In hardly any other area is growth glorified as much as in the startup scene. New means? More hiring immediately. First traction? Increase marketing budget. But many founders overlook a crucial point: scaling too early is one of the most common reasons for the failure of young companies. Structures grow faster than competencies, responsibilities become diffuse, decisions take longer. And suddenly the company is fighting more with itself than with the market.
Limited resources, on the other hand, can be surprisingly helpful. If you don’t simply bring more budget or people into the team, you are forced to take a closer look: What is really important? What will get us further today and what will happen later? Small teams automatically create more clarity and work particularly well when they replace missing capacity with systematic processes.
Why startups often scale too early
The impulse behind it is understandable: more people in the team seems like progress. But in practice a different picture often emerges:
- Roles become unclear because structures have not yet been defined.
- Marketing scales too early, before the product and positioning have been properly sharpened.
- Complexity increases before processes run stably.
The result: Teams spend more time on internal coordination than on value creation and lose speed.
The “Navy Team” principle: Small units, clear mission, high impact
Navy teams are based on a simple but powerful organizational principle: a few experts work on a clearly defined mission with full responsibility and without unnecessary intermediate levels.
The model follows three basic principles that also have an enormous impact in startups:
- Mission before ego: Decisions are based on the task, not on hierarchies.
- End-to-end responsibility: Teams have responsibility from the problem to the solution.
- Extreme clarity: Each person knows the goal, framework and success criteria of the mission.
What that means in practice
Example 1: Mini missions instead of large teams
Instead of building a large team that simultaneously controls campaign strategy, creatives and paid media, three small, clearly separated units are formed. Each focuses on a mission and establishes processes here.
Result: fewer coordination loops, faster iterations, measurably better campaign quality.
Example 2: Tool rollouts such as mission simulations
New tools are not introduced top-down, but are first tested by a small task force. It evaluates benefits, stumbling blocks and ROI and only rolls out the system when it works.
Result: no friction losses in the team, clearer KPIs, significantly less reactive power.
Example 3: Accountability without micromanagement
On Navy teams, whoever knows the most decides.
Translated, this means: When a performance marketer realizes that a campaign is not performing, he doesn’t wait for a weekly meeting, he takes action.
Result: faster reactions, less budget waste, higher learning curve.
Relevance beats reach: in marketing as well as in products
Many young companies rely on the greatest possible reach. But reach without relevance creates costs, not effect. The crucial question is not: How many people see us? Rather: How many of the right people understand us and act accordingly?
Relevance arises when…
- a product solves a specific problem precisely,
- Marketing is clearly positioned and has a measurable effect,
- Teams know what to prioritize and what to intentionally leave out.
Startups that create relevance early on scale much more efficiently later. Those who rely on reach without foundation risk building complexity instead of growth.
What founders can actually do now
In order to scale sustainably, you need clarity above all. The most important steps:
1. Sharpen priorities: A few, clear goals beat broad, vague roadmaps.
2. Consciously keep teams small: Three excellent team members with automated processes often produce more impact than ten average ones, with significantly lower coordination costs.
3. Make decisions measurable: Only those who use data can intelligently control speed, direction and resources.
4. Reduce complexity: Standardized processes, clear roles, few exceptions and automation create speed, resilience and replace hiring.
5. Anchor relevance as a strategic benchmark: Growth should not be an end in itself. It has to be a result of impact.
The turning point: impact before growth
The pressure to grow big quickly is omnipresent in the startup world. But lasting success rarely occurs where structures are inflated early on. It arises where teams work in a focused manner, use data as a basis and establish and automate processes at an early stage.
The “Navy Team” principle is not a theoretical concept. It is a practical way to make startups more resilient, faster and more effective, especially in dynamic markets.
About the author
Markus Hetzenegger is founder & CEO of NYBA. Founded in 2018, NYBA is now one of the leading marketing companies in live entertainment. Annually, NYBA supports around 700 artists worldwide, including Adele, Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil, and has sold over 75 million tickets. With AI, data and performance-driven marketing, NYBA is setting new standards in digital ticket marketing and is expanding into the USA, UK and the Middle East.
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