Early on, act like a pirate: move fast, innovate aggressively, win customers. Once you have a foothold, shift to stability. Become reliable and scalable so customers stay and refer bigger clients. That's how you go from high-growth, low-revenue to high-revenue, high-growth, then mature and profitable.
First, be innovative, then be stable. When you are first getting out, you are going to win because you're able to move faster than the next guy. And that kind of speed is going to be a result of you being more innovative and putting more creative ideas in and frankly, just acting more like a pirate. And you should definitely do that. It's the way you get in early on in the market. But later in the market, you're going to want to turn that. You're going to want to be more stable. You're going to want to be someone they can rely on for the longer haul. You're going to get the kind of the first part, that fast innovation that gets you customers. And the second part is going to keep them and keep them for longer haul and have them grow and recommend you to people who are even larger and become the new standard, the new incumbent. And that is going to be the means by which you're able to go from seeing something that's relatively high growth but low revenue to being high revenue, high growth, and then a high revenue, high growth. And then eventually you'll be a lower growth but still relatively high revenue. That is the nature of business cycles, but it's going to be the one that allows you to make the most money. First innovate, then stabilize.
