🌱 A New Approach to Scaling...

Hi there,

From mastering asynchronous work to building powerfully productive cultures, unlocking Paul Graham’s “Founder Mode” to deploying emerging tech where it really matters, we’re here to add value at every stage of your innovation journey:

1. Startup Phase

2. Growth Phase

3. Scale/Sale Phase

Remote Teams: Best Practices for Management

According to Darren Murphy, who heads up remote work at arguably one of the world’s biggest remote companies, GitLab, a lot of remote success hinges on your company culture and the tools you use. He believes the ultimate goal is to be able to 1) perform asynchronously, using 2) specific channels for transparent collaborative work that’s separate from 3) social watercooler channels (because those are so NB for culture).

Make Data-Driven Decisions

A fundamental step for startups is to, at some point in your growth (if not from day one), shift from assumptions and start gathering data and converting it into measurable and expressable metrics to inform your decisions. This applies to everything from how you test and iterate (see how to do customer journey analytics and A-B testing) to how you build (see all about data-driven development), market and grow.

Fostering a Productive Startup Culture

LinkExchange founder and former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh did numerous interviews before he passed away in 2020. In this one, he advises hiring people not only based on their credentials and ability but also on whether you like them and get along, specifically if you prize work-life integration as many startups do. He also notes redirecting your advertising budget to boosting customer service (which requires a strong culture) as it can have a long-tail effect of letting your customers do your marketing for you.

Are you in the start phase? Have questions? Hit reply and let us know how we can help.

Expanding into New Markets

When trying to break into a new regional market, serial US entrepreneur Gary Vee recommends not to psych yourself out with worries over cultural borders, just try and replicate your current model first, then iterate from there. How? Dutch customer intelligence startup Reveall founder Ferdinand Goetzen suggests here to start with 1) basic localisation of your website and some collateral to validate the market, then when it shows promise 2) expand localisation with some landing pages, SEO and socials, always using 3) a scaling budget to offset your risk.

Continuous Iteration on Customer Feedback

A big focus from speakers at our recent Founders Den in Johannesburg was continuously developing all along your value chain. And it certainly won’t help to grow too big to keep building your product. See how to manage quality customer interviews, perform feedback analysis, use feedback platforms and use that data to drive loyalty.  

A “New” Approach to Scaling

Paul Graham’s Founder Mode post is trending in startup circles, and for good reason. He highlights Airbnb’s CEO saying conventional advice for scaling companies – "hire good people and give them room to do their jobs" – was disastrous for Airbnb. He had to get Steve Jobs-level involved to get growing, fueling debate on how personally invested founders should be and drawing new lines between a “manager mode” vs. a “founder mode” approach to building.

Need help growing faster? Maybe it's augmenting your team, or perhaps coffee with one of our growth experts — either way, hit reply and let’s find your solution.

Future Trends: Staying Ahead in a Rapidly Changing World

As Next176 head of investments, Rajiv Daya, and Naked Insurance co-founder, Alex Thomson, explored at our JHB Founders Den event, the reality for a founder in SA is their focus inevitably needs to grow from development to distribution and eventually towards unlocking the potential through the entire value chain. And, while the world might be looking at emerging technologies such as AI from a consumer-first perspective, over here founders should probably be asking how they can leverage this to optimise existing processes, rather than try to change customer behaviour.

Large Scale Hyper-Personalisation

Customers prize personalisation, but it famously doesn’t scale well outside of tech-first companies. So what do you do? Well, it’s all about learning to function more like a tech company. See the guide to the tech, tools and strategies a business can adopt to enable personalisation at scale, as well as this guide to implementing it in retail environments.

Ensuring Efficient Growth

Even in mature, high-risk/high-growth-loving venture markets like the US, investors have realised that how efficiently a growing company generates revenue helps predict long-term success. See how PayPal co-founder, now VC, David Sacks calculates burn rate and the ideal burn multiple levels investors look for – with a note this becomes even more important in markets like South Africa, where ventures need to start generating ARR virtually from day one just to stand a chance at surviving till exit.

Want to scale faster? We have people that are comfortable with the discomfort of the scale phase. Hit reply and let us know how we can augment your team.

Have your say…

Hit reply if you think we’ve hit or missed the mark, tell us what you’d like to see or hear more of and, just in general, what would really add value to your journey…

Did someone forward you this email?