In praise of builders: Morgan’s story

Celebrating the builders

With our mission to back the people, ideas and industries that will change the world, we come into contact with remarkable individuals on a daily basis. Here on the blog we write a lot about the founders – the figures at the heart of everything – and we do our best to supply useful, actionable insights, designed to make their scale-up journeys that little bit easier, too.

But it’s not just the founders, the architects designing the solutions of tomorrow, that play a starring role in the formation and flourishing of a revolutionary start-up: the builders are just as important. 

These are the brilliant talent, the bright sparks, who take a founder’s vision and turn it into reality – brick-by-brick. Operators, strategists and problem solvers who get their energy from growth. A career in a start-up attracts a certain type: individuals with a tolerance for ambiguity, who recognise the opportunities belonging to a small, dynamic team affords. 

This month, we’re celebrating the people powering growth. In this blog I’m going to introduce Morgan Lockyer, and through her story uncover some insights into why – for the right candidate – a career in a start-up might just present the professional challenges and excitement you’ve been looking for. 

Morgan’s pivot from enterprise to start-up

Morgan started her career in the structured world of corporate law. In the US, as in the UK, it’s an environment where the rules are clear and paths well-defined. On the one hand, to work with a clear career trajectory, seeing possibilities of the future clearly laid out. But it comes with a cost. 

When paths are pre-determined, it leaves little space for creativity or individual impact. ‘I wanted to feel like the work I was doing mattered’, Morgan says. Looking for a challenge, she took a bold leap: off the promenade of corporate life and into the refreshing – if unpredictable – waters of the start-up world.

As Morgan recalls, the transition wasn’t altogether glamorous. Certainty was replaced by ambiguity, with new, unfamiliar challenges cropping up every day. Processes long-since established in a corporate have yet to be set in a start-up, while growth inevitably introduces new challenges at pace. Relative to the operationally refined certainties of corporate law, it felt like chaos. Still, for Morgan, that chaos was liberating. ‘In a start-up’, she says, ‘you’re not just a cog in the machine. You’re building the machine’. 

More than just a hard hat

Morgan’s first role in the start-up ecosystem landed her at Move Guides (later Topia), a relocation tech startup. Her first lesson? Titles mattered less than impact. She might find herself negotiating vendor contracts one day and designing workflows for global mobility the next.  An abrupt change, but this hands-on experience, rolling up her sleeves and taking on whatever was needed formed the foundation for Morgan’s next chapter: at Octopus Ventures-backed CoMind.

Today, CoMind, which has raised over $100 million to date, is a thriving health-tech company, on a mission to transform patient outcomes through non-invasive brain monitoring. When Morgan joined, she was one of just 15. Now, the headcount is closer to 60 – and Morgan has been at the heart of that evolution, overseeing operations and clinical trials. A far cry from her life in corporate law. Along the way, she’s become an expert in growth. ‘Scaling isn’t just about hiring more people,’ she says. ‘It’s about building systems that can handle complexity without losing agility’.

Why it might be time to become a builder

Morgan’s journey underscores an important truth: start-ups aren’t just vehicles for founders. They’re a fertile training ground for ambitious professionals who want to make a real impact, even as they fast-track their career growth. While roles in corporates can be narrowly defined, start-ups offer both a front-row seat on the entire business and an opportunity for meaningful, impactful participation. Start-up builders don’t just execute tasks; individuals shape strategy, influence culture and drive real, tangible outcomes.

For those who take the leap, a move into a start-up offers an unprecedented degree of exposure to the workings of a new business. Incomers should expect to work across functions and learn fast. 

In place of the narrowly defined and closely reviewed roles found in many corporates, start-ups offer high levels of autonomy; the high agency mindset is real – it’s rewarded with the chance to shape a company’s trajectory, and make an immediate, visible impact. And beyond turbo-charging a business’s growth, start-ups also offer the opportunity to turbo-charge your own. 

