On building slow burn companies 🔥

https://makersandbuilders.substack.com/p/on-building-slow-burn-companies-

A tough economy is a great time to build a slow burn company.

• This may be a side hustle…
• An open source project
• Or a slow burn startup 🔥

Some of my faves: @mailchimp, @airtable, @github, @glossier

How do you build a slow burn company? Some characteristics:

• Single, simple use case
• Small (often developer-led) team
• User acquisition is cheap, simple, self-serviceMargins sustain growth
• Strong community-driven support

Slow growth <-> slow burn Fast growth <-> fast burn

Slow growth must be paired with low burn, or you squander your natural organic growth advantages.

Some categories of slow burn companies you could play around with:

• Communities
• Open source projects
• Bottoms up markets
• Low ticket SaaS
• Developer evangelized tools

With any company, but slow burn companies especially, it always helps to build from first principles:

• Solve a real pain point
• Have unit & growth economics that work
• Build a dramatically, not just incrementally better product
• Surround yourself with the best people