HRchat Podcast Culture as an Operating System: Hypergrowth and People Strategy with Q Hamirani
In this episode, Bill Banham sits down with Q Hamirani, Chief People Officer at HighLevel, one of the fastest-growing remote-first SaaS platforms serving agencies and consultants worldwide.
With 1,600+ employees spread across the globe and 1,000 new hires added in a single year, HighLevel’s meteoric rise demands a People strategy that can scale without losing its soul. As the company’s cultural architect, Q is at the helm of building a durable, people-first operating system that keeps teams aligned, inspired, and moving fast—no matter the time zone.
A trusted advisor to founders, boards, and accelerator programs like Techstars, Q blends startup grit with global operational experience and deep HR expertise. His leadership journey spans hypergrowth environments at Airbnb, Paper, and now HighLevel—giving him a front-row seat to how People leadership is evolving in the age of AI and distributed teams.
Inside this episode:
- Scaling Culture Like an Operating System: How HighLevel structures communication, decision-making, and goal-setting to keep 1,600+ employees rowing in the same direction.
- Remote Leadership Rituals: From all-hands forums to the monthly Founder’s Corner, Q shares the leadership touchpoints that anchor strategy across borders.
- Evolving the CPO Role: Why today’s Chief People Officer must blend innovation, business acumen, and cultural fluency to thrive in distributed, AI-enabled workplaces.
- Hiring for Mission Alignment: How values-based interviews and compelling onboarding narratives—like HighLevel’s “skateboard-to-Ferrari” story—help transmit founder intent to every new joiner.
- The Human Side of Hypergrowth: How creativity, music, and transcendental meditation help Q lead with empathy and resilience, and how parenthood shaped his leadership lens.
Whether you’re scaling a remote startup or professionalizing a late-stage rocket ship, this conversation is packed with tactical frameworks, cultural insights, and hard-won wisdom to help People leaders build lasting alignment at speed.
Connect with Q Hamirani on LinkedIn.
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