Some see ambiguity as a barrier. To the right candidate for a start-up role, it’s more like a catalyst for development. One that can unlock new ways of working, outlooks and capabilities through adaptation, innovation and resilience. 

Morgan’s advice for aspiring builders 

Morgan’s experience has shown her that thriving in a start-up demands a shift in mindset: away from one that awaits instruction, and towards a proactive, problem-solving embrace of ambiguity. It’s a professional decision that isn’t for everyone – and that’s OK. Everyone has their own skills, competences and tolerances – but Morgan emphasizes that adaptability and resilience are non-negotiable traits for anyone with ambitions in the ecosystem. 

 ‘You have to be comfortable with the unknown and willing to learn on the fly,’ she says. 

That also means a humility, and willingness to learn from those who’ve gone before you. She points to mentorship as another cornerstone of growth. Seeking guidance and tracking achievements helps maintain momentum in a fast-paced setting. A great mentor-mentee relationship, she says, isn’t just about having someone to answer questions. It’s about building real, lasting relationships with people who can challenge your thinking, share their hard-earned lessons, open doors to new opportunities – and it’s about listening to them.

Here are a couple of the resources Morgan invites everyone in her teams to engage with. She’s found them indispensable in boosting performance and builder growth. Reviewing them might also offer an insight into whether or not the start-up ecosystem is right for you.

• The Checklist Manifesto – a practical guide to operational excellence and structured thinking.
• Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman – two podcasts, delivering insights from entrepreneurial leaders and strategies for growth.

While Morgan’s journey is unique, her experience isn’t: it’s one we see time and again across the ecosystem. For a certain type of person, corporate life doesn’t cut it. That’s not a value-judgement, of course. The business landscape is bursting with individuals who’ve cut their teeth and grown blooming careers at enterprise-scale companies. 

But for those who wonder if there just might be something else out there, here are a few key indicators that a career in a start-up might be for you: 

• An appetite for problem solving and a restlessly proactive approach: Success in start-ups means leaning into uncertainty, acting decisively, taking ownership of problems without prompting and seeing them through to resolution. The reward? The opportunity to meaningfully influence the growth, culture and outcomes of one of tomorrow’s biggest businesses and to grow in return.
• Humility, curiosity and an appetite to learn: Growth accelerates when you learn from others and measure progress. If you’re someone who’s always on the lookout for opportunities to hear from other’s experience – and use their stories to grow – working in a start-up is the place to go.
• Super-powered reliability and adaptability: Founders need individuals to rely on in the face of fast-moving challenges – embodying these traits sends a clear signal that you’re someone who can thrive, even when the path isn’t clear.

CoMind opportunities

In just four years at CoMind, Morgan has gone from Operations Lead to General Manager. Now, she’s focused on building the team the business needs to take it to its next stage of growth. 

Beyond the exhilaration of working somewhere new, many start-up opportunities offer candidates something else: a clear sense of mission. CoMind is no exception. With its focus on improving patient outcomes, every role in the company contributes to something meaningful – and potentially life-changing – for millions around the world. 

It also offers a case study in the opportunities afforded by rapid growth. As CoMind has ballooned from 15 to 60 employees, space has opened for ambitious professionals to step into leadership roles, gaining exposure across operations, clinical trials and product development. Anyone who recognizes themselves in the indicators listed above, thrives on learning and impact and wants to make a meaningful contribution to the future of health-tech can explore current opportunities at CoMind Careers.

Building growth

Founders may bring the vision to change the world, but they depend on builders like Morgan to execute it. As Morgan discovered, life in a start-up holds little similarity to life in a corporate, but for those with the dynamism, grit and hunger to embrace new challenges and read uncertainty as an opportunity – not a hindrance – start-ups present an extraordinary opportunity. 

From personal development to the chance to shape a world-changing new company, in real time, building turbo-charges career growth, even as it forms the foundation of successful company growth.