Scaling from 50 to 150 employees is one of the most fragile phases in a SaaS company’s lifecycle. It is the point where culture strains, management layers buckle, hiring gaps widen, and organisational complexity outpaces operational maturity. These risks are rarely visible until they begin damaging performance. This guide explains the hidden pitfalls and how to prevent them.
The 50 to 150 stage is where many SaaS companies unintentionally sabotage their own growth.
This is the moment when:
early scrappiness becomes unsustainable
informal processes collapse
communication no longer scales
leadership bandwidth is stretched
talent expectations increase
culture becomes harder to maintain
Operational complexity multiplies during this stage.
What worked at 50 employees will not work at 150, yet many companies only realise this once mistakes accumulate.
According to industry data (OpenView, 2025 SaaS Benchmarks), companies scaling from 50 to 150 employees experience:
a 2.5x increase in management failures
a 40 percent rise in attrition clusters
50 percent slower hiring cycles
significantly higher risk of culture drift
This stage is not just about hiring more people.
It is about transforming how the business works.
Below are the most frequent and damaging risks we see when scaling teams.
These insights come from observing hundreds of SaaS organisations across Europe and North America.
This is the number one risk — and the least acknowledged.
At around 50 employees, early team members are often promoted into managerial roles because they were strong individual contributors.
But being a high performer does not automatically make someone a good leader.
Poor management leads to:
inconsistent expectations
ineffective one-to-ones
unresolved performance issues
burnout
increased attrition
low team morale
The organisation starts to drift because the leadership layer is not equipped to support complexity.
invest in management training early
create clear leadership competencies
avoid promoting solely based on tenure
provide coaching support
use 360 feedback to identify gaps
Strong managers stabilise the organisation.
Weak managers destabilise it.
Process debt is like technical debt, but for Talent operations.
It appears when informal ways of working can no longer support scale.
Examples include:
no structured hiring process
inconsistent onboarding
uncalibrated performance management
untracked interview data
undocumented workflows
inconsistent role expectations
At 50 people, process debt seems manageable.
At 150, it becomes corrosive.
define and document core Talent processes
introduce structured hiring frameworks
build scalable onboarding playbooks
standardise interview rubrics
centralise ATS data and reporting
Process maturity determines scalability.
As teams grow, roles evolve quickly.
This often leads to overlapping responsibilities, unclear ownership, and frustration between departments.
Common symptoms include:
duplicate work
people stepping on each other’s roles
unresolved accountability
confusion around priorities
inconsistent managerial expectations
This causes friction, slows execution, and damages morale.
define role clarity and ownership for every function
implement an org design framework
align expectations with functional leaders
revisit role definitions every six months
Clarity scales productivity.
Ambiguity kills it.
Culture is stable at 10 people.
Influential at 50.
And dangerously fragile at 150.
Once teams grow beyond direct founder influence, micro-cultures start to emerge.
Different regions, teams, and managers begin shaping culture independently.
This creates:
inconsistent behaviours
fragmented communication
cliques or silos
diluted values
managers interpreting values differently
reinforce core values through rituals and behaviours
train managers in cultural stewardship
communicate frequently and transparently
align leadership around culture expectations
embed values into hiring and performance frameworks
Culture needs intentional maintenance at this stage.
Without it, fragmentation becomes inevitable.
Companies at 50 employees often still hire on gut instinct.
At 150, this creates chaos.
Hiring errors become exponentially more expensive:
each hire influences larger teams
onboarding becomes more complex
performance issues take longer to resolve
organisational misalignment spreads faster
Reactive hiring also slows delivery because decisions are made too late.
build a rolling 6 to 12 month hiring forecast
track leading indicators (pipeline, CS load, backlog, roadmap)
maintain continuous sourcing with CVaaS or RaaS
set SLA-based hiring processes
involve cross-functional leaders early
Better forecasting protects long-term growth.
Here is Saiyo’s internal advisory framework for scale-up companies.
This means hiring or coaching leaders who can:
handle complexity
manage performance
guide teams through change
align execution with strategy
Investing here prevents most downstream issues.
Ad hoc hiring stops working beyond 50 employees.
You need:
structured interview stages
consistent evaluation
strong ATS hygiene
sourcing infrastructure
predictable time to hire
This is where RaaS or CVaaS provides immediate value and stability.
Culture should shift from verbal to operational.
This requires:
explicit behaviours
leadership alignment
storytelling
onboarding integration
performance link
transparent communication rituals
Culture must be maintained intentionally, not passively.
Scaling companies benefit from:
defined role scopes
clear reporting lines
future org structure mapping
talent density reviews
succession and progression frameworks
This prevents chaos when headcount doubles.
Sales, CS, Marketing, and Product should operate with shared goals, not separate agendas.
Methods include:
QBRs
shared metrics
joint planning sessions
aligned leadership expectations
Alignment prevents hidden friction.
Saiyo has worked with SaaS companies across every funding stage — from Seed through Series D and beyond.
Across all of them, the 50 to 150 phase consistently produces the same patterns:
fractured culture
weak managers
reactive hiring
overwhelmed founders
poor communication flows
rushed leadership hires
siloed functions
avoidable attrition
Companies that scale well do so because they invest early in Talent infrastructure and leadership maturity.
Companies that struggle do so because they wait too long.
When the foundation is strong, scale becomes predictable.
When it’s weak, scale becomes painful.
The 50 to 150 stage is the most risk-heavy phase of SaaS scaling
Weak management layers cause the most hidden damage
Process debt multiplies fast and quietly
Culture must be deliberately managed at this stage
Role clarity and org design prevent confusion
Hiring forecasting is essential
RaaS and CVaaS provide scalable hiring support
Companies that invest in operational maturity outperform those that rely on instinct
Speak with Saiyo about building a scalable talent engine for your next growth phase:
https://saiyo.io/contact-us