It takes a team

“It takes a village to raise a child” is an African proverb we’ve all heard. It speaks to the power of community and teamwork. We start-up founders are that village for our companies. We come together to create something fragile and barely formed, with every path forward a possibility. We tend to it with unreasonable dedication. Over time, we grow both the company and the village that supports it. These days, Lionrock employs nearly one hundred talented and dedicated people. 

Start-ups are about trying and failing and trying again, and eventually finding the thing that works. The trick is to iterate quickly and inexpensively. This applies to people, technology, business processes, whatever. Don’t wait, get started. But when you find the thing that works, build it strong and accelerate. When our founding team of me, Iain Crabb, and Ashley Loeb Blassingame came together, we found that we had that strong team we needed. 

You may know Ashley from her podcast, The Courage to Change, A Recovery Podcast. If you haven’t listened to it yet, tune in for the inspiration of some great recovery stories. You may know me from conferences in our field, things I write (like this!), or literally being a talking head in a television news segment as I was last week. But you probably don’t know the third member of our founding team, Iain Crabb. Trust me, there’d be no Lionrock without Iain. A soft-spoken, serious fellow, Iain is curious about everything and has stamina that amazes me. He’s a get-it-done guy with a vision for what he wants to do. 

Every day, hundreds of Lionrock clients and tens of Lionrock counselors need to be in the right place at the right time. All of our systems must be up and running for us to achieve our mission of helping people find recovery by telehealth. People participate in therapy sessions and attend support group meetings. Information flows under tight controls. We reach out to people whom we think might need us. Cash comes in, goes out. Add to this that our rapid growth routinely breaks existing operational processes. In essence, Lionrock is a live television network combined with a hospital. We need everything "stat." It’s showtime every day, working with people who need help. As Chief Operating Officer, this is Iain’s world.

So, next time you come across me or Ashley in whatever media you prefer, please remember that it surely does take a village to grow a company. You know what I mean.