At the start of the year, I came across this concept of dedicating a word to your year i.e. choosing something intentional to manifest your direction. I picked rise.

Few weeks in, I can already tell the universe had other plans. The word that actually describes 2026 so far is scale.

I am having to scale my business fast - faster than I expected, faster than feels comfortable. And honestly? It is scary. But I am leaning into it, because one of the clearest things I have learned as a founder in the last 2 years is this: success likes speed.

I am making quick decisions. Taking risks. And I have made peace with the fact that some of those risks will lead to failure because failing fast, learning, and moving on is always better than staying stuck.

^{(I’ve an annoucement for you at the end - don’t miss it)}

In the last 6 months, I have hired six part-time specialists. Not one generalist to handle everything, but six people, each owning a specific area. This has been one of the most challenging and most valuable things I have done as a founder. Because here is the truth that I do not think founders talk about enough:

Finding and hiring good talent is the hardest thing about growing a business. Full stop.

I’m sharing 5 lessons I’ve picked up so far from this experience:

I put off delegating for a long time. Finding someone felt like a hassle. Paying a bad hire felt like a risk. Working with others felt exposing. But every month I held on to tasks I should have handed off was a month of slow growth I will not get back.

You do not have to commit to a six-month probation and hope for the best. Bring someone in, do a trial week, assess quickly, and make a decision. This is especially true when hiring specialists. If someone cannot do the specific thing you brought them in for, you will know almost immediately.

Do not compromise here. 1 person who is brilliant at 1 thing will outperform a jack-of-all-trades every time. Know what you need, and find the person who does exactly that.

Payroll is scary when you are early-stage. I get it. But growth requires spending ahead of certainty. Take the risk.

If a stronger hire costs a little more, pay it. Good people deliver results that are orders of magnitude better. You are hiring to improve your output and reclaim your time. Do not undermine that by optimising for the lowest cost.

Went to creator cocktails with Gamma and met so many folks from LinkedIn!

Spent the next evening at an intimate dinner with the biggest AI companies in the world: Anthropic, Gamma, WisprFlow, ElevenLabs - billion $$ names. We listened to live Opera in a private house. Very fun.

Today, I’ll be spending advertising week day 3 with LinkedIn. Come say hi if you’re there!

The thing I kept noticing at every one of these events was how many of these people I recognised from LinkedIn. We had been in each other's orbit online for months, sometimes years. But being in the same room, having a real conversation, sharing a meal? It changes everything. The relationships that move your business forward are not easily built in the comment sections. They are built in-person. And I want to create that space for people.

So, if you’re a based in the UK and want to meet your LinkedIn connections IRL → I’m making it happen…

Not spilling much tea on it right now, but I’ve opened the applications early exclusively for my newsletter folks.

Best,
Fatima Khan