For confidentiality's sake, I won't mention any company names or exact dollar amounts in this post (but if mods need me to verify myself I can via DM).

Here's my brief story: After working with various startups and a stint launching companies with a small Private Equity firm early in my career, around 2015, I transitioned full-time to a freelance startup and marketing strategy consultant.

I call my specialties eCommerce, consumer brand strategy, digital marketing, and business development. But essentially, I've amassed a broad set of skills to help founders fight through the weeds of early growth.

In 2017, one of my clients, a budding startup in the consumer electronics space, started taking off in a big way. Eventually, I joined them full-time and built a team under me.

Over six years, we were able to build the company from initially just myself and the founder, into a globally recognized brand with 150+ employees and high 8-figure annual revenue. Last year, we were successfully acquired by a large PE firm.

I'm currently transitioning back to full-time consulting, so I'll probably write a series of these with more specific topics (with the goal of eventually turning them into a blog).

Not every entrepreneur has dreams of growing their business into a major global brand. But here is some of my top general advice and hard lessons learned for those hoping to achieve rapid growth:

(In order of importance, IMO)

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1. Focus on building a business, not being a "Startup"

This is #1 because I think many entrepreneurs in 2024 need to hear it before even considering scaling

The tales of the Silicon Valley VC-funded tech unicorns (with $0 profit and multi-billion $ valuations) dominate the media, entrepreneur spaces, and business education.

Young founders especially think the sexy path of venture capital, angel investor pitches, media interviews, personal brand building, swanky networking events, and podcasts tours is the best way to success & big valuations. They spend as much time worrying about Pre-seeds and A-Rounds and their '30 Under 30' resume as they do on product development & marketing.

If you're determined to take that traditional startup path, go for it – if you're well connected (and lucky) it could make you a billionaire. But I assure you the VAST majority of successful companies don't follow this route.

The founders I've seen make it big are almost universally those who focus 99% of their core energy on building a robust business, great product & attracting customers. Most were self-funded through their own savings, with just enough outside investment to get the ball rolling (often through friends/family/co-founders).

In fact, one of the biggest mistakes a founder can make is seeking major funding (and valuation) too soon. The whole game changes once big money comes in.

OTOH, my previous company was able to grow to 8-figure revenue without taking a single dollar of outside investment until the big acquisition (9 years after launch). By that time, the big-money was lined up at our door.

Not every entrepreneur can succeed without significant funding – do what you need to do to get enough cash to get started. But remember, investor dollars flow much easier after you've already proven success.

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2. Master the art of asking for help

In the same vein as #1, a lot of founders today feel pressure to fit the stereotype of being superhuman know-it-all masters of business savvy. Especially as they see the daily articles & social media posts about some 20-year-old superstar bragging about their multi-million $ launch; or Mark Zuckerberg-esque college dropouts miraculously knowing how to scale to IPO.

99% of the time, that 20-year-old completely downplays how much outside help they actually received

The founders I've worked with who've achieved great success have had various levels of business acumen. In fact, in many cases, they were almost completely clueless about anything other than their product itself. But, they all had one skill in common – they're excellent at seeking out subject matter experts and leaning on their experience.

Even if they're highly skilled, intelligent people, these founders aren't afraid to humble themselves by constantly asking for advice from colleagues, consultants, friends, family, attorneys, customers…anyone with experience willing to offer insight.

And they don't just ask for advice – they also follow it.

Decisiveness & competence are no doubt important qualities (you don't want to let outside influence potentially lead you astray). But knowing what you don't know is equally as important.

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3. Stop keeping secrets. Validate ideas early & often!

How many times have you had a conversation like this?

"I've been working on my business."
"Great, what is it?"
"It's kind of like insert general thing here, but I can't tell you exactly until it's ready."

If this is you, reasses.

Ideas are cheap. Feedback is invaluable.

I get it, you're protective of your $10 billion idea that will 100% get copied as soon as someone hears how amazing it is. But I assure you, the risks of not validating your business model & product concepts before getting too deep, are far higher than the risks of someone stealing it.

