3 decisions that almost broke Ctrl+Play (and how we reversed them)

Every entrepreneur has that story they tell laughing, but that at the time kept them up at night. That moment when you look back and think: “how did I let this happen?”

I founded Ctrl+Play in 2015 with the mission of democratizing technology education for children and teenagers. Over eight years, we built a franchise network that became a reference in the sector. But this path wasn’t linear. There were moments when wrong decisions almost compromised everything.

I decided to share these stories now because I believe we learn more from others’ mistakes than from their successes. And because, after years processing these experiences, I can finally talk about them with the necessary distance to extract the lessons that matter.

Decision #1: Expanding the team without processes (2018)

In 2018, Ctrl+Play was growing. We had more franchisees, more demands, more urgencies. The obvious solution seemed to be: hire more people.

The problem is that I hired without having clear alignment processes. There were no structured follow-up meetings. There was no defined feedback cycle. Each new person came in and tried to figure out on their own how things worked.

The result was predictable: a misaligned team, each person rowing in a different direction. Support for franchisees, which should have improved with more people, actually got worse. Communication became fragmented. Decisions contradicted each other. And payroll swelled while cash tightened.

We had to make difficult decisions. We reduced the team and finally implemented what we should have done from the start: alignment rituals, weekly meetings with clear agendas, structured feedback cycles. Only then did things start to work.

The lesson that stuck: people without process is chaos. Process without people is bureaucracy. You need both, in the right order. First the process, then the people to execute it.

Decision #2: Outsourcing finance in the middle of chaos

With internal processes still messy, I had an idea that seemed brilliant: outsource finance. Hire a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) that would take care of everything while I focused on the business.

The reasoning was simple: if I wasn’t managing to organize internally, someone from outside, a specialist in the subject, would solve it. I would delegate the problem and move on.

What I didn’t realize is that you can’t outsource something you don’t master yourself. The BPO needed information I didn’t have organized. They needed processes that didn’t exist. They needed decisions that only I could make, but that I didn’t know needed to be made.

Instead of less work, I had more. I spent hours requesting reports, checking numbers, trying to understand why things didn’t add up. My team was overwhelmed bridging the BPO and operations. What should have simplified, complicated.

The turnaround came when I brought it back in-house. I hired someone I trusted, sat down together, and finally understood the finances of my own business. Only after that, years later, were we able to outsource in a healthy way.

The lesson: don’t outsource what you haven’t mastered yet. Outsourcing works to scale something that already works, not to solve something you don’t understand.

Decision #3: Selling books directly to franchisees

This was the decision that cost us the most, and also the one that generated the greatest transformation.

In Ctrl+Play’s original model, the franchisor sold educational materials (books) directly to franchisees. On paper, it made sense: we centralized purchasing, negotiated better prices, passed them on with a margin.

The problem is that, in practice, the franchisee saw the franchisor as a “parent.” And when you have several bills to pay, the “parent’s” bill always comes last. After all, the parent will understand, right?

The result: 44% delinquency rate. Almost half of what we sold wasn’t paid on time. And meanwhile, we paid suppliers upfront. Cash flow became unsustainable.

We tried everything. Firmer collection. Installment plans. Negotiation. Nothing solved it structurally. The model was broken.

The turnaround came during the pandemic, between 2020 and 2021. With schools closed and operations halted, we had time to rethink everything. We developed our own ERP that allowed direct billing to the end student. The franchisee stopped being a financial intermediary.

The result was transformative: delinquency dropped to less than 2%. We solved the double taxation problem that existed in the previous model. And we managed to remove the 10% royalties we charged, because the new model was more efficient for everyone.

The lesson: sometimes crisis forces you to do what you should have done before. The pandemic was devastating in many ways, but it gave us the necessary pause to rebuild what was broken.

What I would do differently

If I could go back in time, I would do three things:

1. Build processes before hiring. Each new person should enter a system that already works, not chaos waiting to be organized.

2. Master each area before delegating. You don’t need to be a specialist, but you need to understand enough to know if it’s working or not.

3. Question “obvious” models earlier. Just because everyone does it one way doesn’t mean it’s the right way for your business.

Mistakes are inevitable. They’re part of the game. What differentiates those who survive from those who fail isn’t making fewer mistakes, it’s the speed of correction. The faster you recognize the mistake, the faster you can reverse it. And the more honest you are with yourself about what went wrong, the deeper the learning.

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If any of these stories resonated with you, I’d love to exchange ideas. Find me on LinkedIn.