Forget Perfect: How HR Leaders Can Thrive in Fast-Moving Startups

When you go from a big corporation to a startup, you think you know what you’re getting into. After years in HR leadership at Allegis, Gartner, and MasterCard, I figured my experience would translate easily.

It did, just not in the way I expected.

At big companies, you’ve got deep resources, specialized teams, and well-defined processes. At a startup, you have fewer people, more ambiguity, and a pace that feels like you’re running a sprint and a marathon at the same time.

It’s exciting. It’s exhausting. And it forces you to rethink the way you lead.

From Stability to Speed
In large organizations, HR can rely on structure. Roles are specialized. Processes are documented. You can spend months rolling out a new program.

In a startup, you’re building the program while you’re already using it. Everyone wears multiple hats, and priorities can change overnight. That’s why the first mindset shift is letting go of perfection.

In this environment, “80 percent done” beats “perfect, six months late.” The speed of execution matters more than being flawless — and you have to be okay with that.

That mindset shift is essential, and nowhere is it more important than in hiring.

Rethinking Hiring for Agility
Hiring is one of the most impactful things HR can do in a growing company. In my corporate days, recruiters were often specialists, focusing on one slice of the process. The company’s brand did most of the attracting for us.

In a startup, the recruiter profile is completely different. You need people who can:

• Proactively source great candidates.
• Handle inbound applicants efficiently.
• Pivot when the role changes mid-search.

At Sisense, we built structures that strike a balance between speed and consistency – structured enough to keep us aligned, but lightweight enough without slowing us down. These are some of the practices I’ve brought over from larger companies that add consistency without sacrificing agility:

• Role clarity before opening a search. We refine job descriptions with hiring managers to reflect actual current needs, not just a recycled wish list.
• Scorecards for every role. These outline the skills, experiences, and traits we’re looking for so everyone evaluates candidates through the same lens.
• Mandatory interviewer training. Interviewers learn how to assess against the scorecard, reduce bias, and create a strong candidate experience.
• Diverse interview panels. You can’t hire for diversity if every interviewer looks and thinks the same way. To avoid affinity bias, we make sure our panels represent a range of perspectives.
• Structured debriefs. Instead of “How do you think it went?” we use a formal process for weighing strengths, concerns, and cultural fit.
• Recruiters as business partners. Our recruiters bring market data, suggest role adjustments, and help managers think through team composition.
• Tech-enabled sourcing and outreach. We use AI tools like Gemini and LinkedIn’s AI features to personalize messaging, which has boosted candidate response rates.
• Real-time dashboards. With Sisense, we track time-to-fill, retention, attrition, and other KPIs, giving leaders the data to spot issues early and adapt.

The goal is to build just enough framework to make good decisions quickly — without burying the team in bureaucracy.

Three Leadership Traits That Matter Most
The leadership qualities that make someone thrive in a startup often differ from what’s rewarded in enterprise environments. Leading with clarity and purpose is still critical. You always want to tie company vision and OKRs back to day-to-day work. But beyond that, I’ve found three traits that truly determine whether someone will succeed in a leaner environment:

• Ability to “work in the gray.” Not everything is black and white. In startups, you’ll often have to act without all the information. Leaders who can navigate ambiguity and keep moving forward based on what they know are the ones who excel.
• Embrace “good enough.” Move fast with solutions that are 80 percent right, as long as the key foundational elements are in place. You can always refine later. Perfectionism slows progress, while agility – grounded in the right fundamentals – keeps momentum going.
• “Fail fast” and move on. If something doesn’t work, acknowledge it, learn the lesson, and pivot quickly. Startups don’t have the resources to drag a bad idea across the finish line. If something isn’t working, don’t keep trying, take a break to reassess what data or requirements are holding you back.

These aren’t about lowering standards. They’re about applying corporate-honed skills, strategic thinking, talent planning, and change management in a way that matches the speed and flexibility startups demand.

Final Thought
Moving from a big company to a startup will stretch you in ways you can’t predict. You’ll move faster, learn more than ever before, and feel the impact of your decisions almost immediately.

It’s not for everyone. But if you thrive on change, want to see your impact right now, and are ready to lead without a safety net, it might be the most energizing move you’ve ever made.