S2 Ep 13 | Scaling Your Business Past $100M: 3 Things Every Leader Gets Wrong with Dave Bulloch

Scaling your business from a fast-growing company into a medium or large organization is one of the most critical transitions a founder or executive will ever face. You have hired well, grown fast, and built something real. But what separates the business that crosses $100 million and keeps climbing from the one that quietly stalls? In this third episode with business advisor Dave Bulloch, Mark and Dave dig into exactly that question.

What Scaling Your Business Actually Requires

Dave names three areas that show up as blind spots in almost every company he has worked with at this stage: people, process, and strategy. Not as buzzwords, but as the practical levers every growth-stage leader needs to pull, in that order.

The first is people. When scaling your business past the high double-digit millions, you need more than people who know your industry. You need functional experts: HR professionals who have spent careers in HR, finance leaders with deep operational knowledge, and specialists who know how to build systems at scale. Dave uses the analogy of a doctor who builds a great clinic but is not automatically equipped to run a multi-location healthcare organization. The same logic applies to every founder-led business approaching serious scale.

The second is process. Most businesses at this stage, even those doing tens of millions in revenue, have no documented processes. Dave makes the case that this is where the most hidden value sits. He shares a real example: his team identified one operational task being performed differently across 50 employees. By watching the best performers and standardizing the approach, they cut the task from 258 seconds to 201 seconds. The result was over $2 million in annual savings at a single company, from one process change. Systems cannot produce that outcome. Only people who understand process can.

The third is strategy. Fast-growth leadership teams tend to stop having strategic conversations precisely when they need them most. Everyone gets heads-down. Communication breaks at the senior level. Teams start working in different directions without realizing it. Dave recommends a structured three-year strategic planning cycle, done off-site with the right facilitator, and translated into annual business plans. He has never seen it fail when done properly.

Mark connects all three to his own experience running quarterly strategic reviews, and to the discipline of working on the business rather than only in it. If you are scaling your business and want to protect the growth you have built, this episode gives you the framework, the real-world examples, and the mindset shift to act on it.

Show Notes:

In this third conversation with Dave Bulloch, Mark and Dave focus on the challenges that show up when scaling your business into medium to large territory. Dave outlines three consistent patterns he sees in businesses approaching and surpassing $100 million in revenue, and explains why getting these wrong at this stage is far more costly than most leaders realize.

Topics Covered

• The difference between industry experience and functional expertise, and why the latter matters more when scaling your business
• Why HR professionals, finance leaders, and operational experts with deep functional knowledge outperform generalists at the senior level
• The doctor analogy: knowing your craft and running a business at scale are two different skill sets
• Why most businesses, even large ones, have no documented processes
• How to identify your best processes by watching your best performers
• The $2 million process example: 258 seconds to 201 seconds, and what that one change meant for the bottom line
• Why systems cannot solve process problems, and why entrepreneurs jump to systems too quickly
• Lean Six Sigma in plain language: just watch what people are doing and look for easier ways to do it
• Why strategic planning gets ignored and what happens when it does
• How to run a meaningful strategic planning session and what makes a good facilitator
• The three-year strategic cycle Dave uses across every business he has worked with at the executive level
• Mark on quarterly strategic retreats and why missing even one leads to drift

Key Takeaways

• [03:46] Hire for functional expertise, not just industry knowledge. When scaling your business past $100M, you need specialists in HR, finance, and operations, not just people who know your sector.
• [13:41] People, process, systems — in that order. Most entrepreneurs skip straight to systems. It never works if the first two are not in place.
• [17:21] Most scaling businesses have no documented processes. The biggest efficiency gains come not from new systems but from mapping and optimizing what your people are already doing.
• [20:25] Process optimization can be worth millions. Dave’s example: cutting one operational task from 258 to 201 seconds generated over $2M in annual savings at a single company.
• [22:27] Watch your best performers. The most efficient process in your business often already exists. Find who is doing it best and learn from them.
• [24:37] Strategic planning is not optional. Even the best leadership teams drift when they stop talking about the business at a strategic level.
• [26:28] Quarterly strategic reviews keep leaders focused. Without scheduled time to work on the business, even disciplined leaders drift within months.
• [31:15] Bring in a skilled facilitator for strategic sessions. A bad first experience often kills strategic planning permanently for that business. Get the right guide.

Resources Mentioned

• S2Ep11 Founder Mistakes That Slow Business Growth and How to Fix Them Before They Cost You 
• S2Ep7  Critical Business Succession Planning Mistakes Every Entrepreneur Must Avoid

About Dave Bulloch

Dave Bulloch is a business advisor and operator with deep experience supporting founder-led and entrepreneur-driven companies at every stage of growth. His work spans start-up structure, high growth management, and large-scale business optimization. This is his third appearance on the TRAITS Podcast as part of a four-part series on the business life cycle.

Connect with Dave

• Dave’s LinkedIn

Connect & Subscribe

• Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts
• Leave a review — it helps us reach more entrepreneurs like you
• Have a topic or question? Drop a comment or reach out — Mark reads every one

🔗 Connect with us on LinkedIn

📸 Follow us on Instagram

📰 Read our BLOG

📩 Sign up to our Newsletter