week. You still have time to hire smarter before the year ends. #HiringManagers #EvolveSquads #ReferenceMe #TechHiring #Leadership #BusinessGrowth #FutureOfWork #RecruitmentStrategy #YearEndHiring #HiringTrends

The biggest mistake in IT Executive Search? Asking for too many years of experience. As a former CEO and PM, I know experience often means experienced at repeating old processes. When hiring a CTO or VP of Engineering for growth, you need potential and adaptability, not just a perfect résumé. This requires scientific validation (like DNLA), not just checking tenure. Question for Tech Leaders & Founders: When hiring for a critical C-Level role, which matters more today: A) Proven Tenure or B) Verified Potential?

When a long-term client, a GTM-focused business, decided to build out a Technology offering, they knew it wouldn’t be an easy brief. Starting from ground zero, they needed a senior leader who could not only set the strategy but also build the entire department from scratch. Enter Mathew Holden, who took the brief and within 48 hours, had a shortlist of candidates in front of them. Fast forward three processes, they secured their new Senior Tech Director, someone who’s now shaping the future of their tech capability. Both sides couldn’t be happier. Outstanding work from Mat on a tough mandate.

The Costliest Mistake I Made While Scaling a Team We once took on an urgent project for a global client.  The timeline was tight, the stakes high. So we did what most leaders do under pressure- we hired fast.  Ten engineers in three weeks. Problem solved, right? Wrong. Within a month, the project slowed.  No one knew who owned what.  Standups turned into status recaps. Reviews lagged. When the client asked, “Why are we behind schedule?”  I realized I didn’t have a clear answer. Because we were scaling speed, not structure. We took a step back.  Introduced one principle that changed everything: “Every new hire must make the whole team smarter, not just bigger.” We slowed down hiring. Focused on onboarding, documentation, and ownership.  And two months later, we were back on track- delivering ahead of schedule. If you’re leading a fast-growing team- remember:  Speed feels powerful.  But structure sustains power. ⚡   What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned while scaling your team or business?  Share it below- your story might save someone else’s. Ankur Tiwari Pramod Sharma Mayank Kumar Tushar Patidar #LeadershipLessons #ScalingTeams #StartupLife #BusinessGrowth #HiringRight #TeamBuilding #GrowthMindset #WorkCulture