I can't tell you how many times I've worked with founders that got months or years into a project, only for me to point out a major oversight they could've probably easily fixed from the beginning if they'd spoken up sooner.

Like #2, you should be talking about your business with anyone willing to listen…friends, family, experts, future customers. And genuinely listen to their feedback, including negative ones. Not only might they see things you can't, they could also become first customers, referrers, or even investors.

Obviously, use common sense. You don't want to lay out your entire master plan or reveal intricate details of IP to your top competitor. But I assure you 99% of the time competing brands are buried way too deep in their own roadmap to care about you at all until you start taking significant market share. And if your idea would be that easy for someone to "steal" after one conversation, then you're probably going to get copied very quickly anyway.

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4. MVP is the way to be. Just start selling!

I frequently see founders spend months or even years delaying launches while trying to fit every feature & iron every detail before their first launch.

For a startup, this is almost always seen as a waste of time, energy, & money in hindsight. No matter how much you try to perfect it, you're going to find a laundry list of issues and things you wish to have after you launch anyway.

Develop your first product enough to keep first customers happy, and launch with an MVP (Minimum Viable Product).

Limit the initial quantity, treat your early adopters like royalty, get as much feedback from them as possible, and fix everything you can on the next production run or next version.

Yes it might be missing some features that would be great to have. But anything you cant fit into V1 will just make V2 even more exciting for customers.

Mastering the process of planning & marketing iterative improvement is key for scaling rapidly.

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5. When you reach hypergrowth, prepare to run headfirst into a cashflow brick wall

You're a year out from launch. Your marketing funnel is pumping. Sales are flooding in. Maybe you've even made your first hires. The cover of Forbes magazine is in your future.

But now suddenly you're sold out of inventory.

Your first B2B customers want to place bigger quantity POs. You need to pay for a large order with your manufacturer ASAP to meet demand, but then you won't have enough cash to meet payroll…let alone take enough out to pay your own rent next month.
Maybe if you scale back on the marketing spend you'll be okay…but then your sales will decline. And how will you handle all this growth without hiring a new logistics guy?

Suddenly you went from flying high to slamming the brakes.

I've seen versions of this play out time and again. Running out of cash is the biggest killer of rapid growth companies.

Pre-orders. Reservations. Kickstarters. Inventory factoring loans. Tap early investors. Do whatever you need to do to get cash in the bank ASAP and build a big war chest.

Needing money because you're growing fast is generally a good problem to have, and a much easier situation to fix in a pinch than when you're pre-revenue. But you better make sure you're ready when you hit the wall

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6. Your marketing budget is probably too small

"If I build it they will come" is rarely reality. While aiming for initial grassroots growth is achievable (and encouraged), nothing is free today, especially getting the attention of potential customers.

Almost every initial budget I see underestimates the marketing spend needed to hit rapid growth sales targets.

Marketing needs to be a sustained, significant percentage of your revenue, not just the dregs of your budget or 'one-and-done' outflows. The exact % will vary on your business model, but in my experience, if you want fast growth…it'll often be double or more what many online startup resources suggest.

Its often a good idea that a marketing expert to help you properly forecast, strategize, and execute is one of your first hires. They can be either outsourced or in house – just avoid agencies (i'll explain this later)

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7. Prepare to be a managing executive…or not

I don't meet many entrepreneurs who are naturally drawn to areas of business like management hierarchy charts, OKRs, daily standups, employment laws, and performance reviews. In fact, most chose the startup life specifically because they're repelled by traditional corporate structure.

But if you're growing fast, eventually you'll need to hire. In many cases, a bootstrapped startup will not (and likely should not) have the excess cash to hire dedicated managers early on. This means it's up to the founding team.

I can tell you this was probably one of the biggest reality checks when my previous company took off. We went from a bunch of scrappy entrepreneurs in the trenches, to suddenly being thrown into the deepend of being corporate executives who had to hire and manage large teams under us.

People management is a skill, and not one everyone is innately good at (or wants to be good at).

So, well before you go down the path of scaling, you should strongly consider if you're OK with managing a team at all. Not just being generally fine with it, but will you be happy and able to do it well?

