[acsowerby]

Haha, not snarky at all, I think the original question was maybe not phrased quite right. What I meant was "how do you successfully operate within a startup environment which is inherently more chaotic than an established business". But it's a bit long :)

I think you're smart to look for employees who are happy with a bit more chaos than usual. I think it's Simon Wardley that characterises such people as "pioneers" as opposed to "settlers" or "town planners".

I also really like the attitude of "use your judgement and I will support your decision", it's so valuable and often rare that people do this. Too many people are control freaks and believe only they can/should make the decisions, however small. Even worse when you let people make decisions and then undermine them!

Interested to know how you record and share your decisions - sounds like a really good practice.