Most post-funding companies struggle with the same contradiction. Their values demand one thing. The market demands another. So they choose growth over values—then wonder why their teams lose focus.
Most post-funding companies struggle with the same contradiction. Their values demand one thing. The market demands another. So they choose growth over values—then wonder why their teams lose focus.
This isn’t surprising. But it is fixable.
We’ve worked with dozens of VC-backed founders and PE portfolio companies facing this exact challenge. Their values sound inspiring on their websites. Collaboration. Innovation. Integrity. Customer-first thinking.
But when growth targets loom and investors expect results, these same values often become invisible obstacles to execution.
The Post-Funding Values Problem
Most company values are created pre-funding. They reflect the founder’s vision and aspirations when capital was scarce and possibilities seemed endless. They weren’t designed for the brutal reality of scaling.
And that’s the core problem.
Post-funding execution demands clear priorities and difficult tradeoffs. Values that don’t acknowledge these realities don’t guide decisions—they paralyze them.
Consider the tech startup that values “deep customer relationships” but needs to scale quickly to meet investor expectations. They can’t possibly maintain the same relationship depth at 10x the customer count. So they either compromise their values or miss growth targets.
Both choices damage the business.
The Three Types of Growth-Limiting Values
In our work with high-growth companies, we see three distinct ways values undermine growth:
1. Aspirational but impractical values
These sound inspiring but offer no real guidance for hard decisions. “Exceptional quality in everything we do” sounds noble—until you need to ship a minimum viable product to meet market demands.
2. Conflicting value sets
Many companies list values that directly contradict each other. “Move fast and break things” alongside “Unwavering commitment to quality.” These force executives to choose which value to honor and which to ignore.
3. Values without measurable impact
These lack clear connection to business outcomes. “Building community” might matter deeply—but if you can’t define how it drives growth, it becomes a nice-to-have in resource allocation discussions.
Values That Actually Drive Growth
The most successful post-funding companies don’t abandon values—they recalibrate them for growth. Their values become decision-making frameworks rather than aspirational statements.
This requires three shifts:
Shift 1: From abstract to actionable
Effective values translate directly into decision criteria. Instead of “customer-centricity,” define what specific customer needs you prioritize—and which ones you don’t.
A B2B SaaS company we advised changed their value from “building customer relationships” to “solving the customer’s core workflow problem, even at the expense of secondary features.” This gave their product team clear permission to say no to non-essential requests.
Shift 2: From absolutes to priorities
Values that acknowledge necessary tradeoffs perform better than those promising perfection. “We prioritize long-term customer success over short-term revenue” gives clear guidance on which opportunities to pursue and which to decline.
Shift 3: From universal to contextual
Different growth stages require different priorities. Values that recognize this reality provide better guidance than those claiming to be timeless and unchanging.
A PE-backed healthcare company we worked with explicitly modified their values after each funding round to reflect new strategic priorities. This kept their team aligned as they shifted from product development to market expansion.
The Growth Values Assessment
How do your values measure against these criteria? Ask these questions:
1. When we need to make hard tradeoffs, do our values provide clear guidance?
2. Could a new team member use our values to make decisions without further explanation?
3. Have we explicitly identified which values take precedence when they conflict?
4. Do our values acknowledge the different demands of our current growth stage?
5. Can we directly connect our values to our competitive advantage?
Creating Growth-Aligned Values
If your values aren’t supporting growth, it’s time to recalibrate. This doesn’t mean abandoning your core beliefs—it means translating them into operational principles that guide execution.
Start by identifying where your current values create decision bottlenecks or resource allocation challenges. These friction points reveal where aspiration meets reality.
Then reframe these values as clear decision principles. For each value, complete this sentence: “When faced with [common tradeoff], we prioritize [specific choice] because it drives [growth outcome].”
This gives your team practical guidance, not just inspirational statements.
The most effective growth companies don’t view values as fixed declarations. They see them as evolving decision frameworks that adapt as the business scales.
And they recognize that sometimes, the most valuable thing you can do is acknowledge what you won’t do—even when it sounds good on paper.
Because in the end, values that actually drive growth aren’t the ones hanging on your wall. They’re the ones guiding your next decision.
Want to make sure your values are accelerating growth—not stalling it?
I’m offering a complimentary Core Values Worksheet to help you evaluate whether your company’s values are driving alignment, performance, and trust—or quietly working against them.
Reach out [insert preferred method—email or link] and I’ll send it your way.
Let’s make sure your values work for your business, not against it.