Science of Scaling eBook

"When to scale?" and "How fast?"

These two questions are mission critical for startup organizations. Yet, as entrepreneurs, we lack a rigorous approach to answering them.

The Science of Scaling eBook provides a scientific, data-driven approach to uncovering answers to these critical questions. After peering inside the machinery of hundreds of startups over the last three years, Founding HubSpot CRO, Harvard Business School Professor, and Stage 2 Capital Managing Director, Mark Roberge found the following five issues as the most common diagnoses for failed scale attempts:

• Premature focus on top line revenue generation in lieu of consistent customer value creation
• Inadequate, non-data-driven definition of product-market-fit
• Misunderstanding of go-to-market capabilities needed before hiring salespeople
• Front-loading sales hires at the beginning of the year rather than pacing throughout the year
• Confusing temporary competitive advantage with sustainable competitive advantage

The resulting Science of Scaling approach has been the bedrock of Stage 2 Capital's method in guiding entrepreneurs and their new ventures through the scaling process. The Science of Scaling defines each stage of scale, establishes a quantifiable measures for each stage, structures the sequence and signals of when to move from one stage to the next, and explores the optimal go-to-market design of each stage.