Exponential growth in startups

Exponential startup growth is something extraordinary. But the inputs for startups are always linear - you can only produce product linearly, create blog posts linearly and so on.

Even if you create excellent blog posts that end up being shared hundreds of times, or rank well, the output function is still linear.

Linear inputs do not directly result in exponential outputs.

Almost everything you put into a startup to grow is linear, and will not result in exponential growth.

Exponential growth comes from the output feeding back into the input in order to make it grow by itself. You need a backward loop to achieve any form of exponential growth.

The simplest one is where each user brings in additional users. The output (an acquired user), brings in a new user, which now produces a new user (the output), which again does that….

Other channels can do this too, for example paid marketing that produces a good profit can have a piece of that profit use to run even more ads, and that produces more money and so on.

To achieve any form of exponential growth, you need the output to feed into the input. This is the format that exponentials exist in.