Introducing Rhythms of Scale
Practical insights on communication, culture, and cadence—drawn from leaders who’ve lived the highs and lows of scaling real companies. Delivered every two weeks.
Brought to you by:
ExactTempo—The top 1% of leaders send consistent updates that empower their teams. ExactTempo makes it 10x easier, so you can too.
Over the past 20 years, I built two companies from scratch to strategic acquisitions. I’ve led small teams through early scrappy growth, navigated the messy transition to scale, and stepped into GM roles post-acquisition—owning a P&L inside a NASDAQ company.
No matter the stage, the core leadership challenge was the same:
How do you keep a growing team aligned, empowered, and scaling with clarity?
Great product and go-to-market execution were critical. But what led to consistent results month over month, quarter over quarter, and year after year was the unglamorous leadership levers:
How we communicated with the company
The culture we shaped and reinforced
The operating cadence we built to support decision-making and momentum
When those were in sync, growth felt smooth. When they weren’t, everything wobbled.
That’s why I’m launching Rhythms of Scale—a bi-weekly newsletter on the communication practices, cultural rituals, and operating rhythms that help leaders scale deliberately and sustainably.
Why This, Why Now
Across every business I’ve led—and in nearly every conversation I’ve had with other CEOs and founders—the same challenges keep surfacing:
How do we keep the narrative aligned as the company evolves?
How do we turn values into behaviors—not just posters?
How do we establish cadence without introducing bureaucracy or burnout?
These aren’t just my questions. They’re the quiet friction points every high-growth leader eventually hits.
And yet, while there’s an abundance of practical wisdom around product, GTM, and fundraising, most resources on comms, culture, and cadence still feel overly academic or abstract.
That’s the gap this newsletter is here to fill.
You’ll hear stories from the trenches—CEOs designing communication rituals that actually work, exec teams building culture systems that scale, and operators who’ve cracked the code on cadence without slowing down or burning out.
Some insights will come from my own journey. Most will come from conversations I’m having now with leaders navigating their second or third act—where the stakes are higher and the playbook more intentional.
This work is also connected to ExactTempo, the product I’m building to help leaders build consistent communication habits and send high-impact weekly updates. While the newsletter stands alone, the product is shaped by the real-world ideas we’re exploring here.
👉 Not yet subscribed? Subscribe below to get the next edition in your inbox.
What You’ll Get
Every two weeks, you’ll receive a focused, tactical post in your inbox on how today’s most effective leaders use communication, culture, and cadence to scale their teams with clarity.
Topics we cover:
Internal communication that actually lands — how leaders keep employees aligned, empowered, and motivated as complexity grows.
Culture as a leadership habit — how values become behaviors through everyday rituals, not slogans.
Cadence as an operating advantage — how to set rhythms that clarify direction, accelerate decision-making, and prevent burnout.
Where the insights come from:
These ideas are pulled from real-world experience—not theory. You’ll hear from seasoned founders, CEOs, and executive operators through 1:1 interviews and private roundtables, along with firsthand lessons from my own journey building and scaling teams.
No recycled MBA frameworks. No academic theory. Just practical insights from leaders doing the work—and willing to share how.
👉 Like what you’re reading? Subscribe now and don’t miss an issue.
Who It’s For
If you’re a CEO, founder, or exec inside a growing company—and you want to scale by design, not by accident—this newsletter is for you.
Because here’s the truth:
Culture doesn’t scale on its own.
Communication doesn’t stay clear because you run a monthly all-hands pump-up.
And the cadence that got you to Series A won’t get you to 500 employees.
Leadership at scale requires intentional design and practice. Rhythms of Scale is here to support that evolution.
Already subscribed? I’m grateful to have you on this journey.
If not, now’s a great time to join us. I’d love to share what we’re learning—and always welcome your feedback, questions, or stories from the field.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in two weeks.
// Steve Cornwell
Brought to you by:
ExactTempo—The top 1% of leaders send consistent updates that empower their teams. ExactTempo makes it 10x easier, so you can too.