You’re scaling. Revenue’s up. The team is growing.
But instead of momentum, you’re feeling drag.
What gives?
Here’s the truth most founders miss: your biggest scaling bottleneck is people — not systems, not strategy, not market conditions.
And the longer you avoid it, the more it costs: in momentum, morale, and margin.
🎙️ In this episode of The Scaling Paradox, we sit down with Angelina Galindo former enterprise exec turned leadership coach — to uncover what’s really breaking companies at $80K–$150K MRR and beyond.
With decades of experience in billion-dollar B2B deals, Angelina now coaches founders through the invisible breakdowns that stall growth:
Mis-hires and weak onboarding
Late firing decisions
Burnout from over-functioning leadership
Confusion between loyalty and competence
💥 What we cover:
• Why hiring too slow kills growth — and how to fix your hiring process
• The 1:1 framework that transforms updates into ownership
• How to identify misaligned team members early
• The right way to fire someone without guilt or delay
• How to coach mid-level leaders to make decisions without you
• Angelina’s 3 founder rules to scale sustainably (and stay sane)
🔊 Standout Clip:
“You already know who needs to go.”
It’s not just a gut feeling — it’s your unspoken data.
Ignoring it? That’s how teams stagnate and founders spiral.
🧠 Full Episode Breakdown
ACT I — The Spark
Angelina dominates in enterprise sales, then walks away to rebuild life on her own terms. From scuba diving to spirituality, she learns the deeper game: scaling is always about people.
ACT II — The Break
Coaching founders, she sees the same trap: over-functioning CEOs, loyal but ineffective teams, and no one taking ownership. Leadership debt builds. Growth slows.
ACT III — The Shift
She lays out her leadership operating system:
Create success paths
Shift 1:1s from status to strategy
Exit fast, but with grace
This isn’t theory — it’s the manager reset every founder needs.
ACT IV — The Wisdom
Burnout doesn’t come from doing too much. It comes from staying misaligned.
Angelina’s 3 rules:
Always show up.
Always upgrade.
Get over it.
Because growth doesn’t care how you feel — but your team reflects it.
🎧 Listen if you’re a founder who:
• Feels friction in your leadership team
• Is stuck in the weeds and can’t let go
• Needs to fix culture without slowing down
• Is scaling a SaaS, agency, or service business past $100K MRR
This isn’t a playbook.
It’s a mirror.
🔥 Tap play on “People Problems: The #1 Scaling Bottleneck Nobody Prepares You For”
with Angelina Galindo — and start building a team that actually scales with you.
👇
Follow the show. Rate it. Share it with a founder stuck in team chaos.
You don’t need more hires, you need sharper ops.
Jai Dolwani scaled 3 businesses without a single full-time employee. In this episode, he breaks down how.
You’ll leave with:
• The 3-question freelancer test
• Roles you should never outsource
• Why most hiring advice leads to bloat
This isn’t theory, it’s the lean ops playbook.
You scaled. You built the thing.
But now… you’re not the same person anymore.
Andreas Pettersson has reinvented himself more times than most dare:
• Factory line → CEO of 150• Burnout → mission-led founder
In this episode, we unpack what most founders ignore:
You can’t scale your company if you never reinvent yourself.
You’ll leave with:• 3 founder reinvention patterns• How ADHD became his edge• The habit that changes everything
Mitch Barham scaled his agency to $1M ARR in 12 months, then nearly burned it down.
In this episode, we unpack burnout, bottlenecks, and “Brad,” the alter ego of self-sabotage that almost wrecked it all.
You’ll learn:
• When to hire a COO• How to spot burnout early• Why 80% from someone else is enough to scale
You’re scaling. Revenue’s solid. But something feels… off.
Executive coach Michele Jewett has helped 100s of founders break the burnout-success paradox. She shares tactical tools to realign your vision, reclaim your joy, and lead without losing yourself.
Leave with: a “joy meter” audit, the “second arrow” reframe, and AI prompts to uncover your true values.
For founders scaling fast and feeling stuck anyway.
Chris Lang scaled Fresh Chile to $10M+ on Shopify. Then he realized he was the bottleneck.
In this episode, he breaks down how he rebuilt everything around three core levers: consistency, communication, and creativity.
You’ll learn:
How to spot when you're the bottleneck (and what to do about it)
The 3C framework Chris uses across brand, SaaS, and agency
How to delegate without losing visibility or control
Why narrative isn't just brand, it’s an ops weapon
Listen now if you're scaling and still too deep in the weeds.
Phoenix Ha on Doubling Revenue by Cutting 80% of Her Users
What if the thing breaking your growth… is the customer you’re trying to serve?
Phoenix Ha, co-founder of AdBeacon, hit a revenue plateau. The product worked. The users were active. But something wasn’t clicking.
In this episode, Phoenix shares the ruthless pivot that unlocked their next stage of growth: killing the free trial, cutting off 80% of users, and going all-in on the 20% who actually mattered.
You’ll hear:
Why free trials are ego traps (and what to do instead)
How picking the wrong ICP nearly stalled momentum
The quiet cost of building a brand that no longer reflects you
This is what happens when a founder stops chasing growth hacks—and starts building for the customer who actually drives value.