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Key Takeaways

  • • Codify your ways of working from day one – rituals are how founders learn to let go
  • • Trust but verify: give people ownership, then verify it’s on track through stand-ups or weekly updates
  • • Founders modelling unsustainable hours pushes employees to mirror that – even if you don’t mean it to
  • • Be upfront about expectations so people can choose with eyes open
  • • If work-life balance isn’t on the table, say so – don’t pretend otherwise

The Accountability Playbook

All-hands. Stand-ups. Weekly reports. These sound like corporate overhead, but the panel argues they’re the opposite: they’re how you build accountability into a company so you don’t have to be in every conversation yourself. Without rituals, founders end up doing everything because there’s no system to catch what falls through the cracks.
The concept the panel keeps coming back to is “trust but verify.” It’s not about mistrust. It’s about giving people real ownership of their work and then checking in regularly enough that problems surface early. Anthony Meek describes it as a contract: “I trust you with the work, but I’m going to verify that it’s on track.” That contract goes both ways – it frees the founder from hovering and frees the employee from guessing whether they’re meeting expectations.
The conversation also gets into the harder question: what happens when founders model unsustainable hours? The panel is direct. If you’re working weekends and sending emails at midnight, your team will mirror that even if you tell them not to. The advice: be honest about what the role demands. If this stage of the company means long hours and high intensity, say that upfront so people can choose with eyes open. It’s not harsh. It’s respect.

Trust but verify. I trust you with the work, but I’m going to verify that it’s on track.

— Anthony Meek, Chief People Officer, Edrolo

Featured Founders

Michael Delaney – Head of People & Culture at JET Charge. Ex-Preezie. Blends people-first leadership with AI-driven strategy to build teams that scale. Former professional ballet dancer with 20+ years in talent and culture at Salesforce, DocuSign, and high-growth startups. Co-hosts the Talent Savvy podcast and leads diversity initiatives with Jobs for Humanity.

Sarah Sherriff – People Experience Manager at Factor House. The Melbourne-based engineering-led software house behind Kpow and Flex. Builds people and culture in “by engineers, for engineers” environments. 13+ years in talent acquisition and people operations across high-growth scale-ups. Joined Factor House after their $5M Seed round to support scaling from 15 to 30+.

Pavi Iyer – Head of People & Talent at Fortiro. Purpose-driven people leader with a background in medicinal chemistry and experience across global organisations, startups, and co-founding a coffee business. Champions workplace cultures that enable individual and organisational growth, and advocates for empathy, mentorship, and supportive networks in the Victorian talent community.

Anthony Meek – Chief People Officer at Edrolo. Australia’s leading edtech. Reformed teacher and people-and-culture champion with an MBA and background in organisational psychology and therapy. Has led Edrolo through two CEO transitions while scaling the team to 200+ and speaks widely on burnout, trust, and building teams you can rely on.

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