Hi, I’m Tabish Bibikar, and I coach and mentor software company founders to build scale in their business—without losing their top talent or working 14-hour days. Let me take you inside a story, I’ve seen play out across a number of software service companies. You’ve got a solid team. Projects are coming in. Clients are happy… mostly. But growth? Stuck. So what do you do? You push sales harder, you jump back into client escalations, maybe even try cracking the next market YOURSELF. But let me tell you what’s really happening—

Your second line isn’t thinking like founders. They’re busy managing Jira boards, closing sprints, sending updates… But they’re not thinking about margin, client lifetime value, or delivery efficiency. And without that mindset—you’ll always be stuck in founder-led firefighting. So how do you fix it? Let’s break it down:

  1. Give Them Business Visibility If your Project Leads or Tech Heads only know deadlines, they’ll never learn to make strategic decisions.

Start including them in client account reviews, share gross margin numbers, talk about cost of delivery and client retention. One founder I coached started sharing project-level profitability metrics in weekly check-ins. Guess what? His leads began proactively identifying scope creep before it hurt margins. 2. Train Them to Think Like You Instead of asking “How’s the project going?” Try asking:

 “What would make the client renew for another year?”  “Where are we leaking effort or hours?”  “What process would you automate first if this was your company?” That’s how you shift gears from task-takers to business owners. 3. Tie Rewards to Ownership Create incentives not just for on-time delivery, but for reducing rework, improving client CSAT, or increasing upsells.

Give them a target. Give them autonomy. Then give them recognition. You see, in services—it’s not about having more people. It’s about having more people who think like you. When your second line starts acting like founders—your business stops depending on you to grow. And that, my friend, is when scale begins. If this clicked for you, hit that like button and share it with a fellow founder.

Thanks for watching—and I’ll see you in the next one!

Tabish Bibikar

Video By:

Tabish Bibikar

Tabish Bibikar is a seasoned Coach specializing in guiding high-performing software company founders. With nearly three decades of experience in the IT industry, ranging from small firms to multinational giants, Tabish has a comprehensive understanding at both micro and macro levels.

Since 2014, she has coached numerous software companies, including SAAS providers and product development firms, helping them achieve significant milestones such as reaching their first Million and scaling up further. Tabish's expertise in IT business coaching has enabled her clients to consistently generate more leads, increase profits, build and retain exceptional talent, and attract crucial investments.

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