Which processes to formalize when moving from a startup to a “real” company

When moving from a startup to a full-fledged company, the main task is to stop depending on the founder's personal involvement in every operation. While the team is small, many issues are settled in chats or verbally: employees know whom to turn to, who is responsible for what and how to act in a non-standard situation. But as the company grows, this model stops working. Information gets lost, decisions are delayed and the founder becomes a bottleneck.

So the first processes to formalize are those that repeat regularly, involve several employees or directly affect money, customers and product quality.

First of all, this means managing tasks and responsibility. Each task should have a clear owner, deadline, expected result and completion criteria. It is also important to define who makes decisions and which issues employees can resolve on their own without their manager's approval.

Financial processes are just as important: budget planning, expense approval, invoicing, payment control, and accounting for income and expenses. The founder should understand the company's financial position at any moment rather than gathering information manually before an important meeting.

Sales and customer relations deserve special attention. You need to describe the customer journey: from the first inquiry to closing the deal, payment, service delivery and repeat sales. Set down the rules for maintaining the customer database, processing requests, preparing commercial proposals and handling complaints.

Hiring and onboarding also need to be formalized. The company should understand how a request for a new position is created, who conducts interviews, what criteria are used to assess a candidate and how their first weeks at work go. This reduces dependence on the founder's personal preferences and helps bring new people into the team faster.

Finally, you need to set up management reporting and regular communication: for example, weekly leadership meetings, reports on key metrics and a monthly review of financial and operating results. Employees should understand the company's overall goals and see how their work affects the result.

That said, formalization does not mean creating a twenty-page policy for every task. Often a short instruction, a template, a checklist or a clear approval scheme is enough.

The key principle: don't formalize everything indiscriminately, only what is needed for repeatable results and for the team to work independently. A good system of processes should free up the founder's time for strategy and business development, not create extra bureaucracy.

Sources:

1. Andreessen Horowitz — Scaling Your Operational Org. Andreessen Horowitz
2. McKinsey — Scaling up: How founder CEOs and teams can go beyond aspiration to ascent. McKinsey & Company
3. Andreessen Horowitz — Taking the Mystery out of Scaling a Company. Andreessen Horowitz