How Spruce Is Responding to the Demands of Fast Growth
The quest to scale might not always be a frictionless journey.
“Things are going to get messy at times and growth will always introduce chaos. The biggest key to scaling is prioritization and persistence,” Jason Cunningham, chief growth officer at Spruce, said.
The topic is important for Spruce, a company included in our list of 21 Austin Companies to Watch in 2021 that links apartment buildings up with providers of home tasks such as laundry and pet care. According to Cunningham, future plans include broadening Spruce’s core focus beyond apartments.
“We have had to scale quickly to keep up with our customer growth and ensure that quality doesn’t slip as service volume expands,” Cunningham said.
As Cunningham observed, “There is no perfect structure when it comes to scaling a startup.” Nevertheless, there are a few essentials that are helpful, which the leader shared below with Built In Austin.
Tell us a bit about the team that scaled and your role on it. What is its purpose in the larger company, and why did it need to be expanded so quickly?
At Spruce, as with many startups, growing requires that we do two things simultaneously: scale our group of exceptional people and create an organizational structure that lets those people solve problems quickly. Spruce is on a mission to make in-home services more accessible, and we’re starting by using technology to provide the most enjoyable and efficient housekeeping experience possible. To do this, we need to bring together a variety of functions to create a great experience for customers: marketing to let them know what we offer, operations to ensure cleaning goes smoothly, and support to help answer questions and assist when complications arise.
At Spruce, these three teams have come together under our larger umbrella of Strategy & Operations. As the chief growth officer, I oversee the S&O department. We have had to scale quickly to keep up with our customer growth and to ensure that quality doesn’t slip as service volume expands. Unlike a pure software company, our product occurs in the real world, with a physical interaction taking place. And since this is happening inside the home, it’s important that we create as much trust and confidence as possible.
What was the process of scaling like and how long did it take? Were there any hiccups or aha moments to share?
This team was formed in June and has been scaling over the past three months. The process has been great, as every new person brings a fresh perspective and allows us to stretch our thinking. But this also requires us to constantly revisit our assumptions and make sure that the entire company is communicating as information changes. Some of the hiccups in scaling have come as information doesn’t make its way across teams, so we’ve had to ensure that we have consistent and easy ways to share details back and forth across teams. We leverage a lot of tools internally and try to make sure that people know where to look — such as clear and consistent Slack channels and team intake forms — in order to prevent unnecessary hiccups.
Having gone through this at a few companies now, the primary aha moment is realizing that there is no perfect structure when it comes to scaling a startup. Things are going to get messy at times and growth will always introduce chaos. The biggest key to scaling is prioritization and persistence. Know that things will fall through the cracks, but don’t let it stop you from waking up each morning and making things 1 percent better than the day before.
The primary aha moment is realizing that there is no perfect structure when it comes to scaling a startup.”
What’s the most exciting project the team will be taking on in the next few months?
At this stage, there are so many upcoming initiatives that are exciting and will prove formative to the future of the company. But if I had to choose one, I’m looking forward to expanding our services outside of apartment communities. Spruce is currently available in over 50,000 apartment homes in Austin. Over the coming months, we’ll start beta testing a program to serve other types of homes, so whether you live in a condo in SoCo or a house in Round Rock, you can access Spruce. As I mentioned, we’re focused on providing access to an exceptional housekeeping experience, and I can’t wait to make that experience available to all of the residents of Austin.
