Newsletter: Everybody wants to scale - but are you ready for the scale?

Hi there, Ernesto here.

To every Founder, board member, team lead, or growth enthusiast - “Say you are magically able to attain the customer and revenue base you’ve always hoped for, would you be able to handle it? Does your startup have the infrastructure to cater for the scale you seek?”

Assume your product currently fends for 20 people daily, and you still get 8 below-average reviews. Chances are, that when you scale to a much larger audience, you would deal with those same problems, in much larger volumes. Why? Because your bugs and challenges simply scaled with you.

Addressing your user experience before trying to grow to a larger audience is key, because if this isn’t done, the challenges magnify, and the entire purpose of growth is defeated.

In addition, the essence of growth is scaling numbers, revenue, and efficiency. With rapid growth, comes additional overhead costs, increased employees, larger infrastructure, and larger everything - Another important question before undertaking the growth journey should be “Is our startup ready to handle it?”

“Scaling prematurely” is among the biggest mistakes that startups make. You should not get too focused on building a “cool product” that you forget to consider how customers will actually use it, or how well it fits in the market. Statistics show that 42% of failed startups failed because there was no market fit for the product. Don’t be one of them.

Prepare for growth before you grow!