[itsjeremy]

This is the essence of why Zenefits is in trouble. One of the mantras Parker would frequently state around the office was something very close to "growth is responsible for all of our problems and also the solution to all our problems".

His view, if I'm recalling correctly, was that hypergrowth makes customer problems more visible due to scale while making the company inherently more valuable. There was absolutely no downside to growing as fast as your imagination could manage - despite an accumulation of red flags, technical debt, and unhappy employees.

As you mentioned in your comment, values absolutely matter. I think Sacks gets this, but a company this deep in with so many employees is a big, unwieldy ship that's hard to turn.

[tyre]

> There was absolutely no downside to growing as fast as your imagination could manage - despite an accumulation of red flags, technical debt, and unhappy employees.

I worked at LivingSocial early in my career and this is so true. There is a limit to how quickly organizations can grow (given our current understanding) and still be healthy.

Employee happiness and related metrics (e.g. retention) is the biggest indicator of health. I don't care that you hired 400 people this year. Can you retain 40 world-class people?