The Secret to Sustaining Your Startup is Scaling with Intention

B. Pagels-Minor
3 min readApr 16, 2022
Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels

You’ve probably heard the adage, “you have to learn to walk before you run.” And it couldn’t ring more true for just about every startup entrepreneur out there. As a startup consultant, I bring it up because I see many companies quickly moving on an idea before fully understanding how they will test and iterate as they scale their product in the marketplace. And according to researchers at UC Berkeley and Stanford, I’m not the only one. Reports show premature scaling as one of the most common causes of failure.

And if you think about it, well, it makes sense. After all, if you’re primarily focusing on speed, it’s just a matter of time before everything you’ve worked hard on comes crashing down. So, take my advice and learn to walk before you hit the ground running or, as I like to say, “learn to slow down strategically.”

3 Ways Strategically Slowing Down Can Help Your Company Succeed in the Future

  1. Get crystal clear on your why — It can be easy to be pulled in multiple directions and lose your sense of clarity if you don’t know why the thing you’re working toward is meaningful. That’s why taking time to slow down is vital to ensure you’re clear on where your startup is guiding you and your team. To get clear on your’ why,’ make sure you and your team define why this north star is…

--

--

B. Pagels-Minor

Product | Truthteller | 🏳️‍⚧️ | Investor | Ex @netflix @apple @sproutsocial | Advisor @lets_glo_now | B.O.D. @HowardBrownHC @ywcachicag @NUAlumni