These Are the 3 Hidden Forces That Shape Startup Success — and How to Embrace Them

Building a startup isn't astir chasing certainty — it's astir learning to thrive successful the unknown. Growth, consequence and opportunity collide astatine each turn, creating a move that's arsenic exhilarating arsenic it is precarious. Fragility, momentum and reinvestment aren't conscionable forces astatine play; they're defining elements of the entrepreneurial journey.

My experiences, from building an early services business to co-founding Density and now starring Bread, person taught maine that occurrence doesn't travel from avoiding these forces. It comes from knowing their interplay and navigating them pinch intention.

The fragility paradox

Startups are fragile by design. Whether you're building a product, managing rate travel aliases increasing a team, each move feels for illustration stacking bricks connected an unsteady foundation. Even erstwhile things are going well, fragility is ever lurking beneath the surface.

Our first business, a services company, grew quickly. Within a year, we deed complete $1 cardinal successful revenue, and by each appearances, it seemed stable. But services businesses are deceptively fragile. Revenue is tied to a fistful of clients, and losing conscionable 1 tin nonstop everything into freefall.

That's precisely what happened. A awesome customer left, and suddenly, we couldn't make payroll. My co-founders and I stopped paying ourselves, trim expenses and worked to rebuild. We sewage done it, but the acquisition near an indelible lesson: Just because things are bully now doesn't mean they'll enactment that way. Fragility demands vigilance.

This reality became moreover much evident arsenic we reinvested profits into caller ideas. Every task we launched was vulnerable — galore grounded outright — but fragility wasn't a logic to stop. It was a reminder to focus, prioritize and act decisively successful the look of uncertainty.

Related: How Can You Make Sure Your Business Will Survive Anything? Try These 3 Proven Strategies

Momentum myopia

Momentum tin consciousness for illustration the antidote to fragility. When a merchandise motorboat gains traction aliases gross starts climbing, it's tempting to deliberation you're connected an unstoppable path. But momentum, near unchecked, tin create blind spots.

At Density, we launched our first hardware merchandise — a break-beam sensor for search ft postulation — amid a activity of excitement. Demand was growing, and the unit to move accelerated was immense. But the merchandise wasn't ready. Accuracy issues successful real-world conditions became evident aft deployment, and the flaws forced america into a costly reset.

We had fto momentum dictate our decisions, pushing guardant without questioning whether the instauration was solid. It was a achy but basal lesson: Momentum is only valuable erstwhile it's paired pinch reflection. Pausing to measure doesn't termination progress; it ensures that maturation is sustainable.

The reinvestment imperative

If fragility demands attraction and momentum requires discipline, reinvestment is the leap of religion that drives discovery. Every dollar we earned successful the services business went backmost into the company, not conscionable to prolong operations but to money experiments.

Most of those experiments failed. We built products nary 1 needed, sunk clip into overly analyzable solutions and made costly missteps. But 1 of those ideas — Density — stood out. It was fragile, for illustration each early projects, but it had potential.

Its imaginable led to our determination to unopen down the services business and attraction wholly connected Density. It wasn't easy. Investors made it clear: If we wanted their backing, we had to spell each in. Letting spell of a profitable business to stake connected an unproven merchandise felt for illustration jumping disconnected a cliff. But without reinvestment — without those years of experimentation funded by services profits — we wouldn't person had the opportunity to make that leap.

Related: Why You Need to Reinvest Half of What You Earn Back Into Your Company

Bringing it together

These lessons didn't extremity pinch Density. At Bread, they style really we deliberation astir building resilient businesses. Fragility, momentum and reinvestment aren't challenges to beryllium eliminated — they're dynamics to beryllium navigated.

Fragility forces founders to face difficult truths and attraction connected what matters most. Momentum provides power but must beryllium managed pinch reflection. And reinvestment, though risky, creates the conditions for transformation.

The travel of entrepreneurship isn't astir avoiding nonaccomplishment — it's astir learning from it, adapting and taking intentional risks. At Bread, we attack each laminitis and portfolio institution pinch this mindset, not to shield them from these forces but to thief them navigate them successfully.

Fragility, momentum and reinvestment are constants. But erstwhile embraced, they're not conscionable forces to strengthen — they're the instauration of what makes startups thrive.