Double down on what is working as a Startup

When business starts to accelerate in a startup, before you really hit any scale, its easy to fall into the trap of focusing on new strategies for growth. The new shiny object. We have to invest in X or Y. Sometimes the focus can be new market segments (large enterprise customers or a new vertical), sometimes the focus can be sales strategy which my partner covered in this post on GuideSpark and what they were able to do with outbound sales. None of these decisions are easy – except the one to double down on what is working.

While I guess its possible that as a startup you have exhausted the opportunity, its far more likely that you have just begun to find your groove. Most executive teams and investors like to focus on growth – its the engine that drives companies to success and its natural that the discussion of growth should take into account new things to focus on to feed the engine. Every company is resource constrained or at least should be – I think without some constraints, it is hard to make the best decisions. Assuming some constraints, given you have one more dollar to spend – where would you spend it as a startup?  Spend it first on what is working and what is driving growth if at all possible. It is one of the easiest decisions to make. You may hit the limit, but the risk is very low relative to other choices (again assuming growth in the business). When you have more to invest and revenue is really scaling, then start to think about experiments and other ideas.  The companies that I have been fortunate enough to work with have always found the most success building on that foundation and doubling down on what is working.

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