Introduction

• For a startup to mature into a scale up, it needs: 1)killer product 2) clear and sizeable market 3) efficient distribution channel
• Being the first product/service to tap into the network effects of an opportunity will provide you significant competitive advantage.
• Blitzscaling is a strategy that prioritizes speed over efficiency while driving extremely rapid growth in an environment of uncertainty
• Startups that achieve massive value are those that have found a way to grow into scale-ups at an incredibly fast pace. Faster than their competitors
• 600 million jobs need to be created by 2030 to meet the UN’s SDGs

What is Blitzscaling?

• When a market is up for grabs, the risk isn’t inefficiency, the risk is playing it too safe
• During blitzscaling you are taking risks when your confidence level is well below 100%. You are making an hyothesis on what will work and then executing on it. This is acceptable bc the risks and cost of being too slow are far greater.
• To mitigate the downside of these risks, focus the risks against a set of hypotheses about how your business will succeed. This will help you track risk taken vs hypothesis and gauge why a particular risk taken is successful or not
• Blitzscaling: Choosing speed over efficiency in an environment of uncertainty
• Other kinds of scaling strategies:
  • Classic startup growth: Being resource efficient while trying to find product-market fit
  • Classic scale-up gorwth: Looking at things like ROI to make calculated bets at established companies
  • Fastscale: Growing qickly when you are certain of the outcome and the environment (i.e. sure thing)
  • Blitzscaling: Choosing speed over efficiency in an environment of uncertainty where you are bound to make mistakes. (i.e. calculated gamble)
• Typical order of growth at a startup: 1. Classic startup growth 2 Blitzscaling 3. Fastscaling 4. Classic scale up growth
• Blitzscaling is both offensive and defensive strategy
• BZ thrives on positive feedback loops/network effects
• Geography and the network available to you can play a big role in your success. Ie access to talent should be easy. Easier in Silicon Valley than in nyc
• Five stages of bz : family tribe village city nation (based on employee sizes)
• Biggest hurdle to bz is operational scalability. Being able to meet your growing customers demand through operations.
• On the flip side if operations size is growing too quickly as opposed to revenue then that could be a signal of fundamental biz model being wrong
• Techniques to BZ: