The People Playbook: Scaling Startups from 1 to 1,000 people. A Guide for Founders and Chief People Officers to laying the foundation, scaling process, and building Dream Teams and Cultures that win

Who is the People Playbook For?

I wrote this actionable guide for Founders, CEOs, and Chief People Officers / People Ops leaders.

This Playbook was written “Table of Contents style,” so that as questions arise, you can easily find the section within this document that would help provide answers. Its content is meant to be 100% actionable and 100% no-bullshit. It is packed with advice, templates, and guides to help you scale your companies, teams, and internal processes. I hope to save you both time and frustration by outlining what I’ve seen firsthand work both in my own companies and across 100 companies in Boston and NYC.

As a venture-backed founder, Product leader @Drizly and @Wayfair, and someone who has helped build the executive teams at dozens of Boston’s highest-growth companies, this is the guide I wish I had when I was younger.

Good luck out there. Keep fighting the good fight.

Contributors: Many thanks to the contributors of this document and those who have provided feedback and help along the way, including Brad Durkin, Lindsey Durkin, Liv Benger, Pat Twomey, TJ Mahony, Meredith Mahoney, Mike Miklavic, Gabriela McManus, Sam Darkwa, Kate Gulliver, Aaron Bieber, Colby Marques, Casandra Varao, David Vencis, Brendan Caine, Craig Driscoll, Dave Beisel, Jeff Caron and many more.

If you have a particular superpower in one of these areas in the Playbook (ex: You’re amazing at recruiting. You’re amazing at employee experience. You’re amazing at the interview process and structure), please let me know. I am building out an expert database so that as companies and people in town need help in a particular area, I can make the right introduction at the right time.

Good luck.

Durkin

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