Grow slowly? Does this make sense for a startup? When Francisco Webber (founder/CEO of cortical.io) and I spoke in episode #013 (available on iTunes, Android and YouTube) of the Startup Milestones Podcast, he explained how he raised several million Euros from Business Angels, the advantage Angels have (read about Angels vs. VCs here), and that VCs have the tendency to push you for maximum growth very fast. Here are Francisco’s key thoughts about speed of growth – very insightful!
“A business concept needs time to grow and mature”
I’ve heard very experienced founders and investors support this point by saying that one of the main reasons startups fail, is pre-mature scaling. What does this mean? Think of the good old “pivot”. A change in direction of the company required to turn away from a path that is leading nowhere, in the search for a path that can lead to success. Now think about getting outside pressure to “grow fast”, which most of the time means: take whatever is working best today, and do more of it.