Crack the Growth Code

⏰ Today in 5 minutes or less:

• Changing career paths requires a well-thought plan.

• Embrace flexibility. It’s part of working with startups.

• Startups need help with creating a repeatable growth engine.

Switching to Startups with Sam Hollin

Startups aren’t the most obvious next step for transitioning consultants. But if it’s something you’re considering, read this first. 

For Sam Hollin, his desire to change things sparked an interest in working with startups. After his tenure at BCG, he ventured into the startup ecosystem, taking growth roles at The Guild and Homeward. Now, he provides advisory services to growth stage companies as the founder of 80/20 Solutions. 

This kind of transition isn’t an easy path, but Sam made the leap with notable success. 

In this interview, he shares with us his consulting journey – offering insights into challenges faced and lessons learned along the way. 

Watch here for the full interview – or read on for the snippets.

You’re a growth executive and now also a growth consultant, focusing way more on startups than I ever have. Can you take us through your career arc?

Sam: I was at BCG for a few years and wanted a change on lot of things. I wanted to try working with a startup and be on the opposite side of the spectrum. I was introduced to an entrepreneur in Austin and ended up moving and joining a company called The Guild, which is a hospitality startup. Basically, we turn big apartment buildings into hotels. 

I worked there for three years and then I joined Homeward which is kind of a fintech startup that helps people buy and sell homes. It has some cool products to make that process easier. I was there for you three and a half years and then about a year ago left. As of now, I’ve been doing fractional stuff and some project-based consulting. 

Let’s focus on your transition out of consulting and into startups. How does it look like if someone is trying to do something like you did? 

Sam: At the time, BCG offered a transition program. Basically, you could keep your laptop, go to the office, get paid half for some amount of time, and keep your healthcare as you search for jobs. They also had a career coach and documents to help you with the process. 

I took advantage of that and started reaching out to startups like a crazy person. And I would Google startup list and any products I liked to see if I could network in. I would also talk to people in my own network, alumni at BCG, or people I knew from college, and just ask them if they know any cool startups. All just informational conversations.

I probably talked to about 50 to 75 companies – not about the roles available, but how they started their business. 

And I did that for about three or four months, gaining a couple opportunities out of them. I didn't know if I wanted to work with startups forever, but it felt like a good next step.  

You got into growth roles, but can you tell us exactly what those are about? 

Sam: That’s such a good question. But I think growth roles can generally mean two things. 

One, there's growth marketing. It's a relatively technical role so you’re thinking about all the different marketing channels – how much you should spend on and prioritize them.  

Two, it’s kind of a catch-all for strategy and operations roles that are on the growth side of the business, like the revenue side. A lot of times, growth will have like revenue operations in it. It could have growth ops, strategy, planning, or some types of product development. 

So, it's still just like a kind of a catch-all term. 

I think a lot of early and growth stage companies lack a repeatable growth engine – either because the market or products as changing quickly.

But the repeatable growth engine is what every startup wants. Investors want to know what comes out of the other side if they put coin in the machine. It’s hard to answer that for any company, but particularly early-stage ones. 

And I think growth roles sit at the center of that. We ask and figure out – “how do we do that?” 

A lot of it is setting up new channels and supporting the sales team. I also think it comes from the fact that functional leaders are really focused on fixing their stuff and running the business. It’s hard to say to talk to a sales leader and say, “hey, I need you to go figure out how we should work with marketing or what new products we need to have,” because they're focused on the sales team they’re working with. 

You've worked in growth roles as an in-house member within startups, and now as an independent consultant. Is it different when you're not a part of that inner team? 

Sam: Yeah, I think it's different. I was lucky for my first two growth roles because I joined relatively early. I grew into the roles and into the companies, so I had a really strong foundation with the people that I was working with because of the bond built over time. 

It’s more challenging to come in, learn everything, and build relationships all at the same time. I've been lucky to work with some people that I've worked with in the past – that kind of gives you a really strong foundation. 

It’s different if you don’t have the full context. In some ways, it’s helpful. But in others, you’re kind of missing that, so it just takes longer to get used to the work. You'll be working with someone for four or five months and only then you will feel like, “Okay cool, feel like I got my feet under me and everything.”

What We Can Learn From Sam Hollin: 

1. Approach your transition with a strategy. Changing career paths require structure. Sam leveraged BCG’s transition program and used his network to his advantage, leading him to land his first opportunity in a new role. 

2. Relationships always drive growth. Success hinges on building strong relationships and earning the trust of stakeholders. Sam prioritized understanding their needs and positioning himself as a problem solver to help startups drive growth. 

3. Know when to impose structure – and when to adapt. Sam is used to structure but has learned to embrace flexibility in fast-moving startups. Imposing structure and going with whatever system’s present has their own advantages, but you need to learn what to do when working with specific startups. 

🚨 Chart Crimes!

The more you look at this chart, the worse it gets. 

No actual flow, no organization, no clarity on the words, no nothing. 

Consultants – if your framework needs a decoder ring, it’s a mess. 

Remember, the path to success is paved with continuous learning and embracing fresh perspectives.

Let's stay connected, share ideas, and elevate your consulting business.

Stay curious, friends.

The 2×2 is brought to you by Keenan Reid Strategies

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