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At Brite Payments, we’ve grown from a small idea with big potential into a high- growth European fintech, a process that has brought with it a lot of lessons. For founders seeking to build something meaningful and enduring, here are five principles that have come to rely on through my entrepreneurial journey.
Elevate your leadership with a strategic communication mindset
Authenticity in leadership is a critical component in building trust within the workplace – even more so within a scaling business where change can be a constant. However, I believe that authentic leadership can be reinforced through a strategic communications mindset – thinking about and being deliberate in how information is shared, where it is shared, and with whom it is shared. The default setting for many startups is to share everything, everywhere, in the name of transparency. But this can be overwhelming as the business size and complexity increases. Leaders who can blend authenticity with an intentional and consistent communication style can bring a lot of clarity to their business.
Strategic communication becomes even more important when operating across borders, where maintaining uniform standards helps prevent fragmentation. For example, ensure you have tightly defined title structures from day one, helping to avoid ambiguity internally. This ensures that whether someone is onboarding in Stockholm, Berlin or Madrid, for example, they’re joining a company with a clear and consistent framework. When everyone understands where they sit within the organisation and what’s expected at every level, it builds alignment and trust at scale.
Hire like a strategist, not a sprinter
In the early days of startup life, the pressure to move fast can tempt founders into hiring reactively. But overhiring can cost more than time – it can cost culture, clarity and eventually momentum. I believe that it is highly effective to hire for the most crucial senior positions early, which can help to avoid common mistakes than can become costly and painful to correct further down the line Bringing in experienced leaders and people who have navigated similar journeys also means that experience can “trickle down” and junior team members learn from their managers, helping them grow into more responsibility with greater ease. Prioritising roles that directly impact growth and ensure compliance will be key. Whether it’s expanding into new markets or building the product in a way to meet regulatory demands, always be deliberate in identifying which positions are mission-critical and which ones can wait.
Just because a role is common within the startup world, doesn’t mean it’s necessary right now. We are now operating in a second-generation world and fintech, along with tech more generally, is much more mature than it was 10-15 years ago. There now exists a level of domain expertise and knowledge that wasn’t there when many of today’s tech unicorns were founded. As a result, many roles are more specialised and have a more well-defined skill-set. For employers, there is pressure to stand out in talent markets, such as Stockholm, where well-established companies are fiercely chasing the same talent. Your unique employer proposition – whether it’s growth opportunities, team culture or transparency – can also be your competitive edge.
Build culture that can withstand growth
It’s easy to have a strong culture when your team fits around a table, but as companies scale, onboarding new team members across time zones, departments and geographies, culture becomes something that must be deliberately reinforced – not passively maintained. Founders need to bake culture into how they operate, not just how they celebrate. That means investing in performance management processes that scale, defining what high performance actually means in your context and not just in theory. At all levels of the organisation, individuals benefit from having clear growth paths, and culture must support long-term development – not
just short-term output. That said, a strong culture is tested not in the good times, but when difficult decisions need to be made.
Within a healthy environment, these moments are understood as part of the company’s evolution and maturation. While it may be difficult or feel disruptive in the moment, strong culture can help teams to regroup and realign, with greater clarity on what success looks like. Operating across borders definitely adds a layer of complexity. European companies, for example, often span vastly different cultural norms. In Sweden, leadership tends to be consensus-based and non-hierarchical. In Germany, there’s often more formality, structure and an expectation of top-down decision-making. Leadership expectations vary across regions, and culture can easily become fragmented without clear internal alignment. Maintaining a
collaborative ethos while accommodating these nuances requires leaders to be intentional in how they set standards and communicate expectations. As a company grows, culture becomes a shared responsibility, but it starts at the top. Leaders set the tone. And the right tone can mean the difference between scaling successfully or fracturing under pressure.
Stubbornness and adaptability are not mutually exclusive
Sustainable growth requires founders to hold their vision tightly, but their methods loosely. While determination is an important quality in any entrepreneur, being too rigid about how to achieve a goal can limit a company’s ability to evolve. Adaptability is not a sign of indecision, it’s a strategy. In high-growth businesses, pivots in product focus, market positioning or internal structure are often necessary. What may initially feel like a step back, can in hindsight create space for stronger long-term performance. Founders and leaders who stay grounded in their core mission, while remaining flexible in how they get there, are best positioned to navigate change effectively. Striking the right balance between consistency and iteration is especially important when scaling. Encouraging innovation inside the company requires more than just giving people permission to share ideas; it involves designing an environment where creativity is welcomed, and feedback is actionable. However, openness must be matched with structure. Not every idea will be implemented, but every idea should be heard. That balance between inclusivity and decisiveness is what keeps companies fast, without tipping into chaos. Ultimately, the goal is to build a team and culture that knows when to double down and when to rethink the playbook. Leaders must model that behaviour too. And when anchored to a clear purpose, adaptability becomes a competitive advantage and not a compromise.
Think beyond the next quarter
Chasing short-term growth may generate quick wins, but without long-term direction, it can also damage the engine driving sustainable success. For scale-ups especially, it’s not just about hitting quarterly revenue targets; it’s about making deliberate decisions about where to invest people, time, and capital for the future.
Founders and executive teams need to resist the allure of growth for growth’s sake. That means taking the time to define clear long-term objectives and making sure those goals are communicated and understood at every level of the business. Regularly reviewing and adapting long-term plans keeps the organisation aligned and focused, even as the market shifts.
Long-term thinking also means building with resilience in mind. Scalable systems, empowered leadership, and flexible processes are needed to navigate the unknown. Whether it’s new regulation, sudden macroeconomic changes or rapid market expansion, businesses that plan ahead are better positioned to respond without losing momentum. Sustainable scaling doesn’t mean playing it safe but it does require playing the long game. The companies that endure are the ones that build for what’s next, not just what’s now.
The real work of long-term success
Sustainable growth is about being intentional and uncomfortable decisions may need to be made at every stage of the journey. For founders, that means continuously evolving your role and your perspective. What worked when you were 10 people won’t work at 50, and what worked at 50 won’t scale to 200. The fundamentals of scaling a successful business I believe can be encapsulated as follows; lead with clarity, hire with intent, and adapt without compromising your values. The recipe might sound simple, but the complexity lies in doing those things consistently, especially when the pace picks up and the stakes get higher. Founding a company shouldn’t just be about chasing an idea. It should be about building the foundations to make that idea real, over and over again as your market, your team and your role all change. That’s the real work. And it’s what makes this journey worth it.
