How Oloid Rebuilt Its Team After Product-Market Fit

There’s a moment after product-market fit when everything changes — and not just in your metrics.

At first, your team feels like a family. Everyone’s wearing five hats. People join for the mission, not the salary. You’re scrappy, gritty, and close.

But once the company starts working — really working — the pressure shifts. Now it’s about structure, scale, and speed. And that transition? It’s where a lot of startups stall or fracture.

In this episode, I sat down with Mohit Garg, co-founder and CEO of Oloid, to unpack what actually happens when you move from belief to benchmarks — and what it takes to rebuild your team for the next chapter.

Key Takeaways

• The early team is built on belief — the growth team is built to scale
• Communication is everything when transitioning roles or hiring above
• You can’t keep the same structure and expect different outcomes
• Founders must prepare for this before they raise, not after
• The goal: evolve the company without breaking the culture

The Emotional Shift: From Belief to Benchmarks

As Mohit put it, early-stage team members don’t join for the salary or title. They join because they believe — in the idea, the founder, the vision. They’re builders, generalists, survivors.

But after PMF, the company’s needs change. You start hiring specialists. People who’ve “done this before.” They negotiate hard, want structure, and expect results.

“You’re no longer hiring believers. You’re hiring accelerators.”

And that creates tension. Because your early team sees these new hires getting titles, comp, and authority that — in their eyes — they earned when no one was watching.

When the Team Doesn’t Scale

One of the most honest parts of this episode? Mohit shared that not everyone makes it through the transition.

Sometimes it’s because the company moves too fast. Sometimes it’s because that person wants to stay early-stage — to build, not scale. And other times, they just don’t want to manage process, run metrics, or report to the board.

“Founders need to coach, support, and prepare. But at some point, you also need to make hard calls.”

It’s not about being cold. It’s about being honest — with your team and with yourself.

Founder Playbook: How to Handle the Shift

Mohit laid out a clear framework for founders getting ready for this transition:

1. Start Communicating Early

Don’t wait for the Series A to tell people change is coming. Talk about it months in advance. Prepare your team mentally.

2. Narrate the Why

People will follow if they understand what’s coming. If you’re hiring above someone, explain the context, not just the outcome.

3. Know Your Team’s Motivations

Mohit breaks it into three buckets:

• Learn

• Express

• Earn

Understand what your people value — and see if they still align with the company’s next phase.

4. Pre-Build Your Post-Funding Team Map

Before you raise, have a view of who you’ll need to hire. Start backchanneling candidates. That way, you're not wasting 6 months rebuilding the org after the money lands.

Real Talk: You Can’t Just “Keep It Like It Was”

“Startups change when they work. That’s the cost of succeeding.”

What used to be flexible now has structure. What used to be instinct now needs analytics. You can’t keep the same vibe and scale the same company.

But you can keep the mission. And if you communicate clearly, coach well, and hire with intention, you don’t lose the soul — you evolve it.

Final Word

“It’s still a people business — even when you’re optimizing for growth.”

Book a Free AI Assessment if you’re heading into that growth phase, juggling people, product, and capital — and want to use AI to scale ops without breaking the culture that got you here.