Why do some companies, products, services, and ideas achieve Hypergrowth, while others only capture a small portion of a market? That’s the question I was trying to answer when I came up with the Hypergrowth Curve. The curve consists of three stages of growth that every breakthrough company, product, service, or idea transitions through. And in each stage, the strategy and focus totally shifts. In the first stage on the Hypergrowth Curve, you’re building a product and finding your tribe. You’re seeing if the idea is even possible. In the second stage, you’ve found product/market fit and are now focused on rolling out your invention to the masses. Finally, in the third stage, you’re focused on building a global brand and dominating an entire category (or micro-niche).

1. HYPERGROWTH
The 3 Stages of

2. “Why do some companies,
products, services, & ideas
achieve Hypergrowth, while
others only capture a small
portion of a market?”
-@dcancel
Drift co-founder & CEO,
Host of Seeking Wisdom

3. 1. Edison Stage
• Discovery
• Invention
• Is it possible?
2. Model T Stage
• Mass production
• Building factories
• Does it scale?
3. P&G Stage
• Differentiation
• Brand building
• Why is it better?
“That’s the question I
was trying to answer
when I came up with the
Hypergrowth Curve.”

4. The Hypergrowth Curve consists of 3 stages of
growth that every breakthrough company, product,
service, or idea transitions through.

5. 1. Edison Stage
The Hypergrowth Curve consists of 3 stages of
growth that every breakthrough company, product,
service, or idea transitions through.

6. 1. Edison Stage 2. Model T Stage
The Hypergrowth Curve consists of 3 stages of
growth that every breakthrough company, product,
service, or idea transitions through.

7. 1. Edison Stage 2. Model T Stage 3. P&G Stage
The Hypergrowth Curve consists of 3 stages of
growth that every breakthrough company, product,
service, or idea transitions through.

8. 1. Edison Stage
• Discovery
• Invention
• Is it possible?
2. Model T Stage
• Mass production
• Building factories
• Does it scale?
3. P&G Stage
• Differentiation
• Brand building
• Why is it better?
And in each stage, the strategy
and focus completely shifts.

9. THE EDISON STAGE
STAGE 1

10. Genius is one
percent inspiration
and ninety-nine
percent perspiration.
-Thomas Edison
“

11. This is the stage Edison went through when
he was working on the light bulb. You’re
investing all your time trying to figure out:
• Can we actually build this thing?
• Is it possible to build this thing?

12. And this is really the stage where patents
come into play, where invention comes into
play. This is the first stage of a market.

13. Using blogging as an example, the first stage was
back when there were no blogging platforms…

14. To create a blog post back then, you would
create a static HTML page and then upload
that page using FTP to a web server that you
had somewhere. And that was considered a
blog post.
That was the first stage.

15. Or using SaaS as an example, the first stage was
when Salesforce came into market and started to
build software as a service.
They were the first to take on-premise software
and bring it into the cloud.

16. In that first stage, it’s all about finding
early adopters, and building your tribe.

17. In the next stage, the tribe goes mass market.

18. THE MODEL T STAGE
STAGE 2

19. Coming together is a beginning,
staying together is progress,
and working together is success.
-Henry Ford
“

20. The Model T stage was when Henry Ford
took something that had previously been
invented, the automobile, and figured out
how to bring it to the masses.

21. This stage is about building factories. And
it’s about operational moats that you build in
your business.

22. Examples of these moats might include the
way you price something, the way that you go
to market, or how you build a product in such
a way that you can easily productionize it.

23. In the world of blogging, this is the stage where
WordPress (and others) brought CMS to the
masses. It’s the stage where content marketing
and SEO became popularized.

24. During the Model T stage, it’s relatively easy
to stand out in your niche.
There’s low competition for attention — you
might have 10 competitors or so, and you can
easily name them.

25. However, in order to advance to the next stage on the
Hypergrowth Curve, where you might be facing up to
100 competitors, you’ll need to change your approach.

26. THE P&G STAGE
STAGE 3

27. To make good choices, you need
to make sense of the complexity
of your environment.
-A.G Lafley
(former P&G CEO)
“

28. In the third stage, the P&G Stage, we cross
the chasm into a global audience.

29. Using email as an example, in the third stage,
winners look like MailChimp.
They succeed by differentiating on brand, and
the winner takes the biggest share of the market.

30. This is the stage we (Drift) are in now, and we
call it the P&G stage because in this stage, it’s
all about investing in your brand.

31. “It’s about selling Tide
laundry detergent and getting
20 cents more for a box of
Tide than for a box of All or a
box of Cheer or a box of
whatever laundry detergent.”

32. In this stage, you’re trying to create a moat
around brand, and brand preference.

33. You’re helping a global audience answer the
question, “Why do I want to buy this brand
versus another?”

34. “This is where we, as a company, are spending
a lot of energy and resources. Because we
think SaaS is in its third stage right now.
“The companies that are going to stand out are
the companies that are the top 1% globally for
the overall category, or the companies that
niche themselves all the way down to be top
1% in their micro-niche. Those are the two
ways to win in this world.”

35. Example: Tide is top 1% in the
laundry detergent category. To
enter this category, you have
to micro-niche yourself like
Seventh Generation did by
inventing the organic/green
laundry detergent category and
then dominating it.

36. FINAL THOUGHT

37. 1. Edison Stage 2. Model T Stage 3. P&G Stage
The important thing here is whatever you’re
creating, whatever you’re doing, you need to
understand which stage of growth you’re in.

38. Because that’s going to dictate the strategy and
tactics that you use.
1. Edison Stage 2. Model T Stage 3. P&G Stage

39. Want to learn more about how
you can achieve Hypergrowth?

40. Come to our HYPERGROWTH conference this September!

41. Drift is reinventing modern marketing
and sales using messaging
Visit Drift.com to learn more.