Things Take Time

We overestimate what can change in the short term and underestimate what can change in the long term.

Most start-ups take 10+ years to develop before they make a splash. We read about Uber growing to ~$50BB in five years, or Bytedance, or Inc. Magazine's fastest growing companies citing 2143% year-over-year growth.

Are these great targets to shoot for? Maybe. Maybe not.

A company can serve more customers and still be the worse business. 10,000 customers with 40% churn may be more profitable than 1,000 customers with 95% retention. The latter is actually a business for its customers. The former is a charade.

At the margins, a choice must be made to prioritize one over the other.

What we're seeing every day in the news are companies that sought a billion users in four years as their goal. Maybe they've achieved that goal. But they've certainly cut a few corners along the way. I also can't even begin to fathom how difficult it is to run an organization of that magnitude. Keeping 300,000 people, or millions of customers, on the same page must be a terrific challenge.

A company should grow at the rate that best supports the needs of its customers at the deserving price. Not at the rate that causes them further expense.

Things take time.