We’ve helped 100+ founders scale profitable high growth startups without burning out
and we do so by eliminating three roadblocks that I outline below…
These three roadblocks are what’s stopping you from going from growth mode to scaling.
Growth = consistent increases, guaranteed burnout
Scale = exponential increases, reduced burnout
Roadblocks
1. You can’t consistently deliver because your delivery structure is not locked in.
2. You can’t generate profits because your financial model is fundamentally broken.
3. You can’t scale easily because your organization is too complex.
Consistent Delivery:
Let’s talk about the secret no one really talks about.
All software companies are actually just service providers with products that they leverage.
Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM all have consulting arms that help implement their software.
In order for you to scale, you must abstract your product delivery process until it is consistently performing at a level and success rate that can scale.
The key to consistent delivery is threefold:
1. Having a fully defined onboarding, implementation, and ongoing projects process
2. Charging for different levels of support to unlock larger margins. Customer support/success is where your freedom lies.
3. Having a team that is obsessed with customer results, not process.
Without these three you become a software development shop, or worse, a bodyshop with not just one boss, but multiple bosses for each customer that you sign.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but having a lack of freedom is not why you started your own company.
Generating Profits:
A broken company is a broken company.
There is no critical moment where economies of scale come into play that allow you to be profitable.
Profitability is a decision that must be made daily, and drawing a line in the sand for expenses is the only way to get there.
There is a reason the FAANG companies are where they are… they optimized for free cash flow from the beginning.
For those of you screaming Amazon! in your heads, you can still have positive free cashflow while having minuscule to negative profits.
If you do not fix your mental model of your company right now, you will continue to burn cash at a larger and larger rate.
Scaling Easily:
Scaling can be fun :).
I’ve seen million-dollar months in companies with less than 15 people.
Instagram sold for $1 billion with only 13 employees. You don’t need massive teams and complex meetings.
You just need to combine 2 things:
1. Asymmetric returns
2. Simplicity through self-regulation
1. Asymmetric returns
The mark of a genius is their ability to generate massive returns with minimal efforts.
You don’t have to have a genius IQ to have the abilities of a genius.
You need to focus on the genius activities and only the genius activities, unless you're facing a company-killing crisis.
At this point your systems are adequate enough to keep your company afloat, so start manufacturing inflection points.
This is what will separate you from the rest.
2. Simplicity
The best can get more done with a simple system than a complex one.
If you understand this then you’re one of the best.
If you don’t, then it's time to rethink your principles.
The best build great environments that foster self-regulation.
Micromanaging critical processes is important but ultimately you need to focus on larger and larger problems.
To illustrate this I’ve laid out two truths below:
Truth #1: 1 hire on the growth side can get you to 8-figures
If you’re going mass market this is probably going to be a media buyer.
If you’re going niche market this is probably going to be a VP of Sales or Growth
Truth #2: 1 hire on the product side can ensure that you deliver 8-figures
If you’re building something repeatable this is probably going to be a VP of product
If you’re building something highly technical this is probably going to be a VP of engineering
Identify what KPIs you need to hit, and find the people that have already done it.
If they don’t want to join you then either your mission isn’t clear or you need to level up yourself.
If you do these things well you will experience exponential growth.
Scale.
If you don’t then you will either experience regular growth.
I’m not sure which market you’re in but you’re probably going to be destroyed by someone that is scaling.
If you want to identify why and how you can start focusing on scale and not burning yourself out on growth, book a call with me here.
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