3 minute read

Though many startup founders fantasize about the kind of success that starts out in a garage and explodes into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, startup growth depends on a number of key decisions made early on. According to Care.com co-founder Donna Levin, scaling your startup is “accelerating growth with confidence,” which means that the resources put in should yield results that are predictable and measurable. From developing and testing a minimum viable product to outsourcing repeatable processes like URL redirection, here are some crucial ways to scale your company growth.

Develop and Test a Minimum Viable Product

Roughly 42 percent of startup founders say their ventures failed as a result of “no market need” for their product or service. Developing and testing a minimum viable product, or MVP, is the quickest way to learn how to build a sustainable business with minimum effort and risk. The file sharing tool Dropbox is one of the most prominent success stories of developing and testing an MVP. What began as a three-minute video demonstrating Dropbox’s intended functionality resulted in signups increasing up to 75,000 overnight — all in absence of a real product. MVP’s require startups to test a concept, make modifications and, most importantly, gauge consumer interest.

Use AI to Predict Customer Behavior

Companies now have access to customer behavior and real-time information about market trends to make data-driven decisions. Thanks to AI and social listening tools, massive amounts of data can be processed at lightning speed, allowing companies to assess evolving customer needs so that they can align products and services accordingly. According to Steve King, founder and CEO of Black Swan Data, social listening allows companies to see patterns that can forecast consumer behavior six to 12 months ahead of time. This ability could be useful for startup founders who want to know what consumers will be “worried about, thinking about and excited about” in the future.

Focus on Company Culture

A startup cannot succeed without fostering great company culture alongside great products. In one study, author D.D. Warrick writes that “organizational culture can significantly influence the performance and effectiveness of a company; the morale and productivity of its employees; and its ability to attract, motivate and retain talented people.” Even more, companies with strong cultures saw a quadruple increase in revenue growth. To foster great company culture, think beyond onsite yoga classes and nap pods. Learn how to devise and reinforce a set of values, behaviors and goals your employees can get behind. Model behavior that reflects the company’s beliefs, enables two-way communication, sustains reward and recognition systems, and provides continuous opportunities to learn and grow.

Outsource URL Redirection Management

Outsourcing tedious or repetitive tasks are a solid way to scale a company by freeing up the time of key decision makers and IT teams. One such area that can be outsourced is in URL redirection management. Save time and money while maximizing SEO benefits by using a service that automatically manages the redirection of your HTTP and HTTPS links while fully automating the management of your SSL certificates. In doing so, you can be sure your customers and clients will easily engage in your marketing campaigns thanks to a sound user experience. By outsourcing your URL redirects, customers and clients will never run into a 301 error and you can get back to handling the countless other tasks that come with scaling a startup.

One Genome study of 3200 startups found that a whopping 74 percent of them failed due to premature scaling. Learn how EasyRedir can influence your startup growth URL redirection management and more.

Join our mailing list.

Keep up with industry news, best practices, and our latest announcements. Usually about one email per month.