The ability to scale a startup is like the secret code for Venture Capital investment. VC’s invest only in startups that scale. Knowing how and when to scale is very important.

Q3 2013

• Jason Fried explains Why we’re doing things that don’t scale, an indirect response to Paul Graham’s essay.
• Paul Graham urges entrepreneurs to also  “Do Things that Don’t Scale”, so that their company can scale.
• “If you scale too early, it will cost you dearly and if you scale too late you may miss the opportunity to lead.” Michael Skok has an incredibly insightful checklist of 12 things that can “help take the guesswork out of whether you are ready to scale or not”, in Scaling Your Startup: The Deliberator’s Dozen.
• Growth solves a lot of issues, but it also creates problem, according to The Next Web’s Growth: The problem solver that creates problems.
• There is nothing wrong in Developing Middle Managers at Startups, as long as you know when is the right time, and what to watch for, says Saurabh Deshpande.
• Your company will face 5 growing pains when transitioning from chaotic startup to accelerating midsize. Bruce Dorland at Grossman Dorland, a recruiting firm outlines 5 challenges.

2012 Collection

(courtesy of Tom Eisenmann)

• Jeff Bussgang of Flybridge Capital (and my colleague at HBS) on scaling challenges; see also Jeff’s case studies of scaling at TripAdvisor, Akamai, and athenahealth.
• Paul Graham of Y Combinator on why startup = growth, and a response from Mark Suster.
• Jeff Jordan of a16z on how eBay managed growth.