Every startup dreams of the moment where the product finally clicks, customers come flooding in, and growth takes off.
What’s less obvious is how to get there. It’s a whole new game of pressures, risks and decisions that can make or break everything you’ve built.
At Stone & Chalk, we see it all the time. Some founders catch the wave and ride it all the way to market leadership. Others stall when their scaling plan didn’t match the reality they were in.
Now, a major new study of 184 Unicorn and near-Unicorn companies (businesses valued over US$500 million!) has revealed a fascinating truth.
There isn’t just one way to scale. There are four common paths successful companies tend to follow, and knowing which one suits you can save years of stress (and sleepless nights!).
But first, what does it really mean to scale
Scaling is more than just growing your business. It means building the muscle to meet demand without everything falling apart. It’s less about heroics and more about systems.
When starting to scale, founders hit a few big new realities:
- Pace: Growth speeds up fast; revenue or staff can jump 40% a year or more.
- Pressure: You’re building capacity while the business is still messy and unfinished.
- Focus: You stop experimenting everywhere and start placing serious bets on what really scales.
Think of it this way: if growth is finding the recipe, scaling is turning your kitchen into a factory.
The tools you need to scale your startup
The study found there were a set of key levers almost all successful scaleups use – just in different combinations.
These startup levers are:
- Financing: Scaling burns cash. Funding lets you expand overseas, upgrade tech, hire fast, or buy other businesses. Most high-growth companies rely more on equity than loans.
- Innovation: Product-market fit isn’t the finish line. The best scale-ups keep improving, adding features, refining tech, and finding smarter ways to deliver.
- Digitisation: Smart systems let you serve more customers without hiring endlessly. Think automation, platforms, data, and smoother customer journeys.
- Acquisitions: Buying another company can fast-track growth without starting from scratch, such as new markets, new talent, and new capabilities.
How these pieces come together determines your scaling style: the path you take to scale your startup.
The 4 scaleup paths you can take
There’s no single “right” way to scale a business. What the research shows is that most successful scaleups fall into one of four common patterns, depending on where they put their time, money and energy.
Once you spot which one you fit into, a lot of decisions suddenly become clearer.
1. Network Growers
These businesses thrive on their community. The more people who use them, the more valuable they become.
For Network Growers, scaling strategy isn’t tied directly to making more money, it’s more about getting big, fast, before anyone else can catch up.
These types of startups usually focus on:
- Pouring money into tech and systems that can handle millions of users
- Buying or partnering with other companies to grow their audience quickly
- Raising large chunks of funding to grab market share early
If your product works better the more people use it, speed matters. That might mean raising more money than feels comfortable and spending hard in the short term to grow your user base before competitors do.
Examples: Spotify, Dropbox, Glassdoor
2.Organic Innovators
These businesses scale by being brilliant at what they do, pushing the boundaries of their technology, and staying that way.
They don’t stop innovating once they’ve found product-market fit. In fact, that’s when they really double down. These startups put their energy into:
- Constant upgrades, new features and technical improvements
- Growing without massive hiring, using smart tools and systems
- Winning over investors who care deeply about innovation
If your edge is technical excellence, guard it. Invest in your best people, document your intellectual property, and make sure your funding story clearly shows how today’s innovation leads to tomorrow’s growth.
Examples: MongoDB, CloudFlare
3. Focused Scalers
These businesses aren’t trying to be everything to everyone. They pick a lane and they own it completely.
They scale by going deep into the needs of their audience, not by going wide. They usually choose to focus in on:
- Fewer innovations, but ones that really matter
- Strategic acquisitions that strengthen their niche
- Strong customer relationships built through targeted digital engagement
- Often, more hands-on teams, especially if there’s a physical product
If your niche loves you, lean into it. Build loyalty, trust and expertise so strong that competitors struggle to move you out of that space.
Examples: Udemy, 23andMe
4. Constricted Scalers
Some companies scale with limits – such as less funding, tougher regulations, or fierce competition.
This might be due to their market (highly competitive, regulated, or localised) or their funding. Growth still happens, just more carefully. They usually focus on:
- Steady, deliberate expansion
- Choosing only the most impactful growth activities
- Lean teams and tight cost control
Constraints don’t mean you can’t scale, they just mean you need discipline. Pick the one or two things that genuinely drive growth and ignore the rest.
Examples: Deliveroo, Delivery Hero
How to apply this to your startup
So, what do you actually do with all this? Here’s how to turn the theory into real-world decisions, without needing an MBA or a crystal ball.
Here’s how to use these insights to shape your scaling strategy:
1. Work out where you’re at right now
Take a good, honest look at your business.
Where is most of your time, money and energy going? Is growth coming mainly from tech innovation, user growth, funding, or buying capability?
That answer usually points to your current “mode”, whether you planned to be there or not.
2. Decide if it’s time to change gears
A lot of startups don’t stay in the same mode forever.
You might begin as a deep-tech innovator, then later realise you need to grow your user base quickly to stay ahead.
That kind of shift doesn’t just happen by accident, it needs planning, new skills, and often more funding.
3. Make some tough calls
This is where it gets difficult; you can’t do everything well at once.
Trying to be great at all four growth activities usually means being average at all of them. The strongest founders pick what matters most now and let other things wait.
4. Line up your funding with your plan
Your fundraising strategy should back your growth style. Fast-moving, network-based businesses often need big money early. More focused or niche businesses may be better off with smaller rounds spread over time.
There’s no “better” option, just the one that fits you at that moment in your business.
5. Hire for the path you’re on
Different growth modes need different people.
If you’re chasing scale fast, you’ll want growth and acquisition specialists. If innovation is your edge, your best investment is top-tier engineers and researchers.
The wrong hires can slow you down fast, so choose accordingly.
6. Watch where things could jam up
Every path has its unique pressure points.
Some businesses grow too fast and wobble. Others get overtaken by competitors. Some rely too heavily on one niche. Some move so carefully they miss their moment.
Knowing your weak spot helps you stay ahead of it, and this sets you up for further success down the line.
Final thoughts
The unicorn data makes one thing clear: there’s more than one way to grow a big, successful business. But every path needs its own mix of focus, funding, people and systems. What works brilliantly for one company can completely derail another.
At Stone & Chalk, we see the difference intention makes. When founders are clear on how they’re scaling, decisions get simpler – whether that’s chasing network effects, pushing innovation, owning a niche, or growing carefully under constraints
If you’re ready to take the next step, our team can connect you with mentors, investors and partners who understand the challenges you’re facing right now, and can help you move from a promising startup to a confident, market-leading business.
Find out how you can get involved.
