The Org Chart is Dead: Build a Startup That Survives Its Own Success

Why should a scrappy startup care about organisational design?
Because humans are messy — expensive, unpredictable, sometimes brilliant, and always your biggest risk when you’re trying to scale. Throwing more people at the chaos isn’t a strategy; it’s a bonfire.
In this no-fluff session, Erin Clark (Stories Unseen, Mather Farm, The Exchange Collective) rips up the old playbook and shows you how to design for chaos, not control — and why that’s critical if you actually want to survive success. She’ll bring real-world lessons from the trenches of her own startups, where messy meets mission, and culture eats org charts for breakfast.
Forget bloated hierarchies and corporate “best practice” — this is about setting up your people, culture, and operations to deliver under real-world pressure.
You’ll hear what happens when founders nail it — and when they don’t — and walk away knowing what to ask before you hire, fire, or awkwardly reshuffle the deck chairs.
Spoiler: it might be all fun and games with a “Chief of Vibes” — but traction and a healthy burn rate are way cooler.

Agenda:

• 7:30 am: Shameless plugs and announcements. Introduce yourself or announce your startup to the Perth startup community!
• 7:45 am: The Org Chart Is Dead: Build a startup that survives its own success
• 8:30 am: Networking & delicious breakfast treats
• 9:00 am: Finish

About Erin
Erin Clark designs organisations built to grow, not slow down.
With an MBA and experience across startups, scale-ups, and corporates in the Asia Pacific, Erin brings practical design and a healthy disrespect for bureaucracy to building structures that scale. A founder and trusted advisor, she’s part strategist, part catalyst, and never afraid to call out what’s getting in the way.
At the collision point of people, process, tech, and information, Erin turns big ambitions into organisations that stay scrappy, scale smart, and stick to why they started. She helps startups hold their edge and pushes corporates to move faster — building businesses made for momentum, not management layers.

Live stream
This event will also be live streamed by the amazing folks at [Perthvideo.com.au](https://perthvideo.com.au/), courtesy of the New Industries Fund from the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation!

Access the live stream and all our post-event recordings here:
https://perthvideo.com.au/morning-startup-perth/

Coffee, Food and Sponsors
Tell Joey Zaza's you're heading to Morning Startup on the way in for a free coffee courtesy of Purpose Ventures, and enjoy some of their delicious breakfast treats courtesy of KeepSpace.

And thanks to the amazing folks at Ammo Marketing and Beacham Group for keeping this meetup alive 🙏 ❤️