The case for holding onto your first employees as you rocket to success

Founders and CEOs often think of their company as growing in phases, with each one requiring different, specialized personnel. 

The reasoning goes something like this: the kind of person who makes an early-stage startup successful is different from the kind of person who can scale it, and different again from the kind of person who can run a well-established company. 

But one young business leader decided to go with his gut, and ignore that kind of advice. Alex Bouaziz launched the HR platform Deel in 2019 at just 25 years old. When someone suggested he replace his entire leadership team at different stages of company growth, he declined.  

“That statement to me was very wrong, and I think we’re a good example of why it’s wrong,” he told my colleague Orianna Rosa Royle. “If you look at Deel, actually 80% of my leadership team is the same that it was when we were at $0 ARR [annual recurring revenue].”

For people who were no longer a right fit for their roles, he created a new position for them that plays to their strengths. His former marketing czar, for example, is now the company’s head of growth. 

Deel has achieved unicorn status, growing from 10 workers to around 3,600, valued at around $12 billion. Bouaziz believes people who joined early are more invested in the company's growth, and contributed to his organization's success.

“If you really, really care about your job, you’ll always have a leg up on everybody else,” he said. “What I found is this care is very unique, and the later you are in the company, the harder it is to find people that really care about the business.”

Leadership Tip of the Week 💡

The CEO of Virgin Atlantic got complaints when he allowed employees to work with exposed tattoos and wear the uniform of the gender that they want to, but he didn’t pay them too much attention. “We know that some of the stuff we do is not pleasing to everyone all the time, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t right,” he told my colleague Phil Wahba. “It ensures that everyone is welcome, can be their best, and perform at Virgin Atlantic.” 

Leadership Next

Co-CEOs of Warby Parker Dave Gilboa and Neil Blumenthal started the company as a business school project in 2010.

The premise was simple: shake up the old-line optical business by selling frames online, and at a lower price than traditional retail. Today, Warby Parker is one of the biggest players in optical, a robust online business leveraging e-commerce but with a growing retail footprint of some 250 stores as well.

On this episode of #LeadershipNext, Neil and Dave talk about Warby Parker's founding story, changing consumer behavior, and how to remain innovative as a company matures beyond startup mode.

Listen to the episode and subscribe to Leadership Next wherever you listen to podcasts, or read the full transcript here.

Those are our biggest leadership stories of the week.

Thanks for reading and make sure to subscribe to Fortune's Next To Lead newsletter to learn everything you need to know to make it to the corner office.

-Azure Gilman, Fortune’s Deputy Leadership Editor