The 7 Core Principles That Forged Our Company’s Path to Becoming a Market Leader

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At first, a startup often lacks resources but has a handful of driven people who know and trust each other to take ownership. As the company grows, they become the main driving force — leaders who build teams and departments. As growth accelerates and more people join, it becomes harder to ensure that the same leadership ethos keeps the company agile and goal-oriented across departments.

Last year, Oxylabs celebrated its 10th birthday and the journey that made it one of the market leaders in public web data scraping. The organization brought together over 45 leaders across departments and experience levels to understand which leadership traits mattered most throughout this journey.  The learnings from these consultations were distilled into seven leadership principles. While coming from the fast-paced data industry, they should also prove valuable to all leaders seeking business and personal growth across industries.

1. Push business forward.  In tech, there can be a temptation to build exquisitely architected solutions without considering if they are the best way to solve real customer problems. We are still in the AI washing boom, when companies add a thin layer of AI on legacy solutions just to stick the AI label on them.  Companies don’t help clients this way. And they don’t push business forward beyond short-term sales. Instead, leaders should think strategically about long-term success. It’s okay if your technology is not as cutting-edge as AI if it still does the job effectively. And calling AI what is essentially just a different interface for ChatGPT hurts long-term reputation.
2. Act with urgency.  Effective leaders make decisions with the information they have rather than waiting for perfect clarity that may never come. Importantly, don’t wait for this resolution before informing others about the roadblocks. A failure to get results is often justifiable. A failure to communicate is often not.
3. Be accountable.  Great leaders approach tasks with the attitude: “If I take something on, I must see it through.” They set realistic expectations and escalate early when capacity is exceeded.  Crucially, they are willing to voice disagreement immediately and directly. However, once a decision is made, they give their full support.
4. Show resilience.  Fast growth means constant change. What worked last quarter might not work the next one as priorities shift and markets evolve. Resilient leaders adapt quickly when business needs change, staying focused on what matters most. They help their teams recover after setbacks and push toward solutions rather than dwell on what went wrong.
5. Build networks.  For tech leaders today, who have to juggle everything from owned infrastructure to AI and cloud, this is especially important. No one knows everything about such a large tech stack. But what you really need to know is who to ask and who has to be in the room for certain discussions. Leaders who maintain strong relationships with key people across departments break down silos when the stakes are high.
6. Share knowledge.  Great leaders give their teams both the resources to continue growing professionally and the autonomy to act on what they have learned.  Furthermore, individual expertise can be turned into a collective value multiplier.
7. Build winning teams.  Building winning teams is about investing in people to empower them to also be leaders. Not become one day, when they are ready to step into managerial roles. But be leaders when the situation calls for someone with their skills and traits to take the lead, regardless of their formal rank.  Shared leadership theory emphasizes that who takes the lead in real-life interactions is constantly changing. When team members lead one another dynamically, leveraging diverse strengths and skills, the whole team moves toward the goal with greater security and individual buy-in.  Thus, when teams grow into departments, and you need more leaders, it’s not necessarily about finding who else can be a manager. It’s about enabling, through example, training and honest conversations, people — even specialists who don’t seek a managerial role — to exhibit leadership when the situation calls for it.