Desire for growth is rare, despite the opposite common sense
I’ve had the privilege of working with different startups, in different stages and meeting brilliant and of course not so brilliant! whom wanted to create something and start and run their own business. In the beginning honeymoon phase is real, everyone wants to be the next most something, but as time passes the motivation and ability to prevail, conceal behind a bunch of great debts. financial, technical, cultural to name a few.
Years ago when I was less experienced and couldn’t see the possible outcome of newly born companies, my main thought was growth. how to design and implement a plan to get good numbers and meet most ambitious KPIs. Time passed and meetings go one after another, tens of founders were shouting their desire to growth and I was so proud about my initial hypothesis on the importance of growth (of course I had read it on numerous online and offline contents and in no way it was my idea).
But the biggest barrier to growth is always something different than resources. It is the will and persistence of the team. How dedicated and ambitious they are and how much effort they are putting in their growth journey?
While the team is in the pre revenue phase, it is widely assumed any pressure can be suffered and no matter what they can survive. We as human beings hate risk and stress that comes with it. We are the descendants of least risk taker humans who had a chance to survive. When you become cash flow positive and revenue starts to pile up, the tendency to go losing money in an astonishing way decreases and the “growth in any cost” looks more theatrical than an actual objective.
Next time when you say we should grow and exponential growth is our agenda, do some math and think it from the end to the current time and estimate your team’s energy, resources and desire. Maybe growth is not in every companies destiny and sometimes staying small would be the answer and the beauty behind your efforts.
