Let’s work together
I scale category-defining companies with determined, growth-oriented founders, so we go from 1 → 10(0) in the most coherent + fastest way possible.
When most people try to grow their companies beyond initial product-market fit, they’re merely trying to repeat the same old playbook that worked for them before, or copying others’ marketing/growth strategies.
But when it comes to the acute issues of scaling (going “1 to 10”, from “0 to 1”), the root cause is often that the conditions for scale are discordant:
The product may work for its initial users, but it needs to scale to a larger group of consumers/users.
The category definition is unclear; it’s uncertain how the company can expand its potential, and differentiate + serve its superconsumers extremely well.
And the team is often expanding haphazardly, rife with pains and politics.
The founder faces their own growing pains, and often feels frustrated and isolated in the face of demands from every direction.
If you scale things right, it looks like…
Initial success → Scalable success
Random experiments → Controlled experiments
Heads-down building → Heads-out scaling
Accidental growth → Repeatable growth
Initial audiences → New segments
One market → Multiple geographies
A few products → Many products & extensions
Product mostly → Strategy + ops
Focus only on WOM → Leverage press + partners
Small team (1-10) → Bigger team (~50+)
Open work outcomes → Quantified results
Fluid structure → Better reporting / syncing
Informal culture → Managing politics
Bring on who you can → Hiring + onboarding well
In-person → Remote
A few opinions from team → Endless opinions from all
Founder(s) doing everything → Founder(s) delegating most
Floundering chaos → Controlled chaos
Headless chickens → Hunting eagles
So, the question is…
How do we get there?
The key is to level up.
Leveling up yourself, as a founder…
Leveling up your team overall…
Leveling up everyone’s understanding of where you are and where you need to be in the space that you’re in.
In my own journey, as I thought about it more…
Isn’t running a company pretty much like playing an RPG game?
RPG: Company Fables
Appropriate challenges
Which challenges do you go after? How do you have the right amount of challenge, and set up the conditions to achieve them?
Designing the right levels
How do I design levels for the team to keep improving towards? How do you keep the “players” (team and users) motivated?
Improving our stats
Hey, actually, aren’t I just a player with RPG stats I’m trying to improve all the time? What do I need to do to systematically improve?
So, I work with teams to win their game:
We explore the magic triangle to get to the right place for scaling
Category: Are we looking at the right map?
Team / Guild: Do we have the right crew?
Product: Does it fit our audience?
And I work with founders on their stats:
Am I able to scale myself effectively, so that I can keep playing this game well?
What’s next on the skill tree that I need to acquire to lead the charge forward?
What processes do I need to put in place for me to increase my productivity?
Check out my (prototype) Founder RPG content to get a taste of running a company like a game!
The adventurers I work with
I take each engagement very seriously, and spend a lot of time ensuring we deliver outcomes together. Hence, I am extremely selective and take on only 1-3 engagements personally each year.
I can add the most value to teams that are just past the initial inflection point of product-market fit — meaning you see signs of life, but it’s not clear (yet) how to get it to meaningful scale. Usually, this means the company is generating some initial revenue, is in late-seed stage, and/or with a team of 7-10 people +.
At the end of our joint quest, you should be able to do one of a few things:
Bootstrap to scale ~$50-100M++ valuation.
Raise your next big round of funding.
Privately exit / be acquired by a company you respect.
If you are working on a category-defining project with the potential to change the status quo, I’d love to jam and see how we can work together, or help in any way!
If you’d like to work together, please contact me.
About Carylyne
About Carylyne
Hi! I’m Carylyne Chan, an experienced underdog-to-top-dog startup executive and entrepreneur.
I’m an advisor and angel investor to early-stage, lean teams focused on creating and dominating their own categories.
I’m currently building two new brands: A tea brand named Portman Tea and a sun care brand called Good Instincts.
Previously, I was CEO at CoinMarketCap, which was acquired in 2020. My previous artificial intelligence startup (AngelPad S’16) was acquired in 2018.
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