Sep 17, 2026 · 34 min · 13 segments
Most founders scale by hiring layers of management. Stenver Jerkku is trying to build a billion dollar company without ever building any. Stenver is the founder of Soldera, infrastructure for global…
Stenver JerkkuGuestChrisHostLast time we spoke, you said that you're aiming for a billion dollar company with under 30 people.
So quite a good goal.
Most people, most companies scale by hiring.
You're betting the opposite way.
Why is that?
always worked
in venture-backed companies, which usually means, you know, fast hiring, big growing teams and so on, and then having corrections in the middle over there.
And, you know, one of the companies I worked in the past, for example, was eAgronom.
When I personally left over there, I was also seventh employee in Glia, which was a New York-based enterprise SaaS business.
30% month-to-month insane growth, working with Fortune 500 companies, biggest utilities in the world, like Nuveen Infrastructure, for example, our national utilities and so on.
And, you know, one of the recurring things I see is that as the company grows and you get more people, you start getting alignment issues, you start getting organizational issues, right? And people have problems.
Last time we spoke, you said that you're aiming for a billion dollar company with under 30 people.
So quite a good goal.
Most people, most companies scale by hiring.
You're betting the opposite way.
Why is that?
always worked
in venture-backed companies, which usually means, you know, fast hiring, big growing teams and so on, and then having corrections in the middle over there.
And, you know, one of the companies I worked in the past, for example, was eAgronom.
When I personally left over there, I was also seventh employee in Glia, which was a New York-based enterprise SaaS business.
30% month-to-month insane growth, working with Fortune 500 companies, biggest utilities in the world, like Nuveen Infrastructure, for example, our national utilities and so on.
And, you know, one of the recurring things I see is that as the company grows and you get more people, you start getting alignment issues, you start getting organizational issues, right? And people have problems.
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