Building Ecosystems of Adaptability
Network Building, Market Re-Evaluation and Strategy Refinement During Covid
Blitzscaling During Covid
Growth Strategies Amid Turbulence
Is Blitzscaling Over?
By Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to batter the world, many have declared an end to the “Unicorn Era” in general and blitzscaling in particular. Suddenly, capital is harder to come by, customers aren’t buying, and none of us can leave our homes. Meanwhile, the United States has already lost more lives to the disease than…
WeWork: Blitzscaling or Blitzflailing?
Prominent news organizations, ranging from The Economist to Wired (multiple times), have been describing WeWork as an example of blitzscaling. New York Magazine offers a vivid example, writing in a WeWork profile: “The [Softbank] Vision Fund began making enormous bets on Uber, Slack, DoorDash, and dozens of other companies, employing a strategy that has come to be known, with some derision, as “blitzscaling”:…
Blitzscaling | Competitive Strategy
This episode in our Greymatter Blitzscaling capsule series, with Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh, focuses on the topic of competitive strategy. In an ideal world, you won’t have any competition. But the world is far from ideal. How should a blitzscaling company think about and respond to the competition? Below is an edited transcript of Reid…
Announcing the Blitzscaling Series, a new part of Greylock’s Greymatter Podcast
Welcome to the next production of Blitzscaling! Since the launch of our book, and after the Stanford class, Chris Yeh and I have received many questions from entrepreneurs who want more details on how to blitzscale their companies. We want to answer the questions at scale! That’s why we’re working with the team at Greylock Partners to release the…
The pioneers of Silicon Valley’s fast culture on how to grow quickly, not recklessly
Tim O’Reilly’s recent article, “The fundamental problem with Silicon Valley’s favorite growth strategy,” makes an impassioned argument that the ideas in our book, Blitzscaling, encourage entrepreneurs to behave in ways that are irresponsible or even dangerous in the pursuit of what he characterizes as “runaway growth.” Instead, he argues for the virtues of going slow and…
How to Build a Strong, Scalable Culture for Blitzscaling
At this point, almost everyone in the startup world agrees that hiring and culture are important. Whenever these topics arise, it’s almost guaranteed that the discussion will touch on how every Google employee had to interview with Larry and Sergey before receiving an offer, how Zappos offers new employees $1,000 to quit to weed out…
How to Maintain Your Competitive Edge as a Blitzscaling Company
My old friend Peter Thiel once wrote an essay for the Wall Street Journal, titled “Competition Is for Losers.” Entrepreneurs frequently make the mistake of picking highly competitive markets. I suspect that they fall into this trap because many entrepreneurs come from elite universities where they succeeded by outcompeting a bunch of other smart people…
Blitzscaling Beyond Startups
While the hypergrowth of blitzscaling is often synonymous with the latest high-tech startup from Silicon Valley, blitzscaling isn’t limited by geography, industry, or even company size. Blitzscaling is a technique that can also help an established company make the most of a great opportunity. Yet while blitzscaling can be practiced by anyone, it isn’t appropriate…
Responsible Blitzscaling
(This post by Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh.) In an ideal world, blitzscaling organizations would embody all the virtues that society might desire from its businesses—a diverse and inclusive workforce, a strong sense of responsibility to shareholders and stakeholders, an ample supply of well-paying jobs, and executives who serve as moral role models and leaders…
When to throw out the rules
(This post by Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh.) One of the reasons that many businesspeople (especially experienced executives) have problems grasping and applying the principles of Blitzscaling is that it requires you to throw out many of the normal rules of business. Careful planning, cautious investment, and courteous service may end up being tossed aside…
Blitzscaling with Satya Nadella & Reid Hoffman
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Greylock Partner and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman share lessons learned from scaling Microsoft, LinkedIn and PayPal. Blitzscaling is the strategy that leading entrepreneurs have implemented to build strong, enduring companies. The techniques allow for startups and incumbents across any industry to scale at rapid rates and outdistance the competition. This episode…
7 Counterintuitive Rules for Growing Your Business Super-Fast
To achieve ‘blitzscaling,’ you have to go against common sense
How to scale yourself, from founder to leader
By Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh All founders need some universal skills to succeed. They need the ability to take bold risks in pursuit of a vision that isn’t self-evident to others. They need the ability to learn (since they’re trying to do something brand-new). And to play a long-term role at their start-up turned…