QuantumLight, Revolut CEO release guide for startup founders

QuantumLight, a venture capital firm founded by Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky, has released a new playbook for tech startup founders.

Titled "Driving High Performance: A Founder's Guide to Cultivating Top Talent at Scale," the guide offers comprehensive strategies for building and maintaining high-performance teams, drawing on lessons learned from Revolut's success.

Nik Storonsky, who was instrumental in building Revolut into a fintech giant valued at USD $45 billion, co-authored the playbook. "We are publishing best practices that I wish I had access to in the early days of Revolut. We condensed years of learning into an easily accessible tool for the unicorn founders of tomorrow," Storonsky remarked.

The playbook focuses on making performance management systematic and empirical. It advises startup founders to set clear expectations and metrics to measure competencies and cultural fit, aiming to reduce manager bias. The guide also encourages rewarding top performers with exponential bonuses and establishing a dedicated task force for performance management, separate from traditional HR and recruitment functions.

The playbook is structured as a step-by-step guide that founders can easily implement in their own startups. It is complemented by Revolut's company management platform, Revolut People, which offers an out-of-the-box solution for executing Storonsky’s performance strategies.

Ilya Kondrashov, CEO of QuantumLight, emphasized the importance of the release: "Cultivating a high-performance environment in your startup is a complex but crucial task, and, in the tech world, sound advice from founders who built a global business is hard to come by."

The techniques outlined in the playbook have already shown success beyond Revolut. Over 100 startups founded by Revolut alumni have raised more than USD $2.2 billion in funding, demonstrating the potential effectiveness of these methods for tech startups and scale-ups globally.

QuantumLight's approach to venture capital is data-driven, relying on sophisticated data models to inform investment decisions. This analytical approach is mirrored in the systematic methodology presented in their performance playbook.

Several portfolio companies have already benefited from implementing the playbook's best practices. Josh Kaplan, Co-founder of Ghost, a California-based B2B platform for buying and selling excess inventory, commented on their experience: "We recently implemented a structured performance review system, taking inspiration from QuantumLight's playbook. These best practices helped us gain a better understanding of our talent base and promote a higher bar for employee performance. Nik’s scientific approach to performance management is a powerful tool for any tech company, as evidenced by his success with Revolut."

Sebastian Fallert, Founder of London-based tech company Ben, which develops a platform for global and flexible employee benefits, also shared his thoughts: "We were inspired by QuantumLight's playbook when designing our own performance incentives system."

"We hope to replicate Nik's success in creating high performance and scale at Revolut, and are already seeing improvements in our ability to attract and foster top talent. It’s rare to see an accomplished founder like Storonsky share their best practices in such an accessible format—this will positively impact the tech ecosystem."

The playbook from QuantumLight Capital is now available for immediate implementation and is expected to serve as a valuable resource for startup founders, executives, and investors.