Why choosing not to hire was the solution for my startup — we raised over $100 million and tripled revenue with the same people

There’s a moment every founder recognizes. Revenue is climbing. Customers are coming faster. The roadmap is full. People are stretched. The instinct is immediate and familiar: we need to hire. When we reached that moment at Abacum, we paused.

Not because we were trying to run lean at all costs or prove a point about efficiency. But because hiring felt like the safe answer. And we wanted to understand whether we were building a company to scale or if we were about to mask deeper problems with headcount.