The wisdom in doing things that don't scale

The Wisdom in Doing Things That Don’t Scale

In growth marketing, automation and scalability are often seen as the ultimate goals. However, many successful companies have achieved initial growth by deliberately doing things that don’t scale. Paul Graham popularised this idea in his influential essay, emphasising the importance of manual, hands-on efforts in the early stages of a business.

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Why Doing Things That Don’t Scale Matters

When launching a new product or service, it is tempting to prioritise automation and scalable processes from day one. However, true product-market fit rarely emerges from polished systems. Instead, it comes from direct customer engagement, understanding their needs, and iterating based on real feedback.

Paul Graham summarises this clearly:

“It’s not enough just to do something extraordinary initially. You have to make an extraordinary effort initially.”

Early-stage growth often requires manual, unscalable actions that create exceptional customer experiences. These actions help you deeply understand your audience, refine your product, and build genuine loyalty.

Real-World Examples of Unscalable Success

Many successful companies began by embracing unscalable methods:

• Stripe: Founders Patrick and John Collison personally visited customers to help with integration, sometimes even writing the code themselves.

• Deliveroo: Founder Will Shu personally delivered orders during the company’s first year, gaining valuable insights into customer expectations and operational challenges.

• Airbnb: The founders personally photographed hosts’ properties and advised on pricing and descriptions.

• Gymshark: After a website crash during Black Friday in 2015, founder Ben Francis wrote 2,500 handwritten apology notes with discount codes to affected customers.

• Zappos: Tony Hsieh initially fulfilled orders by purchasing shoes at retail price and shipping them himself, testing the concept before scaling.

• DoorDash: The founders printed local restaurant menus, created a simple website, and personally delivered food using their own phones as dispatch systems.

These examples illustrate a clear truth: exceptional growth often starts with exceptional effort.

The Deliberate Constraint of Starting Small

Another effective strategy is deliberately constraining your initial market. Facebook famously began exclusively for Harvard students, gradually expanding to other Ivy League schools, then colleges, high schools, and eventually everyone. By the time Facebook opened to the general public, it had already achieved critical mass and product excellence.

Similarly, Stripe initially targeted developers at Y Combinator startups, and Notion began by focusing on design-forward technology companies. This deliberate constraint allowed these companies to deeply understand their initial audience, refine their products, and build strong foundations for future growth.

Recent Examples of Unscalable Success (2023-2024)

Even today, successful startups continue to embrace unscalable methods:

• Superhuman: Rahul Vohra’s email app required users to complete personal onboarding calls, despite having over 100,000 users on their waitlist. This high-touch approach ensured users understood the product’s value and became immediate advocates.

• Replicate: This AI research company personally reviewed early users’ projects, provided direct implementation support, and paired engineers with customers for one-on-one consultations, building exceptional loyalty in a competitive market.

• Maven: Founder Gagan Biyani personally recruited instructors and helped design their courses, prioritising exceptional course quality through manual intervention rather than elaborate automated tools.

The True Formula for Early-Stage Growth

The lesson from these examples is clear. The true formula for early-stage growth is:

• Do things that don’t scale to create exceptional experiences

• Learn what works through direct customer interaction

• Perfect your approach based on real feedback

• Only then systematise and automate

As Jason Lemkin famously said:

“Your first 10 customers will define your company.”

By engaging deeply and personally with your earliest customers, you gain insights and build relationships that no automated system can replicate.

How Growth Method Supports Unscalable Actions

At Growth Method, we understand the importance of doing things that don’t scale. Our platform helps growth marketing teams, consultants, and agencies manage the manual, hands-on work of early-stage growth effectively.

Growth Method simplifies your growth marketing workflow by combining ideation, experimentation, and analytics in one powerful platform:

• Ideation: Our intuitive ideation system ensures your growth ideas align with team goals and follow hypothesis best practices. Ideas are automatically categorised and shared with your team for immediate feedback.

• Experimentation: We incorporate best practices from leading growth teams, guiding experiments through clear stages—building, live, analysing, and complete—to increase velocity and learning.

• Reporting: Impress stakeholders with sleek, professional reports that clearly demonstrate your team’s value, from high-level strategy to tactical experiment results.

Unlike traditional task management software such as Asana, ClickUp, or Monday.com, Growth Method is built specifically for growth marketers, providing everything you need in one place. Our AI-powered categorisation, seamless analytics integrations, and industry-leading reporting help you focus on execution rather than administration.

Laura Perrott from Colt Technology Services says:

“We are on-track to deliver a 43% increase in inbound leads this year. There is no doubt the adoption of Growth Method is the primary driver behind these results.”

Embrace the Unscalable for Exceptional Growth

In a world focused on automation and efficiency, your willingness to do things that don’t scale can be your greatest competitive advantage. Don’t let the fear of scaling prevent you from taking bold, manual actions that drive real growth.

Growth Method is the only work management platform built specifically for growth marketers. We help companies implement a systematic approach to grow leads and revenue. Book a call today to see how we can support your growth journey.