Do things that don't scale
In one sentence
Early on, win users by hand and look after them personally — automation comes later.
The simple version
Startups don't take off on their own. In the beginning, founders should recruit users one by one, onboard them personally and go wildly above and beyond. It's slow and unscalable on purpose — that's how you learn and build a loyal core.
- 1Recruit users by hand
- 2Onboard personally
- 3Over-delight them
- 4Spot repeated work
- 5Automate it
Why it matters
Your first users teach you what to build and become your loudest fans. You can't get that from an ad campaign.
How to do it
- 1Make a list of 50 ideal early users and contact them directly.
- 2Set them up yourself — even do the work for them.
- 3Check in personally and fix their problems fast.
- 4Note what you do repeatedly; that's what to automate later.
Real-world example
Airbnb's founders flew to New York, went door to door and photographed hosts' homes themselves. Bookings improved and they learned what hosts needed.
What the books say
“One of the most common types of advice we give at Y Combinator is to do things that don't scale.”
Common mistakes
- Waiting for users to discover you.
- Automating onboarding before you understand it.
- Thinking manual work means your idea won't scale.
Questions people ask
When should I stop doing unscalable things?
When they start limiting growth and you understand them well enough to systemise. Many great features begin as a founder doing something by hand.
References
- [1]
More books on this in the library
Loyal: Listen or You Always Lose: A Leader's Guide to Winning Customer and Employee Loyalty
Guide for leaders on building loyalty among customers and employees through listening. Key for startup growth via retention and culture.
Startup: An Insider's Guide to Launching and Running a Business
A startup-focused business book (paperback edition, ISBN 1703385454) that provides practical guidance on launching and operating a startup, covering planning, funding, operations, and growth from an insider’s perspective—positioned as a hands-on resource for aspiring and early-stage founders.
Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
A practical startup and product-building book by Tony Fadell that shares hard-won lessons from building world-changing products at Apple, Nest, and other ventures. It covers how to go from idea to product, lead teams, navigate investors, and make products that truly matter—highly relevant for startup founders learning to build and ship things people love.
Tracción
Spanish edition of Gino Wickman’s "Traction", which introduces the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), a practical framework for gaining control over a growing business. It covers vision, people, data, issues, processes, and traction, offering startup founders repeatable tools for execution, leadership alignment, and scaling operations—making it a high-impact read for founders moving from idea to a structured, growth-ready organization.
Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
Keith Ferrazzi's Never Eat Alone equips entrepreneurs with relationship-building habits like generosity and consistent follow-up, shifting mindset from transactional networking to authentic connections for personal growth and business breakthroughs. Key use case: Overcoming isolation by turning contacts into advocates during funding or scaling. Vs Atomic Habits, it builds social capital systems over individual routines.
Exponential Organizations: Why New Organizations Are Ten Times Better, Faster, Cheaper Than Yours
Salim Ismail presents tactics for founders to build ExOs using SCALE (Staff on demand, Community, Algorithms, Leveraged assets, Engagement) for 10x growth over linear scaling. Key use cases include rapid team scaling via external talent and metrics like MTP alignment for hypergrowth phases. Vs Blitzscaling, it emphasizes tech-leveraged attributes for sustainable exponential expansion.