The foundation of an attractive company goes beyond a good product; it requires a complete business model and, above all, a reliable team. Why? Because client trust and investor commitment depend directly on the reliability of people — on those holding key roles.
This was the starting point of the event “Ready to Grow: Talent Successes to Help Your Startup Take Off”, organised by Grupo Binternational and Banco Sabadell on 18 September 2025 in Madrid. The afternoon began with a talk by Alfonso Roig on the opportunities companies have to prepare their teams for new stages, and continued with a panel discussion featuring executives who have lived through significant growth. They shared people management insights that have led them to success.
It was a conversation that prompted a powerful debate with all attendees.
As Alfonso Roig emphasised in his talk, “People deliver your value”, so growing means consciously managing talent in alignment with a company’s strategy. In summary, we highlight some crucial ideas for building a solid team:
- Understand the phases: roles and the necessary mindset evolve. From the adventurous versatility of the early stage, companies move to clearly defined roles and a collaborative, results-oriented attitude in the scale-up phase (Series A, B…).
- Manage transitions: role changes are both emotional and operational, and must be handled with clarity and alignment to prevent talent loss. The doer-to-manager challenge is key.
- Redefine success: it is crucial to decide whether the focus is on doing or managing. The team must be allowed to evolve its function to continue adding value.
- Look after culture: culture is created through inclusion and coherent exclusion — deciding what will not be tolerated and enforcing it. Avoiding silence is essential, because “when we confuse autonomy with silence, we create spaces that fill with rumours and doubts.”
In summary, there was consensus around one idea: the path to growth demands a team that anticipates challenges (commercial, financial and operational) and a robust culture. Investors expect a reliable team; it is our role to build it, nurture it and demand as much as is given.
Once again, we thank Eduardo Olano, CEO of Balantia, Almudena Albertos, CHRO of Corify, Alejandro Rodriguez, Head of Sales at Nova Talent, Antonio Macías Mollá, Co-founder of People and Play, as well as Fernando Angoso and Ester Medina, Director and Head of the B Startup Hub at Banco Sabadell, for bringing such a strategic topic to entrepreneurs.