If not, consider how you'll handle this early on (perhaps bringing on co-founders better suited to this role or shifting courses entirely).

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8. Don't get ransacked by agencies

Outsourcing early on to control payroll expense is smart. You may be tempted to head for the big-name agencies (marketing, branding, web development, SEO, etc.) with a laundry list of impressive clients vs. a freelancer/contractor/consultant.

In some cases, agencies make sense. But >90% of the time when I work with a client who's been spending a big chunk of their initial budget on agencies, inevitably I have a conversation with them how they've been getting ripped off.

When you use an agency, you're paying for two things:

1. A fraction of their attention. They may have dozens of other clients, some potentially much bigger and more important to them than you. This often leads to cutting corners, generic strategies, and disappointing results.
2. All of their agency overhead. Your monthly payment isn't just going to your project…it's also paying for all of the middle managers and executive salaries, the corporate retreats, and that expensive downtown office with brand new Herman Miller furniture.

Don't get me wrong, there's certainly plenty of agencies doing great work with highly talented employees out there. But fast-growing, agile startups are almost always better off hiring dedicated contractors who can give you the focus you need.

In many cases hiring in-house can even make more financial sense than an agency.

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9. Don't Hire too soon. Don't hire too late. Don't hire the wrong people.

I could probably write an entire mini-book on hiring practices for startups at this point, so I won't get too in the weeds here. But I'll give this general advice: try to get it right.

Your specific growth goals should determine your hiring schedule.

Hiring early on can help you speed to market, but it could also completely kneecap your budgets and potentially get you into some very tough situations. OTOH waiting too long to hire can also severely limit your growth potential.

You don't want to get into a situation where you need to let go your first employee after a few months due to sales fluctuations. But I've also seen founders wait way too long, giving up years working at max capacity as a solopreneur – when they could've been growing twice as fast if they had an extra hand.

In most cases, you should be able to get to the point of launch with just the founders and a handful of outsourced consultants/freelancers helping. But don't wait until you're totally maxed out before you start the hiring process. Keep in mind, it can often take months. to hire & onboard.

In most cases, your first hires should be multi-talented generalists you can plug into multiple areas of the business, not specialists. If are hiring specialists (say a Developer with a specific skill you need), make sure they're also someone willing to jump into the weeds when needed (like answering customer support tickets at 3 am the first time SHTF)

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10. Reviews Matter, don't screw it up

It can take just a single review to completely change the trajectory of your company – both positive and negative.

Your first launches will not be perfect. Especially if you're putting out an MVP you have a high chance for bad reviews out of the gate that can totally kill your launch.

For young companies, it's almost always better off having no reviews than potentially bad ones. It's OK to wait to gather reviews from customers & social media influencers until you've market tested the product, gone through a few production rounds and made some improvements.

When you do solicit reviews early on, make sure they're from people who will give you good ones. And if you do get negative ones, jump through whatever hoops you need to fix it.

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11. Branding can always evolve later

I won't downplay the importance of good, consistent branding – it's crucial for success. However, I've seen founders delay launch for months or even years while trying to perfect their logo, colors, voice, packaging, etc.

The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach applies to branding as well. Get "good enough" branding solidified, get your product out there, and refine as you go.

Your brand identity will naturally evolve itself as you grow and better understand your market and customers. But keep in mind, brand development projects can take many months to complete…so even a v1 should be started early.

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12. Sometimes it's OK NOT to grow

Maybe ironic me saying this as a growth consultant, but it's something to consider early on in your journey.

Rapidly scaling a major brand is intense, draining, and high-stress. I can't even begin to describe the number of sleepless nights and constant challenges we went through (and I see with ALL successful founders)

The pressure to scale can be overwhelming, but it's not right for everyone.

It's perfectly fine to reach a point where your business sustains your lifestyle, personal goals, and well-being…then pump the brakes. It's important to define what success means to you and work to keep your business within those lines.

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I could keep going, but will cut it off before I write a novel. Hope this is helpful to some of you

If you have any questions feel free to shoot. Also, let me know if you'd like to see me expand on any of the points above in its own post.