Blitzscaling

PART I

What Is Blitzscaling?

Blitzscaling is what we call both the general framework and the specific techniques that allow companies to achieve massive scale at incredible speed. If you re growing at a rate that is so much faster than your competitors that it makes you feel uncomfortable, then hold on tight, you might be blitzscaling!

Amazon s incredible growth in the late 1990s (and up through today) is a prime example of blitzscaling. In 1996, a pre-IPO Amazon Books had 151 employees and generated revenues of $5.1 million. By 1999, the now-public Amazon.com had grown to 7,600 employees and generated revenues of $1.64 billion. That s a 50 times increase in staff and a 322 times increase in revenue in just three years. In 2017, Amazon had 541,900 employees and was forecast to generate revenues of $177 billion (up from $136 billion in 2016).

Dropbox founder Drew Houston described the feeling produced by this kind of growth when he told me, It s like harpooning a whale. The good news is, you ve harpooned a whale. And the bad news is, you ve harpooned a whale!

While blitzscaling may seem desirable, it is also fraught with challenges. Blitzscaling is just about as counterintuitive as it comes. The classic approach to business strategy involves gathering information and making decisions when you can be reasonably confident of the results. Take risks, conventional wisdom says, but take calculated ones that you can both measure and afford. Implicitly, this technique prioritizes correctness and efficiency over speed.

Unfortunately, this cautious and measured approach falls apart when new technologies enable a new market or scramble an existing one.

Chris earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in the late 1990s, during the dawn of the Networked Age. Back then, his MBA training focused on traditional techniques, such as using discounted cash flow analysis to make financial decisions with greater certainty.

REID HOFFMAN is an entrepreneur and investor. In 1998, Reid Hoffman was a founding Board member and executive vice president of PayPal. In 2003, he co-founded LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking service. He was an angel investor in Facebook and Zynga, and in 2009, he became a partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners. He currently serves on the boards of Airbnb, Apollo Fusion, Aurora, Coda, Convoy, Entrepreneur First, Gixo, Microsoft, Nauto, and Xapo, as well as not-for-profits Kiva, Endeavor, CZI Biohub and Do Something. He hosts Masters of Scale, an original podcast series. He is also the co-author of two New York Times best-selling books: The Start-Up of You and The Alliance. He is an Aspen Institute Crown Fellow, a Marshall Scholar at Oxford, and a graduate of Stanford University.

CHRIS YEH is an entrepreneur, writer, and mentor. He holds two degrees from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar. He is co-author of the New York Times bestseller The Alliance with Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha.

"The case studies you re about to explore and the tools you re about to gain have never been more relevant. This is an ideal moment to be reading this book" - From the Foreword by Bill Gates
 
The book the start-up world has been waiting for. I can t think of any other that so perfectly captures the specific challenges and opportunities that a company faces at every stage of growth. This book shares some of the key secrets for building mission-oriented, global businesses at speed.  
-Brian Chesky, Cofounder and CEO, AirBnb
 
Blitzscaling shows how companies can build value for customers and shareholders in the digital age. A compelling inside view of how the new economy is being built and is transforming global business.   Sheryl Sandberg, New York Times bestselling author of Lean In and Option B
 
The secret of Silicon Valley is that it keeps updating the playbook. Each new success from Google to Facebook to Airbnb and Uber develops new techniques for world-transforming products. Reid Hoffman paints the picture, with key case studies, of what it really takes to build a market-leading company. If you want to learn how to manage growth amid the controlled chaos that has become the new normal for startups and legacy businesses alike, read this book.  -Eric Schmidt, Technical Advisor and former CEO, Alphabet
 
This is the best book I ve ever read on how to grow a company rapidly and when that s even worth trying in the first place. With a rare combination of fresh insights, vivid cases, and actionable advice, it s a must-read for entrepreneurs and executives.  ~ Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals, Give and Take, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg