A Future by Design: Choosing Growth Without Sacrificing Who You Are

Too much growth can present a challenge for successful, founder-led companies. The qualities that make the business distinctive—its culture, values, and ways of working—can also make leaders cautious about growing too quickly or taking risks that might jeopardize what already works.  

Menlo Innovations knew that tension well. 

The business had grown incrementally for years, developing a unique identity and loyal customer base. After weathering the pandemic, Menlo rebounded with the strongest performance in its history. But then growth stalled and, as CEO Rich Sheridan tells it, “We started asking ourselves, Are we bumping into a ceiling?” 

Menlo’s leadership faced a choice: stop growing and stay put, or keep growing beyond their comfort zone?  Growth itself was welcome—but not if becoming bigger meant becoming less Menlo. Should the company continue managing incremental growth that had served it well? Or could it break through that ceiling without sacrificing what made Menlo successful?

When Growth Feels Like a Risk 

Growth itself is hardly inherently problematic. For Menlo, the concern was what uncontrolled growth might risk. The company had spent more than two decades developing a distinctive way of working. Its unique High-Tech Anthropology® and unusual “paired” software development enabled it to emphasize experimentation, learning quickly, and integrating innovation into its work. 

Those qualities contributed to Menlo’s success. If growth meant becoming less Menlo, however, leadership wasn’t interested. “Becoming an impersonal corporation is one thing we didn’t want to do,” Rich says. 

That concern had helped shape Menlo’s approach to growth. Staying close to existing customers and following their lead might feel safer than making bigger bets on an uncertain future, but incremental growth would no longer be enough to achieve the company’s ambitions. 

From Incremental to Intentional Growth 

By this point, Menlo had already adopted the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), building greater discipline around priorities and execution. But for Rich, effective execution raised another question. What exactly are we prioritizing, and why? 

That was the question Menlo brought to Shepherd Advisors. 

Together, we began translating Menlo’s ambitions into an intentional growth strategy, eventually named Future by Design. Leadership set a 5-year goal to double revenue, something Menlo had never intentionally set out to do before. 

A higher financial target was only part of the equation. Reaching it would require a whole new approach. Menlo needed to become more deliberate about which customers, markets, and opportunities it pursued, with an eye toward the company it wanted to be 5 years from now. 

First, leadership needed a clearer understanding of what its customers valued most. 

What Customers Wanted: More Menlo 

Through Voice-of-Customer work, Menlo and Shepherd looked closely at what customers wanted from the company and where Menlo could create greater value. One major finding helped resolve an important tension. Customers valued Menlo precisely because of the qualities that made it distinctive. They didn’t want Menlo to become something else as it grew. They wanted more of what Menlo did well, along with greater capacity to respond to their evolving needs.  

In other words, Menlo’s identity didn’t have to be an obstacle to growth. It could contribute to it.  

A new question naturally followed from this insight: Who is the ideal customer for the Menlo of the future? The analysis reinforced existing opportunities among its large enterprise customers, where Menlo could build long-term relationships and successive engagements. Some enterprise clients had already been returning for more than a decade. 

Armed with sharper focus, Menlo’s leadership could be more purposeful about pursuing customers who valued what made the company distinctive. Greater clarity about which customers and opportunities could drive growth also created a stronger foundation to plan growth rather than simply respond to it. 

Today’s Decisions, Tomorrow’s Growth

 

Knowing where Menlo wanted growth to come from made it possible to think much further ahead. Leadership could now make today’s decisions in the context of the Menlo they wanted to build 5 years from now.  

Doubling revenue over that timeframe demands different decisions than managing incremental growth. Working backward from that goal connects growth expectations to hiring, capacity, space, finances, pricing, and market choices.  

Shepherd’s strategy work helped Menlo clarify those choices. Menlo’s EOS discipline helped translate them into action. Strategy is no longer separate from running the business. Paired with disciplined execution, it now shapes how leadership runs it. 

Crucially, looking farther ahead hasn’t required Menlo to become a different company. “The Menlo we have today is the same underlying Menlo,” Rich says, “but now we’re planning 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, and 10 years in advance.” 

Breaking Through the Ceiling 

The ceiling Rich was once concerned about has given way. Menlo expects 2026 to be another record revenue year, with more than 30 percent growth over 2025. But the results extend beyond the numbers. 

Leadership now has a clearer picture of the company Menlo wants to become, the customers that can help it get there, and the capabilities and culture it can carry forward as it grows. Rich also has greater confidence that Menlo can thrive beyond its founders. “Ultimately they will be able to do it well without me,” he says.

Your Future by Design 

Future by Design has given Menlo a way to turn that longer-term vision into choices and action today. As Rich puts it, “It emboldens you to keep making bigger and bigger decisions as you go.”  

For founder-led companies, the qualities leaders are most determined to protect don’t have to constrain growth. The right strategy can reveal where those qualities create value, where the business needs to evolve, and which customers and opportunities can help shape the future it wants to build. 

If your company is ready to be more intentional about what comes next,

let’s connect.

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