When Growth Becomes the Problem: Understanding Growth Debt
From How to Build a Growth System by rev.space
February 17, 2026 · 46 min · Season 3 · Episode 3
About this episode
The episode discusses the concept of growth debt and its impact on scaling companies, highlighting the hidden costs and challenges associated with fast growth.
Fast growth is supposed to feel like momentum. But for many companies, it quietly turns into friction. In this episode of How to Build a Growth System , Colin and Chris unpack the concept of growth debt — the organisational equivalent of technical debt — and why it may be costing scaling companies 20–30% of their revenue without anyone realising. Starting with Stripe’s finding that a third of developer time is lost to technical debt, the conversation zooms out to show how similar dynamics play out across people, processes, systems, and culture . The result? Teams working harder than ever, yet delivering less. Strategy that looks great on slides but never quite lands. And organisations that slow down just as they try to accelerate. Through a real-world SaaS case study, Chris explains how a well-intentioned attempt to speed up sales created cascading failures across customer success, marketing, onboarding, and data — a textbook example of growth debt compounding over time. The episode explores: What growth debt actually is (and why it’s more dangerous than technical debt) How complexity, context switching, and tool sprawl erode performance The warning signs leaders miss — from…
People in this episode
Hosts: Colin, Chris
Topics covered
- growth debt
- organizational challenges
- scaling companies
- performance erosion
- strategy execution
- SaaS case study
Keywords
- growth debt
- technical debt
- performance
- strategy
- SaaS
- customer success
- marketing
- onboarding
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Stripe
More episodes of How to Build a Growth System
- Don’t Automate Chaos: Why Most AI Transformations Fail · March 31, 2026 · 45 min
- Feedback Loops: The Signals Beneath the Dashboard · March 17, 2026 · 42 min
- The Metric Trap: Are Your Dashboards Measuring Reality? · March 3, 2026 · 48 min
- Why Silos Are a Symptom of System Failure · February 3, 2026 · 46 min
- Unlocking Growth: The Power of Self-Organization · November 19, 2025 · 43 min
- Stock, Flow, and Grow: A Systems Take on Mastery · April 29, 2025 · 54 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the How to Build a Growth System podcast page.