Do things that don't scale : YC Startup Library | Y Combinator
As Paul Graham said in his essay “Do Things That Don’t Scale”: A lot of would-be founders believe that startups either take off or don’t. You build something, make it available, and if you’ve made a better mousetrap, people beat a path to your door as promised. Or they don’t, in which case the market must not exist. Actually startups take off becau
... See moreGabriel Weinberg • Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth
Over-engaging with early users is not just a permissible technique for getting growth rolling. For most successful startups it's a necessary part of the feedback loop that makes the product good.Sometimes the right unscalable trick is to focus on a deliberately narrow market. It's like keeping a fire contained at first to get it really hot before a... See more
Paul Graham • Do Things that Don't Scale
It takes enormous discipline to NOT try to scale something that's working. But some things just don't scale -- and trying to do so can destroy the golden goose in the process. Many entrepreneurially minded people can't help themselves from trying.
It's not enough just to do something extraordinary initially. You have to make an extraordinary effort initially. Any strategy that omits the effort — whether it's expecting a big launch to get you users, or a big partner — is ipso facto suspect.