Startup Founder Lessons on Scaling Teams, Systems, and Culture with Kevin Henrikson

Nerding Out With Viktor

In this episode of Nerding Out with Viktor, host Viktor Petersson is joined by Kevin Henrikson, an experienced engineering leader who's worked with Zimbra, Microsoft, and Instacart, to share real startup founder lessons on how to scale engineering teams, build resilient systems, and manage growth through acquisitions. Kevin explains what founders often get wrong when scaling, why a simple weekly shipping cadence changed everything at Outlook Mobile, and how aligning around a single operational metric helped Instacart navigate massive demand during the COVID surge. We talk about how to avoid "organ rejection" during an acquisition, the shift from founder to advisor inside large companies, and what breaks first when scaling from 10 to 1500 engineers. Kevin also covers org design for distributed teams, why CTOs need to think about people and systems as much as code, and how he's using AI and automation to operate leaner, more scalable SaaS businesses. Whether you're a startup founder, CTO, or building your first technical team, this episode is packed with insights from someone who has done it at every stage.