Groupon, Twitter, other tech firms grapple with hypergrowth

As the larger economy swoons amidst a downgrade in the U.S. credit rating and an extremely volatile stock market , some tech companies are bucking the trend.

Perhaps no tech start-up has grown as fast as IPO-bound Groupon: to more than 1,700 workers in North America from 300 in March 2010. Since July, Facebook has moved 500 workers to a sparkling, 1-million-square-foot campus in nearby Menlo Park. The company employs more than 2,000 worldwide. Technology businesses large and small are trying to manage what LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner and others call hypergrowth, or onboarding. In the midst of a hiring frenzy in Silicon Valley and other tech hotbeds that has put a premium on talent and swelled workforces, the kerfuffle for some companies is how to add new workers without gumming up operations and fracturing the corporate DNA. The stampede for tech talent, whether through hiring or acquisition, has been well documented. Established companies and start-ups alike are courting top talent in engineering, social media, website and product design, data crunching and analysis, and management with money and stock options — even goodies such as iPads, nifty work spaces and shuttle service. But landing a prized recruit may be the easy part.

The real work comes in finding a suitable, larger workplace, packing and moving computer and networking equipment, then integrating new people and equipment — all while trying to preserve a company's culture, says Christine Comaford, an executive coach and serial entrepreneur who has started and sold four tech companies. "You don't want to lose your (corporate) soul," she says.