#86: Founder Amnesia & The HashiCorp System
June 15, 2025 – DevTools Brew #86
I’m Morgan Perry, co-founder of Qovery. Every week, I share the real, often uncomfortable lessons from building and scaling devtool startups—from 0 to 1 and beyond.
In today's edition:
Founder Amnesia
→ When founders forget what made them sharp and slowly start slipping without noticing.The HashiCorp System
→ Why real scale is less about growing headcount and more about designing systems that last.
Let’s dive in.
Founder Amnesia
When startups forget what made them sharp.
“You don’t fail because you lose your skills. You fail because you forget where you came from.”
It happens to more of us than we admit.
Especially at this stage.
We’ve been there too.
At Qovery, there were times where execution felt… blurry.
The team was solid. The product was working.
But something was off.
Looking back, I’d call it amnesia.
Not the dramatic kind. The quiet one.
Where you forget how you won in the first place.
→ You replace urgency with process
→ You replace user tension with roadmap delivery
→ You replace sharpness with scale
And you tell yourself it’s maturity.
But in reality, it’s drift.
We didn’t lose our edge. We just stopped fighting to keep it.
Here’s what helped us regain it:
→ Cut the noise — and re-anchor on what hurts now
→ Get closer to users than is comfortable
→ Stop thinking like a team scaling, and start thinking like a team shipping
Most founders at this stage don’t burn out. But fade.
One slowed sprint at a time.
One vague priority at a time.
One diluted decision at a time.
And when you finally realize it, it’s already cost you 3 months of motion.
If you want to scale, don’t just add.
Remember.
→ What made you sharp.
→ What kept you honest.
→ What made you move.
That’s the memory to protect.
Because when founders forget, the company does too.
The HashiCorp System
From $10M to $500M+: What scale really requires.
When Dave McJannet (CEO) joined HashiCorp, he wasn’t the founder.
But he came in with a sharp lens: systems scale. Hustle doesn’t.
His thesis?
“Pick the market. Find the people. Build the systems.”
Most founders start with the product. He starts with the market.
Not for the pitch but to avoid building too far from real demand.
Once the market is clear, everything else becomes design:
→ The org structure
→ The GTM motion
→ The systems behind your roadmap
And that’s the part too many CEOs ignore (until it’s too late).
You hit $10M and the things that got you there start breaking.
You copy advice from companies 5 stages ahead.
You hire leaders who’ve “seen scale” but can’t get there.
You burn cycles chasing repeatability before you’ve earned it.
Here’s how McJannet breaks it down:
- $0–$10M → Learn patterns
- $10–$30M → Validate real PMF
- $30–$100M → Build repeatable systems
- $100–$250M → Scale those systems
- $250–$500M+ → Expand and compound
But the real unlock isn’t just identifying the phase — it’s building the right system for it.
Each part of the business runs on a core plan:
→ Finance (cash)
→ Product (velocity)
→ People (capacity)
→ GTM (demand)
And each plan needs a system to bridge the gap between goals and outcomes.
Without that bridge, you rely on individuals. And that doesn’t scale.
“People come and go. But strong systems endure.”
As CEO, your job isn’t to do everything.
It’s to zoom out and ask: what needs to be true 36 months from now?
While your team executes on 12 or 18 months, your job is to steer beyond the curve.
To build the plan before the pain shows up.
That’s how you avoid hiring too late, scaling too early, or missing the next wave.
And that’s what McJannet got right:
He didn’t just scale headcount. He scaled clarity.
Not chaos. Not heroics. Systems.
Final Thoughts
It doesn’t happen all at once.
You don’t decide to lose your edge. You just stop reinforcing it.
That’s how amnesia creeps in.
You drift from urgency to process. From clarity to complexity.
And one day, things still look fine but they don’t feel sharp.
Both stories this week are a reminder:
→ Sharpness isn’t permanent. It’s maintained.
→ Systems don’t replace people but they protect what made you great.
→ And scale isn’t just volume but about repeatability with intention.
Whether you’re at $1M or $100M, the challenge is the same:
Don’t just keep going.
Remember why it worked and build the system that keeps it alive.
That’s it for me today! :)
Thanks for reading and Happy Sunday!
— Morgan
Do you like personal lessons like this? More insights/stories from other devtool founders? Let me know, I’m always open to feedback.
You can reach out to me on LinkedIn.