Why early startups must do things that don't scale

Executive overview

Early-stage startups should do things manually and inefficiently on purpose. The instinct to build scalable systems too soon kills companies before they get big enough to need them.

Do the handmade, painstaking work for early customers. You have nothing to lose — and you'll learn more than any scalable system can tell you.

The only way to eventually be big is to do the unscalable things first.

Doing things that don't scale

• "Doing things that don't scale" means handmade, artisanal, painstaking work you know can't continue at scale.
• Do it anyway — if you skip it, you never get big enough to need scale.
• Getting early customers matters so much that heavy manual effort is always worth it.
• You learn more from manual early work than from any optimised system.