Entrepreneurship — Running a Marathon vs a Sprint

Usain Bolt can run 100 meters in 9.58 seconds. A marathon runner runs 26.2 miles (42,164.81 meters) in an average time of four and a half hours. Entrepreneurs are also the same as runners. Some like the thrill of building hyper-growth companies that have steep upward-sloping graphs for all metrics that need it. Others also look for a positive gradient line but a flatter one with troughs and peaks along the way.

Is one approach better than the other though?

Some would argue that hyper-growth companies are all the rage and that the intense work ethic that such companies demand is the defining characteristic of the startup culture of our time. Well, Amazon, Uber, and Facebook were hyper-growth companies that achieved mammoth success due to the work ethic of their teams and intensely focused work culture. In a way, they were pioneers in the niches that they set out to address. This should help us remember that the competition they faced is vastly different from that which startups in saturated markets face these days.

Lately, we have seen a new trend in the way hyper-growth is achieved. It appears that all you need is an idea and incredibly sharp marketing and convincing skills to sell that idea…not to your intended customer base, but to investors. And it also appears that investors are easily charmed by…