Member-only story
When It Feels Like Us vs. Them in a Startup
Why Startup Tensions Are About Perspective, Not Conflict
For non-members, you can read the full story here.
In every leadership role I’ve held, especially in fast-moving startups with limited runway, one pattern kept showing up like clockwork: us vs. them. Marketing versus Engineering. Product versus Sales. Office versus Remote.
And I’ll be honest, I’ve felt that tension in my bones.
Different Angles, Same Goal
It’s that creeping feeling that the other team just doesn’t get it. That Sales is making promises we can’t possibly deliver. That Engineering is slowing everything down. That Product is off making decisions in isolation. This dynamic is so common when you’re moving fast, under pressure, and juggling too much with too little.
But every time I felt it, or saw it happening in my team, I realised something important. We were missing the bigger picture.
We weren’t on different sides. We weren’t looking at different goals. We were all working towards the same thing. The same product. The same company. We just happened to be coming at it from different angles.
Sales is trying to sell. That’s their job. They’re focused on bringing in…
