As companies grow, gaps appear.
It’s inevitable. With scale comes complexity — more people, more teams, more interfaces. And somewhere in that web of new roles and responsibilities, things start slipping through the cracks.
Not because people don’t care. But because they care only about their part.
This is where most growing startups hit a wall. Teams optimize their own scopes. Functions create boundaries to protect focus. And soon, what used to be a fast, fluid collaboration becomes a fragmented structure where problems multiply in the in-between.
And the worst part? When things go wrong, everyone points elsewhere:
“Not my scope.”
“Not my responsibility.”
“That was supposed to be handled by…”
This is exactly why Extreme Ownership isn’t just a nice-to-have in a scale-up — it’s the difference between resilience and chaos.
What Extreme Ownership Really Means
The term comes from the book by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, written by two Navy SEALs who applied battlefield leadership lessons to business. But beyond the military metaphor, the core principle is simple:
You are responsible for everything in your world.
In a startup context, that doesn’t mean doing everything yourself. That would burn you out in weeks.
It means making sure what needs to happen — happens.
Even if it’s outside your job description.
Even if someone else is “supposed” to own it.
Even if it’s uncomfortable.
It’s not about control — it’s about accountability. It’s the difference between saying “I sent the email” and “The problem was solved.”
That shift is the foundation of scale.
It’s how you turn organizational cracks into momentum — instead of burnout.
Why Scale Makes It Harder (and More Necessary)
When you’re a team of 10, ownership is obvious. Everyone sees the full picture. You don’t have a choice — if something breaks, you fix it, period.
But at 50, 100, 200 people?
You can hide behind a scope. You can assume someone else will follow up.
And that’s when the gaps appear: between Product and Ops, between Sales and Engineering, between “what was needed” and “what was delivered.”
Those gaps are where bad handoffs happen.
Where bugs become incidents.
Where customer issues fall through.
Where projects stall for weeks because no one made the call.
And all of it rolls uphill — usually to the same people every time.
That’s how senior leaders burn out.
That’s how you stall momentum just when you need it most.
Ownership Is a Relay, Not a Solo Race
One metaphor I keep coming back to is the relay race.
Your job isn’t just to run your part fast. It’s to make sure the baton was actually passed — and picked up — before you let go.
In growing teams, too many people drop the baton, thinking it’s no longer their problem.
But unless someone clearly catches it, it still is.
Ownership means staying accountable until you know someone else has taken over with the same level of care.
It’s not about doing it all.
It’s about making sure it gets done.
The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything
What I need — and what every startup needs as it scales — is not just people who do their tasks.
It’s people who, when they see a problem, say:
“Ok. Now it’s my problem.”
Not because they caused it.
Not because they’re the official owner.
But because they care enough to step in.
This is the difference between good teams and great ones.
Without that mindset, everything comes back to the top.
I end up holding a pile of problems I thought were already owned.
And it becomes impossible to focus, to build, to scale.
Scaling Without Burning Out
There’s a paradox here. When people hear “Extreme Ownership,” they often think it means taking on more and more until you collapse.
That’s not it.
Ownership is not doing it all. It’s ensuring someone is doing it — and that it’s done well. It’s raising the flag when something’s off, not turning a blind eye.
It’s nudging, clarifying, aligning — not heroically absorbing everything yourself.
Because if everyone sticks strictly to their box, small misalignments compound.
Even just 5% of missing ownership across the org becomes a massive drag — and usually ends up on the shoulders of the same few people.
Eventually, that leads to burnout at the top. And the whole machine slows down.
The Real Path to Sustainable Growth
In a scale-up, the pattern is always the same:
The team stretches to fill the gaps.
New people are hired to relieve the stretch.
The company grows — and new gaps appear.
It’s a continuous motion: stretch → hire → scale → repeat.
But for that cycle to work, you need people who lean in.
People who don’t just run their part, but watch the baton.
People who think in terms of outcomes, not just outputs.
Extreme Ownership isn’t just about leadership — it’s a culture.
And without it, no amount of headcount will save you from the cracks.
