What's the secret behind successful scaling? Read our tips on putting together the right team, nailing internationalization and growing your business.

1. Scaling a Startup
Tips For Painless Growth

2. Startups often have a smaller, simpler and thus
flexible structure - and charismatic leadership.
These factors can contribute to a faster reaction
time: scaling and pivoting is easier for a startup
than for a 100+ company.

3. On the other hand - as startups are frequently backed
by someone else’s money - the investors always want
to know is where that money is going. They’ll ask – is
the startup is ready to scale after investment? Do
they have a plan for the next step?

4. When aiming at growth,
small companies
should be aware of the
fact that their
organizational
structure will change.
They should also be
prepared for it.

5. Are you ready?

6. 1. Your product. That means a solid technical
foundation - will you be able to handle high
traffic? Do you have a good development
pipeline? Can there be other use cases for
the product?
2. Your team. Your company will grow - hiring is
one thing - but do you have the right
organizational routines?
3. Your marketing. How can you reach out to the
mainstream customer, and not just the early
adopter?
Scaling considerations

7. You’ve acquired a few first
major clients.
You have product/market fit.
You know your market.
You’ve crossed the Chasm:
your product is ready for a
mainstream audience: not
early adopters who might be
more forgiving if the product
isn’t technically perfect.
Ready to scale?

8. ● a solid and repeatable sales/customer process
● a plan to raise the right amount of capital -
scaling requires money
● a solid infrastructure of systems
● reliable people that have grown with you - and
new people to support the team
Scaling involves:

9. The team

10. The team is one of the first things venture
capitalists and business angels value in startups.
How they collaborate and what skillsets they
possess often determine whether or not the
company’s worth investing in.
This is either solved by recruiting, or by
outsourcing the right skill set.

11. Finding the right people
is one of the toughest scaling
hurdles to cross. You want
those who understand your
business, know your product
and can guarantee at least
some measure of success.
Getting them on board is a
long-term process and
requires the founders’
personal involvement.
The people

12. Sales is one of the most
important positions in a
scaling startup. But it’s
hard to find a good
salesperson in another
country if you’re not
there, if you don’t meet
that person and if you
don’t sell them on the
idea. They need to
share your passion!
Examples?

13. Does your team have the skills and
technologies to deliver proven ideas
to customers at scale and quality?
Ask yourself:

14. Outsourcing?

15. What you can’t do or manage – outsource!

16. In tech startups, particularly in Silicon Valley, you
have to start thinking about working with a remote
development team early on - as early as possible.
There is a tremendous need for talent. Finding and
retaining great talent is a problem. You have to look
at the world to get help.
By doing this early in the lifetime of the company,
you build a specific company DNA, one which
allows you to work with outside or remote people.

17. There’s a long list of successful startups that have
relied - partly or fully - on outsourcing. Low costs
and well-matched skill sets have often been the
resources behind the success of these start-ups.
Knowledgeable talent at a lower cost? Means you
can get all the work done much faster.

18. Outsourcing saves you the hassle of recruiting
and training new people. It also significantly
lowers the costs, and adds extra value in terms of
expertise.
Developing a core area or function of your
business can be outsourced - but this requires
caution.

19. Pro tip: “The right way is not to think of your
remote team members as outsourcing, but as a
key part of your team” - Stephane Kasriel,
Product and Engineering Lead at Elance-Odesk

20. Going international

21. Internationalization - or at least branching
out to another country - is often one of the
elements of scaling a startup.

22. Another reason - competition!
For example: the Nordics are the focal point of digital
disruption. They’re the home of industry-defining
technologies and tech companies such as Skype,
Spotify and Nokia.
This is what the environment for Nordic startups looks
like: they’re acting on a relatively tight, small market
with a niche product or service. It’s obvious they need
to cross borders in order to have a profitable
market share.

23. ● Maybe it’s possible to
scale your product
within your own
market.
● Can you open up to
new audiences?
● Can you diversify
sales by branching out
into other cities?
Yet, in some cases, if you’re thinking of
scaling, you don’t necessarily need to think
about new countries.

24. The product on a new market

25. The success of
internationalization often
rests on the product. It
might be dependent on
external and internal
factors.

26. External factors:
● legislation
● restrictions
● copyright laws
● taxation on the foreign market.

27. Internal
factors:
● resources
● skilled labor
that knows
the foreign
market
● a valuable
network

28. If you’re going international, pay special
attention to your product’s name - is it a good
fit for the market? Could it be considered
offensive, or just plain silly somewhere else?

29. ● systematically measure your data
● know when to scale: premature scaling
is ‘the #1 cause of startup death’
according to author Nathan Furr
● automate repeatable actions
Some last tips

30. WE’RE A TRUSTED PARTNER TO STARTUPS
AND ENTERPRENEURS.
VISIT OUR WEBSITE AND BLOG
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