Laura Barbal, People & Culture Manager for startups and scaleups at Akiles.

In this interview, we speak with Laura Barbal, a People & Culture professional with experience supporting startups and scaleups through growth stages, about the key challenges of building teams in environments where everything changes quickly and every decision has a direct impact on the business.

Throughout the conversation, we explore how the People function becomes more professionalized when a company starts to scale, what mistakes tend to appear when that process happens too late, how to attract talent without a big brand behind you, and why culture isn’t built through perks, but through coherent day-to-day decisions.

How did you get into the world of People & Culture, and what drew you to working with startups and scaleups in phases of accelerated growth?

I got into the world of People & Culture almost by chance. I studied Business Administration and started my first internship at a Google partner, in the procurement and purchasing area—something that had nothing to do with what I do today. But in a conversation with the CEO, I mentioned that what I enjoyed most about my job was everything related to people, communication, and interaction between teams.

From there, we started building a People role within the company, because at that time those responsibilities were more spread across other areas, such as Finance. That was the starting point of my career and also the moment when I discovered the startup ecosystem.

What hooked me about that environment was, above all, impact. In a startup, every person has a very direct influence on the project, its evolution, and its culture. On top of that, the People role in these companies is far more strategic and dynamic than in more traditional contexts. That mix of impact, speed, and the ability to build from scratch is what made me stay.

When a startup goes from 10 to 50 people, what are the essential pillars for building a People function that supports that leap?

I’d say there are two very clear priorities. The first is clearly defining the structure the project needs in order to grow: what profiles are needed, what kind of team we want to build, where the company is heading, and how we’ll anticipate those needs. One of the most common mistakes is growing by inertia or urgency—“we need someone right now to do this.” And while sometimes that’s unavoidable, it ends up creating structures that aren’t well thought out and are misaligned with what the business truly needs.

The second priority is working very closely with managers. The People function needs to be a strategic partner that can provide tools, criteria, and guidance on leadership, culture, and decision-making. In high-growth environments, managers are handling teams, results, operations, and urgent issues at the same time, and it’s easy for certain signals or small misalignments to go unnoticed.

The problem is that those small details add up—and when they eventually blow up, the cost is usually much higher. That’s why, even when there are a thousand things to do, building a solid foundation in structure and leadership is essential.

You’ve led more than 300 hires. What have you learned about attracting talent in environments where speed and culture matter more than brand?

When you’re not working for a brand that sells itself, like a big tech company, you have to build trust. That’s the key word. Trust in the project is conveyed at every touchpoint with candidates: in how you write a job post, how you present the challenge, how you communicate by email, how you run the process, and how you explain the real context of the company.

I’ve learned that it doesn’t work to try to sell a startup as if it were perfect. Especially in early or fast-scaling phases, it’s normal to have inefficiencies, uncertainty, or areas that are still not fully defined. And rather than hiding that, what matters is explaining it with honesty and clarity.

When someone truly understands the challenge, the company’s stage, the difficulties, and also the impact they can have within the project, the connection becomes much more real. In those environments, talent doesn’t join just for a brand or a list of perks, but because they trust what’s behind it and feel they can build something meaningful.

What signs indicate that a startup is ready to professionalize People & Culture, and what common mistakes happen if it’s done too late?

More than being “ready,” I’d talk about when clear friction starts to appear. Those are usually the real signals: incoherent decisions across teams, overwhelmed managers, difficulty managing performance, recurring people-management issues, or turnover that no one can quite explain.

When these situations show up, it probably already means you need a person or an area specifically focused on People & Culture—someone who thinks about it in a structured way, brings coherence, supports managers, and helps bring order to growth.

When you arrive late, the most common mistake is trying to fix everything at once. But that rarely works. In these contexts, you have to prioritize well: identify the actions that can have the greatest impact and build from there, step by step. It’s not about implementing everything at the same time, but about starting with what truly unblocks the project.

How do you build a strong culture in a scaleup without falling into “empty perks” and while keeping the focus on autonomy, clarity, and purpose?

Culture isn’t built through perks; it’s built through decisions. Benefits, a nice office, or a ping-pong table can help, but they don’t define an organization’s real culture. What truly defines it is how decisions are made—how leadership shows up, how you hire, how you promote, how you manage conflict, and how you respond to complex situations.

If a company offers lots of benefits but then makes incoherent decisions or fails to act in time when problems arise, that incoherence ends up weighing far more than any perk.

That’s why building a strong culture requires conscious, shared work. It’s not only People’s job: you also need to involve managers, because they have the biggest impact on teams’ day-to-day experience. Sitting down and defining together how we want to do things is essential: what behaviors we value, how we evaluate, how we resolve tension, what kind of leadership we want to foster.

Also, culture isn’t static. In early stages, many dynamics emerge naturally because the team is small and everything is close. But as the company grows, that culture has to be worked on and revisited. Making time for it isn’t a luxury—it’s a strategic priority.

What trends in talent, culture, and employee experience do you think will shape the future of tech companies in the coming years?

Beyond the obvious impact of artificial intelligence—which will help automate many still very manual tasks within People—I think we’ll see increasing expectations around leadership quality.

There will be less focus on superficial benefits or “posturing” and more attention on having managers who are truly aligned, able to provide clarity, set expectations, develop their teams, and sustain healthy cultures. That will be one of the key differences between companies that scale well and those that don’t.

I also think we’re entering a stage where many traditional HR frameworks, models, or practices are starting to fall short. For years, very theoretical or standard processes—like certain surveys, evaluations, or performance systems—have been applied without asking whether they truly fit the project’s stage or reality.

The trend, in my view, is toward much more contextual, practical, and useful models. Fewer generic recipes and more tools tailored to each company, each growth stage, and each team’s real needs.

What advice would you give to a startup that is about to scale and wants to avoid internal friction, turnover, or a loss of culture?

My main advice would be not to wait until problems are extremely visible before acting. Many frictions that appear while scaling don’t happen overnight—they build up little by little: unclear decisions, improvised structures, managers without support, or a culture that was never explicitly defined.

That’s why it’s important to pause in time—even when it feels like there isn’t time—and think. Think about what team you really need, how you want to lead, what culture you want to sustain, and what rules of the game must be clear before continuing to grow.

Scaling isn’t only about hiring more people or speeding up operations. It also means building a foundation that allows you to grow coherently. If you don’t do that work, growth may come—but it often comes with internal wear and tear, loss of focus, and avoidable tension.

How can the ONE Platform help startups and scaleups connect with talent, training, tech partners, and best practices in people management?

I think the great value of initiatives like the ONE Platform lies in offering useful, centralized, real information. For a long time in the entrepreneurial ecosystem there has been quite a bit of noise, a lot of aspirational talk, and also a fair amount of posturing. That’s why having spaces where information is practical, truthful, and grounded in the real challenges of building a company can add tremendous value.

For startups and scaleups, having a place to find resources, best practices, training, connections, and high-quality references makes decision-making much easier. It also helps you know who to reach out to, where to look for support, and how to solve questions in moments of growth or change.

And if that platform also helps share a more honest view of entrepreneurship, showing not only what’s inspiring but also the real challenges behind building a company, its impact on the ecosystem can be even greater.