Simon Lehmann
speaker
4,796 appearances
22 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2026
last heard 11 Aug
Simon Lehmann’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 22 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 5.
Appearances
STR Global Unlocked with Simon Lehmann · The 5 Levels of STR Companies Explained · 23 Jul 2026
podcast
Without that, 50 units is the ceiling.
But level two is where it gets really difficult.
Let me show you why.
Level two is the scaling operator stage.
Roughly 5,200 units, this is where the founder makes their first real hires.
Usually an operations lead, a guest relationship person, maybe a part-time bookkeeper.
Revenue is real.
The business is no longer a side project and there is genuine momentum.
What operators at level two are most occupied with is hiring, putting out fires and chasing growth in two or three local markets simultaneously.
The owner pipeline is starting to fill on its own.
The founder is still doing too much, but they tell themselves it's temporary.
The most common mistakes I see at level two, hiring generalists instead of specialists, because the budget feels tight.
Promoting from within when the situation needs an external hire with prior scale experience.
Saying yes to every owner who walks through the door.
Continuing to operate without real KPIs.
running on instinct and gut feel and accepting a tech stack that's three or four tools duct taped together because nobody has time to fix it.
What most level two operators get wrong and why it stops them from reaching level three is that they keep adding headcount linearly with units and the founder remains the integrator across every function.
The numbers might still grow, but margin starts compressing.
Cashflow gets wired because working capital is expanding faster than profit.
The team is busy, but no one really owns outcomes.
Showing 641–660 of 4,796 · page 33 of 240
← Previous
Next →