# Companies can outgrow people who once fit their roles

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/companies-can-outgrow-people-who-once-fit-their-roles/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Chase Lochmiller](https://realalpha.app/builders/chase-lochmiller/) · Chase Lochmiller is CEO of Crusoe. · Co-founded Crusoe in 2018 on the bet that energy would be AI's biggest bottleneck, and builds the data centers.
- Host: [Sonya Huang](https://realalpha.app/people/sonya-huang/) · Partner, Sequoia Capital · Works with OpenAI and Anthropic; co-wrote Sequoia's essay on generative AI.
- Host: [Pat Grady](https://realalpha.app/people/pat-grady/) · Co-steward, Sequoia Capital · Joined Sequoia in 2007; backed Snowflake, Zoom, ServiceNow and OpenAI.
- Show: Training Data
- Episode: [Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller: Turning Stranded Energy Into Intelligence](https://realalpha.app/v/64vUl9k-IAQ/), Oct 29, 2026
- Moment: 37:16 to 40:57 of the episode (4 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/companies-can-outgrow-people-who-once-fit-their-roles/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/64vUl9k-IAQ/?t=2236

## Quote

> “the crux of it is something along the lines of, you know, **people scale linearly companies scale exponentially**.”
> — [Chase Lochmiller](https://realalpha.app/builders/chase-lochmiller/) at [39:25](https://realalpha.app/v/64vUl9k-IAQ/?t=2365) · Training Data

## Takeaways

1. CEOs often wait too long to fire someone.
2. Read a mosaic of signals across the organization, not a single complaint.
3. A person may not scale with a role as the company grows.

## About this segment

Chase Lochmiller says CEOs often wait too long to fire someone, even when the warning signs have been building. People may not scale with a role as the company grows.

From “Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller: Turning Stranded Energy Into Intelligence”, Oct 29, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/64vUl9k-IAQ/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[37:20](https://realalpha.app/v/64vUl9k-IAQ/?t=2240) challenges are, you know, when do I keep believing in someone and when do I decide like, Hey, we need to move on. And like, we need a different, different person in this role. Uh, you know, I, I think it's, or, or how do we get like two brilliant people to work together on something that are fundamentally disagreeing. And, um, I, like, I don't know, I've just found the people to be the hardest thing and also like the greatest superpower if you can get it right.

[37:46](https://realalpha.app/v/64vUl9k-IAQ/?t=2266) People always said to me, you should hire slow and fire fast. I did the opposite, particularly on the fire side. It sounds like you move some people out. Did you do it too slowly? Did you ever regret it? Or were the signals that kind of push you over the edge? I think almost always there's a bias towards you just end up firing people too slowly. It's It's just like there's an inherent bias. So even if you're very responsive, like, you know, I do think that for most CEOs.

[38:21](https://realalpha.app/v/64vUl9k-IAQ/?t=2301) You know, when you fire someone, you've clearly been thinking about it for a long time. And it's almost like when you started thinking about it, that was sort of the right time to fire them. But like, you know, it's hard to. What signal are you looking at? Is it other people on the team saying this person's subpar? Is it what is it? It's not that. That is definitely like a data point. I think our job as a CEO is you are reading this mosaic of information, right? You have all these little tidbits and they're often from very different parts of the organization.

[39:01](https://realalpha.app/v/64vUl9k-IAQ/?t=2341) and different, you know, coming from someone super technicals, coming from someone, you know, that's like more of a people person coming, you know, like all these like different things. And you're sort of amassing all these different pieces of information. And, you know, it's up to you to like make a judgment call around like what the best decision is for the company. I do think that I forget who published, I think it was like first round capital has this really great blog called like the startup laws of physics. And, uh, you know, the, the, the, the crux of it is something along the lines of, you know, people scale linearly companies scale exponentially. So you sort of have this great company scale exponentially. So you sort of have this dynamic where or even if you challenge your people to continue to grow and continue to invest in themselves,

[39:49](https://realalpha.app/v/64vUl9k-IAQ/?t=2389) if the company really grows in the way that you're sort of setting out as an ambitious leader, oftentimes the person who was the right person for that role at one point in time may not be able to grow and scale to be the person in that role two years later when the company is 10 times bigger. And that's a hard reality to face as a leader because you end up in the trenches with these people. You end up working late nights, early mornings. You see these people really giving everything they have to the mission. And when you have those moments where the company outgrows the person, it's just hard, right? Because you care a lot about these people on a personal basis, even if you know the best thing for the company is to find someone new for a specific role. Anyway, coming back to why I've fired people in the past, it's almost like every

[40:43](https://realalpha.app/v/64vUl9k-IAQ/?t=2443) case is a snowflake every single one is different and you know it's it's it's ultimately up to you to make the the the judgment call of what's what's the right thing for the business okay i have two